Apologies for the delay, Christmas and the New Year didn't really give me much time to devote to my travel blog.
This time, I'm looking back at my visit to Mount Vesuvius and trip to a local winery. The winery was beautiful and had a great selection of wines available, many of which were tried and tested. On the slopes of the volcano, it had access to extremely fertile soils.
But you're probably most keen to hear about Vesivius itself. Standing at around 1200 metres, you get a wonderful view of the Bay Of Naples and the surrounding area. If you have good eyes, you can make out where Pompeii was situated.
Originally called Mount Somma, it managed to blow two thirds of its top off before becoming the Vesuvius we know today. The last time there was an eruption here was in 1949 and the villages closest to the volcano were evacuated as a precaution. However, if Vesuvius erupted now and they tried to evacuate the area, it is still likely that there will be an awful lot of casualties when you see how densely populated Naples is now.
Make sure you're wrapped up warm if you go up to the volcano top, as it is blowy up there which makes it feel cooler. You can watch the steam flowing back out of the cracks in the crater, where rainwater has worked its way in then been heated by the active magma further inside the volcano.
The picture above shows what Vesuvius looks like from Pompeii, but imagine that hill being two thirds the size again. It would have been an imposing mountain, standing solitarily in the landscape.
The people of Pompeii and the surrounding area never realised the mountain was actually a volcano. They had suffered a small number of earthquakes leading up to the eruption, but because nobody had ever seen Mount Somma erupt or made any recording as such, the population were completely unaware of the warning signs. It must have been pretty frightening when it actually blew.
Next time - my bus trip to Positano.
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