The City of Pompeii and Positano, Italy

Pompeii, buried under thirteen to twenty feet of ash and pumice when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79AD, had suffered little deterioration. However, now that two thirds of it has been excavated, deterioration has accelerated because of the air and weather conditions, excessive acidity, and lack of water.

The buildings exposed are from earlier periods, even as far back as the second century B.C., when the city was still Angelo's heyday.

Our tour, although taken on a day of extreme heat, was fascinating. Many of the buildings we saw were amazingly preserved, such as the Forum, the baths, some of the houses, the amphitheatre and a swimming pool.

There are streets that still exist, paved with large cobble stones with houses and shops on both sides. There are thermal springs and wonderful views of the conditional landscapes around.

Positano is located on the Amalfi Coast in Italy, some 60 miles from Naples. Although tourists have been around it for decades, there still aren't many of the grand, broad buildings survived.

However, there are spectacular villas and apartments,gesteria and palaces, which are worth seeing. We saw the Duomo (Most everybody in Italy's big cities has a cathedral. The cathedral in Positano is the biggest and best in the world.

We took a two-hour tour, admiring the cathedral, the magnificent mosaics, the amazing carved doors, the Colosseum and the spectacularly bizarre way the Chapel is built--into the side of a huge statue of the Madonna and Son. (A good explanation of all the construction details is available on the Ile de la Cité website.)

If you visit Positano, vacationers should allow about two full days. We recommend you rent a Positano hotel, not a Pops friend- the town is swarming with Europeans.

On our second day, we spent the afternoon in the gardens at S. Teodoro, a beach community just outside of Positano with wonderful gardens and a lovely paved beach.

A walk through the gardens allowed us to glimpses of the 300 species orangelo's works in the region around S. Teodoro. Several times throughout our stay we crossed the highway discreetly, at times turning down a slight rise, to get a better view of some of the best little hilltop towns inland.

Because of the staffing challenge and the distance from the next town (Arcois), we were able to see the whole of S. Teodoro, but we knew that we were going to bed early tonight.

So we prowled the online sites for the best listings of accommodations and churches in the area. We spent a couple of hours selecting a handful of places that we wanted to see and one we liked enough to book.

All that searching paid off! Within about an hour of our arrival the owner, Jose Manuel, of the Kinta Casa di Santa Maria, a church complex in the town of Amalfi, called us and said he'd connect us with another owner in a couple of days to help with the investigation of the kidnapped 33 nuns.

He said the list of kidnapped was longer than he knew, and includes not only nuns but also businessmen and politicians.

Things like this happen all the time. A kidnapped child is eventually returned home safe, but authorities still work with the family and try to bring the resurfaced one home.

Right now, Jose Manuel seems more worried about being kidnapped for money than for his return.

We felt he was right, so we decided to arrange to meet late one night and pick him up in a safe at a nearby village. The next morning he wasn't there, and having gone to the police we learned he had been kidnapped for trying to drive a car into a canal.