Vesuvio

We left Pompeii in the early afternoon and decided that it would be foolish to climb the world's most famous volcano and the reason why Pompeii was destroyed in AD79.

We bought tickets for a bus which took nine of us through the scruffy but interesting outer suburbs of greater Napoli up to the National Park entrance. The advantage of the bus was that there were so few of us. The crowds seem to go from Ercolano and from Napoli. Once in the National Park we transferred to a more robust vehicle which took us up through the densely wooded slopes of Vesuvio for about thirty minutes via a succession of hairpins, with occasional views of Napoli and the Mediterranean far below.

From the car park the ascent to the crater took us thirty minutes. Our sandals were fine for walking in, apart from the fact that the gravel occasionally got under our feet. The climb is gradual, not at all difficult and the view from the top is well worth it.

We saw some steam drifting up from the crater but apart from that, the volcano was quiet. I read that the civil authorities have an evacuation plan - to move 2 million people - if Vesuvio does show signs of flowing. You will see various measuring equipment at and around the top of you look carefully.



We all blasted our feet and shoes with compressed air before getting back on the bus - red dust everywhere. There's now also a large lump of red rock sitting in our back garden.