The Ruins at Pompeii

Once again, I guess I should have been paying more attention in European History class. I remember the word Mt. Vesuvius but I don't remember it being a volcanoe that buried the ancient city of Pompeii with lava and ash in 79 AD. Peg and I walked through the ruins today and were surprised to find that it was an entire city that was preserved by the lava. We thought we would walk in a simple circle and see everything....wrong! The ruins really make up and entire city of theatres, markets, temples, homes, and other public areas. It seemed like it was at least a mile long and almost a mile wide. The most awesome sight was the forum where we walked into the arena just as gladiators once did to fight wild animals (and each other). You could see the corridors where the wild animals were kept just inside the arena walls. I found the temples to be just as awesome with many roman pillars still standing today. We were able to tell where the people lived in their homes and how some homes were nicer than others. The kitchen areas had either generic stone counters or counters faced with marble. Perhaps the most surprising to me was the distance of Pompeii from the top of Vesuvius, it seemed like 10 miles away so the thought of lava coming down and covering the city (and even preserving bodies) was wonderous. I later learned that the city was actualy covered / burried with ash as well. The idea of ash
travelling far is more believable than lava. During the uncovering of the city the workers found many pots and other decorative roman figures. All of the items found are on display, you just cannot touch any of them as they are locked behind bars. If we do this again, I think we will pay the extra $10 Euro to have a walking tour guide. These guides take 10 people at a time. If you want your own private guide, it is $100 Euro. We passed many of the guided tours and found that if you have lots of time, the guided tours are very informative and add meaning to the scenes in front of you.

After the tour of the city of Pompeii, we headed back to the ship for some relaxation and swimming (once again very hot today, high 80's). We heard that there is a huge soccer game in Rome tomorrow and thousands of people are arriving....even without tickets from Spain. Our taxi driver told us people are even flying into Naples and hiring taxis to drive them to rome (2.5 hours) for the game because flights to Roma are sold out. We are told that Rome is actually completely crazy on a normal day....I am not sure we are quite ready for what a major soccer competition does to the normality of the city (if there is such a thing). We have heard they are stopping the sale of liqour early today because of all the fights that break out between the fans at the events. Tomorrow should be real interesting.