Positano and Pompeii - July 24 & 25

Jill: Hooray! We have company! After three weeks with just the four of us (aside from brief conversations with Jacapo and Sebastian) we happily welcomed our special guest, the kids' beloved kindergarten teacher Dawn Barker, a.k.a. "Miss Barker." We had gone down to the beach earlier in the day but retreated due to sprinkles and then cleaned up for Miss Barker's arrival. We were all so comforted to see a familiar face so far from home! We spent a relaxing afternoon on the balcony where we filled Miss Barker in on all our adventures. It was so much fun to see how excitedly the kids retold our story (even the parts that were not their favorites!). We then ventured to dinner and down to the town.











The next morning (yesterday) we left at 8:00 for Pompeii. We had a very nice driver named Antonio who spoke excellent English and told us all about Naomi Campbell's recent birthday party in a villa above Positano and the neighboring private island we could see from the road. We got to Pompeii around 9:00 and going early proved to be a great strategy because the lines were quite long when we left but there were no lines when we arrived.


Pompeii was amazing! It's unbelievably huge and developed considering the structures originally date from the 2nd century BC. (The excavations extend about 109 acres but the city itself comprises 163 acres. I think only about 15 or so are open to the public, and that's still huge!) The roads, buildings and baths were so sophisticated and the frescos on the walls had such detail, color and proportion even today! Some houses and buildings had elaborate mosaic floors made with tiles that were 1/4" squares. They also used a lot of brick which was covered with stucco and then painted to look like marble. In the baths, they heated the floors by creating space under the flooring with bricks and then feeding hot air into the area. Amazing!


































We also saw some casts of bodies that seemed to capture the moment the town was paralyzed by the volcanic ash. Interestingly, during the excavation process a worker pointed out to the foreman that an empty cavity had been found and that there appeared to be bones at the bottom of it. The foreman decided to pour plaster into the cavity and see what happened. That is how the casts were made. They didn't initially even know what they had found! The colosseum is one of the oldest and best preserved Roman structures of its kind. It was a very inspiring morning and we couldn't help but try to imagine what life must have been like when all of it was new and think about the fact that we were walking along the same streets that were populated by 35,000 people 2,000 years ago. It was so much fun to share all of it with our friend Miss Barker, we are so happy she came to see us!





















After some down time at the apartment and some lizard hunting, we went down to the beach (when the rain had stopped) for a quick swim and rock collecting. The water is much colder than Menton, comparable to Santa Cruz I'd say but Todd thinks it's warmer.
















The forecast is calling for more rain and even thundershowers later in the week, the sun is out this morning so we're going to down to the beach while the weather is good! Hard to believe we have just a few more days!


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Location:Positano