Pompeii

Last weekend was devoted to spending some time in Naples as well as checking out Pompeii. Pompeii is an ancient Roman town that fell victim to the explosion of the nearby volcano, Mount Vesuvius. While the tragedy of 79 AD is one that is definitely a sad and horrible event, because of the volcanic ash that buried the ancient city much has been preserved for our viewing pleasure. The ruins of Pompeii were definitely the best preserved I have seen and more than ever, I walked away with the most vivid image of what life in the town must have been like. While there was a lot to see, I'll show you some of the highlights.

We lucked out with some B-E-A-utiful weather (it was actually a little hot!).Technically, this picture was taken as we were leaving (as you can tell by our passed out boy in the backpack), but it was the only picture taken outside the city walls:

The town was laid out in a grid with it's town centered around the forum. As I said, because the volcanic ash covered and preserved the town, you could really get an idea of what it was like to walk the streets way back when:

Authentic street signs still up on sides of buildings:

The town amphitheater was like a mini Colosseum:
Nate behind the counter of what was probably a restaurant or tavern:
Another thing that was nice to see in ruins... COLOR! The ash preserved the colors of the frescoes, murals, mosaics and even graffiti that are still found on the walls.
This mosaic at the entrance to a house reads "Cave Canem" or beware of dog. So that's where all those plastic signs people have posted on their fence came from ;) But who knew they were using that fear tactic that early on in civilization?
They may have even abused color back in the day... not my interior decorating style ;)
Here we are in the forum at the center of town, a hub for political and religious affairs. Check out the evil culprit, Mount Vesuvius in the background. I wonder how big it looked before it blew it's top off during eruption:
The town theater:
This is me at the local "fast food joint" situated right by the local baths. So you could go for a dip and then grab yourself some grub after:
Town bakery (one of my favorite spots, probably because it seemed perfectly authentic to me):
And, of course, we can't forget that this town was not vacated before eruption. Instead, around 20,000 people died that day in 79 AD. When archeologists came upon the Pompeii ruins, they realized that when they came into hollow spots in the ash, they were actually uncovering the victims of that day. They began filling these "holes" with plaster and we are left with casts of the people of Pompeii. There aren't many left on site (many are in a museum in Naples), but the few we saw still left an impression: