Monday 17 June  -  Rome
I was extremely displeased to see that the entry I wrote for Sunday did not appear. Huff!!! However  I guess you may well feel that a shopping trip was not worth reading about. But, believe me, it was just as hornswaggling as all our other activities. Never mind. It's now 11.25pm, and I'm not spending my last waking minutes today on a shopping trip we did yesterday.

This morning began at 5.30 as we were being picked up from our hotel at 6.30am for our 3 hour bus trip to Naples and Pompeii.  Most of the passengers were overnighting in Sorrento, but we booked to return at 8.30 tonight. A long day, but at least we're back. We only have one day left now and there's some major omissions such as the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon.

Naples is 200km south of Rome. We drove past such famed places as Tivoli, the Monte Casino Abbey which was built in 577AD and frequently attacked and restored until 1944 when the Allied Army dropped 600 tonnes of bombs on it, killing 75,000 people including our Maori Battalion. Yet again it has been restored to its former glory. It was delightful driving through the luxuriant countryside, so tranquil now with its vast crops of grapes, citrus fruits, tobacco and vibrant oleander trees.  Southern Italy is prized for its beauty and tranquility, and many exceedingly  wealthy Italians have their holiday homes in the area. Sophia Loren was born in this area. We drove past Mt Vesuvius  but she was shrouded by mist at that stage in the day.

We reached Naples around 11am . The population there is 4 1/2 million , 3 million of whom live in the CBD in squalid conditions in high-rise tower blocks. It has a reputation as a den of iniquity, such a stark contrast to the Amalfi Coast, which is a billionaire's playground. Super-yachts are parked close together like a Wilson's carpark. There were 4 cruise boats in the Naples harbour and the congestion was horrific. Fortunately our coach made no attempt to allow us to disembark. There was absolutely no room to walk anywhere.

We drove on to the fringes of Pompeii for a pre-ordered pizza lunch with limoncello before starting our 2 hour walking tour of a tiny section of the 163 acres of Pompeii City which was destroyed by Mt Vesuvius in 79AD killing about 22,000 inhabitants. It was discovered in 1748 and the restoration has been going on ever since. The inhabitants of the city had such a sophisticated life style and it was fascinating hearing the descriptions of this while we were actually standing there on site.

By the afternoon, the mist had cleared from Mt Vesuvius and she looked totally benign  - which she is not. Her most recent eruption was in 1944 and she is expected to blow again in 20 - 30 years time. Currently 20,000 earthquakes are being recorded PER DAY. That has not deterred the 700,000 people who live happily around her base now.
 Some of our bus passengers were going on to holiday in Capris which has 15- 20,000 visitors per day in this summertime . We were very content to climb back into the half empty coach to return to Rome.