Andiamo, to the south, Naples and Sorrento

Here's just about three more pictures from Rome, one of them being Pieta, The Sorrow. It's very hard to get a good photo of the sculpture as it is behind thick glass. The lighting, while complimentary to the work of art, is not good for photos. Every time I tried to get a picture, someone would walk up to the glass and get in my frame. This photo is about the best I could get. I bought a postcard so I would have a better image. One of Michelangelo's better works.

After we left Rome, we ventured by bus to the south, towards Napoli and Sorrento, Sorrento being our final destination for this leg of the trip. We only drove through Naples and saw the port, where there were lots of huge cruise ships docked. It was pretty exciting for me; for Joe especially, as his grandfather got the boat from Napoli several times on his trips to the states. The rest of the drive to Sorrento was filled with lots of beautiful scenery, as we were high up on the roads overlooking the bay of Naples. You can see Mt. Vesuvius in one of the shots, surrounded by clouds and haze. It is still an active volcano, and erupts approximately every 25 years.

We stopped at the ruins of Pompeii and walked among the ancient streets, where a bustling city once stood before it was buried by volcanic ash and lava from one of biggest eruptions of Vesuvius. Excavation is ongoing, and the actual town is buried under about nine feet of volcanic ash and is about one third exposed. When digging, bodies of the citizens of this town were found just where they fell when Vesuvius erupted, entombed in volcanic ash. The amount of ash spewing from the volcano just clogged their lungs, and made breathing difficult, then impossible. Plaster casts were made of the bodies, just as they were found. In the picture of the body laying face down in the glass case, you can see that it was a pregnant woman, and she is covering her eyes and mouth, probably trying to protect the life within her. Very profound. These people had a chance to flee, yet did not understand the severity of the situation. The volcano gave many warnings in the days prior to the big eruption, yet they were ignored because they did not understand. You can see the plaster cast of a young child crouching with it's mouth covered, only to imagine dying like that, just sitting there unable to escape.

If you've stayed with me this long, thank you and I hope you are enjoying my rantings. Naturally, there is more to come.

Ciao, bellas!