Naples - Pompeii Photo Stroll

Oh Pompeii. How I love thee!  I flashed back to 1987 pretty quickly as we entered Pompeii and remembered how much fun we had there. Thankfully I hung out with kids who were interested, mostly, in the history of the area. We were on a Spring In-program travel with two teachers (husband and wife) and 8 of us kids.  We stopped in so many historic places on the trip it was hard to keep track. Pompeii, though, never left my memory.

 

It's changed over the years. Busier and more facilities than it was back then. My first order of business was to find a restroom.  I giggled when I saw the sign. It reminded me of the sign I saw on the Canadian Cruise in Quebec City.

 

After the potty break, which our tour guide called "depositing ammonia" we hit the park.  Our tour guide was exceptional in her details and stories of Pompeii.

If you don't know, (what rock have you been under) Pompeii was buried in ash from an eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79AD.  The thriving town of, what the estimate, 20,000 was completely destroyed. Almost every one lost their lives. 

What's left are ruins and some artifacts that help us understand what life was like in Pompeii.

What's left of their amphitheater.

This was the fastfood of the time. These vats, they believe, were filled with soups.

The streets of Pompeii

Stepping stones...literally. The ruts in the streets were made from carts passing over the stones for years.

What the believed to be a bakery. The mill in the foreground and the stone oven in the back. They did find some breads in some of the ovens throughout Pompeii.

The roof of the bath house.

Inside the bath house.

One of the patrons of the bath house.

Then there was the brothel we saw. Fascinating to see that prostitution is the oldest form of employment.

The rooms were small and each had a cement type bed with a very thin mattress.  A patron could enter the brothel and essentially pick their flavor based on the photo above each door.

Then there were these everywhere around the brothel.  Essentially pointing the way.  Even in 79AD there was a red light district.

Several fountains were uncovered and fresh springs were found under them. This fountain was close to the forum and appeared to be well used.

And then we get to the forum.  That's Mount Vesuvius in the background. You can tell that the people of Pompeii would have had no time to get to safety once that mountain blew. Its still quite active, by the way, and it watched carefully these days.  Thousands upon thousands of people live near or around it.

Many of the buildings around the forum had this type of sign on the outdoor walls. Early day advertising. They suspect the family who owned this building were movers of some sort.

 

Still standing is a home of what appeared to be a very wealthy family.  The mosaics on the floors of this house are still in relatively good condition.

Then there were the bodies.  As you leave Pompeii they walk you past this storage area that shows all the artifacts they found while excavating Pompeii. Not too surprising they found a lot of bodies. Only they aren't really bodies.

They found as they were digging these vast hallow areas.  As they dug when they'd encounter one they got the bright idea to put plaster inside the hole to see what it was. Turned out to be what was once a person's body. The skin, clothing, bones all dust, but the plaster mold could show some pretty good detail.

This is the hardest one for me to see for some reason.

This guy was part of my original photos 28 years ago...and he's still there in the same place.

For  more Pompeii photos, and there are plenty, visit my flicker site.

And thus ends the photo stroll of the cruise. Now to get back to real blogging. I have several blogs percolating so never fear...there's more.