Pompeii

After our Wednesday morning walking tour of Sorrento, we decided to take the train to Pompeii for the afternoon.  This was a local train, much like an above ground DC Metro train, but very used and a little old.  It was about a 30 minute train ride with many stops along the way.  While still cloudy and threatening rain part of the day, the temperatue was very warm and even hot in the sun.

Pompeii is unlike anything I have ever seen.  At the time of the eruption that buried it in AD 79, Pompeii was a busy Roman town near the coast.  The city was already 600 years old at that time, which is hard to imagine.  In fact, it is amazing to realize how old those ruins are and how well preserved.  You must also use your imagine to visualize the buildings and structures as they might have looked covered in plaster and decorated elaborately in some cases.

I have inserted the link below to the album of Pompeii photos, and inserted a few favorites below.  Like everyplace else in this area, Pompeii was built on the side of steep hills.  The streets mostly run up and down the hills, making for challenging walking in the uneven rocks that pave the streets.  One can only imagine how difficult It was in those days to transport goods via carts pulled by ox or other beasts of burden.  Below you can see a photo of the ruts made in the rocks by the carts where they had to follow the exact same path to pass through the stepping stones prodigally placed across the streets.  These stepping stones provided pedestrians a path across the street while staying above the mess in the street underneath.  Also, we were told they flooded the streets each day to clean them.  Since all streets seemed to have at least some slope, I can imagine a river of muck and mess each day when that was done.

The photo of Linda and I is taken in the Forum, the marketplace of the day where townspeople met and merchants sold goods.  It's a very large area surrounded by ruins on every side.

To learn more about Pompeii, check out the Wikipedia page here.

To see our complete album on Pompeii, click here.  I have added captions to some photos to explain the photo, so watch for that.