The big empty swimming pool

Everyone says the Amalfi coast is stunning. Guess what – they are right. Amalfi is bigger than Sorrento and whilst Sorrento has the charming narrow streets and shops in abundance, Amalfi has the nicer harbour and seafront. Whilst all our hotels have been great, we quite deliberately saved the best to last. Welcome drinks, fruit and biscuits, swimming pool, private beach and sun loungers that no-one fights over, a shuttle service to Amalfi and back at our beck and call and views to die for. Breakfast ain’t too shabby either – although as we were out at the crack of dawn on our first day we had to wait a day to sample it. They did give us a packed breakfast to go, but we couldn’t eat it. Whilst it was very healthy – fruit salad and yoghurt are not the easiest things to eat in the back of a car.

See a video of the view from our balcony here

See a video of the view from the bar here

See a video from the sea deck here

Pre-trip we’d been advised to go to Herculaneum rather than Pompei as it is smaller and better preserved. This is true, however we wanted to climb Vesuvius and that trip only comes with a trip to Pompei. So Friday was our last trip – Pompei and Vesuvius with an 08:00 pick up. What a wonderful day for our last day trip. The car ride to and from Pompei wound its way over and round the mountains through Revello and other small villages. Whilst it took 90 minutes, the scenery was well worth it. Pompei was awesome and we only saw a fraction of it in our two and a half hour tour. We had a marvellous guide, and she was right, she had the most beautiful umbrella at Pompei🤣. She really made us “Roman” for the session. Our group was small with only 9 people, which gave us plenty of time for questions and answers. Whilst Herculaneum is better preserved, Pompei is bigger and I understand was the 2nd biggest city in the Roman Empire at the time. There is still plenty to see and the level of sophistication of a civilisation from over 2000 years ago was incredible – from the stepping stones to avoid the sewage, the use of urine because of the ammonia for the laundry, the locker numbering system in the sauna – if you couldn’t read the number you described the picture (you need to see the photos to understand that!). Interesting fact – the slaves had the best teeth as they weren’t allowed to eat the foods with sugar.

After Pompei was Vesuvius. We were driven by car to 1000 m up Vesuvius and we climbed the final 250 – 300. There were only 4 of us plus a guide who was a qualified volcanologist – who knew there was such a thing, but he was worth his weight in gold. Pre-booking I was very confused when reading reviews of various tours “the crater is only a 20 minute walk”, “they told us the crater was only 20 minutes, but it was 40 minutes after that i.e an hour”. Hence I was a little anxious, especially as I am crazy and decided to schlepp every camera lens I had with me, just in case. He clearly explained and showed us how Vesuvius has changed its shape and is now 2 mountains with 2 craters (look at the pictures). The lower crater, which still looks like a crater, but is filled with plants and grass and looks like a meadow in the crater, is 20 minutes walk and is the crater that erupted to kill everyone in Pompei and Herculaneum in 79AD. It is now called Monte Somma. The larger and higher crater, which looks more like a volcano and is called Mount Vesuvius, he described as a “large empty swimming pool” is another 40 minutes walk up the mountain. This was well worth the walk though. At least we stuck to the path – two other tourists decided to just climb up the side of the volcano. Our guide went ballistic. I have no idea why they decided to do such a dangerous thing, and our guide suggested it was to avoid the checkpoints as they hadn’t paid. Embarrassed they came down, and left. Restored to calmness, he explained the geology and different types of volcanos, relevance and geography of Vesuvius to Pompei and Herculaneum and to the modern city of Naples. It was a long day and we didn’t get back until 17:30, but it was well worth it.

See a video of the crater of Vesuvius here

Today was spent doing absolutely nothing. A huge breakfast sampling everything, apart from the huge honeycomb – so much better than the little pots of honey, and then sitting on our balcony enjoying the view and the scent of the jasmine that surrounds it. The most physical activity I did was going to the beach club and getting on and off the sun lounger, once I’d decided which level and sun lounger to sit on.