Salerno, Naples and Pompeii

I had to add the photos of these places to a Facebook Album because I'm having technical difficulties with Blogger - it won't insert photos right now, so apologies readers.

The ship offered no suitable tours from Italy’s Salerno, our first port of call in the Mediterranean. So John researched the port and neighbouring Naples and Pompeii to find a wheelchair accessible tour and made a booking before we left home.  He found a company which could provide a wheelchair accessible Opel van with a ramp, and a driver as well as a guide. The tour company is called Tour Guides Naples, so just Google it, we thoroughly recommend it.

So right on time, Massimo the accredited guide and historian found us at the terminal and directed Antonio the driver to take us directly to Naples where we climbed to a wealthy suburb called Posillipo with views to Capri and to Mt Vesuvius.

From there we returned to Naples with brief photo stops along the way, including the three castles within the city – the Castle of Saint Elmo, the New Castle and the Castle of the Ovo (Egg) which is at sea level; then a longer stop at the Plebiscite Square and the Umberto Galleries.  As well as huge domed skylights, the Galleries had many restaurants, bakeries and beautiful tiled art.

The pizza Marguerita for which Naples is famous was named after a visiting royal.

Early afternoon we left Naples for the drive to Pompeii, the site of a great tragedy when Mt Vesuvius erupted in AD 79 and destroyed the whole area, killing most inhabitants. Pompeii had been founded by the Osci or original italic peoples in the 8^th century BC, then conquered by the Greeks, Samnites and Romans in turn, but after this major eruption, Pompeii lay dormant for nearly 2000 years.  Although it was a Roman colony, there are also many traces of the Samnite traditions.  Earlier eruptions had not defeated the citizens, but the eruption of 79 AD certainly did.

By the time the volcanic matter, ash and poisonous gases had stopped raining down, all life had been extinguished in Pompeii and a large area around it. There was no chance of escape. Everything was covered with about six metres of ash which solidified after the first rains.  This is how the people and animal life ended up being discovered as skeletons with a hollow body shaped space around each.  The site was left alone because people feared it and apart from some looting, excavations did not occur until the 19^th century.  An archaeologist Giuseppe Forelli was the first to pour plaster of Paris into the spaces and thus preserve the bodies.

After lunch at a small cafe, we entered the Pompeii site at a secondary gate which led directly to a section of the site which is now fully wheelchair accessible.  Entrance was free for wheelchair users and their carers (or hanger-on partners like me).  We walked along a path between the Grand Palestra where the gladiators trained and the Amphitheatre (built in 80 BC, the oldest known) where the great fights occurred.  Everyone, free or slave could visit the amphitheatre to watch events.

Close by, we visited the Villa of Julia Felix which included many restored rooms, orchards, a bathhouse and gardens, as well as a cobbled street of houses and shops, some of them restored.  

At the entrance gates there is a display of the plaster casts of the poor inhabitants – the photos show us better than words can describe their dreadful fate.

Many of the other villages around Pompeii had been rebuilt and the land is very fertile, with a rich agricultural industry.

Then it was back to the Sea Princess at Salerno, via the motorway which included many tunnels though the mountainous terrain. Massimo was an excellent guide and very knowledgeable about his city, Napoli where he was born and went to university.  We’d certainly recommend this company.

Of course we were extremely close to the Amalfi coast and would have loved to drive along it, as well as visit the isle of Capri, but with just a few hours on shore, that would have been impossible.