Fist off:  I am having trouble getting my photos on here.  they just won’t fully load and take forever if they finally do.  If any of you use WP and have a hint, please let me know.

For the trip to Herculaneum (Ercolano in Italian) we would need to take the Metro and a train.  It proved to be easier than I had imagined with really good signage and following the crowds.  The Garibaldi station, where we had to change from the metro to the Circumvesuviana train is new, bright and really cool looking but the actual train, heading to Ercolano, Pompeii and Sorrento is old funky and super crowded.

Just after we got our tickets there was a group of 2 other couples who needed another to make a 6 person, English speaking tour so we joined them.  The site is impressive beyond words.  The tour guide took this phot of us; you can just barely see Vesuvious in the distance:

This archeological park was formed, like Pompeii, as a result of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD.  Because Herculaeum was covered in mud instead of ash like Pompeii, it is more well preserved. Seeing the artifacts is super interesting but, at the very end, we saw the skeletons (they admit that some are original and some are reproductions) and it sends you imagination running wild.  What did these people think was happening while they are so suddenly and so violently threatened?  Terrifying to put yourself in their mind set.

Cleaning the incredible mosaic

We took the train back to Naples thinking we would go try Di Matteo, not too far from our place.  Tired and hungry, we fell into the typical tourist pitfall—choosing a restaurant without enough planning.  By the time we got back to di Matteo ist was around 3:00.  I was really hungry!  So we found it easily enough but then we just saw the place where you buy snacks for the street and stupidly missed the seating area.  Thinking it’s just a take out place we started back and just sat at the first place we saw.  We ordered pizzas and a beer and were suddenly surrounded by a group of abot 25 noisy high school kids.  The pizza was OK but we just felt miserable knowing what we had done.  I was really mad at myself for not asking at di Matteo, if there was a place to sit!  So we walked back there—3 doors down, and, of course could see that you just walk through and there is, in fact, a little room.  Oh well, this happens once every trip so now we done with it.

Afternoon rest time—next.

In the evening we went for a walk and stopped at Gina, our landlord’s, favorite gelato place.  Fantasia was really delish!  I had a pistacchio with chocolate which was super creamy and delicious.  Ken loved his dark chocolate and lemon.  We sat in a little piazza, people watching and enjoying the gelato and walked back.  It was about 4 blocks from our turn off and I counted 18 shoe stores! 

Another amazing day in the books.