Mount Vesuvius and Home...

April 26, 2012

Well, a very interesting start to the day…  I was up early and showered before anyone was awake.  I just felt great after that awesome yesterday.  David got up and decided to shower, but the kids were still sleeping, so I thought I would lay down on the bed and relax and read while David showered. 

I must have been really engrossed in the book, and lost track of time, because before I knew it, I heard David yelling “Oh My Gosh” over and over and getting louder and louder.  I hopped out of bed and ran over to the bathroom to ask what was wrong, and then it became terribly apparent.  There was about an inch of water on the floor and it had flooded out of the bathroom and into our bedroom, under the bed all the way to the other side of the room and out to the balcony.

Apparently while David was shaving in the shower, the curtain covered the drain and stopped it up.  He was so focused on shaving, (or sleeping in the shower for as long as it took), that he didn’t realize the shower was overflowing.  I was shocked that there could be that much water and he not notice.  We spend the next hour using up all of the towels mopping up, wringing out, and repeating, until most of it was taken care of.  We were just lucky that the rooms were tiled floors and not carpet J

Then it was off to another fabulous breakfast, check out, and on our way to Mount Vesuvius.  On the way out of town we wanted to get a picture of all of the Lemon trees that are everywhere along the Amalfi Coast. 

David still wasn’t quite awake as he was more interested in the view than where he was driving… definitely not up to the standards he was driving earlier in the week.

Then we finally saw Mount Vesuvius in the distance… you can see the road signs for Napoli and Pompei.  How lucky are we… not a cloud around Mount Vesuvius J

There were absolutely no cars on the road as we were driving to the top.  So, it was a bit of a shock when we got to the parking lot and it was jammed full with cars and tour busses.    We arrived around 11:30 a.m., and it seemed like everyone was coming back down when we got there.  The weather was perfect, so it was a nice hike up… about twenty minutes from the parking lot/ticket office to the top.  You can see all of Napoli on the way up.

Once at the top, we could see down into the caldera.  We were surprised that it was smaller than we expected.

When we left Missoula, this was the one place that Danika really wanted to go… Nice choice too J

After spending 45 minutes on top, we did the hike back down…

Then we had some lunch and it was time to get on the road back to Perugia.  The only thing is that there was this long detour through Napoli.  We had driven through Napoli one other time, and that was on the way to Pompei.  They are working on the freeways, so you have to drive through the city streets.  Let me just say that the craziest driving I have ever experienced is in Napoli.  New York City, Lima Peru, nothing holds a candle to how they drive here.  It is chaos.  Basically, if you stop for a stop sign, you get honked.  David’s motto was just ignore all signs and keep driving to where you want to go.  And I have to say that it actually worked!  He was really aggressive, and people just got out of our way…

Of course, he was exhausted by the time we actually got to the freeway.  Luckily there is a beautiful six lane toll road most of the way back to Perugia.  So it was a nice drive. 

We have done so much driving that we are very familiar with the speed cameras… they have become our friends.  Our navigation system, Navman, given to us for Christmas by Andrew and Julie Firth, has saved us many times.  A woman with a nice British accent tells us, “Safety Camera 1/3 of a mile ahead” and you slam on the brakes because the speed limit goes from 80 mph to 45 mph just for the cameras… crazy.  The one third mile warning isn’t quite enough when you are driving 80…  Here is a picture of the Safety Camera that takes a picture of your license plate if you are speeding:  Just take a look at that guy... doesn't he look friendly waving at us?

Then there are the Average Safely Cameras…  These definitely work better because they measure your average speed, and you don’t have to slow down to 45 mph just to pass them.  I like them because we can keep cruising along at 80 and not worry about anything.  Gotta love the toll roads J

It was a nice drive back and I think we were all ready to be home again.  Kids had school the next day, so we just had a nice relaxing evening.

~Mary