Pooped in Pompei

This is the most exhausted that I have been this entire trip. Yesterday we did laundry at the 'Wash and Dry' then lazed around the pool at the hotel reading our books and knitting. The fellow loungers were British and Italian families primarily - picture a fat old man floating in the pool with a pink pool noodle stuck under his arms and skinny brown kids racing each other and splashing my e-book with their efforts. We went to a fancy fish restaurant for dinner where they came around with a cart displaying the day's catch. It was an old establishment on the harbor front; this area has been used as a movie locale. They drove us back to our hotel up the ridiculous windy road to the harbor.

We thought we were rested for today's visit to Pompei. We got the 8:50 am train thinking it was better to be walking around in the sun in the cooler part of the day. Unfortunately all the tours from cruise ships also have this idea so it was very crowded and there was lines to get into small areas. The temperature was about 34 degrees. It took until 2:00 pm to see everything, although the actual guided tour was only two hours.

At the time of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, 1:00 pm Aug 24, 79 AD, there were 20,000 people living in Pompei. It had been a thriving commercial and trading centre for probably four centuries. The town was two kilometres from the sea and fifteen kilometres from Mount Vesuvius. The mountain was not known to be a volcano. Only about seven thousand people escaped the toxic ash by running toward the sea. The rest died an agonizing suffocation death in their houses over three days. In the end there was a seven metre accumulation of ash that collapsed the roofs and the sea had been moved to fifteen kilometres from the town from the debris deposit.



Plaster cast of victim

Most that has survived, not surprisingly are the theatres, amphitheatres, grand houses and the gymnasium. All organic materials such as the wood that held up the ceilings, bodies etc. decomposed because ash does not act like molten lava (that preserves). Pompei was accidently discovered in 1599, excavations began in 1748. They are on going today.


Most that has survived, not surprisingly are the theatres, amphitheatres, gymnasium and grand houses. There had been twenty-five bakers and twenty brothels. 




'Cool' room in house - ahhh

Phallic shaped sign to indicate way to brothels

Bakery with mill stone in front



The gymnasium and bath houses had been two levels



Walls and floors had been two levels
 to insulate for heat or coolness