Kate's Fantastic Adventure - Pompeii

On our last full day in Sorrento we visited the Roman ruins at Pompeii.  As most people know, an eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. engulfed the city of Pompeii (and other nearby towns) in many meters of falling ash.  It was a large, thriving town and many of its citizens left before they died.  However, a number stayed and they, along with all the buildings were trapped like flies in amber to be found many hundreds of years later.  Naples (or Neopolis - New City) was where many of those who fled Pompeii later settled. 

I only took two pictures at Pompeii.  Here is one of them--Emily, Cherie, Cindy and Kate sitting in the small amphitheater.  As you can see the weather was great the day we were there.

The most interesting thing about Pompeii is that city was well preserved by the ash that enveloped it.  It looks much as it did in 79 A.D. except the roofs of the buildings are gone.  The area began being excavated in the 1700's but that was mostly looters.  Over the next several hundred years there were a number of efforts to systematically uncover the city but none last long.  It was not until the beginning of the 1900's that the newly unified government of Italy undertook the giant project.  Even today, 100 years later, there are still areas of old Pompeii that have not been rediscovered.  However there is about a square kilometer of area that is open to the public and it includes all the main business, government and commercial areas of old Pompeii. 


We took the train from Sorrento to Pompeii (about a 30 minute ride) and spent a couple hours exploring the city.  Our trusty Rick Steves guide gave us a good self-guided walking tour of the area that included the old baths, the largest private villa in town and a bordello.  We would not let Kate go in the latter. :-)

Pretty much all of the art (frescoes, mosaics and statues) have been replaced by copies and the originals are now in the National Archeological Museum in Naples.  Dom and I went there last fall and although it was interesting to see the originals, it is actually more fascinating to see the replicas on site in Pompeii. 

Afterwards we went back to the train station to return to Sorrento.  We must have just missed a train because the platform was nearly empty when we got there.  By the time we left it was pretty full.  It was back to Sorrento for more shopping, afternoon naps, packing to leave the next day, another dinner out and more gelato at Davide II.