We woke around 9am, high on the Isle of Capri. It was another overcast day, with choppy seas, preventing us from taking a boat your around the island. We decided to head for Sorrento and then on to Pompei, planning out the careful ferry timing. A bus down the cliffs of the island, a ferry to Sorrento, and the Circumvesuvienza Train to Pompei Scavi took almost 2.5 hours all together. It's Festa Della Donna day in Italy, which turns out to be International Women's Day. This doesn't mean a whole lot other than lots of women with flowers, dinner gatherings, and most importantly, free entry for the ladies into the Pompei ruins! We also saved E$20 by starting just after 1:30, allowing our tour guide to give us a discount.
Lorenzo, our guide, was great. He has been giving tours of Pompei since he was 17, and is certified in English, French, Spanish, German, and Portuguese. He is also working on Arabic, Japanese, and Hebrew! He lives 7 months of the year in New York City, married a girl from South Carolina, and asked if we are from Alabama when he noticed Baylor's Auburn hat. He definitely made a great tour. We learned lots of cool things about store fronts, the illumination, sanitation, drainage, home ownership, baths, brothels, and life in general at the time. Pompei is amazing. It's truly a step back in time and you can almost see life as it may have happened. The preserved buildings, furniture, pottery, mosaics, and frescoes tell stories. My favorite part was the theater, which probably fit 3000 or more people, as well as a half size theater next door.
After Pompei, we grabbed a quick bite outside (not TOO terribly priced) and reversed our train, ferry, bus process back to Anacapri. We stopped in Sorrento for an hour to wander town. We were all pretty exhausted from the travel today! Fortunately, dinner was solid and settled us all down for a while.
Currently, the kids are watching Borat (she has quite a movie collection here) while the adults read and update journals. Tomorrow has been decreed a "late day", probably followed by a lazy day on Capri. Saturday morning looks like the best boat tour time, so we may do that before heading back to Rome.
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