416. Tanked

Pompei

Drizzly day, children not keen for an outing so we abandoned them in the afternoon and returned to the ruins, across the road. Discovered on entering that entry to the Pompeii ruins are free on the first Sunday of the month, a small win. We decided to focus on the houses with decorations as they are so wonderful.

It would take many hundreds of years for hand carts
to wear grooves in the stone this deep.
Most streets were one way and flowed with sewage.
Not nice in 40ºC plus! 

Priapus n the entry vestibule of
The house of the Vetti

The room decorations are so beautiful, it make me wonder why
we are so timid in the modern world

Much of upper Pompei waits to be excavated 

The place is vast (65 ha)

Mt Vesuvius, always watching

Back in the Giantavan, Audrey enjoying a
well deserved beer glass of lollies which
we shared

Too sweet for me

415. Evidence of the Camorra

Naples

Finally a clear day and clear intent. Four supermarket pizzas purchased yesterday, baked, and we were off, HP The Deathly Hallows, deliciously read by on the sounds by Stephen Fry. Again the pre-booked car park was an absolute success with most carparks too small for the Disco and everywhere full.

Took the advice of our two pound, second hand, DK Family Guide Italy and walked Via San Biagio dei Librai in the Spaccanapoli district. It is a long narrow cobbled street criss-crossed with even narrower streets and canopied with washing lines. Also took the opportunity to get a new screen fitted to my phone having dropped it in NZ getting out of the Alpha with about five things in my hands, always a mistake. When walking in Naples, Fyfe was a useful lookout calling all the dog excretia of which there was plenty. Venice solved this with a three hundred euro fine and Kent in the UK fines dog walkers eighty pounds for not carrying at least two disposal bags - even better. Rubbish collection for the last ten years has been done by the local mafia with obvious results.

The side ally were mysterious, I'm sure we saw
a Knockturn Alley equivalent 

Beautiful ornate decay abounds

Fyfe and the Obelisco of San Domenico 

Would love to explore every side alley 

Torre Campanaria di Santa Chiara

Gesù Nuovo Piazza

Stunned by the internal beauty of
Gesù Nuovo church

Should a stranger knock on the door and ask
Have you found Jesus? I can now answer yes, in Naples

This was the whole of the entrance wall - huge

Crossing Via Toledo to continue down Via San Biagio dei Librai

Crossing Via Toledo to continue down Via San Biagio dei Librai

Roman chasing flying rats (pigeons) 

A breather with another chaser 

A very rare café stop on a quiet carless street
Very lovely and expensive

Jacqueline

A lot of buildings had massive ornate (graffitied)
vehicle doors with small pedestrian doors inset.
These lead to beautiful private internal shared courtyards.
Photographed this entrance while the door was closing.

La Statua del Nilo 

A small church converted to a shop

414. Intent

Pompei

Schedule

Route

Woke to drumming rain and a poor outlook for the day. We are lucky to have chanced a dry grassy site for the week. A report for work then organising car and caravan shipping to NZ was the first job of the day. Planning our remaining month returning to the UK took most of the day. With only a month left in the Continent we are feeling completely out of time with a long way back to the UK. Trying to keep each day around or under three hundred kilometres as our maximum speed is eighty kilometres per hour so that is about five hours with stops.

Keen to visit Perugia and Assissi as I visited with Julie, on our tour, twenty eight years ago, staying with Johannes and her sister Marie. I wonderful area I recall. A visit to Pisa as is is a small deviation off route. The family is keen to visit Paris again as it is three years since we were last there. Audrey's best UK friend Tate, is boarding outside Paris so we are keen to have a weekend with her.

I have no idea whether or not we will stick to this plan but it is good to have something to work to.

Roman's car, with passengers - poor mite

413. Surfing

Pompei

This was out old tub before we left

Spent quite an age reading about Pompei and completing yesterday's massive blog on the Pompei ruins. Turned into a bit of a worm-hole, the more I read the less I knew so the more I read. Not a bad way to spend an inclement day but quite a time suck. Jacqueline tackled the washing with our little machine, with me the water-joey. Blogging plus washing plus starting a report for work melted the day. Wasted a lot of time researching cedar hot tubs as I am keen to scratch build a tub on my return. Had to sell the one that we had as it wouldn't have survived without care so very keen to have one again.