NOTE:
Pictures 1,2, and 3 are from our tour of Pompeii.
Picture 4. "Whatta" Lemon. One of the largest lemons we have seen.
Picture 5. A view of Naples.
Last evening, before we went to sleep we enjoyed the breathtaking views of the coast of Italy as we sailed to Naples, Italy. The views from the ship were spectacular as we saw beautiful mountains and coastline, many of which were all lit up. This is another beautiful part of the world with beautiful views in both the daytime and evening hours.
Today we arrived in Naples, Italy. We have visited this port of call several times; most recently on last years World Cruise. Naples is a large city and is one of Italy’s gateway ports to several different tourist sites. This includes Pompeii, Herculaneum, the Isle of Capri and the Amalfi Coastal Drive.
The pier is located about ten minutes walking distance to the center of the city. Today is Liberation Day, which is a national holiday in Italy. Naples has many distinctions and we learned that a famous recipe was developed in this city. In the year 1889, Naples Chef Raffaele Esposito is credited as being the inventor of Pizza Margherita. He was asked to prepare a special meal for the Italian Queen Margherita and he made a pizza with tomato and mozzarella and his wife is came up with the idea to add basil in honor of Italy’s red, white and green flag. Sounds yummy!
We awoke early this morning and enjoyed a nice workout in the Fitness Center. Keith was the first passenger to arrive at the center and he enjoyed a wonderful workout on the Elliptical Machine. Anne Marie also enjoyed a great workout on the Treadmill. Fellow guests Mary and John also worked out while we were there and during our workout all four of us were the only ones working out. This is a committed group of four who always are there each day.
After our workout we stopped by the Lido Café to get a cup of coffee and spoke with John’s lovely wife Linda. A little while later we After enjoyed a nice breakfast in our room as we watched the ship arrive in Naples. We arrived in port a few minutes ahead of schedule.
When we finished breakfast we got ready for our early morning shore excursion. We took the complimentary shore excursion of Pompeii, which was provided, to all passengers on this segment of the World Cruise by Crystal. We first visited Pompeii in the late 1990’s and most recently we visited Pompeii last year as one of the World Cruise evening events was held there.
Pompeii is an amazing place to visit and in 76AD Pompeii suffered a catastrophic event caused by the eruption of Mount Veseuvius. Pompeii used to be a major port and a central location for this area of the world. However, all of this changed when a huge portion of the bay was filled with debris following the volcanic explosion.
We boarded buses and we were taken on a twenty-minute drive over to Pompeii. During our drive, the tour guide pointed out various sites along the way to this historical site and told us about the history of Pompeii. Once inside the site, we walked with our tour guide and visited several locations within Pompeii. The excavations that have taken place in Pompeii are amazing and allows the visitors to walk along streets that are still intact and to view a variety of buildings that included temples, law courts, mansions, private homes and other buildings that were a part of this magnificent area.
Pompeii once was home to as many as 20,000 people and historians have various estimates as to how many people perished as soon as the volcanic ash poured down on this city.
On our way back from Pompeii to the ship the tour guide shared lots of other information concerning Naples and Italy and also talked about various other items including food from cheeses to pizza. Again, yummy!
Our tour and our tour guide were wonderful. There is so much to see that one could spend days at Pompeii.
We want to share an interesting observation about Pompeii. This city is over 2,000 years old but what we saw today shows how advanced these people were in the design and construction of the city. In many ways, this city was much more advanced than other places of the world of today in places such as Africa and portions of the Middle East and Asia that we have visited on our two World Cruises.
Once we arrived back on the ship, we enjoyed a very nice lunch in the Main Dining Room. We had pre-ordered Salad Entrees for lunch.
We enjoyed a relaxing afternoon on the ship and finalized plans for the upcoming eight and final segment of the World Cruise. Today is the final full day of this segment of the World Cruise.
Before dinner we attended the Friday evening Sabbath Services.
This evening we dined in the Main Dining Room. We each enjoyed a wonderful meal. Keith enjoyed Broiled Fresh Atlantic Salmon Fillet and Anne Marie enjoyed the Kosher Chicken as the main entrees. We also enjoyed plenty of vegetables with these entrees along with a wonderfully prepared salad and fresh fruit following dinner.
Tomorrow morning we arrive in Civitavecchia which is the gateway port that serves Rome, Italy. The downtown city of Rome is about a ninety minute drive from this port of call.
Keith & Anne Marie
