Stabiae

This morning we visited Stabiae. In Roman times Stabiae was the Beverley Hills of Pompeii; all the really rich Romans had their villas there and the best were built on the edge of a ridge overlooking the Bay of Naples with the sea and beach directly below them. Following the eruption of Vesuvius in AD79 the villas were covered and abandoned, and the coastline moved out. Today the area that was sea is the modern town of Stabiae. Three villas have been excavated and opened to the public; the first two we visited were impressive but the third, Villa San Marco, was absolutely massive and was clearly fantastically luxurious in its day.

After lunch in modern Stabiae we went back to Pompeii for the afternoon to see some of the parts we missed a couple of days ago (including the brothel!). I spotted a few of our party crossing these stepping stones over the street and it reminded me of a certain 1960's album cover. Another long and tiring, but amazing day.

After thinking that the morning was the time to get a little bit of Wi-fi in the hotel, yesterday morning it was impossible, so I've just back-blipped for Thursday. https://www.blipfoto.com/entry/2038507410707975055 Hopefully it will stay on long enough for me to upload this one for Friday!