and speaking of volcanoes

Way, way back in October we went to Naples (which is a total rat-hole of a city with only one redeeming feature, Pizzeria da Michele, and I would never encourage anyone to go there) so that we could go to Pompeii and see Mt. Vesuvius.

Pompeii, or what's left of it, was pretty interesting, although you have to use quite a bit of imagination. And there were hordes of tourists there...acting like tourists. But the occasion of this post was a conversation at dinner we'd had a couple of nights before with a couple who'd just come from Pompeii (we hadn't been yet). The woman said, blah blah blah "of course, they didn't know what a volcano was then..."

And I thought, "Of course not. Duh. So that must've been a shocker."

But then we went there. Before we'd even gotten off the train we both went, "Oh, so that's Vesuvius over there." You know how we knew? Because it looked like a VOLCANO. Like a mountain that'd had the top whacked off. The same thing happened when we went to Mt Gambier, home of the Blue Lake. Daniel said, "I'm not sure where the Blue Lake is." I turned around, looked for a second, and said, "That's it." And he said, "Yeah, you're right." Not because we're so smart, but because it's so obvious.

So Pompeiians. Seriously? You guys didn't go, "Um, one of these things is not like the other..."? I understand not knowing what a volcano is, but when it doesn't look like any of the other mountains around it...and it starts making loud noises...and smoke starts coming out... Really? None of those things clued you in that it might be a good time to get out of Dodge???

PS: Make sure to watch for the last photo. It's my favorite.