Pompeii and Vesuvius

The day dawned sunny and still, but the volcano was wreathed in cloud. The traffic was better, but we still got lost!

We arrived at he gates of old Pompeii at about 10am, were ushered into a restaurant carpark and were offered all-day parking for 10 euros, but free if we ate lunch there. At the ticket office the children were let in free on proving that we were from New Zealand!

The Temple of Venus

Our guide book had some good information about the ruins, but Natasha had plenty as well, as she studied it in some detail earlier in the year.

We only managed to see a small  fraction of the site, but there's so much, and I think we got to most of the highlights, including the "beware of the dog" mosaic...

...and the brothel...

At the end of our tour, Vesuvius was still cloudy on top...

...but after a relaxing lunch of spaghetti we decided to drive up anyway. Half-way up we picked up a Swiss tourist, and sure enough, the carpark near the summit was like pea-soup. A bit further down however, we found some magnificent views of the Bay of Naples.

Back to the hotel mid-afternoon, and then well over an hour spent finding a park and working out how to get a ticket that will last until midnight when the parking becomes free! Somehow, in the process, we ended up buying an all-day bus-ticket!

After a slice of pretty disgusting pizza for dinner, we searched in vain for gelati.

Venice tomorrow!