June 4, 2018

      The ship travelled 540 nautical miles in 36 hours to arrive in Naples on the western coast of Italy. We were docked in Naples, Italy by 9 a.m.  Already docked was the Disney Magic ship. The temperature was about 21°C, an overcast sky with hardly a breeze.
    Naples is the capital of the Campania region.  Nearby is the volcano, Mount Vesuvius which blew off the top of its cone in the historic volcano eruption of 79 AD which covered Pompeii in choking ash and rock, killing most of the population.  Naples is located in the Gulf of Naples and was founded by the Greeks.  The historic Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
    We walked off the ship just after 9 am to explore the old town of Naples. We stopped at the Information desk in the cruise terminal building for a map of Naples. It did not name all of the streets in the central part of Naples, but it was fine as a guide. The most striking building near the cruise terminal is the 13thcentury Castel Nuovo, a fortress and royal residence. We followed signs that guided us to the Old Town. We passed the Piazza Municipio . In the Old Town we stopped at the Gran Caffé Neapolis for cappuccinos and Wi-Fi to check emails and post six days of blog entries.  There was a noticeable police presence and we saw two army soldiers.  The Naples streets are not as clean as the Venice streets. We strolled along a number of the streets before returning to the ship by a different route.
   Naples was founded in the 8thcentury BC by the Greeks.  It was conquered  by a Norman king I 137 which founded the kingdom of Naples.  In 1860 the Naples kingdom joined the united Italy. It is the third largest city in Italy after Rome and Milan.
   After lunch from Deck 12, we watched the Costa Fansinosa turn around by the dock then back into her berth.    Steps 11,518 for 8.57 km
    We had a short 3.5 hour tour in the afternoon to the ruins of Herculaneum. Our guide was Giovanna. The bus driver, Luigi, distributed audio sets to the 44 members of our group as we entered the bus. 
     The first stop was at a cameo factory where the group was shown the kinds of shells from which cameo jewelry is made. A man, with 41 years of experience, showed how the carving is done and then we saw how the silver or gold frames are made for each piece.  The factory also has artisans who carve agate into cameos.  A few people made purchases. We were given water for the almost two hour tour. 
    Next, when we arrived at Herculaneum, the walking tour lasting almost two hours started. The Mount Vesuvius eruption caused mud, formed from the rocks and ash combining with the two streams near Herculaneum, to flood the town of Herculaneum. It was a smaller community than Pompeii due to the rich residents having left the town after the 62 AD earthquake, leaving the homes to their freed slaves.  Most people fled by boat to the sea since they had a few hours warning, advance warning, which Pompeii did not have. When the mud had settled it was 25 meters deep.  The town was found by a farmer in 1738 when he was digging a well and archeologists have been studying the site since then. We walked the excavated streets. Four hectares of the former 20 hectare town are revealed with intact floors and partial decorating on the walls. The other 16 hectares by the dried mud with houses built above.  The marble pieces used for the counters in restaurants were imported from Africa and Asia as the marble in Carrara was unknown at the time. There is lots of red paint used in the walls painting.  The Pompeii red paint contained sulphur and  mercury. Mercury was a health hazard of which the inhabitants were unaware.  The fresh water was supplied by aqueduct in Roman times, then sent to the public fountains, the public baths and the homes of the rich through lead pipes which were also a health hazard.  These two health hazards were part of the reasons the people were shorter and lived to about 40 years old.  The slaves had another strike against them since they did the laundry.  Each house collected urine and sold it to the laundries. Urine did the same job as ammonia to clean fabrics. The urine at the laundries was poured into vats with the clothes and slaves stomped them with their feet.  Their deaths were painful from the effects of urine acid on their leg skin and bones.  Giovanna led us through many streets well below the current ground level.  The mud from the volcano eruption completely covered the whole town and flowed into the sea creating more land in front of the former sea edge.  It was a hot walk probably in a temperature of 29°C as the clouds cleared.  We saw the public baths and their three different rooms of water baths – cold, tepid and hot. The men and women had separate scheduled times to use the baths. The slaves and freed men also a scheduled time.  There is also a price list of the wine prices at one of the shops. 
     We were ready for a shower when we returned from the tour.
      Lynn and Mike were waiting when we entered the dining room, they had been suffering from colds and didn’t feel like dining room meals these last few days.
    After dinner we had an invitation to a 45 minute Senior Officers’ Cocktail Party where the department heads and the Captain were introduced. Drinks, from a special menu, were free and several kinds of canapés were served.
    The Celebrity Theater show this evening was showcasing the acrobatic team, Gold Art Duo – Andrii and Ievgeniia.  The acrobatic skills involved were remarkable but some of the antics were too much contemporary dancing for us to enjoy.
    Luggage tags and the departure schedule were delivered this evening.  We are getting off the ship independently and making our own way to the airport.  We will take our own luggage off the ship, rather than packing by 10 p.m. on the final evening and having the staff remove the bags to a warehouse in the morning and picking up the bags there and taking a ship’s chartered bus to the airport.
    We broke 20,000 steps today for a total of 21,016 steps, thanks to the almost 7,000 steps that we walked at Herculaneum.  The distance was15.64 km.



















































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