Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius

After spending a couple of more days in Rome, Siko and Rebecca came to Naples to hang out with us. On Thursday, we dropped Claire off at a friend's house (thank you Lindy!) and the four of us went off to tour the ancient Roman city of Pompeii. We were all struck by how big this city was and we were amazed by all of the interesting sites in the town. We spent about three hours there and we probably only saw about a third of it.

It was certainly neat visiting the ruins seeing Mt. Vesuvius looming in the background. Pompeii is also quite a dramatic archeological site. Not only are the buildings and ruins amazing, but there are a couple of casts on display of the victims of the eruption of Vesuvius.



After touring Pompeii, we headed off to Mt. Vesuvius (a 25 minute drive away) and hiked to the top of the mountain. It was only a 30-minute or so hike and we spent some time up on the rim and came back down. The mountain has AMAZING views of Naples, so we got some great pictures. The mountain itself is also quite interesting itself. The crater is beautiful, and it continues to steam (it is an active volcano)! There are also a couple of little snack bars/gift shops along the way.



We had a great time hanging out with Siko and Rebecca and we are so glad they came to visit us in Italy!