Pompeii

After two full days in Rome, we made our way south to the Amalfi Coast. Visiting coastal Italy has been a dream of mine for a few years. When I worked for West Dermatology, I had to find someone to paint a mural of something "Italian" for one of their offices and I chose a drawing that was located in the Amalfi Coast. For this trip, I knew I wanted to visit either Cinque Terra or the Amalfi Coast and the latter won out because we were closer.

We took the bullet train down to Naples (it moved so fast it made my ears pop when going through tunnels) and from there we took a privately run Circumventa train down to Sorrento. On our way down, we heard some people talking about Pompeii. We knew we were close, but hadn't planned on visiting the site. As we got closer we asked our neighbors how close the train stop was to the ruins. They said they were within walking distance so Kent and I made a split-second decision, grabbed our luggage and made our way out the sliding doors.

I'm glad we did. Pompeii is probably the best preserved ancient Roman city there is. Kent described it as "eerie" because the neighborhoods were still intact. Really, it was just like a normal city, just very desolate. I loved that you could still see the colored plaster and mosaics, and the plaster casts were emotional to behold. It was a rushed tour because we wanted to get to our next destination, but like I said, it was worth it.

There she is, Mount Vesuvius.