Day 41&42 Rest and Ruins

Day 41-  Not much to say here!  We did school work (we always do at least 2 hours a day)  we caught up on laundry, we walked into Sorrento and had lunch.  we did walk down to the water front in Sorrento.  We saw ferries, fishermen, and ferral cats.  Reid was obsessed with fishing, but it was too late in the season to rent gear.  A lot of the restaurants and shops were closed for the season, but there were ferries still running.  We had a nice lunch in town and then headed home for an evening of cards, dinner, and an early bedtime.

 

Day 42- Off to Pompeii

I hesitated combining Pompeii with any other post, because there is a lot to talk about on this one.  Ever since I was a little girl, I have been obsessed with Pompeii!  I have read books, read articles, watched T.V. shows and documentaries about it through the years.  I just couldn’t wrap my mind around the idea of a town being burried in ash by a volcano in 79 A.D.  Oh and the fact that they made plaster casts of the people, so that you could even see the expression on their faces as they died…it was the most incredible thing I had ever heard of!  If you have been to Pompeii, you might want to skip this post, because I have a lot to say about it!

We rode the train to Pompeii, and got off at the stop where the ruins are.  Even then, I wasn’t expecting too much…a few ruins…a few plaster cast people…not a whole lot to see, but still really cool.  When you enter Pompeii, there is a set of ruins right by where you buy tickets and enter.  It was so cool to see these buildings and a bridge.  I thought that was it, and I was still really excited! And also to see Mt. Vesuvius looming over head was surreal, there was even a little whisp of clouds by the peak, that looked a little bit like smoke…it just added to the experience!

As it turns out, those ruins were just the tip of the iceberg!  Pompeii is a full fledged city…I mean I knew that…but I didn’t realize it…does that make sense?  Pompeii was huge!  There were buildings everywhere!  You needed a map to navigate through the town…there were houses, restaurants, markets, temples, theatres, arenas, and even brothels.  They even have crosswalks!!  You can see the tracks in the streets from where the chariots drove over and over.  It was like you were transported in time!!!!

I need to take a moment to talk about the plaster cast people.  One might think that to see a person frozen in time would be creepy, but it really was not to me.  These people really put a face on the experience, it made it easy to connect with the human aspect of this disaster.  You can see what the people were wearing, even down to their shoes.  And yes you could see the expressions, but it made you sympathetic not creeped out.  They even have a few casts of the animals from the town, and that really made a huge impression on me…to think it affected every living thing in Pompeii…not just people.  Powerful stuff.

The whole time we were there, I kept thinking…I could have totally lived in Pompeii.  What most people don’t know is that Pompeii was a city for 600 years before it was taken down by Mt. Vesuvius (which by the way looms over the town to this day!).  People in Pompeii had it pretty good!  They had plumbing, entertainment, “spas” or baths where you could take a warm or cold bath, markets, restaurants, water fountains you could drink from, and beautiful houses with decorations and mosaics.  This was Rome at it’s best!

I know I am going on and on about this place…but really it deserves it!  When you think, this place existed almost 2000 years ago, and I have been to places that are not as nice or as well planned even today!

Pompeii did not disappoint!  It was a long day walking all around this city, and then catching the train back home…but it was worth it!!  All I can say is that I have dreamed about going to Pompeii my whole life…and it felt like a dream to be there!!!