Europe Part 4 Pompeii Capri Sorrento

We stopped in Monte Cassino at this beautiful Monastery and Abbey that is so high up on a hill it is literally in the clouds. Even on a clear day it's hard to see. It was a long windy road to get up here.

Here we are at the entrance.

The Monastery had vineyards and was just beautiful. A part of it was bombed in WWII by the Germans but it was rebuilt with most of the original stones and they kept the same design.

It was so pretty! It looked like more of a resort to me than a monastery. Hmm....maybe being a Monk isn't so bad...

I forgot the name of the monk that the abbey was built for Monte Cassino possibly? But it was said that when he died he died standing raising his arms up to heaven. So...in honor of that...it was a heavenly place for sure.

Strike a pose Chris.

The Abbey was just beautiful! Again...the picture makes it look SO SMALL but it was HUGE.

And now it's time for lunch before we head to Pompeii. We ate outside of Pompeii's main gate and had pizza. Italy makes the best! They also make these awesome lemon sodas which are really hard to find here in the states. I loved them!

Here we are in Pompeii. This was the main square by the market place. You can see part of Mt. Vesuvius in the background but the peak is covered by clouds.

They had displays of actual bodies that were preserved by the falling volcanic ash. Kindof creepy! OK...REALLY CREEPY! To see the positions people died in. This was the most PG one. The rest are just agonizing. There is even a dog that is just in the most terrible position and a pregnant women. It was really depressing!

And of course my dentist husband has to take pictures of the teeth. It's funny because lots of people thought the person was so small that it had to be a child and they didn't believe the guide. Well....Chris set them straight with the information he could gather from the teeth. Apparently he was an older man with a diet of hard grains. Hmm....the stuff teeth tells about us...

This was one of the wealthier houses with lots of rooms. You can still see the paint colors and some of the murals were still in tact.

Chilling out in the house at Pompeii.

This was a public drinking fountain. Some people drank from it. Umm....no thanks...I learned not to do things like that in South America. So I tried to pose.

The original BEWARE OF DOG sign. This was in the entrance to a house.

And now we are on Capri. These photos are a little out of order because we went to Sorrento first but oh well. This is a chair lift that takes you up to the very top of Capri and gives you a full 360 view of the island and ocean.

On our way up. It was a little cloudy that day so the pictures aren't crystal clear.

This is us at the summit.

The other side of the Island had all these mists rising up because of the steep cliffs and water temperature. The water was gorgeous and very tempting for a swim. It wasn't too cold.

We thought the lizards were pretty cool and REALLY fast!

On our way back down on the chair lift.

These are pictures of Sorrento on our way to the little town of Massulabrense where we stayed just a few miles away.

Just like in the movies. The steep cliffs and crystal blue ocean. LOVE IT!

More of Sorrento. It was in the morning so it was a little cloudy still.

And I was tired from everything so here I am passed out on the coach. I think it's funny that I have my Italy map on my lap. We did a lot of sleeping on this coach because we had so many early mornings and LATE nights.

We found this cute little square and resturant right on the water on the edge of the cliffs in Sorrento. It was so pretty!

Sunset in Sorrento.