A year ago today I was in Pompeii

The biggest lemons I have ever seen! 
Found in Pompeii, and we thought Limoncello anyone?

We left Assisi for a long drive to Pompeii, if I remember correctly it is about a 5 hour drive but we had a few stops on the way at Autogrills and rest stop stations.  We were pretty excited when we finally got to Pompeii.  Pompeii is a very interesting place to visit because it is such a well preserved Roman city. 

Pompeii was buried when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD.  The city was both destroyed and preserved by Mount Vesuvius at the same time.  Some scientists believe the eruption buried the town in 15 to 20 feet of ash and pumice.  It was buried for over 1700 years and then was accidentally rediscovered.  It has been partially excavated and only a third of it is open to the public. 

When the volcano erupted and buried the town the people and the animals left behind perished.  It is thought that they died from either heat or ash suffocation.   During excavation work they have found buildings, public baths, shops, a brothel, homes, and fresco wall paintings. 

They also discovered a cast of a dog and human remains.  When the humans decomposed they left spaces in the rock.  The people excavating realized that if they filled the space with plaster they could recreate the forms of the last victims burried by Vesuvius.  By looking at these forms made from plaster they could see how the doomed were trying to brace themselves for the inevitable, this captured their last moment of life.  We were so grateful to have a tour guide in Pompeii because we saw all the highlights and learned a lot without trying too hard.  If we had been there alone without a tour guide it would have taken us forever just to figure out what we should see and what we were looking at.  

Dog



This made me feel very sad, I can't imagine the fear.



 

Mount Vesuvius in the background

 




Roman Road and Crosswalk

  



Dad, Me, Mom and my younger Brother

After touring Pompeii we drove through Naples.  Naples looked like a dump, literally!  The waste management employees were on strike so trash had been building up for a week or more, and then there was graffiti everywhere.  It looked like a pretty rough place but we were only passing through so it wasn’t a big deal.   We took a Jetfoil from Naples to the beautiful island of Capri.

I remember thinking it was nice and relaxing to ride on the Jetfoil to Capri.  Once we got to Capri we had to take a Funicular to the Capri village where our hotel was.  The minute we got off the Funicular in Capri Village I felt poor.  To my left was Gucci, then Armani and Prada, everywhere I looked was some big expensive brand.  It was a beautiful place but it felt too much like Beverly Hills to me.  But it was still a beautiful place once I could look past the designers and the commercialism of it all.  The views were breathtaking especially the sunsets.  In Capri we stayed in another 4 or 5 star hotel, it was lovely!

Capri, Italy