June 24

We anchored off Amalfi city and took an early tender to shore.  Our travel agent belongs to Signatures Collection, a TA consortium, which provided a complimentary tour.  There were 25 of us and we were split into 2 mini buses for the trip over the mountains to the Bay of Naples area.  The scenery was spectacular on the drive on the narrow winding roads where passing in opposite directions was quite a challenge.  We first visited a Roman villa on the outskirts of Pompeii which had belonged to Poppaea, the second wife of Nero.  This villa was also buried by Mt Vesuvius' 79 ad eruption and is being restored.  There were numerous brilliant frescoes on the walls and the place was immense.  We next visited a museum which holds numerous artifacts from the city of Pompeii, items visitors to Pompeii won't see.  Another villa under restoration but not as good as Poppaea's.  None of these 3 places are frequented by tourists so we had them all to ourselves and it was quite a treat.  Pompeii has been worked on for many years and preservation isn't too good so there aren't any good frescoes like we saw.  After the museum we were treated to a Neapolitan style lunch.  We got back around 5:30 and wandered through Amalfi city for an hour, but it was overcrowded with tourists and difficult to get around.