Wow, what a long day! Dry, hot and tiring. But good. There were so many of these excursions booked that the tour operators alternated/swapped the morning and afternoons between Capri and Pompeii to keep the crowds down. We had the morning in Capri, then lunch and shopping in Sorrento and finally a tour of Pompeii. We had a nice guide, Guilia (pronounced like Julia), who did a good job of keeping us together and making it interesting for all the various ages on this tour. Children (including Jamie) were tired by the end. Actually, EVERYONE was tired by the end of the day. We met in the morning at 7:30 and returned to the ship at 6pm with a 20-minute security line. We went straight to dinner in our shorts (horror!) but they are being quite flexible with dress code due to the length of the shore excursions.
The most memorable thing is how many types of transportation that we took on this tour – plus the logistics required to get us from place to place. We met in the morning at 7:30 for the tour. The first leg of the trip, we took the “fast ferry” from Naples to Capri. On this particular tour, they give you a coupon for Gelato plus give you one hour of free time in Capri (down in the port area). Instead, we bought our own tickets to take the Funicular up to the view spot (and shopping) and then returned to the port area for the ice cream.
Then we took a tour boat ride around to the south side of the Island. This was a highlight for us and most of our fellow tourists. We backed into a cave/grotto, boated through a narrow arch and the tour guides told us that if the married couples kissed under the arch, we would stay married forever. We had Jamie take picture of Jim and I kissing during this part!! Then we had the return boat ride to the port at Naples and onto another fast ferry to Sorrento.
Lunch was at what appeared at first to be a tourist trap in Sorrento by the water. However the food was GREAT – even Jamie liked the penne pasta with the fresh red/tomato sauce. Each table got a huge 1L bottle of wine J Ours was very empty by the end of lunch!!! Then after the pasta course, we had a buffet that included some antipasto, fresh tomatoes, basil, mozzarella, etc. Wow, was it good! Then we took a smaller bus up to the town center of Sorrento. Very nice, interesting tourist shops. Then we loaded onto a big bus, heading to our last stops at the cameo factory and Pompeii. At this point, we were all tired and hot; the best thing about the cameo factory was the bathroom (Guilia called the bathrooms “smiling rooms” because everyone comes out smiling). Then on to Pompeii.
Pompeii was more excavated than Ann remembered, and dusty, dry… but still fascinating. We took lots of pictures of the shops, houses, frescoes, etc. During this period, a variety of materials were used for building construction - natural stone walls, cut stones in patterns, plus bricks. It’s hard to imagine the event. From what we learned, it wasn’t the lava from Mount Vesuvius that destroyed the town. Instead, the fumes/gases killed the people, then tons of ashes covered it up (multiple feet deep), the city was buried and preserved!!!
We finally got back to the cruise port around 6pm but stood in line for 25 minutes to board the ship. So, we dropped our bags and went straight to dinner. This night’s show was “On the Nose” which received bad reviews from previous cruisers. So instead, Ann booked an 8pm Ladies massage and facial with Nan for the evening. The leg portion of the massage was very relaxing after all the walking. Of course Ann bought the facial products to take home – hopefully we’ll get VAT back on these since they are so expensive!
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