Thursday, June 5th.  Up at the crack of dawn to hop on the subway and meet up with our Pompeii tour group at Piazza del Popolo.  Antonella was our tour guide and she was great.  We had about 25 in our group, which was somewhat manageable.  We loaded up in our yellow bus for the 3 hour ride to Pompeii.

We were completely blown away by Pompeii.  In our minds, Pompeii consisted of a few ruins and a bunch of plaster casts of its inhabitants, frozen in their final, horrifying poses.   But it was so much MORE.  It’s an entire city, incredibly preserved.  The main street is a mile long.  We walked its streets, looked in its shops, its houses, its BROTHELS.  It was so much to take in.  Pompeii was built in the 7th or 6th century BC, and when it was buried by the Mt. Vesuvius explosion in AD 79, the ash that fell became an incredible preservative.  It was discovered by a man digging to divert a river in 1599, but an extensive excavation didn’t occur until the 1738.  Gorgeous paintings and elaborate artwork on the walls still impress after 2500 years.  The brothels consisted of individual rooms with stone beds, each with a painted depiction above the door of the particular service performed in that room!  Gracious! We dragged the kids through THAT one pretty fast!

Ellis, our little history buff, was right up in Enrico’s grill the whole time, asking many, many questions, and telling him lots of facts he knew.  Enrico (our guide) kept calling him, “my little assistant.”   Proud!!    This city has been Ellis’ and Loubie’s favorite by far!   However, if I could go back and tell the Pompeiians three things , here they be:   1. Lead pipes are poisonous.  2.  Here’s how to build a sewer.   3. MOVE!!!

 

 

This cast captures the horror this poor victim must have felt during the eruption.  They died instantly from a surge of 482 degree heat, even if they were in buildings.

 

Pompeii had two amphitheaters.  This was the larger of the two, used for theatrical productions.  The smaller was used for music.

An original Pompeii street.  The street was below the sidewalks because the streets doubled as open sewers.  The raised stones were used as a crosswalk!  And they were spaced so that a wagon could straddle the middle stone – the wheel ruts are still visible.

The ancient forum – public square – of Pompeii.

 

 

Stone bed at the brothel.

 

 

The kids giggling about it afterwards!

Pompeii was fed by multiple natural springs – which still flow today.  Cold and clean….

This is one of the lead water pipes used all over the city.   No one told them about lead poisoning…

Partial city view from top of the amphitheater.  The white building in the top left corner sits atop the 30% of Pompeii that is still buried under the modern-day ground level.

Pompeii forum with still-active Mt. Vesuvius looming in the background.

Our guide Enrico said that this is the only dog to have survived the eruption!

2,500 year old artistic detail inside the public bath.

Our guide Enrico showing us Pompeii’s version of McDonald’s, a takeaway restaurant.  The holes in the stone counter hold terra-cotta pots from which food was served.

Pompeii was a sea port; this was a marina building.  The eruption established a new shoreline – Pompeii is now two miles inland.