Around 10am we left Fabio's bound for Pompeii. We arrived around 12:30pm and had a quick lunch (which got us free parking) and then it was on to the site. Fabio had asked me to research the site ahead of time and I had a Rick Steve's walking tour to guide us. We decided that we would also get one audio tour and one person could listen in and repeat the interesting stuff to the rest of the group. They voted me the guide...honestly, the audio tour was really boring. It was very cool to see the ruins though, with Mt. Vesuvius towering over us. Most of the really cool stuff, the frescoes, art, people frozen in time are in the Archeological Museum of Naples. Overall it was something cool to do if you're in the area, but I'm really glad that we didn't make the trip by ourselves - we would have been disappointed.
From Pompeii we piled back in the car and made our way toward Salerno and the Amalfi Coast. It was absolutely beautiful. I was surprised how much it looked like Santorini, Greece. The drive was a little nerve racking, we were very glad to have a confident, aggresive Italian drive behind the wheel. At one point a newbie bus driver got the huge coach bus stuck and we had to watch while he inched forward with tires inches from the edge of the cliff - we were very grateful we weren't on the bus. :) We stopped in Amalfi which is famous for massive lemons, Limoncello and ceramics.
From Amalfi we continued along the cost, mouths agape at the sites before us. Eventually we arrived in Naples where we began searching for food. Fabio parked near a nice, safe neighborhood assuming that food would be easily found. Wrong! All we found were hundreds of what Americans call Teeny-boppers. They were everywhere! It was like we had stumbled upon Teeny-bopper Land. Eventually we spyed a Trattoria that was very unassuming and easily missed which was good because it was Teeny-bopper free. It was one of those places where the waiter tells you the menu, a good sign but hard for Chris and I since the waiter spoke only Italian. Fabio ordered for us - pasta with lobster....oh boy, it didn't even occur to me to be warry...until (think of the Jaws theme song in your head here)...
Those of you who know me know that this is my worst nightmare at the dinner table. I did okay though, Chris and Fabio took care of it for me. Still, it was touch and go for a few minutes there... Our waiter was crazy so we had good laughs and the overall meal was tastey.
After dinner it was 11:30pm and we had a two hour drive back to Rome. After about 30 minutes Adrian and I were out cold and Fabio was sleepy so Chris took the wheel and got us back to Fabios. It was a very long day but very memorable. I uploaded a handful of pics to Flickr.
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