Pompei

    

Napoli sits in the shadow of Mount Vesivus, which is famous for destroying the city of Pompei in 79AD. Thankfully, the volcanic ash presevered the city almost perfectly, which means that we can see a 2,000 year old Roman City today. I got to do this a few weeks ago, and it was very interesting.
     I want to emphasize that Pompei is a CITY. It is absolutely huge, so when you go, make sure you are wearing comfortable shoes and clothes and have plenty of water.  Don't bring anyone who would have trouble walking on paving stones, up very steep hills, or who can't climb stairs because there is a lot of that in Pompei.
     There are a lot of things to see in Pompei, all of which are spread out in different areas of the city. It is absolutely essential to grab a map at the very least before coming into the ruins. There are quite a few tour guides that you can grab right before you come in, who speak a variety of languages, and it definitely enhances the experience quite a bit. We grabbed a guide about halfway through and we got to see some of the best parts of the ruins, some of which were in areas closed off to the public.

     One thing we found entertaining about Pompei is that there are penises absolutely everywhere. They apparently had a very famous lupanare (brothel) in the city (which you can still go into and see the beds, and some very naughty old frescoes). There are road and street signs literally shaped like penises all over the place. The guide also said that this had something to do with the Roman god Priapus, which the citizens of Pompei held in high regard. This made us chuckle a bit, it is hard to imagine advertisments in modern time for escort services like this. Gotta love the Romans.

     We were lucky enough to be able to see some new casted remains from a newly excavated area. Our guide took us through a closed gate and up near the remains. I took some photos to share with you, however, keep in mind that they could be considered very disturbing. These individuals died in a horrible way.

Our guide was nice enough to point out that the roof caved in on one of the guys and decapitated him. Thanks, Giovanni, for the nightmares.

Pompei is full of ruins of people's homes, shops, inns, bathouses, temples and other areas of interest. I particularly enjoyed the temples and the ampitheatre. Our guide, who had worked at Pompei for 39 years, told us that Pink Floyd played a private show in the ampitheatre just to use the natural acoustics, and Frank Sinatra played his final concert there as well. It reminds me a great deal of Redrocks in Colorado (except for the fact that the ampitheatre in Pompeii is manmade)

It's very easy to get lost (again, it's a CITY.) Thankfully, I had friends with me who could countermand my terrible sense of direction.

It was worth the trip, definitely, but I don't know that I will go again for awhile. It was hot and there were a lot of people.