Saturday 12 December

And now for a recount of my parenting fail: remember the scene in Night at the Museum 3 where the cowboy Jedediah (Owen Wilson) and the Roman soldier Octavius (Steve Coogan) land in the Pompeii exhibit and everyone is telling them to run but they don’t? So lava from the volcano looks like it will catch up to them?

   
 
Well I may have emphasised that scene too much in trying to describe where we were going today 😬 I had three visits from Sam and Belle at different times during the night last night, because they had bad dreams about erupting volcanos and fears we were going to die while climbing the volcano!

Our day began before the sun rose, picked up by a 20 seater bus which was just for us at 7am. Our driver took us on a three hour drive to Mount Vesuvius and handed us over to Roberto who was our guide for the climb. After a steep 1km walk, Roberto gave us the choice of climbing to the mountain summit along the edge of the crater or taking the flatter pathway around the other side of the crater. 

Once I heard the road less travelled had no fences and we would have to walk in single file, I made an executive decision and pulled the little kids to the easier path. Abi decided her duty was to help me with them, so we left Roberto, Ross, Jarrod and Tim to take the edge-of-the-crater walk and agreed to meet them at the kiosk in an hour. We had time to pose for photos (see below) and buy coffee and water at the kiosk before they arrived.

  
  
(Above) The boys in the distance. They actually walked down into the crater, felt the steam and heat on the ground, and examined the minerals and fertile soil. They said it was an awesome experience, and I’m really glad they had the opportunity, but…no fences….apart from feeling unfit for the journey to begin with, I don’t think I would have coped with trying to keep everyone from falling into the crater or off the side of the mountain! 😬

From there our driver took us to Pompeii, where we enjoyed some paninis for lunch at a local cafe near the entrance, and then were taken on a private tour by our guide Claudia. Thankfully the food is not too expensive – Sam’s appetite has grown so we can’t make him share meals with Belle anymore! 

Our tour was very informative and gave us a lot of detailed information. Our guide was wonderful and could answer all of the questions the children presented her with – it turned out she had studied art history and archaeology at uni, and had spent some time working in the restoration process at Pompeii. This place was one of my lasting memories from being in Europe with my parents when I was 6, and I was very thankful to be able to share it with my own. 

  
(Above) we were divided about whether this person was crying, praying or covering his nose to try and avoid suffocating from the ash.

  
(Above) The wall at the bottom left is the harbour where boats were docked back in AD 79, and Mt Vesuvius looms large in the background.

Our tour finished just after 4pm, so we returned to our bus for the three hour trip home. Surprise, surprise, we had pizza for dinner! And then took the kids in their pj’s back down to the Trevi fountain to view it at night and buy gelato for dessert. It is surreal that such a monument is just metres from our apartment.