Rome/Naples/Pompeii, Italy June 23

It has taken me awhile to write this because it took forever to upload all of the pictures! There are close to 80, so I'm going to try to keep the writing in the captions of the photos.

However, getting to Pompeii is something I need to explain because it's the last day of TTSSMOE. If you don't know what that is, visit my post for June 21. We received and e-mail from our tour company telling us to watch out for a specific train. I wrote the train's times down and gave it to the person helping us buy tickets the day before. They explained it was a train we could just hop onto with our euro pass and didn't need a ticket. So, the morning of our trip I looked up the number of the train and saw that it was: Autobus NA21474 (or something like that). I thought it was weird that it said autobus, but we're in a different country so, "Who knows!?!" Our trip to Naples on the train went just fine, but when we got off and tried to look for our Autobus "train" it wasn't very clear. We saw a sign for terminal buses, showed an employee the number I'd written down, and he pointed us in the direction. We followed this long hallway that past several other hallways and eventually ended up outside. I went ahead and figured that the Autobus was actually a bus, but still wasn't sure. It was so frustrating because there was no one official-looking to ask for help, plus we only had 10 minutes to find the right mode of transportation! So, we went to the loading area for the buses, I asked one driver and he pretty much told me he didn't know by flailing his arms at me. We started to walk away from the loading area and I could feel the tears coming because it was happening again! Not knowing what to do or who to ask and on top of it, we were on a time crunch to get on our way and meet our tour guide by 11:30am.  I saw two men that were wearing the same shirt and figured I'd give it another go and ask them. The first guy I asked didn't know, but his co-worker took my paper with the information and pointed to the bus all the way at the end of the loading area. He pretty much said it would be that bu or the next one. So, we went down and the driver looked at my paper very briefly and waved for us to get on the bus.

As we left the station, I had a funny, uneasy feeling that it just wasn't right. More and more people kept getting on the bus to the point that there were no more seats and at least 15 people were left standing. And it wasn't like the metro where standing is a normal thing and they have bars for you to hold onto. Anyways, we began making our way into and through the city. People talk about going to foreign countries and being on crazy taxi rides, well this was one of those, but on a giant bus. This driver was on and off his cell phone and the two way streets were the size of one of our one car lanes. He honked his way through the city making people move and back up. At one point there was an ambulance trying to get by us but because there was a line of traffic going the opposite way, we had to keep moving forward. I could quickly see that we would be late, so I e-mailed the tour company, told them what was going on and that I wasn't sure if I was on the right train/bus.

To make this already long story short, we were on the wrong mode of transportation and got taken to the other side of Pompeii and arrive at this spot 30 minutes after our tour was supposed to have started. It was frustrating because I feel the tour company should have let us know the train they were talking about wasn't with Trenitalia (the most popular train company), it was with a different route that isn't even covered by our EuroPass. When Craig and I finally got off the bus and realized we needed to get to a different location, I immediately wanted to take a taxi which would take us less than 5 minutes and cost 10 Euro, while walking would take 15-20 of a walk and be free. I'm sure Craig's parents can guess what he wanted to do. However, I was pretty adamant about taking the taxi because we were already late. Craig was not happy, but I figured we'd be miserable either way. So, maybe getting to Pompeii quicker would help us shift our moods.

 

So, this picture means we made it! This is the very beginning.

Our guide explained that the Pompeii we look at today is actually built on top of another civilization that was buried under another explosion's debris. (I may have screwed that explanation up a bit.) This picture shows that by seeing the structures on the bottom, and then the blob of lava rock towards the right, and then more structures on top of that.

The front part of the "park" is beautiful and well shaded, while the rest of the ruins are all sunny. Our guide (Elisa) explained that this area we were in used to be the sea before the eruption.

This is kind of like a common area outside of the theatre where food and such would be sold for performances.

Different dressing rooms and such for actors/performers/gladiators.

Another view of this area.

This is our guide, Elisa. While her and I were talking the mayor of Pompeii walked by us as well as some people filming us. Maybe I will be on Italian TV?

This is the inside of one of the theaters. Elisa explained that the upper class got to sit the closest, and then the middle class and women sat in the last rows. She explained that one of the rulers agreed to let the women watch, but only if they sat in the back because women would obviously talk a lot.

The stands/seats are made of lava rock while....

The stage is made of pieces of marble.

Elisa said they did this because it helps the sound project. And she was so right! She had us stand in this spot and even just talking with our regular voices you could hear that it was loader. It was pretty cool.

View of the roads and structures along them.

You can even seen the wheel tracks!

This was an elevated crosswalk that kept pedestrians from walking in the street's sewage water.

Elisa demonstrating.

You would see these holes along the sides of the roads. They were meant for people to tied down their carriages.

This is a shop that probably sold food. These were stoves that would heat terracotta pots.

Example of their stone walls.

I thought this decorative element was cool.

The outside of an upper-class home. See the rectangle with writing on the right of the doorway?

