Disasters. Bring 'em on.

The port of Naples isn't much to look at. It's a working port, and a busy one, even in the depressed economic conditions in Naples (unemployment is running around 35%).

We were late docking. The Captain apologised, explaining we were delayed due to the late departure of a British warship. He was doubly apologetic, being British himself, but noted that we were one of three cruise ships held up, and there wasn't much we could do about it as the warship had more guns.

We disembarked an hour late. Our bus was waiting, with Antonio the tour guide and Angelo the bus driver. Part one: Pompeii.

Actually, part one: a cheezy cameo shop just outside the walls of Pompeii.* Yes, very nice, but cameos are something my grandmother might have bought. Interest for us: zero, so we skipped the sales pitch and grabbed a coffee.

Thirty minutes later - thirty wasted minutes later - we entered Pompeii. That's when things got interesting. 

While Ephesus has more grand buildings, Pompeii is much more complete.  About two-thirds of the city has been excavated, and visitors can walk the streets with the remains of homes, shops and temples to either side, many in extremely well-preserved.

Pompeii surived far more intact than most ancients cities because it was buried in a matter of hours when Vesuvius erupted in 70 AD, as opposed to years for most sites. Not so great for the residents, but fabulous for the archaeologists.

The most memorable points included a bathhouse with many of the frescoes and mosaics intact , a small street food-market where people too poor to be allowed a kitchen ate (combustibles = potential to burn the city to the ground, so kitchens were the domain of the rich), a public latrine (apparently men getting together for a dump and a chat was a big thing in Roman times), and the villa of a rich family with the original colours on the mosaics still bright and vibrant.

And of course there are the casts of some of those killed by the eruption. One man appears to have died in his sleep, but there are also casts of a man, a pregnant woman, and a dog that appeared to have died in agony. Disturbing stuff.

We spent about two hours, and could have spent more time. The trade-off with crusing is all the tours are a tasting plate, and it was time to move on.

Lunch was across the road, a passable Italian meal complete with music. A singing guitarist who looked like a bonsai version of Demis Roussos played over lunch, with the head waiter (manager?) providing the vocals on one Italian opera aria. 

After lunch Emma had an attack of jewellery purchase withdrawal syndrome, and bought a necklace from a street stall seller. Her Italian accent must be improving as he initially thought she was Italian.

Part two: the Amalfi Coast.

From Pompeii we took the motorway up to Sorrento in the north, on the cliffs above the Bay of Naples. Pretty, with nice views north towards Naples and the Isle of Capri, lots of greenery, but nothing jaw dropping.

Then we crossed to the south side of the peninsula through Colli di San Pietro overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea, and up the coast to Positano.

Oh. Now I see it. Yeah, that's pretty spectacular.

We continued on, through Praiano, Conca dei Marini, and Amalfi. 

We all wondered why anybody would have settled the area in the first place. The cliffs are steep, and along much of the coast settlers would have to terrace the landscape before building. Even today there are fishermen who live up the cliffs, which makes me think they must spend a long time away from home. By the time you hauled your catch to the top it would be time to head back to work.

From my perspective I'm glad they did, because it's dramatic and gorgeous.

On the downside, it's only a matter of time before landslides shove entire towns into the Tyrrrehnian Sea. You can't have everything.

Needless to say it's another white-knuckle road. Only buses below a certain size are allowed on the road, and at one point we had to pass a bus coming the opposite direction. It took three minutes of careful jockeying, with the buses passing with mere inches of clearance, earning our driver Angelo a round of applause.

As I understand it Positano is the posh end of the coast. That's where the glitterati hang out (it's easy to tell which buildings belong to long time residents, and which have been bought by outsiders. The freshly painted ones are owned by the newbies), and the town is stunning. We preferred the other end, towards Amalfi. Smaller, and just as pretty.

We spent an hour walking the streets. Well, "street", as there only appears to be one real road of note. The buildings have considerable charm and character. There was an interesting looking church up what looked like 20,000 steps (pass), while the commercial area had an interesting mixture of "normal" shops for the locals, and "glitzy" shops for the tourists. We bought an elegant Italian handbag for Emma made out of cork of all things. I think I liked it more than Emma did.

After Amalfi we continued towards Salerno, and by this time Mario and I had shot so many photos we'd killed the batteries on both our cameras. There's a lot of awesomeness crammed into those pixels.

Eventually we ran out of coast, and headed back towards Naples on the autostrada. The inland side of the peninsula - not so pretty. It's essentially poorly-maintained medium density housing, with the occasional small farm or light industrial operation, between Salerno and Naples. It's not hard to tell times have been better.

By the time we made it to the ship we had been on the go for nine or ten hours, and were exhausted. Mario asked, "when were we in Pompeii?" He may have been joking. But I'm not sure.

Pompeii was a disaster, and the Amalfi coast is probably a disaster waiting to happen, but today was nothing remotely resembling a disaster. Along with Santorini and Plitvica today was one of the highlights of the trip.

Sadly, this was our last full day on-board. Tomorrow we have our final disembarkation at the port of Civitavecchia, and then it's on to Rome.

The cruise may be ending, but then we have a week in Rome before we go home. Talk about silver linings.

* I should be used to it by now but I still get amazed at how so many amazing places in the world - Pompeii, Stonghenge, the Pyramids - are often nestled into the suburbs of modern cities. The photographers always carefully frame the shots so the McDonald's and fridge-magnet shops are discretely out of frame.