Barry's Travel Blog: When Life Gives You Lemons....

A short tour of Naples this morning, reveals that this is a tale of two cities. Our first exposure to the city near our hotel, was to a trash and graffiti covered neighbourhood. This morning took us to a much more picturesque side of the city, with gardens, history and for some, wealth.

After this brief encounter with a gentler Naples, we head for the ancient ruins of the city of Pompeii.

This Roman settlement and it's people were buried under volcanic ash with the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 75 AD. The ruins were discovered in the mid 18'th century and excavation since then is estimated to have exposed 75% of the city.

Pompeii's graveyard prior to it being completely buried in ash.

It's amphitheatre.

Part of its' town square.

Apparently the city had at least one brothel as shown by these frescos of its' offerings.

During the excavation, archeologists realized that some hollows in the ash, we're actually the outlines (effectively molds), of the citizens who died in the calamity. They began injecting plaster into those hollows and the results produced clear evidence of their horrific deaths.

A view of the town square with Vesuvius in the background.

Next on today's agenda was a little site seeing, shopping and dinner in Sorrento.

Sorrento is famous for a tasty liqueur made from the giant lemons seen here. Note that the oranges in this photo are of a large variety, yet the lemones make them look to be the size on tangerines.