October General Conference in Naples

General Conference in Italy begins on Saturday night at 6:00PM, the time delay leaves all day Saturday and all day Sunday open.  This year General Conference was also followed by a Federal Holiday, Columbus Day.  We were scheduled to attend a senior couple Military Relations conference in Naples, Italy knowing we could see the Naples area and still be able to see General Conference without missing any Sunday activities on Sigonella.  Seemed like a perfect opportunity to explore Naples and share conferences with the Burns!

First on the list was to see Pompeii. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area, was buried under 13 to 20 ft. of ash and pumice in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in AD 79. Many of the inhabitants were also buried before they could escape.

The artifacts preserved provide an extraordinarily detailed insight into the life of the city. During excavations liquid plaster was used to fill the voids in the ash that once held human and animal bodies giving often-gruesome images of their last moments.

Many frescos and mosaics have been preserved that provide information of the everyday life in Pompeii.

At the time of the eruption, the town may have had some 11,000 inhabitants, and was located in an area where Romans had holiday villas. William Abbott explains, "At the time of the eruption, Pompeii had reached its high point in society as many Romans frequently visited Pompeii on vacations." 

The city of Naples as well as our tour of the Military facilities in Naples was great information to inspire new directions and ideas for Sigonella.

We visited The Veiled Christ by Giuseppe Sanmartino, 1753 in the old town of Naples.  It is preserved in a family mausoleum in The Sansevero Chapel. The remarkable tissue-like quality of the marble is one of the most impressive monuments in Italy.

The every famous Napoli Pizza that we hear about from all the missionaries who transfer from Napoli to Catania did not disappoint.  Sorbillo did not disappoint!

During the Battle of Monte Cassino in the Italian Campaign of World War II (January–May 1944) the Abbey was heavily damaged. The German military forces had established the 161-kilometre (100-mile) Gustav Line, in order to prevent Allied troops from advancing northwards. The abbey itself however, was not initially utilized by the German troops as part of their fortifications, owing to General Kesselring's regard for the historical monument. The Gustav Line stretched from the Tyrrhenian to the Adriatic coast in the east, with Monte Cassino itself overlooking Highway 6 and blocking the path to Rome. On 15 February 1944 the abbey was almost completely destroyed in a series of heavy American-led air raids. The Commander-in-Chief Allied Armies in Italy, General Sir Harold Alexander of the British army ordered the bombing. The bombing was conducted because many reports from the British commanders of the Indian troops on the ground suggested that Germans were occupying the monastery, and it was considered a key observational post by all those who were fighting in the field.  However, during the bombing no Germans were present in the abbey. Subsequent investigations have since confirmed that the only people killed in the monastery by the bombing were 230 Italian civilians seeking refuge there.

MWR provided us with a great boat trip down the Amalfi Coast.  The bright colors of the villages surrounding their cathedral and the beautiful water make the north coast of Italy a geographic wonder not to be missed!