Our final leg of our trip brings us back to the Campania region to Pompeii.

We check in to a great hotel called Habita79 and go for lunch after a very long drive across the country from Adriatic to the Mediterranean. We take a stroll but as we are told, Pompei is a very small city. Basically built around the ruins and a big basilica.

We go to the beautiful rooftop patio and are treated to amazing fireworks and a procession. We are told it is a campaign to try to get someone to be declared a saint. 🤦‍♀️

Tonight the boys decide to go to the ….McDonald across the street to see how it is. I can not participate in that…I go to bed 🙂

The next day is a very full day.

FIrst we meet our guide for a 2-hour tour of the ruins. It is very much worth it and we learn a lot about the history of the city and how they lived. Some of the house that have been excavated are the house of rich merchants…they are huge, complete with a garden inside the courtyard. Pompei was a port city in 79BC when the eruption occurred and under Roman rule. We learned that this city that is being excavated was actually build on top of a previous city prior to Roman conquering this region. There are amazing mosaic, sculpture and artifacts…but we learnt that all the mosaic on the floor are reproduction as every thing of value is stored in the Naples museum.

At the end of our tour, we rush back to the hotel to get our luggage and drive to Vesuvius for our entry time. Fortunately, I realized a few days ago that you must pre -book your time for access to Vesuvius and that can only be done online.

Chuck drives up very winding and narrow roads where we come face ti face with full size tour bus….that is so crazy! And on top of that, we are driving along a very steep cliff….but the view for us, passengers is amazing!

We finally arrive at the parking (basically along a side road) and are told that we have to pay for the taxi that are waiting there to take us even further up. Very disorganized affair.

Once at the top, we begging the climb up a dirt / gravel road, much steeper than anticipated. But the view along the way is fantastic as well as when we reach the crater. The view of Positano and Capri is breathtaking! Well worth it!

The descent is tougher for me as my knee is protesting loudly but we take our time and finally make it to where the taxi should be picking us up but we find that we have to wait for them to feel like driving up. It takes a good 50 minutes before we are able to get room in one to take us down. We are all tired and hungry and so ready for the famous Napoli pizza!

We drive to Naples to return the car and check into our last hotel. It is complete mayhem in this city! The roads do not make any sense and no one cares about any rules – stopping anywhere to park, cutting people from any directions, scooters and pedestrians coming out of nowhere. Chuck thinks it is probably the worst city he has ever driven in.

The hotel is OK but 10 minutes from the airport which is important since our flight is at 6Am tomorrow morning. On their recommendation, we walk to Felece for pasta and pizzas. We taste meloncello and limoncello after dinner and are ready to go back and get ready to return home.

Since we fly via Paris, as a last treat, we buy passes for the boys to the Air France lounge at Charles De Gaulle and spend a confortable 4 hours waiting for our flight. When it is time, we say good bye to Alex who will fly to Edinburgh a few hours later than us and stay in England for an extra week.

It was a fabulous trip and we are so thankful to have been able to celebrate our 30th anniversary with our 3 amazing boys.

Life is good! Ciao!