A decade ago, in 2005, I was in Venice for my sixtieth birthday.  It was a very pleasant evening involving an excellent restaurant and an operatic recital to follow.  This trip we'd be in Italy a bit earlier as I'd intended to spend my next significant birthday in Berlin.

The trip started out as planned.  A week in London then a flight to Sicily for a few days followed by the overnight boat to Napoli (Naples).  I particularly wanted to visit Pompeii because way back in 1975 my original attempt to see it was thwarted by a series of mishaps, that to avoid distracting from the present tale I won't go into.

But the result was to 'bookmark' Pompeii as a place I had missed seeing and I wanted to get it out of my system. 

Pompeii - the one that got away

Wendy on the other hand was an old hand at Pompeii visiting and was dismissive.  She contended that it was not extraordinary and that we have been to more interesting places like Machu Picchu or even Rome. 

After Naples we'd take the train to Firenze (Florence) which would be a base for day trips to nearby towns and then go back south to Perugia for a couple of days as a secondary base in Umbria.  But things didn't quite turn out as planned.