Big day today! We got up at 7:00 and did the belated blog for yesterday. We then headed out to the train station to Pompeii (or Pompeii Scavi, if you want to go to the ruins and not a rather dingy town.) We arrived at 8:00 and went into the ruins of the city itself. Pompeii is a truly amazing place, as the ash that buried it also resulted in an amazing level of preservation. We went through the forum, saw the statue of Eumachia, as well as the theatre and coliseum. Well, enough talk, let's get down to what we both know you actually want to see: the pictures! Included are pictures of: a statue of Eumachia (a famous Pompeiian business woman), Conor and J pretending to be statues, Lars and J presenting a wonderful column, pictures of the theatre in Pompeii, a photo of a redone ancient Roman style garden, one of the many resident lizards of Pompeii, as well as a ferocious Pompeiian guard dog (cave canem.) After the wonderful (and exhausting) visit to Pompeii, we came back to the house for a snack and naps. After this, Lars, Pat, and Conor went for a walk to the small bay here in Vico Equense as everyone else woke up and got ready to leave for dinner. Once everyone was back and ready to go, we left for dinner. Sadly, our first choice was mysteriously closed, so we ended up going to a great local pizza place. When we finished our dinner, we then went to get gelato (also delicious) and returned here, where we are blogging and getting ready for bed. See you next time, and enjoy the pictures! Pictures of: Lars' gelato sandwich,(No, it is not a hamburger, but gelato in a sweet, sticky bun!), the bay here in Vico Equense, and pictures of us eating at Franco's. -Conor and Lars

Sorry for the delay on the blog post, it was a rather long day. Yesterday we took a tour down the Amalfi coast. Our guide was a man named Tonino who was a very entertaining and informative driver. After we took the train to Sorrento and found him, he introduced himself and drove us to see the view of both the Amalfi coast and Sorrento, (a view of both of the gulfs in the Tyrrhenian from the cliff) before descending toward the coast and the town of Positano. in the town of Positano we meandered around the shops and down to the ocean. Being that it's the off season, all the shops were getting ready for the influx of people that will be coming in about a month. After an hour of wandering around and seeing the sights, we met back with Tony and the car and set off to the town of Amalfi. The picture of the lemon with the sunglasses shows how large the Sorrento area lemons are.

After more stunning views and a quick stop to take photos of a beautiful 5-star hotel that many famous actors and actresses regularly stay at, we arrived in Amalfi. In Amalfi, Sandy had found a paper museum that we decided to visit. Three years ago the Latin Geeks on the trip to England went to a pencil museum, so we thought it fitting to bookend that with a paper museum. The museum is the oldest paper mill in Europe and it dates back to the 1300's. We were able to see the many different processes it has used to make paper through the ages. After we had our tour of the paper museum, we were surprised by running into Lars' grandmother, who is visiting Italy as well.

Our final stop before we headed back to Sorrento was Ravello, a town high in the hills above the coast. We had lunch in a restaurant a little bit below the main town, and then walked around eating the gelato we got for dessert. In Ravello, we mostly just enjoyed the amazing view of the coast as many of the historic villas were a bit on the expensive side. We wandered from one end of the town to the next (none of us had seen that many steps before) until it was time to go home. We returned to Sorrento, bid goodbye to Tony, and got on the train to Vico Equense. After the short train ride back we went to the villa and turned in for the night.

Sorrento

Today we got a bit of a late start even after getting up around 6:15. We had planned to take the train to Pompeii, but as it was pouring rain until 12:00 we decided to go to Sorrento instead. After a 15 minute train ride from Vico Equense we arrived in Sorrento. The first thing we did there was wander around looking for an ATM. After finding the ATM we went in search of food, and an excellent restaurant where we had a variety of of pastas for the first course (one of which had zucchini flowers in the sauce!) and a delicious second course of beef and meatballs. After we ate our fill we took a walk through the gauntlet of souvenir shops to the Bay of Naples. After looking out over the sea for a bit it was time to leave. We returned to Vico Equense and are now writing this blog post. Ciao for now everyone! Lars, Conor and J. The Bay of Naples from Sorrento The fountain in the Piazza of Vico Equense Yesterdays Lunch (we don't have any other pictures of food sorry)

After a trip to rival the Aenied, we've finally arrived in Vico Equense.

Well, we made it. After 34 hours of travel with delays in San Francisco, layovers in Frankfurt and Munich (free German coffee is delicious) we arrived in Vico Equense yesterday and have unpacked and relatively rested. Today is our relaxation day before getting to the touring of ruins and such, so we are now posting on the blog after a lunch of bread, salami, prosciutto, cheese, more bread, some olives, and bread. Two of these pictures were taken off of our terrace (yes, we have a terrace) and the one of the large mountain is the wonderful view of Mt. Vesuvius from town.