Day 19 - Sorrento to Rome (Pompeii)

Ah Roma – what a beautiful city! We have just returned from a wonderful night out where we ate so much food that we nearly burst. There were at least 5 courses, though there may have been more – I lost count. So now we are back at the hotel, showered, Carly asleep, and it’s time to reflect on the day.

 

We started early again (these early starts will be the death of us!) at 7.30am and set off for Pompeii to meet the local guide at 9am to start our tour. Once again the scenery as we drove along the peninsula past Sorrento and on to Pompeii was beautiful, the sea a little more subdued today than it was yesterday!

 

Pompeii was much as I remembered it – quite amazing and worthy of a day or two to really take it all in properly. We only had 2 hours however and made the most of the time we had. Unfortunately there was a sudden downpour of rain about 20 minutes before we were due to finish so the end was a little rushed to try to find shelter. CJ and I both had umbrellas but sacrificed one of ours to some others who had nothing, leaving us to share one together which was, I must admit, highly inadequate in the downpour but we all seemed to survive OK.

 

We all then had an early lunch in a hotel at Pompeii as we then travelled on to Rome – a trip of about 3 hours. So we arrived in Rome at 3pm and had an hour to freshen up and then departed at 4pm for our night tour and dinner. We fitted an amazing amount into the couple of hours before dinner at 7pm – the Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Pantheon and a number of churches and Piazzas, walking between each site. We embrace any exercise that is possible as we really need to walk off all this pasta, pizza and gelato – for instance we climbed the Spanish Steps then walked back down and up again…just for the hell of it.

 

As previously mentioned dinner was spectacular – it started with breadsticks at each placing on the table, then anti pesto, pasta, lasagne, veal, potatoes & salad and finished with gelato and blueberries. All servings were huge and delicious. A flautist and guitar player also entertained us throughout the evening, ensuring a festive occasion indeed. Brenda, one of our fellow travellers turned 50 today and we hopefully gave her a night to remember.

 

On the way back to the hotel we also stopped at the Vatican so we could see St Peter’s Basilica at night and we had pointed out the two lit windows that were the Pope’s residence – good to see he was still hard at work! It’s now 11.30pm and the wakeup call is set for 6am so that’s all for now…until tomorrow.