Today (well really yesterday by now) was a full day!  We hit two volcanoes, one cave, one Roman market, and an amphitheater.  Woah.

We started off at the cave near Lake Avernus, which the Romans thought was the entrance to the underworld.  The cave was originally thought to be the grotto of the Sibyl, until my cave (from a few days ago) was found in 1932.  The entire Bay of Naples is volcanic, mountainous, and full of craters, so it's no wonder the Romans thought this is how you got to their underworld.  We walked down the cave to the "real" entrance to Hades, and our guide supplied us with candles to make it feel more "authentic."  Here are a few shots of me going into the cave:

Outside the entrance to the cave (we nick-named the dog "Cerberus")

Going into the underworld (note the scary faces)

Because of all the volcanic activity in the area, there are lots of thermal baths and steamy potholes throughout the region.  The Phlegrean Fields were thought to be located directly above Hades (the underworld) because of the amount of thermal activity.  We went to a part of the Phlegrean Fields, which was located inside a crater of a volcano and reminded me a ton of Yellowstone Park.  While it's hard to capture on picture, here's an idea of what they looked like:

Because this is a volcano, the space right below the surface of the ground is hollow.  One of the guys grabbed a rock and threw it a few times onto the ground, and we could see (and feel) the ground shake below us!  Apparently we almost ended up in the underworld ourselves.

For the climax of our day, we hiked to the top of Mount Vesuvius, which by the way is an active volcano and is due to explode sometime soon.  It was worth the trek, because the view was astounding.  It's the first time I could see the entire Bay of Naples and understand how the geography related.  It was almost eerie how quiet it was on top.

Ok, off to Herculaneum now for the day!

Us having a mock gladiator fight inside the amphitheater of Pozzuoli... don't we look scary