Day 10 and 11

Day 10 - we went to the ruins of Pompei which is a UNESCO world
heritage site and did a guided tour. Mt Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. The city and its residents were burried in 20 ft of pumice and ash containing gases. There was no lava in the eruption. We only completed one-sixth of the site in a couple of hours.

Photo 1 - fairly tough walking conditions
Photo 2 - Town Square
Photo 3 - acheologists have used the voids to construct plastic moulds to recreate the exact location and position people died in
Photo 4 - bakery

Day 11 - Our group travelled to Florence where we completed a guided city walk. There seems to be a lot of churches and statues here. At the end of the walking tour we visited the Accademia Museum where the Statue of David resides.

Photo 5 - Basilica of Santa Croce - burial place of Michelangelo, Galileo and many others
Photo 6 - Duomo of Firenze - 3rd biggest church in the world. It took over 140 years to complete.
Photo 7 - Fountain of Neptune
Photo 8 - Statue of David. This is a very popular chap. There are over
7 000 pre-booked tickets to see him per day. He is 13 ft high and carved from a single block of marble.

Day 11 night - the group took the bus to Parrcheggio Restaurant on top of a hill outside Florence for a 6 course meal. The road was very steep and narrow. Several times the manual bus had to reverse to get around corners. I was feeling scared on the trip and wanted to get out and walk the last 50 metres.

Photo 9 - restaurant front
Photo 10 - outside restaurant
Photo 11 - zucchini risotto made by the chef in front of us as was a grape cake which was part of dessert.

Video 1 - Pompei City RuinsRead more