Day 5 - Vesuvius

Yesterday started cool and, as we didn't have any sun lotion, we were unprepared when it became scorching hot and all got sunburnt. Today it was very overcast and showed no signs of getting sunny, so we packed our jumpers and waterproofs in an effort to be prepared this time, before heading to Vesuvius.  It wouldn't prove to be enough.

We drove part way up the mountain and reached a car park where we couldn't go any further.  It seemed that, from that part of the mountain, our only option was to pay for a bus to nearer the summit, from where we could walk to the top.

The bus was only about half full and the weather seemed to be getting slightly worse as it made its bumpy way up the mountain road.  The top of Vesuvius was swathed in cloud, where yesterday we'd been able to see it clearly from Pompeii, and the higher we got, the colder and cloudier it seemed to get.

When we got off the bus, it was chilly and the cloud around was like a pretty thick fog with low visibility, so our walk up gave no indication of how close to the summit we were.  There was a souvenir shop near the top that sold coffee, but no hot chocolate for the boys, so we pressed on regardless.

As we walked around the top of the crater, the weather got rapidly worse.  The cloud was still all around and the drizzle that had been persisting had now changed to heavy rain, accompanied by a freezing wind.  The visibility was so low that, not only was the view of the surrounding areas obscured, we couldn't even see the inside of the volcano itself.

We did our best to look around, seeking shelter when we could, and before we headed back down it did start to lift a bit so we saw inside the crater and some views of the towns below, but by then we were freezing cold, soaking wet and keen to get away.

Boys sheltering from the weather atop Vesuvius

We drove to Herculaneum with the intention of eating there and visiting its ruins but, with everyone still cold and wet, and everything seemingly closed there for a half day, we headed back to the refuge of our hotel room to warm up, dry off and relax.  So the day didn't quite work out as planned, but the weather picked up again in the evening and it's off to Rome tomorrow.

Luke's joke of the day:
Why was the teddy told off in the street?

Because he was caught bear in public!