Day 10

Yesterday was our day in Pompeii.  Pompeii was a larger Roman city near mount Varsuvius which unknown to the inhabitants of the time was a rather large volcano.  It decided to blow and the city was buried by the thrown material from the blast.  In addition the ash mixed with rain managed to effectively cement over the city including the inhabitants which helped preserve the city and even turn some of the inhabitants into effectively stone statues.  After a few hundred years of excavating people now have the opportunity to explore about the best representation of Roman city life today.

So how was Pompeii?  Nothing short of amazing!  We saw an area gladiators received their training in.  We saw a wonderful theatre with much of the original marble steps still intact with seat numbers inscribed.  We even saw what were takeaway food shops with marble counters complete with ceramic vessels food would be kept warm or cold in.  The chance to walk down the roads of this city truly showed the sophistication of the Roman Empire.  The plumbing, construction of homes complete with central rain water collection basins, steam rooms and even stone blocks for pedestrians to cross the road without getting their feet wet when roads were being cleaned with flowing water.  Absolutely amazing!  

Pompeii was a port city but after the eruption the coastline was extended a great distance past it.  As a port city though Pompeii was frequented by foreign travellers and to avoid language barriers they used pictures to guide visitors selecting certain services.  The representation of this shown to us was at one of the many brothels the city has.  Painted as frescos the images above each bedchamber vividly showed what service each prostitute was skilled in.   Before going in our tour guide had described this “menu” with the analog of a McDonalds menu with all the options here being “happy meals”.  A short while after leaving the tour guide pointed out a phallice carved into the road pointing directly to this “red light district”.  Some random guy passed by and suggested it was good luck to step on the balls.  We didn’t.

We got back to the campsite later and the people sharing the chalet with us had prepared dinner.  We feasted on mashed potatoes, sausages and caeser salad.  Tracey stated it was the best dinner we had had so far in Italy and I agree.  So far the pizza has not lived up to my expectations or standards of home but I’m holding out hope.  The campsite had pool open until 11pm so I checked it out while Tracey showered.  It was rather shallow but for not being a heated pool the water was fantastic even at 9:30pm!  Having more recently swam at two beaches I rather enjoyed the break from intense saltwater.  Tomorrow we see the Vatican City and will likely explore the Collosseum.