Circadian rhythm seems to be knocked further out of whack than usual. Sleep was elusive and the alarm was a welcome relief from the effort of TRYING to sleep. Trying to sleep is hard work.

8:30 and we’re off! The crazy twisty road calls.

After getting our giant cars our of their tiny parking spots the drive to Pompii was relatively uneventful… the usual 2 storey, 50 foot German tour buses, the motorinis zipping between lanes and the complete lack of lines on the road or traffic signals. The distance from our villa to Pompeii is about 8.5 miles as the crow flies about 20 miles driving. It took about an hour and 25 minutes. Sheesh. Easy peasy.

Only issue was car #2 with half our party which got separated from us at a toll plaza and had to re-route. No worries, our charming and good looking (so I’m told by the ladies in our group) guide, Gian Luca, was patient and understanding.

Several of us have been to Pompeii before but we just wandered aimlessly unguided. That time it was hot and crowded and we didn’t really know much about what we were looking at. Gian Luca was very thorough and informative. We started with at the entrance to the park at the big ‘you are here’ map and he gave us an overview of the city and an historical timeline. He told the history of Pompeii in the form of little stories and scenes of life as it would have been. He had facts. Did you know there was actually no lava in the eruption of August 24, 79 AD? Pompeii was destroyed by the poisonous pyroclastic flow and entombed under about 25 feet of ash. Everything was dead and gone in the space of 20 minutes.

This is Etna now… on August 23, 79AD  the two peaks were connected and the top of Etna was a bit more than twice as high as we see it. On August 24th, it wasn’t any more.

The arena can still be a pretty brutal place….

This steam/sauna room had a double layer floor and double layer walls where hot water and steam circulated… !

So many facts! While touring the brothel, as everyone must, we were informed that a red light district is so called because the Romans/Pompeii-ans preferred their ‘service providers’ to have red hair. (I did on occasion wonder how factual all of his facts actually were… but they WERE entertaining.)

We booked a two hour tour. About 3 hours after we started we wrapped up one of the best guided tours of anything that I’ve had. Would highly recommend. Pompeitour.com (yes only one ‘I’) Request Gian Luca.

The drive back was as much fun as all the other trips along crazy road… it was parking when we got back to Positano that turned into the real adventure. We drove along the road to the villa, just kinda hoping we’d find a couple of spots along the side of the road like we did when we first arrived. Well we didn’t. And there’s pretty much no way to turn around… so we kept going for a kilometer or two until we got frustrated enough to just block the entire road with two cars making a 6 point u-turn and go back the way we came… we passed the villa again still with no spots to be had. When we came to the road that leads down to the center of Positano (where I knew there were a few pay to park garages) I thought “screw it, I’m done with this” and turned into the center of town. Yup, the road got even smaller. We turned into not the first, not the second, but maybe the third garage. When I asked the cost to park, I was told 4 euro per hour. That would be 96 euro per 24 hours… I wanted to leave the cars until we leave on Sunday. I was able to get him down to 30 euro per 24 hour day. Sold. Goodnight Irene.

We did dinner at the villa again. Kathy and Ken did a chicken Marsala with carrots and cherry tomatoes with balsamic and gelato for desert. Oh… and wine. Mmm. so good.

Tomorrow will be an easy morning as we decided that perhaps we should pace ourselves and not exhaust ourselves in the first 4 days of 3 weeks. A relaxing breakfast and morning hanging out on the veranda… wander into town to shop and look at the church and then dinner sounds like a plan.