Day 5. Naples, Pompei, Sorrento and Positano

This morning started last night, with a lot of movement out in the Mediteranean. Our room stewardess, Tatjana had warned us that things were going to get bumpy and they certainly did. The winds were blowing at 30 knots against us, and the waves were at over 2 metres, but Captain Vagn Jenson plowed on through it all, and kept us on track. I may have mentioned it before, but we are at mid ship, which means we are in the middle and do not go up and down as much as those at either end. Sarah, please demonstrate this to Harry with one of his boats in the bath. LOL.

As we had an early start, we decided to order breakfast in via room service. The room service waiter Andrew brought our tray in and it was like a gift from the gods. The coffee was perfect and the smoked salmon and cream cheese hit the spot!!!!

There were no announcements that we had arrived in Naples. We just walked out of our cabin and straight off the ship! This is the Seabourn difference. No carry on, and no competing with thousands of people to do anything. Gotta love that!!! We walked off the ship, and out of the security area to our waiting tour guide. For this port, we organised a tour through the internet. It was a bargain basement tour, so we were unbelievably surprised to see our own driver, tour guide, and mercedes S class waiting for us. It turned out that on this day, because we were only a small ship in port, there were no other bookings through this company, so we lucked out and got a private bonus tour. (Think Cory was super impressed with the mercedes and wondered if there was a mistake and they had the wrong people - LOL).

We didn’t really know what we were doing with this tour, but knew we were going to Pompei, Sorrento and Positano. I had been expecting a drive and a bit of a tour, but we had an absolutely amazing tour guide, Guiseppe, as our escort, and for the next 8 hours, he provided us with fact upon fact of the local history. 

We spent an amazing 2 hours in the ruins of Pompei and learned all about how the people of this city had lived before the volcanic eruption on August 24, 79AD. The excavations of the city included streets, shops, brothels, and even plaster casts of the people that had been killed when trying to escape the ash cloud that occurred when Mt Vesuvius erupted. The ash was so thick that it was about 15 feet deep, and the ground covered in pebbles which shot through the air like hot bullets from the lava flow. Very few got through it. Very sobering, yet extremely fascinating, and amazing to think this happened so far before Australia was even considered by the Europeans as a place to spread to/conquer. Wandering around these well preserved streets and looking into the homes and community gave us a real sense of what it would have been like to live in this time, and also how unbelievably horrific it would have been to have been exposed to the horror of the Mt Vesuvius eruption. 

Outside theatre

Pompein meeting square

plaster cast of a man suffocated by the ash.

We headed away from Pompei to the resort areas of Sorrento and Positano. The roads are so windy along these coast drives and people drive like idiots, particularly the motor cycle drivers. Both Sorrento, which overlooks the bay of Napoli, and Positano, which looks out across the bay of Salerno provided amazing vistas and stunning views out across their respective seas. We learned that one of the more recently infamous residents of Sorrento is the captain who crashed the Costa cruise liner up in Tuscany. It was very interesting to hear about the local politics and mafiosa connections in this area. Giuseppe told us that the Russians are buying up all the land here, particularly where there are the most stunning views.

Sorrento

Positano

On return to the ship, we had some lovely news that Min and Steve had just welcomed their new son to the world! Congratulations to your family Min. Saxon James West looks gorgeous (What a fantastic name), and glad to hear you are all well! Can’t wait to meet SJW... We had a champagne and other treats in your honour! LOL!

Cheers to you Saxon!!!

Tonight was formal night. Cory loves formal nights as he gets to “tux up”. This is said tongue in cheek as he was kicking and screaming about packing the tuxes. It was worth it in the end as we had a ball! Very nice dinner and a beautiful way to finish a perfect day!