Day 11: Pompeii

Well the mosquitos won the battle of Florence. Itchy little train ride down to Naples. I had a dream last night about meeting Keegan Swenson. It was the day after Unbound and I was traveling for work near Emporia. I saw their meet and greet at a local car dealership on my way back from lunch. I told them right away that I hadn’t watched the race yet and did not know the result. Keegan said he was extremely disappointed with how it went. On the table he had the bent thru-axle that cost him the race. Apparently he got in a small crash when he stopped to plug a tire. I asked if he would run mountain bike tires next time and he burst into tears. The Santa Cruz staff all started comforting him and I kind of just stood there until I realized no one was going to talk to me.

We missed our train to Pompeii. It all turned out ok. 

That “mountain” back there is actually a volcano. A lot of people had to learn that the hard way. 

This kind man didn’t know a word of English but after doing some sandwich charades we got something ordered. 

And wow was it good! The pigeons were poised. 

Damn ok, straight into it. Archaeologists knock on the ground as they dig to check for hollow places. If they find one they fill it with plaster and sometimes they are bodies. 

This place is large, a lot of room for various activities.

Tour guide had us looking like Bobby Bluetooth.

They had rebuilt a lot of stuff which was kind of interesting but I’m surprised everyone was just cool with that. 

These people did a lot of savage stuff but they also were into painting, nice. 

They said that thing was twice as tall before it erupted. My coworker Tim warned me all about it. I mean he’s right, it’s still active. 

Theater area and prison cells for the gladiators. Never knew they were slaves. I need to watch that movie. 

They are nuts about lemons down here. 

And apparently they can grow them huge. 

One thing they aren’t nuts about is nuts. I haven’t seen peanut butter OR PEANUT BUTTER FLAVORED GELATO this entire trip. 

Made it to Sorrento. And our airbnb has AC!

More lemon stuff. Our airbnb host gave us shots of his homemade limoncello, nice!

Italian place with American portions. They had a variety of olive oils for the bread that were really delicious. 

Walking around alone after dinner. 

Looking at some big views. 

And tiny cars. 

I’m excited to explore this town tomorrow and hopefully spend some time on the beach. 

Night life was great. 

The Giro came through this area. Still seeing some banners up. Wish we were here for the race!

 Ended the night with some important work updates. I would love to hear in the comments about a recent dream you’ve had, really comment anything besides the winner of Unbound. Thanks for reading the blog today, I know there is a lot on the internet competing for your attention!

Ciao!

-Devon