Pompeii

During my week in Sorrento, Italia my friends and I made a day trip to Pompeii. We took the Circumvesuviana train which was about a 30 minute ride. This was our first train experience in Italy and let me tell ya... it was sketchy. Men stared us down the entire way, luckily we had a large group of guys with us. Gypsies also walked through the isles asking for money. I experienced an extremely awkward moment on the train when a young gypsy girl, probably around 14 years old, came through playing an accordion. At every bench she would stop and give each of us a mean glare. How random and weird is that? I felt so uncomfortable I just started laughing at her. Oops.

We arrived at the Pompeii train station along with another huge group of tourists. It is definitely a hot destination visited by more than 2.5 million people every year, so here is a little history. Pompeii is a Roman city that was buried in 79 A.D. by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. The people of the city never considered it to be an active volcano even though there had been earthquakes 12 years prior to its eruption. The earthquakes were ignored and the people rebuilt. Pompeii was taken by surprise when Vesuvius suddenly erupted and swallowed the city in ash and cinders. The population at the time was around 20,000 and some had time to evacuate while others decided to wait it out. The people had no experience with such a catastrophe so no one knew what to expect. Pompeii was sealed and preserved by the ashes and made it easily rediscovered by early archeologists. The beginning of its excavation began in 1748 and has been ongoing ever since. The preservation was so precise that voids in the ash were found to have human remains and the spaces left were of decomposed bodies. It was later discovered that pouring plaster into the open space would create the molds of Vesuvius's victims and could even portray their last moments of life including their final expression of terror. Creepy huh?

Pompeii has a rich history but I soon became lost in the endless roads of stone ruins. I know I have learned about Pompeii before, but I walked around aimlessly looking at the city without remembering much about it. There were signs posted that named a few of the areas but with very little descriptions. I wish we had a tour guide to help explain everything, it would have made the experience more enjoyable. But I can't complain too much, Pompeii was pretty cool to see. I saw the coliseum, a few gardens, painting remains on the walls, marble counters, huge columns, fountain remains, and a few grotesque human molds. I can only imagine how amazing the city had been in its prime. Pompeii is definitely an archeological goldmine.