Before I start another installment, this is Gloria. We met Gloria at 1:30 in the morning in Sorrento, wearing her large, flower-framed glasses; she was relieved to see us smiling (she told us so), given the 48 hours that it took us to get there, and we were ecstatic to put the rest of the trip into someone else's hands. She was our expert tour guide, who gave us that "trip of a lifetime"; she was adorable, funny, giving, extremely knowledgeable, compassionate and kind. She taught us Italian and Greek, and that it's a mortal sin to cut spaghetti; she told us where to shop for the best quality and price, and took us to wonderful restaurants that were happy to cater to 37 people; she said things like (read this with an Italian accent) "Am I bein' cheeky? I don' care!" "Let me put this in brackets" and "The way we call it this way" (meaning the reason for something is...) She loves coffee and books and halloumi. She made me feel like I was living "I Love Lucy" when Lucy went to Italy, and we all fell in love with our new Italian friend.
Everyone say, "Hi Gloria!"
We departed Sorrento, headed for Rome, and made our scheduled stop in Pompeii. It was beautiful and haunting.
Entering the city.
Marble columns of a temple (I forget which temple, there were so many!)
Temple of Jupiter, the main center of religious life in Pompeii, with Mt. Vesuvius looming in the background, 5 miles away.
No biggie. Just me & Foozer in a 2600 year old city ☺
So much has been discovered, so well-preserved!
Plaster body cast of a refugee. That's the haunting part.
An expectant mother, trying to shield her baby.
Excavating and labeling goes on continuously; we saw a young worker carrying some bones pieces out from one of the houses when we were there.
Pretty sure this was a wine store in the marketplace. I'm serious!
A main city street. (ummm, that cafeteria looks newer, though, don't ya think?!)
A house? A store in the market? Sure! (when I took the photos, I was sure I would remember what every one was...)
The Forum baths. There were many bath houses, some with changing areas, latrines, pools and gymnasiums!
How relaxing would this have been?! Beautiful!
The "frigidarium", for cold baths; the tepidarium was for warm baths, and the caldarium for hot ones. Makes sense!
And this is Roberto, our local guide in Pompeii. He's 79...cool, smooth and in-shape! Must be wine contributing to his health!
Bronze letters on the frigidarium's circular tub.
The caldarium, for a hot water plunge. (but I bet that marble was cold!)
The ruins were amazing, what an advanced civilization! The city was filled with houses, temples, roads, markets, government buildings, sculptures...and we only saw a fraction of it.
Just steps away, is modern Pompeii, but we enjoyed that, too. A beautiful hotel, restaurants, and shopping.
We watched a cameo artisan working at Cellini Gallery, and I bought myself a little souvenir there!
Sorry, this just cracked me up! It was in the shop among all the handcrafted jewelry!
Huge, luscious lemons everywhere! I had to buy some cold waters from the store owner before he'd let me take a picture! He's gotta make a living, eh?
Next up, my favorite...Rome!
