Friday was the big day south. The driver met the group at 7:00 a.m., and the ride out of Rome included what Colin accurately named Italian Buc-ee’s: a highway stop with the worst cappuccino of the trip and a pastry that did its best.

The Amalfi Coast was beautiful, but Positano was also crowded, chaotic, and hard to navigate. Traffic was bad, the driver had to change plans because of an emergency near the usual parking area, cell coverage was weak, and the group split up almost immediately. The girls enjoyed the shopping and photos, Richard spent part of the stop hunting for a restroom and trying to reconnect, and lunch was forgettable. It was gorgeous. It was also enough.

Pompeii was brutally hot and the guide was weak, but the site itself carried the afternoon: the forum, shopfronts, thermopolia, rich-house floors and frescoes, the fish market, and the plaster casts that make the eruption feel suddenly personal. Back in Rome, showers and another Bottega Tredici dinner were not just nice; they were necessary.