Pompeii

An Ancient Roman City 

Day 33: April 26th, 2014: Pompeii!

Today we went to Pompeii! Since we aren't the ones planning the trip we got surprised by the plans for the day. It was about a 45 minute drive to Pompeii, and then another 30 minute wait to get tickets and such to get in, but once we were in the city it was amazing. We loved the fact that the entire town was so well preserved. Everything was still there and had not been changed for almost 2000 years. I guess that is what you get when the town is covered in up to 23 feet of ash and pumice from Vesuvius's little explosion. It was amazing to walk down a hill and then back up into the city and think that at one point the houses and baths that were situated on the hill had an unobstructed ocean view. Now they are looking at a hill made by the ash of the eruption that buried the city and raised the ground level and pushed the beach way back from where it used to be.

Their art and technology was astounding for the time!!

We wandered around and took many pictures. Here are some of the noteworthy ones:

 The entrance to the city!

 Beautiful Mosaic Floor

 Apollo's Temple

 A pregnant woman

 Lunch time! The family supplied us with sandwiches and pizza from the bakery!

 They had running water over 2000 years ago. Amazing!

 More Mosaic floors! They were everywhere! 

 A Temple

 The main square

 Filomena, Anna, Antonio 

 Inside of the warm room in the Roman Baths

 Roman Snack Bar :) It really was.... for hot and cold food!

 "Beware of the Dog" in Latin "Cave Carnem"

 A Bakery... They found a fully harnessed Donkey. His job must have been to turn the mill.

 The cross walk :)

After we had been there for 4 or 5 hours, everybody was getting tired. Jeff wanted to go and see  the rest of the city, seeing that we had only seen about 1/4 of it, but the desires of the pregnant lady won out, and in good time it turned out. As we were leaving the gate to the city it started to rain, and as we approached the parking lot it turned into a torrential downpour. Thankfully there was some cover where we were, but if we had still been in the city we would have been hosed. No buildings have roofs due to the previously mentioned explosion so we would have been caught out in the rain. Instead we had to battle the newly formed rivers as we tried to get in the car and then traverse the roads out of Napoli. We eventually made it out and back to Formicola. Amber said she needed some rest so we both laid down and Jeff proceeded to fall asleep while Amber was kept awake by her aching pregnant body and either allergies or a cold. We're not sure which.

After the naps and resting, Anna ordered some pizza from a local restaurant and Carlo and Francesca came over and ate it with us. It was good, thin crusted, clay oven baked pizza. It was so good, especially the one with French Fries on it.