Rome, Italy Day 4 - Pompeii

2/20/08
Today was our big day in Napoli (Naples) and Pompeii. This has been the piece of our trip I’ve been looking forward to the most. Not only did we get to walk in Pompeii, but we got to see Napoli and some of the amazing artifacts from the great explosion. We had first class tickets on the train from Rome to Naples. It was about a 2 hour ride through the countryside. When we got to Naples we were shocked to see how dirty the city was. Lots of garbage and not a lot had been cleaned very well. We met our docents and headed toward Pompeii. The short van ride gave us a good overview of a lot of the city. Quite modern in parts and very close to the water.

After getting onto the grounds, we got our tickets and were on our way. We really enjoyed the walk around the grounds. We got to see their amphitheatre, the homes, business’s and brothel houses of Pompeii. It was interesting. The mosaics and craftsmanship were outstanding. Not only did they have a system of catching rain water right in their courtyard, but they had ways of draining waste, walkable sidewalks, cobblestone streets and marble floors. Pompeii was huge. Too vast to just walk in one day. We saw only parts of this huge place. Our docent wanted to make sure that we got to see all of the highlights and we sure did. We saw where a palace was and the casts of the bodies they found. They even found a dog that could not get away from the blast because he was tied up by a chain.

After leaving this great historical place, we headed to the downtown part of Naples. We had pizza with our docent at her favorite pizza place. It was really nice to have a traditional napolian meal. Great buffalo mozzerella cheese that Pam and I both loved.
From here we wandered around the dirty city of Naples and ended up at the Museum dedicated to Pompeii. It was great to see some of the artifacts and mosaics that we saw represented in Pompeii. They were so advanced 2000 years ago. Even dentist tools that still look the same as they do today. After this, we said our goodbye’s… promised to come back some day and see everything else, and headed back on our 2 hour train ride.