The Amalfi Coast, Italy August 21-22, 2012

We took a direct flight from SLC to Paris, then caught a flight (that was delayed of course) to Rome, rented a car and drove 2 1/2 hours to Salerno on the Amalfi Coast. It is beautiful with homes built into the hillside alongside old castle ruins. There are no sandy beaches, just steep cliffs with some lounge chairs at the bottom of the cliffs.

Along the coast

A beach of lounge chairs

We stayed at the Raito Hotel. It is up on the cliff. We had a nice room with a view.
We decided to hire a private boat with a skipper. He took us all along the coast, past Amalfi and Positano over to the island of Capri. We took the funicular up to the town on top. There were lots of tourists. We stopped on the way back to Salerno at beautiful grottos and caves. The water was a beautiful blue color. Scott went swimming.

Swimming in a grotto

Caves and arch formations along the coast

We got back to the hotel at 4:00 and then drove up the coast 1/2 hour to the Pompeii ruins. It is a huge archeological site. We spent 2 hours wandering around. The ruins date back to 79 AD. After Mount Vesuvius erupted it buried the town in 3 meters of ash within about 10 minutes.  The site was discovered in the 1700's. A Roman poet that witnessed the account wrote vivid letters that have been preserved.  The eruption lasted for 24 hours and the people thought to take cover.  Then the avalanche of hot ash and volcanic gas came and the people died first from the intense heat and suffocation.   There are bodies that were preserved, through the formations of the hot magma, plaster casts were made.  (much like a bronze cast is made).

The streets of Pompeii

The ceiling of a bath house

Many beautiful courts and baths, lots of marble and columns and bright Italian colors.

Amazing colors

A preserved body

The "Menu" in a brothel were paintings on the wall