Mount Vesuvius And Pompeii

My alarm rang on time as the morning sun seeped in through the curtain gaps, yet the room felt slightly cold. My dad and I were the first to awake and my sister is a heavy sleeper. I brushed my teeth, got changed into a pink t-shirt and navy blue knee-length shorts and combed my hair so we could go down to eat breakfast. Just as we left the room, my mum and sister were getting ready. We took the elevator down to the breakfast buffet, I ate two small croissants with a chocolate hazelnut spread, some cereal with milk and a citrus green tea.

I was wearing my retainers when I got down, the clear type, I placed them in a bowl as I forgot my case but a waitress had taken them, assuming it was maybe trash.....

Fortunately, she found them and gave me the retainers, which I thoroughly rinsed after facing my mums frustration and reaching our room. It would cost a lot to replace them.

I packed the last of my belongings and went to see the terrace with my sister. It was eerie and quiet as I unlocked the glass doors to the open air. We looked down from this height, no one else was up there, so we ran back down the stairs.

Later we had everyone's baggage in the lobby as we waited, so we returned to the terrace with our cousins. It was still empty and we found another piano. We played on it, but my cousins kept being too loud so we came back to the lobby. Not much happened after, except our cousins being obsessed with my sisters 'daughter'.

Really, it's a 'Design-A-Bear' which she named Phoebe, anyways.....

We walked to our car and stuffed our luggage in, my sister and I sat in the back.

We drove for some time as I listened to music and fell asleep..... When we arrived at Mount Vesuvius, we were informed that it was active so we weren't allowed to hike there. I felt dizzy in the sun for some reason.....

We drove again for a long time whilst my cousin complained how she wanted to sit in the back and we wouldn't let her.....

I'll skip the car ride.

We arrived at Pompeii. The famous town which was preserved in ash for so many years. The queue for tickets was long but not as bad as theme park lines..... We ate lollipops and I spotted a family I had seen previously in the aqueduct.

We began hiking through the dry, dusty ruins. The heat was terrible and my water bottle was leaking. We didn't do a guided tour so I admit we did get lost and spent about 5 hours there in total! 5 hours!

The heat was unbearable and I became restless, there was sand in my eyes, I was thirsty etc.....

BUT minus the cons it IS an interesting thing to see.

We walked to a pizza place, my sister and I shared some bruschetta, with mozzarella, basil and tomato. I'll quickly mention my temporary peach obsession. In Italy I always seemed to either want peach ice tea and juice. Everywhere. Also, I hate long car drives, I never get how some people think it's romantic! (My sisters motion sickness makes it worse, for some reason the tablets never work for her.)

After that meal, we got back into the car to drive to Sorrento.

The drive was long, but we got there eventually, the views were amazing from the mountains. Sorrento is a beautiful coastal town and the weather was nice as well. We parked the car and spent some time walking to the hotel, it was called 'Hotel Rivoli'.

The hotel seemed small but was nice, and the air was cool inside (obviously). There was glass doors and the reception desk as you enter, a few sofas and soon, a swirling glass staircase. The colours I remember are 'eggshell blue', white and grey (i'll add some images as well). Our room was on the second floor, there was a small room (in he whole room) with two single beds and a chest of drawers (for my sister and I). There was also a double bed, balcony, fold-out kitchen and a mini fridge.

I was getting super organised with our belongings, neatly arranging them in our drawers, and we relaxed whilst some of the adults went park the car closer to the hotel and bring the luggage.

After watching some irritating Italian cartoons (no offence) we went out to dinner at a nearby pizza restaurant, but I only had dessert. A sort of profiteroles with a pale yellow sweet cream inside, drenched in two much chocolate sauce. My uncle went back to the hotel to bring food to my auntie, who was felling ill, and to fly his drone over the hotel. Later, I pretended to be drunk (no reason), then we went to a gelato store (cliché). I think it was called 'Gelateria David', I didn't eat any gelato because I was feeling ill, but I tried some of my mum's pistachio flavoured gelato.

Later we went somewhat by the sea and took some photos, it was dark and the pictures looked blurry, we checked where this lift was to take us down to the seaside for tomorrow then walked back to the hotel.

The night receptionist was different when we arrived. We walked back up to our room and prepared to take showers. I had this yellow mixture on my face, hoping it would fade the tan I was getting, then I decided to add a few slides to my video, then my cousins came to our room.

Apparently their AC was spreading a terrible smell around their room, due to a black mould inside. They needed to find another room for the night, it was getting late but sadly I had to wait for my cousins to use our shower : (

Eventually I was able to use our bathroom, when I came out my cousins and my sister were playing on our tablet creating 'element themed' fairies on a dress-up app so I couldn't work on my video.

My mum offered for them to stay in our room but they declined and went off to their new room a few minutes away.

Finally, I put my phone on charge and plaited my hair because now I could sleep. I got into my bed, the blanket was thin but it was okay, I asked my dad to close our door most of the way (it was a sliding door) so a little light could make its way in. Then I closed my eyes.....

Amie