After a better night's sleep in the Sigonella Bachelor Housing, we left Sicily [in the morning]. We arrived at Capodichino by [0800] and met up with our schedulers. They gave us some basic information about our mission and told us we'll need to wait for more (will be provided tomorrow). After we filed our flight plan and did some rudimentary planning, though, we were allowed to borrow a vehicle and use it to visit Pompeii! I had been to there once before (see DEC 1996), but this trip was better because we had more time. Most of the people in our group had never been to the historic site, so they enjoyed walking the streets and spending time in the pleasant weather (for some reason, there were no tourists). I think I saw more of the overall city this time, including some buildings that were not open years ago. And they seem to have improved the displays. With daylight remaining, we next used our borrowed car to drive part of the way up Mount Vesuvius! We had to walk for some of the way near the end, but standing on an overlook above Pompeii was pretty amazing. It was hard not to look down and think that those people didn't have much warning. We could see smoke coming from inside the volcano and there was a pretty good path around half of the rim. After an interesting afternoon, we headed back to NSA Naples and checked into the Capo Inn (2000). Went to sleep early so we'll be ready for an early departure in the morning. Let the fun begin!
