Cruising into the Bay of Naples is a memorable experience. The Naples port is overlooked by the imposing Sant’ Elmo medieval castle, high up on Vemero Hill, as well as the 13th century Castel Nuovo, which is right next to our cruise terminal in the heart of the city.

It was a case of a “ship” down memory lane this morning when we berthed right next to Voyager of the Seas. Julie once had a surprise “notable” birthday on board Voyager a few years ago and was surprised by 20 family and friends who turned up for the event. (And a Caribbean cruise).

Norwegian Jade had also followed us to Naples and was securely tied to the quay on the other side of Voyager. Today is our 30th wedding anniversary and we celebrated by taking a tour to Sorrento in the morning and then a trip to Pompeii in the afternoon. Sorrento is a great little seaside town which buzzes with activity and is full of shops, bars and lovely little restaurants.

We had a great Italian lunch, with wine of course.

Then in the afternoon we visited the ancient city of Pompeii. It really is enormous and the archaeologists have only exposed about 20% of it so there is much more to come later. We spent a full two hours with a very informative guide before returning to the ship.

As I write this we are drinking champagne and watching the sun go down as all three ships sail off to their next ports of call. After the last three days where we have visited a new port everyday, we now have a day at sea and then it’s Dubrovnik on Thursday.