Day 15 - Pompeii

On our last day in Naples, we decided to catch the train to Pompeii. The hotel organised a tour for us, and so we packed up our room, stored our luggage and then caught the 9:37am train to Sorrento (Pompeii). When we arrived, we met our bus driver and soon after departed for the Vesuvius Mountain. Most people were wearing hiking boots, so we knew that we were in for a bit of a climb! However, most of the people in our group were over 60years old, so we were unsure of how big of a climb this mountain would be. We were feeling quite fit & young amongst our members! When we got to the climbing point, we paid €10 each and set foot to see the dormant Volcano which is best known for its AD 79 eruption, that led to the burying and destructing of the Roman Cities - Pompeii and Herculaneum.

This was by far our toughest 'hike' on the trip so far! As you can see in the pictures, some of the older members on our tour had obviously come very prepared (walking sticks & boots - an obvious advantage) passing us on the way up as we would stop to take photos and have a break. The ground (ash from the lava) was very slippery, but absolutely amazing to see. At the top, the Volcano still had smoke rising - or it might've been us panting from the hike?

We then had lunch (pasta & pizza) at the bottom, and a tasty big glass of wine. Because of the Volcanic eruptions, the soil is very fertile so there are many wine farms in the area. Little did we know, that after huge glasses of local wine - we would be walking another +6km's in the Ruins.

We entered the Pompeii Ruins (€11's each) after lunch. It was absolutely spectacular to see. If you don't know, this was once a major city in the region of Campania which got buried by the lava and ash from the Volcano eruption. After discovering this city, the ash was excavated - and beneath was a preserved roman city structure with its people. It was absolutely amazing to see how advanced this city was BC - which included restaurants, a theatre/Teatro, a water way etc.

We then made our way back to the hotel, picked up our bags - got changed into warmer gear (Belgium is 8degrees, whereas Napoli is 20degrees) and set off to the airport.

We arrived at the airport and caught the JETAIR plane to Brussels, Belgium at 9pm.