Pompeii and Tuscan Villages.....

So I'm going to talk about history today - click away quickly if that bores you silly.......... Some 500 years BC, a thriving little sea port in Southern Italy grew and grew until it became a center of commerce and an important city - and in 460BC  the Romans came and started building roads, amphitheatres, public baths, and all the other stuff they were so good at. They called it Pompeii

Can you believe looking at the next two photos, of the amphitheatres where gladiators used to fight to the death that they were built around 300BC....... 

But the folk that lived in Pompeii weren't that lucky really, in 62AD there was a huge earthquake that flattened a lot of the city, and they had just rebuilt it when Mount Vesuvius erupted and the whole city and it's inhabitants were buried under thousands of tons of volcanic ash and dust, and there it lay, under it's protective covering of volcanic ash for hundreds of years

Then in 1748 some archaeologists started excavating and found this extraordinarily well preserved city, houses of rich merchants, brothels with rather graphic frescoes on the walls (and some very uncomfortable looking stone beds, I do hope the poor things had a mattress back in the day), streets of shops..............quite extraordinary and they are still excavating to this day

 The frescoes on the walls must have been amazing when they were new and vivid

Just a couple more photos, shot as we meandered around some Italian villages - I do love Italy

all that walking deserved an ice cream break - this was the real stuff,  a heavy duty fix for an ice cream addict......

Back on the ship it became obvious rather quickly that lifts (elevators) that were supposed to hold a maximum 18 people, would only hold about eight. This wasn't because anyone was hugely fat, but because when you get six Italians and two Brits in a lift, the Brits huddle in the corner muttering thank you, excuse me and ciao when appropriate, and the Italians fill the rest of the space by all talking very loudly, at the same time and waving their arms at full stretch to emphasise the point they were trying to make - honestly, it was like sharing a lift with six windmills in a hurricane. As I said, I love Italy!

See you tomorrow with a last holiday blast - we'll take a wander around Barcelona shall we? See you then.... x