Leaky Charm: Pompeii and Beautiful Ravello

Pompeii

We rented a van and drove three hours south from Rome to Naples and then onto Pompeii.

Spencer was a champ on the roads as the drivers were maniacs!

But have no fear! We prevailed without an accident. Whew!

Pompeii was destroyed by the volcano Mt. Vesuvius in the year 79AD. The city was almost completely preserved for centuries and then discovered by a farmer in 1599 and then eventually was excavated 150 years

later in 1748 for the public to explore.

Walking into the city of Pompeii

This city is huge and the streets are completely walkable with all the store fronts and

pillars fully intact. The tops of all the buildings are gone. They must have been made

out of wood which would not have lasted. Some of the paintings are still intact on the walls.

Huge pots, writings and places like the mini colosseum are completely preserved.

We started listening to the audio walking tour (which was quite graphic in detail about the lifestyle of the people who lived there when the volcano erupted) so let's just say they "broke", ya broke...(it became a bit difficult for any grandma or mother to have to explain to a child at this stage..#awkward...)

If you go to Pompeii to appreciate this phenomenal archeological find and really see what this city

looked like 2000 years ago, then you have witnessed a treasure.

So...it started to rain and rain hard. So hard in fact that everyone went back to the car to wait except Anne, Ty and me. (We were determined to see the rest of the city and the preserved bodies).

This was my FAVORITE part of my trip! Ty decided to make himself a "map-hat". I can appreciate that this won't be as funny to anyone reading this entry, but if you saw how hard it was raining, then it was VERY funny! I could not stop laughing! He was straight faced (except when taking a picture) and acted 'very interested' in everything we were seeing. We looked and looked and looked and it rained and rained and rained. We were soaked....

MY absolute FAVORITE picture! This is Ty's 'map-hat' as it got wetter and wetter. It was SO DANG funny!

He just balanced it on his head and I could not stop laughing. Anne and I were dying! So great...

When we finally found the bodies, it was so sobering, it took the wind out of our sails so to speak. Actually very sad. We only stayed for about two or three minutes before we headed back to the car.

This was their entertaining arena, similar to the colosseum - in function, not size.

We were lost so we unraveled the map-hat carefully to find our way back.

I started laughing again...Kids are so awesome!

Mt. Vesuvius

RAVELLO

We took a very very windy road south towards the Amalfi Coast into a absolutely darling coastal village called Ravello. It was a bit treacherous driving as there were mud slides and damaged roads. But luckily for us, we were safe with Spencer's masterful driving skills.

We stayed at Hotel Parsifal. I would not have found this hotel if it were not for my friend (a mother at ACS) Barbara. She is Italian and was able to help direct us to this magical little village. Breathtaking in every way. You can't even drive in the village. You have to park outside it and walk around.

Antonio was the owner and absolutely wonderful in every way. Superb service!

Many famous people visit this village..their pictures were posted inside lots of the shops with the store owners. This village is quite expensive and the prices for souvenirs are high as it is considered a romantic Italian coastal village. But it was really worth driving to see and visit.

One of Ravello's villas and church's

We took a bus from Ravello into Amalfi, which is right on the coast. We had visions of playing on the beach, but it was very cold and wet and the beach was rocky. This cathedral (Duomo di Sant'Andrea Apostolo) in the center of the city was fantastic and very beautiful.

We decided to do the next best thing. (The kids were tired of looking inside churches...so) We walked down to the beach and looked for sea-glass and the kids loved it! We found some beautiful treasures. I bought a piece of pottery in Amalfi and we put all the sea-glass we found in it. It sits on our kitchen table. It was a really fun activity to do together.