Pompeii, Italy
We had to be in Naples by 8:00 pm to get on our train. We stopped in Pompeii after we had spent a couple hours in Sorrento. We walked around in the heat of the day from about 2:00-6:00. By the end we were hot and dirty. It is an amazing spectacle to see basically an entire city as it was over 2000 years ago. Above you see the Forum area.
These columns (red and white as you can see from the top picture) were at the front of the "building of Eumachia." Just what exactly the building was used for, unlike many other buildings, is not entirely known. It was thought to have some important economic use.
This is the famous cast of a victim of the exhalations of the eruption. He was probably trying to cover his nose in an attempt to be able to breathe when he was buried in ash. Around him is some of the collection of various artifacts from the site.
They had many of these stepping stones to allow people to cross the streets when it rained. Apparently the streets would be a muddy, impassable mess during those times. Here I bravely attempt to duplicate how an ancient Pompeian might have crossed during such a time.
The guilty culprit: Mt. Vesuvius looms.
How do you beat the heat when there is little shade to be found? Create your own. I found this straw hat sitting around and once it was donned, I turned instantly into an adventurous explorer.
Some of the houses have been excavated and opened for visitor to see. Here is House of Octavius Quartio or of Loreius Tiburtinus (say ten times fast). It was one of the more elaborate ones we saw that included some still-visible wall paintings and this T-shaped canal (I'm standing over the top part of the T)..
This is Pompeii's amphitheater, built in 80 BC. It is the earliest known amphitheater, so the book says. The first stone amphitheater in Rome was built in in 29 BC.
This is an area of tombs just outside the city. It was also near a larger area that was used for exercise and sports practice.
After Pompeii, we got on an overnight train from Naples to Milan. We then flew home from Milan.