Day 8 - Amalfi Coast and Pompeii

I was told the Amalfi Coast was some of the most beautiful views in the whole Med. There have been some stunning places thus far. Let's see what today holds for us. In addition to stopping in some of the towns along the coast we'll also drive an hour to Pompeii and see a town eternally paused looks like.

Beautiful sunrise	Some of the modern and historical remains in the walls	With little flat land folks had to build homes in any nook they can find
Folks here are known for growing lemons and making tiles
Did I mention they would build ANYWHERE they could find a flat spot?		Terraces are built everywhere so they can grow lemons and some oranges

Welcome to Amalfi. Besides the amazing softball-sized lemons this place produces, the Amalfi Cathedral is famous for Constantinople bringing the remains of the Apostle Saint Andrew.

The town is built into this tiny valley with huge hills surrounding it
Lemon products are everywhere		Hidden little courtyard had this fountain
		With space being so previous sometimes you build into the hill
Very tight roads even while in town		Where do I start
Think softball or larger lemons
Notice no smoke or flame	5 minutes later
Yeah I could rough it here

Amazing how around every turn of the road you find little hidden gems

The smallest of all the cove towns	Roads here are so dangerous. Two tour buses will touch as they try to pass	These cities love Christmas time and make these tiny scenes all over
Welcome to Positano
	I want some local, fresh food for lunch	$2.50 for a giant block of fresh local cheese? Best lunch! (Would easily have been $20 at home)

Off to Pompeii

The mountain in the background, left side is Pompeii	Imagine 100' of ash from this sidewalk	Common folks were buried in the hills outside the town walls
The practice arena for the gladiators	When excavations happened, behind this first wood door they found 20 gladiators (slaves) chained together. 20 gladiators in each of the wood door rooms	Nothing like listening to an concert in the music hall. There was a cloth ceiling over the arena
The main town shopping street	Those lines down the center are from chariot tires	All homes and shops here were two stories (with the slave of the family living upstairs)
How do we know the street was for shopping? Notice the hole in the sidewalk? For tying a horse reign	Where the rich folks lived	This community had their own his and her's bathhouse
The art is still visible	Courtyard of the bath. Women were on the left, men on the right	Entering the men's bath
	This was the cold pool	Lockers were available for patrons
The womens side didn't have a hot tub as it was believed that would cause them to become unfertile	This is where we pause. Only 18yo and older for the next part please. Welcome to one of 24 redlight districts	It was so popular here the tire tracks are more pronounced than anywhere
One of the brothels		Pompeii for as advanced as they were died at 30yo. Why? Led pipes
They didn't know of any other material they could use to transport water around the community	Notice the dents in the marble? From people simply putting their hand down before taking a sip of water from the fountain	The main center square. Mt. Vesuvius in the background
Molded cast of one of the slaves that was left behind (still had his chained belt on)	A dog left, chain around his collar when the eruption hit	A townfolk, protecting their mouth in hopes the gas plume would pass
7yo child (the led pipes also stunted growth of locals)	This was a two-story chapel for Zeus. Notice the smaller pillar on the floor? Wood platforms were used to create an actual floor atop them
In 2019 they'll begin examining this area (which is filled with volcanic rock)	I was unsure about this port but it was amazing

Tomorrow: Day at sea (finally!)