This was part of our Simply Italy contiki tour that we did in 2008. It was a two week tour around the best parts of Italy. The tour started in Rome, and we were schedule to arrive there two days ahead of the tour so we could sightsee a little on our own first. Our flight went from LAX to London and from there to Rome. But once we got to England, we were told there was an outage and the airport would be closed all day. Of course then, we missed our flight, but British Airways hooked us up by paying for our hotel, meals and some spending money. So we spent two days in London first.
Anyways, by the time we got to Rome, we were exhausted, and we actually overslept the next morning and almost missed our bus the next day! Needless to say, we were extremely happy to finally be on the tour and ready to go. 
From Rome, we headed directly south to Pompeii. 
This is a place you hear about in history books (and in my case, in my six years of Latin class!) It’s in such great shape, you can definitely picture a village here. 
Mount Vesuvius in the background was stunning. Can you imagine seeing it erupt, moments before the ash covered your whole town? 
We had a fantastic tour by a local Italian. He was very good at explaining the history and making it come alive. Our favorite was when he told our Contiki group to “Take your time, just do it quickly!” 
We walked the streets of Pompeii and tried to imagine living there. There is still paint on the walls! 
You can definitely still see the ancient roads, complete with stepping stones to cross when they used to flood! 
Pompeii was incredible. If we flew all the way to Italy and only saw this one location, I would have been content. 
I could have spent days wandering around and looking at all the artifacts. 
Outside of the ancient ruins, is a total tourist trap of souvenirs, pizza shops and orange stands. 
Sorrento was charming though, it was Irving’s favorite city in Italy. 
We stayed at a really cute hotel in town, with such a gorgeous tile floor. 
When we had free time, we wandered around breathing in the Italian coastal life. 
La Cita Bella!
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