Seventh stop - Pompeii

Word of the day: sketchy.

After our set of very long train rides from Barcelona, we finally made it to Rome! Our B&B/hotel was surprisingly nice, given how sketchy it was outside: tiny road, graffiti-ed walls, no lights, etc. However, we have had the experience many times so far this trip that you can’t judge a book by its cover, and this was no exception. It was a very nice “home” inside, with a wonderful hostess, Maria, from the Ukraine, who did everything to make our stay as pleasant as possible!

Monday was a great day to take a day trip to Pompeii! Many things are closed in the cities, and it was beautiful weather. We had to make a train connection in Naples, where we found (or he found us!) a suspiciously helpful gentleman trying to get us to our next train. Steven immediately noticed the sketchiness, but I must have been too tired. As he delivered us to our platform, he said we can tip or not, either way, but the fact that he remained standing silent in front of us told us otherwise. He was lucky to get two bathroom’s-worth of payment out of me, even after he ridiculed us for giving him coin, not paper (at least 5 euro)!

When we finally stepped off the train at Pompeii, we couldn’t figure out what sketchy little town in the middle of Italy we had mistakenly gotten off at! After examining signs and seeing the tourist books, we could tell that we were, in fact, in Pompeii, and luckily there was another couple just as lost as we were! We agreed to share a taxi with a sketchy little driver who clearly overcharged us and drove slow to make it seem like a longer ride than it really was. After more headaches than minutes, we made it the amazing (old) city of Pompeii!















Even after being to Rome twice now, I have never seen anything like the ruins of Pompeii! It is truly amazing how a volcanic eruption in 79 AD could almost completely preserve a moment in time, for the world to later discover, study, and marvel at!















We saw mostly all of the highlights that are to be expected…

The body casts and preserved artifacts were very surreal to look at.














































































One thing that blew my mind were the thermopolium, or fast food joints, which kept the food warm in bowls set into the counter. Not only that, but there were 89 of these in the little city! It was like an ancient McDonald’s!! (Or Wendy’s, whatever your preference!)














We went in to many homes, and were always instantly greeted by the impluvium, the small pool that collected rain water through the ceiling.

































Much like the streets and ruins in Greece, Pompeii has live-in dogs, which have apparently been around since the cities earliest existence. Proof of this can be seen in the “cave canem” (beware of dog) mosaic at the house of the tragic poet.
































The large stone crosswalks were very neat, as they were used to keep feet dry while rain water flooded the streets. There were gaps in the stones to allow the passage of wagons, and many of the crosswalks had grooves from the wagon wheels in between the stones.














And, of course, we saw things like the amphitheater, forum, and beautifully maintained frescoes.
























































































































Unfortunately, after six hours of walking along the city streets of the preserved Pompeii, we missed its number one tourist attraction: the brothel! Even though we visited nearly every building that was accessible, we somehow passed by this intriguing piece of history. I hear that it’s fascinating, though! :-)

To me, the most interesting thing about Pompeii was that it was an ENTIRE city that we could walk through like any other, only it was completely preserved, roofless, but preserved. So amazing!

After Pompeii, we had a lovely anniversary dinner back in Rome outside the Colosseum! The food was agreeable, but you couldn’t beat the view!