Glassblower Extraordinaire: Ashes ashes we all fall down...

If you can’t laugh at the title than we cannot be friends. Because that shit is funny.

So the number one thing that I had missed on my previous trips to Napoli was Mt. Vesuvius. Seeing the volcanic crater was on my to do list. However my friends had yet to visit Pompeii so we made a big adventure of tackling both. Our day began with Pompeii, and I truly remember enjoying it much more than I thought I would the first time I experienced it. It is such a large ruin to cover- there was still a lot that I had not seen when I toured previously.

Pompeii was more than just a bunch of hot rocks in an open field, which is honestly how I feel about most ancient ruins. Once you’ve seen one hot old piece of stone that has been sitting in the sun for a bajillion years you’ve basically seen them all. But when there are skeletal remains, beautiful pottery, and impressive evidence of such an advanced civilization like plumbing, restaurants and clearly marked brothels by a penis shaped stone there’s a lot to soak in.

This is a restaurant. Pots of food would be heated over these openings.

I found this cool “whatever it is” and decided to put my own spin on it at the Hot Glass Show. Honestly it was one of my favorite pieces from the whole contract. Almost took it home but someone accidentally broke it. I found some gold murrine circles that had already been made and were perfect for the piece. And when you have access to a lion stamp tool this recreation is a must.

So that was fun and all but after walking in the sun for hours amongst more interesting hot rocks you work up an appetite so we sat down for some incredible pizza just outside of Pompeii and sweetened our taste buds with gelato before moving on.

Biggest lemons you've ever seen. We're still talking about the fruit people.

Remember when I mentioned this day was going to be an adventure? I made the crew meet at 8am to leave to ship because we needed all the time in the world. A long walk to the train station, a long train ride to Pompeii, walk to the ruins, a transfer bus to Mt. Vesuvius, a 30 min drive in a giant off road vehicle up the mountain and then a 15 minute walk to the top…now reverse that for the ride home. So we bought our tickets for the transportation to Mt. Vesuvius and make a 15 minute uphill walk to see inside the crater. The view from the mountain was gorgeous. Actually that day a storm was brewing out in the distance and it was really cool to see the dark clouds and rain from above and be thankful that it wasn’t on us. My crunchy-hippie-spidey senses could tell there would be a rainbow to follow and they were right!