Day 14-15 Rome & Naples

Our second port of Italy was in the city of Civitavecchia about and hours train ride from Rome. Although there is lot of history to the town there are very few old buildings as they were mostly destroyed during WWII. From here Chris, Elisabeth, Simone & Marloejse caught the train to Rome where they saw the major highlights using the hop on & off bus route.


Luke & Louise gave themselves and the kids a break from the busy city. The children happily went off to kids club while Luke & Louise set off to visit a working olive farm & winery in the nearby country side. Run by the Vittori family the organic farm produces their own Merlot and extra virgin olive oil as well table olives. In typical Italian style they gave us a very brief explanation of the processes involved before laying out a spread of home made Bruscetta, Penne and wine.


Along the way we stopped of at the ancient village of Tuscania. It is a totally walled village with narrow cobblestone streets. Part of the village and wall has been rebuilt after it suffered damage in an earthquake during the 1980’s.


The next day we all had an early start from our next port in Naples. Everyone including the children were excited about our first destination – the ancient city of Pompeii. The city is a huge tourist attraction so we were fortunate to get there early before the huge crowds hit. The Children struggled with the notion that the original inhabitants of the city perished as a result of the huge active volcano in the distance – Mt Vesuvius.

We all assumed they were killed by hot ash and larva but this was not the case. When the villagers saw the volcano was erupting they ran for what they thought was the safety of their underground cellars. It was invisible toxic gas that was the first thing to reach them and they were all overcome and died quickly.


Afer exploring the city for 2 hours the day had really heated up and the crowds had moved in so Luke, Louise, Elisabeth and the kids decided to head home while Chris, Simone & Marloejse headed off to the famous Amalfi Coast.

The road to the village of Amalfi was never built for huge buses and as a result negotiating the nearly 1200 tight curves is risky. Early on in the decent the coach became stuck on a very narrow bend. The impatient Italian drivers made a bad situation worse by overtaking the stranded bus and jamming the road further. After a 30 minute stalemate the huge line of traffic was forced to reverse up the windy road to allow the bus to negotiate the curve again.

Finally reaching the village they were able to soak up the local atmosphere with a fantastic lunch overlooking the deep blue waters of the coast.


There were lots of souvenirs to pass around at dinner that night. Simone had her usual collection of fridge magnets but she had also bought 5 interesting bottles of Lemonchella, the traditional Italian licquer. Unfortunately we didn’t get to sample any as she wants to take them all home intact. We’ll see!

1 comment:

  1. Emelia and I have been missing you lots and we can't wait until you get back. The class got your letter like you said they would. I hope you have had fun on your holiday. We have enjoyed looking at your pictures. It is warm up here and we are feeling like it is becoming summer.

    The sheep have had lambs and they are very cute. We got a new guinea pig and its name is squirt and it is a girl.

    We had grandparents day last week and I think you got an award!! I did too and so did Courtney. Sorry we haven't written sooner, lots of love from Faith and Emelia

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