Took the intercity metro to Ercolano this morning to see Mt. Vesuvius, the only active volcano in continental Europe. We took this minibus/taxi truck thing that charged us way more than necessary ... I think we may have gotten off the metro one stop too early & the other stop may have had the more official, cheaper busy. Oh well. It took us as far up the volcano as you can drive & then you hike up the rest of the way which takes about 30 mins. We were hoping to walk all the way around the crater but ran out of time (we had to catch our minbus back down). But it's pretty neat staring down into this huge crater at the top & certain parts have smoke pumping out. And on the drive up & from the top you can see the lava left on the hillside from the 1944 explosion. After that we took the bus over to Pompeii where you can wander around the ruins that they've excavated ... the ruins from the explosion in 79 A.D. That was pretty cool. All these old buildings, churches w/ statues still in them, bodies of two people who were trapped in the lava, houses where you can see the stoves, a brothel w/ paintings of people having sex on the walls ... the old roads that still show the wheel ruts in the stones ... so neat. Went back to Naples & had pizza for the fourth nite in a row now (gotta' love Italy!). Packed up to catch our early train in the morning :S 
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