Naples, Italy

Our port today was Naples. We had an early start to head out to Capri. Capri is an island just off of Naples. It is absolutely gorgeous! We took a funicular from the bottom of the island to the top portion of the central island. From there we did walking through a shopping area and ended up at a viewpoint at the other side of the island. On the upper part of the island they only have electric-powered vehicles which they use to transport goods and luggage. Capri and this area of Italy are apparently known for their lemons, so we had to indulge. Paul and I had a lemon ice (like frozen lemonade) covered with freshly-squeezed (as in, in front of us) orange juice. It was amazing. This is definitely a place we’d like to come back to and spend a few days. We went from Capri to Sorrento, where we had lunch at a small restaurant. Sorrento is on the mainland, but it’s shoreline is dotted with buildings perched on the cliff’s edge. We did some walking around the town, but didn’t really have time to see much. The tour did take us to a place where they make traditional regional inlaid wood furniture and boxes. It was interesting to see, but the $30,000 dinner table was a little out of our price range. From there we went to Pompeii. The ancient town is much larger than I had imagined and we only got to see a small portion in the 1 1/2 hrs we were there. The town was suddenly covered with 24 feet of ash near the end of the first century when Mt Vesuvius erupted. The site is well-preserved, but much has been pillaged over the past couple of centuries or has been moved to a local museum. We got a decent feel for the place and did get to see two of the casts of people who died that day along with some wall paintings. Paul found it erie to be walking through a town that was obliterated like that. After seeing the ruins we had a chance to do a little shopping. I tried a sample of the regional liqueur, lemoncello. It’s a strong hit of alcohol with a taste that I can only imagine is similar to a lemon floor cleaner. Needless to say, I didn’t get any. We were all quite tired after the long day with lots of walking. We’re looking forward to a relaxing day at sea tomorrow. Probably won’t be anything going on to warrant updating the blog.