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| Picture by Kolohe |
Naples, Italy, is about 230 km (143 miles) south of Rome, so we had planned to stay in Naples one night and visit Pompeii the next day. However, after checking the train schedules, we discovered that on a high-speed train, Naples was only 69 minutes from Rome. We reasoned that if we stayed in our Rome hotel for an extra night, we would not have to drag our bags with us and then find a hotel room in Naples. This turned out to be a great decision.
At the Rome train station, we found that elevators use negative numbers to reach train platforms that are sometimes two stories beneath street level.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
In Naples, we had to connect to a local commuter train in order to reach Pompeii. Although Pompeii was only 27 km (17 miles) away, the bad thing is that the journey required about 25 minutes. The good thing is that the train stopped right at the Pompeii front entrance gate.
Before leaving home, we had made a reservation to have an archaeologist give us a personal tour of the Pompeii ruins; however, when we were in Rome, our tour of St Peter's was rescheduled to a different day due to a special event in the Basilica. When we tried to reschedule our tour of Pompeii, our archaeologist did not have any other openings in his schedule. We attempted to find another personal guide, but all of the recommended guides were taken. We really did not want to go with a guide that we had not researched, so we decided just to go to Pompeii and do the self-guided tour with listening devices that were available to rent.
As we were in the entrance gate line to get our tickets, one of the Pompeii employees announced that he was going to do a tour of the ruins in English, and he still had openings if anyone wanted to join his tour. We immediately signed up. He turned out to be a really great guide, and people who had personal guides thought we got the better deal. It was really hot and humid, so we were glad that our tour was only two hours long. People on the four-hour half-day tours with private guides were really suffering by the end of their tour. After our guided tour, we spent another two hours enjoying the ruins at our own pace, and in the shade when possible. We also found a concession stand that was not on the main route, where we could get cold drinks.
In 79 AD, Pompeii was a wealthy town of about 11,500 residents and had many public buildings and luxurious private houses with lavish decorations, furnishings, and artworks. When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, Pompeii was covered with 4-to-6 m (13-to-20 ft) of volcanic ash and pumice. Most of the residents had left Pompeii, but there were still about 1,500 people who remained in town. Wooden objects and the people that were left in town, were covered with ash after the eruption. The organic materials eventually decayed, leaving cavities of their shapes in the hardened ash. Archaeologists have used the vacant cavities as molds and filled the spaces with plaster to make three-dimensional casts of what the objects and people looked like at the time of the eruption. Some of the molds and casts were on display at various places in the ruins. Stories about the people who formed the molds were really fascinating.
Pompeii is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and "the only archaeological site in the world that provides a complete picture of an ancient Roman city." It is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Italy, with about 2.5 million visitors annually. Unfortunately, during World War II, Allied forces inadvertently dropped 165 bombs on Pompeii, causing extensive damage to the site and structures. The bombing was described as one of the most "tragic episodes" in modern history.
Most tours start at the entrance gate and then follow a walkway that goes up through a tunnel to the Forum of Pompeii. When standing in the Forum facing the Temple of Jupiter, with Mount Vesuvius in the background, the Basilica entrance is on the left and the Macellum of Pompeii entrance is on the right. Most tours just stay in the Forum and ruins in that general area.
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| Forum of Pompeii |
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| Mount Vesuvius and the Temple of Jupiter (Picture by Kolohe) |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Basilica of Pompeii |
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| Macellum of Pompeii |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
The Macellum was a market where merchants had individual spaces that they used to sell all types of produce, fish, meat, and other comestibles.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
A number of preserved wall paintings and various plaster casts of people in the positions they were in when they died were also on display.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
After exploring the Forum, we wandered around the various ruins on some narrow, rough cobblestone streets. After years of use, chariot tracks could be seen on some of the stones.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
Some of the wealthy residents of Pompeii had large houses with elaborate furnishings and gardens that were interesting to visit.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| This was a buffet line. (Picture by Kolohe) |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
The Amphitheatre of Pompeii was built in about 70 BC and is one of the oldest surviving Roman amphitheatres in Italy. It is 135 m (443 ft) long and 104 m (341 ft) wide and designed to host 20,000 people. The arena is 6 m (20 ft) below ground level.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
On October 4-7, 1971, "A Stunning Audio-Visual Experience," directed by Adrian Maben with the English rock band Pink Floyd, filmed a live concert in the amphitheatre, but no audience was allowed to attend the performance. The video has been released several times on television and in cinemas. One of the amphitheatre's tunnels had now been converted into a museum to commemorate the event.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
Before leaving Pompeii, we stopped in the antiquarium (museum) to view a collection of objects from the ruins. Unfortunately, in the 1800s, many items were looted and sold to buyers around the world.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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