Pompeii (Part Two)

The site is huge: 163 acres (66 hectares) and it was a hot day so you can imagine how tired we got!

The forum, a huge rectangular meeting place...

...with a fairly recent statue of a centaur...

...and many of the old columns.

A little video. Notice the crowds, and can you spot Tine?

Faded wall art...

...intricate floor mosaics...

...and more beautiful frescoes.

The amphitheatre, built in 70 BC...

...which could hold 20,000 spectators. Pink Floyd played a concert there in 1972 but without an audience!

The most moving displays show casts of many of the victims

Finally this video is taken from ground level once the city was covered in ash. There's still about a third of the city to be excavated!

Pompeii (Part One)

Wow, how impressed were we visiting Pompeii after reading so much about it over the years!

As soon as you enter the ancient city walls you can't fail to be impressed

El Teatro Grande where they still sometimes have concerts...

...and El Teatro Piccolo where we could get a closer look.

One of the main streets...

...and a close-up of the stepping stones every so often, to avoid stepping in all sorts at the time!

This would have been a shop, even a 'take-away' with food in the troughs.

An inner sanctum

Exquisite frescoes still in place after nearly 2000 years...

...and delicate drawings too.

A less busy street with Vesuvius in the distance. It's hard to believe the city was covered in 6 metres of volcanic ash.

Perhaps Tine & I should have our paintings above the door!

What a cool place to live.

An old oven. The jury is out whether there were pizzas at the time of the disaster!

Porto Marina di Cassano

In the afternoon of our first day we walked to the Porto Marina di Cassano. I think you can sense the heat from these photos!

There are cliffs all the way along this section of the coast...

...but luckily there are often lifts at a reasonable price!

Tine took a few photos of of fishermen preparing their nets...

...and a tiny van!

There were many man-made caves where boats were stored

Two views from an old footpath...

...this one looking up at a bridge we had walked over earlier.

All this exploring made us thirsty...

...and what a view!

Holiday near Sorrento

Old friends Helen & Mo asked if we fancied a holiday in Italy. We had already decided to go back to the UK for a while so we jumped at the idea of a holiday within a holiday.

Blue skies to wave us off at Leeds-Bradford Airport...

...snow-topped peaks in the Alps...

...and a sunset arrival in Naples.

Our Airbnb host suggested a taxi firm to get to his apartment but it was dark by then so not a lot to see.

Next morning here was the view from our balcony...

...and here's the Gang of 4 ON the balcony.

We were soon exploring Sant'Agnello: here the Chiesa Santi Prisco ed Agnello (with omnipresent motorbike helmets in the foreground.

The Convento di Sant'Agnello dei Frati Minori Cappuccini. You can just spot Tine, Helen & Mo looking at an amazing nativity scene bottom right.

The Santuario Ss. Annunziata was tucked away from view but we spotted it!

We walked along to the coast with its huge cliffs...

...and an excellent view of a 5-masted ship with Vesuvius in the background.

Same place but the view down the coast towards Sorrento.

We wandered through the narrow streets...

...spying lemon & orange trees everywhere.