My 5 port excursions which each of which included 8 hours of guided touring and transfers with a guarantee of on time return to the ship, cost me $390.00-Cdn. These tours booked separately with Get Your Guide and is the company they use on land, would have been up to $500.00 and through Holland America it would be easily $800.00 and up to $1K!
I was delighted when the our group departed on schedule in a beautiful Mercedes 20 passenger van and we were only 7 people and our guide Fabrizio, was superb with his knowledge and very articulate and spoke english beautifully. With our small group it was considered semi-private and quite flexible with lotsa qnswers to any and all our questions. I can only hope the remainder of the excursions go as well as this first?
Firstly we learned a bit of Naples, which is a very large port town and as we drove out to Pompeii I was grateful our day was planned away from this big and busy city.
Now of course my expectstions of what I was going to see in Pompeii was over glamorized by Hollywood and I anticipated the ruins to resemble those I saw of the emperors palace in Rome. I was surprised to see how intact most everything was and dated back to BC and early AD. The excavations are still very new in comparison to most and the harm and detail decay occurs after the excavations are exposed to the air and sunlight. For that reason we learned the remaining one third of Pompeii which is still buried will likely remain that way.
As I listened to the exquisite detail of the lifestyle of the average Pompeiian, it was easy to go back there in your mind with the well preserved shops and living quarters of the average to lower income residents. Then as it compared to the sad life of the many slaves, and of course those of the wealthy with very oppulent homes occupied largely by Roman families for entertaining and as a second home.
The very large forum for trading and meeting was very expansive for a small city and the well designed large homes and the bath houses and saunas for cleansing and health were obviously engineered by very gifted Romans with every operational detail in place...this always amazed me as these ancient civilizations were easliy as advanced as our own in many regards.
I learned that this was a centrally located port city that was frequented by sailors to dignitaries frequently and as the Roman Empire continued to grow by conquering other areas, the number of slaves to the empire also grew. Once your family became slaves, your children and grandchildren were also relegated to the life of a slave and raised as such, only on few occasions could they be freed. The life of a Pompeii slave woman often involved working in the many whore houses and when the sailors arrived for a tour, it was what they wanted and a great time for many. The detailed wall paintings in the many bothels depict this very promiscuous lifestyle and the area tolerance level was very high and the accepted norm.
It struck me that this Pompeii was indeed a similar Biblical type to Sodom and Gomorrah and this city, like those were destroyed by God. There was no warning that Mount Vesuvius was an active volcano, when it errupted in 79-AD, and if it wasn't for the earlier eartquakes the casualty count would have been much higher than it was. The surreal body castings that were carefully re-created declared this was a very unexpected moment and most were asphyxiated with the gasses as the ash moved slowly through the city while burying it utterly. It is presumed that those buried by the volcano ash were the slaves and local merchants that simply had no place to run to and stayed with their few posessions.
I wont soon forget the well preserved ruined city of Pompeii and the strong impression it left with me... grateful our excursion included this visit and the excellent detail from our guide.
Next our driving tour continued with a beautiful drive along the Amalfi Coast, which is said to be one of the most spectacular coastal roads in Europe. The frequent hair pin turns and steep cliffs added to the excitement and we took advantage of the very few turnouts for some great view pics.
Our furthest point was the very picturesque and the popular town of Sorrento...here we had a brief tour and let loose to view the many busy shops and markets, enjoy one of many cafes and restaurants for lunch, before our long and windy road back along coast and to Naples to arrive for the disembarking of our ship.
It was in Sorrento I took our guides great recommendation for local food and enjoyed the very best home made Margarita pizza I ever had in my life along with their gelato...it was a bit expensive for lunch however access to free internet and working on my travel blog with attachements that would actually attach, was well worth the obligatory seating charge.
A great and beautiful excursion day and would love to come back to these areas one day again! :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment