Italy Day Two - Naples and Amafli

Today we visited Naples (known locally as Napoli) and had a big day tour planned. This meant the alarm was set for 5:45am, and we had a continental breakfast delivered to our room at 6:00am. When I went outside on our balcony, we were approaching the coast. We were treated to a most beautiful sunrise, in purple hues, and also a pod of dolphins playing in the wake of the ship right in front of me. The water was a smooth as silk with barely a ripple apart from those created by our ship.

Our tour meeting point at 7:00am saw us loaded onto a coach, and firstly driven a short distance to a cameo factory and shop, where we saw cameos being created by master craftsman. We then were given the option to buy (of course!) but resisted temptation.

Next we were driven to Salerno which took nearly an hour. Our tour guide was a really funny local Italian who told us many stories and facts, and also many jokes along the way.

We arrived at Salerno and immediately boarded a motor boat, which took us on about a 45 minute ride along the coast to Amalfi. The coast is absolutely beautiful, touring cliffs with mountains behind, and houses all perched on the hillsides.

Once in Amalfi we were taken to the town square and then given free time. Helen and I were lucky to find seats outside a local bakery, where we had a hot chocolate and pastry each while admiring the town square and nearby fountain. It was Easter Sunday so the town was mostly full of locals, well dressed, out and about enjoying their day.

I saw three policeman all do the "kiss right cheek, kiss left cheek" greeting with each other in full uniform. You don't see that every day.

Here the fire department also arrived, driving through the square with lights blazing to attend to what must have been a false alarm.

Next we took the boat back to Salerno, this time going much faster and taking a more direct route. From there, we re-joined our coach, and were driven to Pompeii.

Pompeii is a major tourist attraction, with coach-loads of people and loads of souvenir shops. We were treated to a lunch which included Italian bread and olive oils, salad, cannelloni and a small pastry to finish. This was accompanied with a white bubbly and a red wine.

After lunch we spent the next 2.5 hours walking around inside the Pompeii ruins. It is unbelievably big! And as if the side isn't impressive, consider it was built by Romans, then buried in 79AD, then later archaeologists have painstakingly uncovered the entire city. The roads are very uneven and difficult to walk on, and some of the main roads disappear to their vanishing point they are so long.

After the guided tour finished, we had 1/2 an hour to return to the coach. Helen went with the tour group and had a free tasting of limonchello, while I retraced our steps back  the long way to have another look and get some more photos. This was risky, I did get lost briefly, and the walk was longer than I expected. Still, I made it back to the group on time so was not left behind.

This has been a wonderful day in Italy, sadly we leave now, and in two days time we will arrive in Athens.