As elsewhere the ship docked at a container port - on the dockside were artistic piles of aluminium railway sleepers. We were on bus 4 for the Herculaneum tour, the stickers are not very adhesive and a fellow guest lost theirs almost immediately. The guide Monika, who spoke English like Chico Marx pretending to be Italian, had a marvellous umbrella with cats dressed as Tudor kings and queens. Umbrellas and raincoats were advised today, and we got a little soaked walking back from Herculaneum to the coach, but I failed to persuade Ginny to take a waterproof.

Herculaneum itself was tragic, a monument to a tragedy. Smaller than Pompeii, originally by the sea and at the ancient dockside were casts of the skeletons of victims caught while waiting for boats to rescue them. Wooden beams carbonised by the heat, mosaics still visible, wine shops and cooking pots, home decorations, a temple of emperor worship.