Pompei and Assisi...

After a nice stay in Sorrento time came to head out. 15km to Pompei but the trip took an hour. Love (hate) tight, narrow, twisty Italian roads. But we get there and Mom decides to take in the exterior view... I entered and covered part of the huge excavated and partially reconstructed area. The town sits in the shadow of the part of Mount Vesuvius that remains after it blew its top in 76AD. It is quite amazing to walk the streets of cobble and see marble facilities, fresco painting, and some rooms pretty much intact after being dug out from the ash. There are 10s and maybe hundreds of city blocks but I only walked a small portion. Just near my exit point there was a line of storage bays that were behind barriers but still allowed viewing of excavated urns, crockery, but also mummified remains of people and animals. The most striking were a young boy and a dog.

Then with the GPS set to allow tolls we headed on to Assisi. It was a great choice as €20 cut 3hours from the drive time. And we actually had excellent views of the Italian countryside, including snow-capped mountain ranges. It was fairly late when we arrived in Assisi, but it was quite a sight as the sun was highlighting all the stonework that composes this village which is lifted off the surrounding fields as it perches on top of a large hill. We had dinner in to prepare or the next day.

We took the hotel shuttle in to the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi. From there we explored the 2 churches of the basilica as well as several of the steep side streets that make up Assisi. The. The on Holy Thursday Mom attended service at the Basilica of Saint Mary Major (quite a beautiful church) - located in the flats below Assisi, and we did a drive around the lowlands.

Italy2014:Pompei (click photo for album)

Italy2014:Assisi