This is the name of the family that owns the home. It's the original paint!

This is the inside of a different upper-class home. This is a religious altar right by the front doorway.

All of the paint on the walls is original. It has only been brushed, no wiping with water or anything.

This is the foyer after you enter the front door. The couple is standing where the front door is. There is an opening in the roof above that lets light and rainwater in. The rainwater would be drained and used for cleaning or watering the garden.

Column inside the home

Interior wall paintings. I thought it was interesting to see these because it's so many years ago, but they wanted to cover their walls with art, too.

Interior Wall Art.

Interior Wall Art.

Interior Wall Art.

Interior Wall Art.

Interior Wall Art.

Garden in the middle of the home.

Another view of the garden. They also had the original specie of plants growing because when they did their research, they were able to identify which specie it was.

Mosaic floors of the family's sauna room.

Family's sauna room.

Family religious altar towards the back of the house.

This was towards the back of the house/garden. It was said to be a writer (name starts with an "M") that the owner of the house liked. I thought it would be the equivalent of a person wanting a band poster on their wall.

Remember when I said Pompeii was built on top of another town that had been destroyed by a volcanic eruption? Well, these were actual human remains they were able to dig up from below this home. They were preserved because of those layers.

Another wall art close up.

Another view of us and the walls.

A bakery and it's oven in the back.

A water fountain. The spout is new of course, but everything else is original.

Another view of the structures and streets.

These marble blocks were put out in front of all public buildings to let people know they were public spaces.

This was a gymnasium for men to play sports. The area straight ahead was a latrine. She told us how they eventually learned they could sell their own urine as a cleaning product. Eventually, the government put a tax on the urine because it was becoming such a popular thing for people to sell.

This is another view of the gymnasium. I was still a little confused on the whole cleaning with urine part. I've heard it's sterile, but cleaning with it? Apparently, Elisa said, it has ammonia in it so it does indeed clean things. To deal with the smell, they would burn plants and the smoke and fumes would mask the urine smell. This is where the word perfume comes from. "Per/For Fume" When I asked her about the whole urine cleaning thing she kept saying "It is perfect! It is perfect!" Still confused.

This is a women's locker room that leads into the public baths. She explained that to preserve women's fertility, they were not allowed to do the cool baths. Only tepid and warm.

The lockers for their belongings.

Some ancient graffiti right here!

Another view of the women's locker room.

The ceiling of the Men's locker room. Much more elaborate than the women's!

More decor in the Men's area.

This is what we usually see in the books when we read about Pompeii. I didn't realized this part though. These aren't vitrified human bodies. They are plaster casts of the cavities that were left after the bodies broke down. The ash surrounding the bodies would crumble if touched, but plaster could be poured through the tunnels and cavities to show the forms.

It actually picked up a lot of detail. You could see the folds and outlines of their clothing.

Also, on the inside of the plaster is the skeletons which didn't disintegrate.

More detail.

The men's sauna. This was a platform built recently, but helps show how the floor below them was hollow which is how they heated the rooms.

This is leading to one of the more interesting parts of the tour: the brothels.

This was a private brothel, just one room right off the street. She explained it was private, more expensive, and the men weren't required to wear protection like in the public brothel. This is the bed and stone made from a pillow. Elisa said they had some type of cushion to go over it.

This is the outside of the brothel, and the aperture above the window is supposed to be the obvious giveaway for the brothel, without actually putting out a sign.

Elisa laughed while pointing out the deep grooves from the carriages in front of the brothel because it was obviously a high traffic area.

The front of the public brothel.

One of the rooms.

Elisa explained that this was graffiti on the wall claiming that the woman who worked in this room had an STD.

Another room. Those stone pillows crack me up.

After we had left the brothel and been walking for awhile and looking at other things, Elisa pointed this out and directions for sailors to know where the brothel is.

A closer look in case you couldn't see it from the last one. Yes. That's a penis.

Us in Pompeii's square with Mt. Vesuvius behind us.

Columns in the square

Another thing that was interesting is that the volcano that destroyed Pompeii actually wasn't Mt. Vesuvius. It was the mount right next to it. It started with an "M" and I tried finding the name of it, but it's so widely accepted that it's Mt. Vesuvius, because it's the bigger one.

Elisa told us at one point these two Mounts were actually one giant volcano. I can't even imagine because they were already so huge.

More columns in the square.

These were cool reflective rocks (the white ones) that Elisa said they used at night to be able to see the road.

The view while leaving the ruins.

Looking back on what we were leaving.

Elisa helped us get back on the correct, quick train back to Naples. We were also able to switch out our ticket from Naples to Rome for an hour earlier. When we got home, I showered and went straight to bed at 7:30pm, and didn't wake up until 8:30 the next morning. I slept through dinner! I woke up at some point in the night and felt hungry, but remember thinking, "I'm more tired than hungry." So I kept sleeping. It was much needed.