Monday, November 11, 2019; Naples, Sorrento and Pompei, Italy

Monday, November 11, 2019; Naples, Sorrento and Pompei

We had received our Naples excursion tickets late with an attached letter explaining that our tour, which was to include Sorrento, Pompei and a boat ride out to Capri, had to be modified because the harbor master had shut down all ferry traffic to and from Capri Island due to adverse sea conditions.  We ended up with a partial refund and more shopping time in Sorrento to compensate for the itinerary change.  The ship was still steaming into the port of Naples when our alarm clock got us up at 6:30am.  We had to grab a quick breakfast and be in the Wheelhouse Lounge at 7am for our excursion. We could see Mt. Vesuvius rising ominously over the Port of Naples from our berth.  The horizon looked ablaze as the sun started to climb above the horizon.

One of our ship’s chaperones was a young Asian woman, who had worked in the Art Gallery, but on this particular cruise, was a plus one for her boyfriend, who works is Portuguese and works in the photo department.  She is half Japanese and half Chinese, and can speak both Japanese and Mandarin, in addition to English.  On the excursion, she was alone, but we ended up taking some pictures for her, and she as fun to interact with.

The tour started with a bus ride through the very industrial and busy Port of Naples, heading south along the coast to the Sorrento Peninsula.  As we drove, our guide Vincenzo filled us in on the history of Pompei and read some excerpts from letters describing the events of 79AD when Mt. Vesuvius erupted and buried Pompei.  The author wrote that after a series of earthquakes, the top of the mountain exploded like an enormous black umbrella pine (which are very characteristic in the hills of Italy as “The Pines of Rome”) stretching high into the sky.  Then it began to rain stones, sand, dust and choking poisonous vapors for the next three days.  The city of Pompei was also inundated by pyroclastic flows, but the majority of the 20 thousand or so inhabitants did manage to escape with their lives before the city was buried under 30 ft of rocks, sand and ash.  Those roughly 1200 who died were mostly slaves, invalids or those who thought they could ride out the storm, but suffocated in the poisonous gases, or were crushed and buried alive.  

Our first stop was actually past the archeological site of Pompei on the Sorrento Peninsula for a tour of Sorrento.  This was originally a Greek coastal fishing village.  It is situated on top of steep limestone cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.  The hills are lush with vegetation, much of it cultivated for agricultural use with grape trellises, olive tree groves, citrus groves, and many other fruits and vegetables.  The region is famous for its citrus and olive products, and the liquor Lemoncello originates from Sorrento.  The other notable craft from this area is Cameo carvings from sea shells, and mosaics of colored wood veneers called intarsia.  We were set loose to wander the narrow streets filled with little shops as the town was decorating for the upcoming Christmas season.  Then we were gathered up and walked to a restaurant venue with a large banquet hall that could accommodate our tour groups, and we had a 3 course lunch with pasta, chicken and lemoncello cake, along with a local white wine.  

We were then driven back down the winding coastline back to the Pompei archeological site and spent about 2 hours walking around the site and learning a little about ancient Roman architecture and anthropology.  The site is huge- it was, after all, a major Roman city before it was destroyed by Mt. Vesuvius.  We toured just a tiny fraction of the site, and it could easily take a few days to really walk the streets of Pompei to get a feel of what it was like to live in ancient Pompei.  Some aspects of the site were reminiscent of Machu Picchu, although the early stone masons at Machu Picchu were much more skilled and attention driven.  It is also notable that the Romans used concrete and bricks, in addition to marble, limestone and cobble stones in their construction techniques.  

The streets of Pompei were paved with huge flattened boulders, like crude flagstones.  The streets were narrow, but you could easily identify where wheel ruts had been worn deeply into the stone surface.  The street surface was actually slightly below grade, and elevated sidewalks were the rule.  At intersections, elevated stepping stones crossed the roads.  Archeologists think the Romans used the streets kind of like an open sewer, but they kept the water running to wash the filth away.  The volcanic basalt that the city was built on was not ideal for digging and burying closed sewer works in.  Other interesting structures included some grain mills, and a large bread oven that would look right at home in a modern day wood fired pizza shop.  

Perhaps the most interesting bit of intact flooring in the city is an entryway to a residence with a mosaic depicting a vicious looking dog and the Latin words for “Beware of Dog”.  

When the city was discovered by a farmer digging a well, it was buried under about 30’ of rock, sand, clay and ash for over a thousand years.  The human and animal victims of the disaster left behind traces of their prior existence as casts in the compacted volcanic ash and debris.  Some of these were preserved and were on display.  These represent spooky ghosts frozen in the past in tortured agonal poses as they asphyxiated on the poisonous gases and volcanic ash.  

As Pompei was dug out by the army, it was apparently treated more like a reclamation project than a preservation project.  Much of the marble, and artwork was looted over generations.  

The site has a lot of potential, despite having been heavily ransacked and neglected until it became a UNESCO World Heritage site.  

Too soon, it was time to head back to the ship.  As we readied for dinner, the captain came over the PA.  It’s never a good thing when an announcement gets piped into the actual staterooms.  This time it was an announcement that a storm was swirling around in the Aegean Sea, making conditions around Messina extremely rough.  Winds of over 50kts are forecast- a full gale.  The port at Messina has been closed due to the storm, so our planned port of call for tomorrow will be converted to a full day at sea, working our way through a full gale.  Our course will be altered to make an alternate port of call at the Greek Island of Santorini.  This will have to be a tender port operation, but it’s better than missing a port of call altogether because of this storm system. 

We had dinner last night at the Pacific Moon dining room, which has a slightly modernistic Asian decor.  Tonight, we went to the Savoy dining room which has a more metropolitan and intimate decor.  Ben had an excellent lamb shank while Janet had a nice pork chop.  

There was a movie poster trivia in the early evening.  We were joined late by a couple from New Zealand, and managed a second place finish.  Then we tried to get in on the early Princess Theater Caberet Showtime with vocalist Jenny Williams, who is from England.  She proved to be a very powerful and talented singer, but the theater was filled beyond capacity.  We stood at the back to hear her first two songs, and decided it was worth coming back for the late show.  We retired to our stateroom to relax a bit and then hit the “I’ll Take Trivia for 100” gameshow, which is like Jeopardy.  We teamed up with Bob and Mary from our old South American cruise trivia team and managed a total score of 3300 before the final Jeopardy.  The final Jeopardy was “How many people were sheltered in Noah’s Arc?  We had no idea, so we wagered zero and guessed 8.  Well, it turns out that we had guessed correctly, and if we had wagered our 3300, we would have won handily, but as it was, there were only two teams that had guessed 8 correctly, but they had wagered all of their 2900 and stole the game.  Oh well, Bridesmaids again.  

We then watched Jenny Williams’ complete show and it was well worth going back for.  She did songs by Whitney Houston, Tina Turner, Barbara Streisand, and two broadway numbers.  She even sang Minnie Riperton’s Loving You, hitting the hypersonic top notes dead on.  

As we left the show and were waiting at the elevators we ran into another couple from our South America cruise, Dan and Lily, who had also played an occasional trivia game with us. This is truly a small world.  

Tomorrow has been changed from a Messina port of call to a day at sea, and our formal night has been moved up.  However, Ben’s suit and slacks are still at the laundry, and we may not get them back in time for tomorrow’s dinner.  We’ll just have to play that by ear.  At least we don’t have to set an alarm clock tomorrow morning.