Today was a great day! The day started early, we were picked up at our hotel at 6:30 AM by a taxi to take us to the bus which would take us to Pompeii. We finally started our tour around 8 AM on our 3 hour bus ride to Pompeii. Our tour guide was funny, interesting, and bilingual. John and I were both very impressed that she was translating everything she said in English, Spanish, and German! We were really excited because this was the first decent tour guide we have had in Italy. Well, on the way to Pompeii our tour stopped in Naples for a 1 hour tour around the city. In Naples we got a new tour guide who was a local. She took us to a few places but she really was an awful guide. She would take us to a square and say, “this is the square...it was built in the 16th century” and that was it. We were not too impressed with Naples but I don’t think we had that great of an introduction. We got back on the bus and drove the 45 minutes to Pompeii. There they took us to a place where they showed us how they make jewelry out of shells, but it was very short and I missed the whole speech because I went to the bathroom. Afterwards they fed us lunch and prepared us for our trip to the ruins. We were sad to hear that we would have the same guide as in Naples, but we decided to try it anyway. All I can say about Pompeii is WOW! It was so neat to see the ancient town and how it worked. They had streets with crosswalks, indoor plumbing, a sauna, bars, swimming pools, and central heating! We could see the mosaics they had on the walls and pottery/statues. We also saw the human remains of people who were killed in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius along with the remains of animals. I was in awe by it all. We did have one embarrassing moment during the trip. Our tour guide was wearing a microphone and we were all wearing headphones so we could hear her easily, but whenever anyone was close to the tour guide her microphone would pick up their voice too and transmit it to all of the members of the group. Well John, the tour guide, and I were the last ones walking through the brothel remains and we were shocked by the pictures of sexual positions the Romans had painted above the rooms. We got to one pretty graphic one and John, who was standing very close to the guides microphone, said “This looks pretty graphic!” But for some reason he must have mumbled or something because to me it sounded like he said, “This looks like us!” The guide must have heard what I did because she immediately said, “Oh, are you two on your honeymoon?” I was mortified as I thought everybody in the group of 20 people heard this whole conversation! As soon as we got outside I whispered to John, “I can’t believe you just said that!” He was very confused as to why I was so embarrassed. After I explained to him what I heard he explained what he really said which made a lot more sense.
After the tour of the remains we hopped back on the bus to head back to Rome. As soon as we arrived back in Rome John and I decided to go out for a small dinner and call it an early night. After dinner however we decided to find a pharmacy because during our trip to Pompeii John’s frail English skin on his feet got a pretty severe burn and we wanted to get some cream. We go into the first pharmacy we find and ask the pharmacist if they have any cream for sever sun burns. He brought us a 15 Euro bottle of Aloe Vera, which we felt was too expensive. I was bound and determined to find John some cheaper cream so I set out to search the store for the aloe cream. Unfortunately, I do not know Italian and therefore was unable to read/understand the labels on the bottles. I eventually stumbled upon a promising looking bottle that had the words Aloe Vera written on it. I passed the bottle onto John who took it to the counter to pay. John asked the pharmacist how much the lotion cost, and the pharmacist gave him a little smile and said, “Are you sure you want this?” John said yes and the man said, “Well you know this is soap for your genitalia.” John, who was a little embarrassed, said no thanks and we left the store. As we were leaving John started laughing and then explained to me why he didn’t buy the product. I told him I was wondering why sunburn cream was in with the tampons...I guess I know for next time. Anyway, we are off to bed. We have ancient Rome to discover tomorrow!
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