Arce/Pompeii

We had breakfast in garden with the family and then drove to Pompeii to see the famous ruins. Gab was particularly excited as she studied Pompeii in Year 12 Ancient History for the HSC so seeing everything she had studied and written many practice essays about was an amazing experience!!

We had pre-booked a tour with an archaeologist and we did not regret our decision - it ended up being one of the most informative and engaging tours of the trip!

We met our guide, Vincenzo, at the ‘sea gate’ entrance and he was quick to explain that it is called the sea gate because the shoreline used to be at the edge of the ruins site at Pompeii, whereas now it is a few kilometres away! Vince showed us a map of Pompeii and showed us where we would go on our tour. We were blown away by how long Pompeii is - it is 66 hectares. Not all of it has been excavated and work will continue. The problem is that excavating the area and then maintaining and protecting the excavated areas is very difficult, time consuming and expensive.

Vince explained how in 79AD, the eruption of the nearby volcano covered the ancient town of Pompeii in 20 feet of ash. We don't know how many people died from asphyxiation from the eruption but the bones from 2000 people have been found to date.

Although often reported as the eruption from Mt Vesuvius, technically it was Mt Soma which erupted 2000 years ago which used to be twice the height of Vesuvius (they are now called twin volcanos). The volcano could erupt today and it is being constantly monitored. It is considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes because if it were to erupt, 1 million people live in the surrounding area and would need to be immediately evacuated (as well as the tourists!) Thankfully, it did not erupt during our visit! Since the site was discovered (originally haphazardly by scavengers), and throughout the 300 years of excavations, many perfectly preserved statues, paintings, buildings and items have been located which tell us a lot about the ancient civilisations of that time. Very amazing!

After entering the sea gate and seeing the old port, we visited the hotel for the sailors which is just outside the city walls. As Pompeii was a port town and its economy revolved around commerce, many sailors visited and needed a place to stay, relax and eat. The first part of the hotel contained a brothel with paintings on the wall with the "menu". This was in the first century AD so Christianity had not yet taken over Rome (that didn't happen until around 4AD) so sex, prostitution and what would now be considered pornographic images was not seen as a "sin" or taboo. The sailors hotels also included elaborate Baths (with hot and cool rooms) with heating systems which came from Turkey (indicating that these areas traded and shared ideas).

We then made our way through the gate into the city and the ruins of the Temple of Appollo. The marble steps are only particularly there (as they had been taken by scavengers and used in other churches around Italy).

Vince spoke about the roads throughout the town. You could see the clear marks in some areas of the roads left from chariots. There were stepping stones for pedestrians to cross the roads as the roads would have been filled with sewerage. We also noticed some holes on the side of the footpaths which were for tying up your chariots- ancient parking spots!

We made our way to the impressive large Forum which would have been the centre of life in Pompeii. The whole Forum would have been covered in marble which would have glistened in the sun. This has been removed and only small parts of marble remain.

From the Forum, we walked around the corner to the markets which would have sold meat and fish. At this area, we also saw some displays of plaster casts. When the layers of ash were discovered, Giuseppe Fiorelli came up with the idea of injecting plaster into the hollow areas (shells) left in the ash where bodies had been to see their outline rather than just dig up the bones. This was such an inventive and interesting technique. In this way, you can almost see the facial expressions of the people in their last moments. The bones of the people have been preserved and scientists have used X-rays and MRIs to discover more about the people. For example, the people of Pompeii had perfect teeth. This is said to be due to their very healthy diet without sugar and because of the high content of fluoride in the water from the volcano nearby. Gab remembers learning a lot about the plaster cast techniques and the significance of various plaster casts located to our understanding of the ancient civilisations at school.

We then visited an ancient "takeaway shop" which contains counters with holes in them for heating up food. The typical food would have been foccacia, olives, vegetables, meat, seafood and cheese. There was no pasta or pizza (much to the horror of everyone on our tour!) There were no tomatoes, coffee, chocolate or tobacco which all became very popular later as these were all products introduced from South America. Salt was very expensive at this time. In fact, some Romans chose to be paid their wages in salt and that is why a person's wages these days are called their "salary" (from the Italian word for salt). The Romans also enjoyed wine - the volcanic ash has many nutrients which is why good wine is grown in the area!

We then also visited a bakery with the ancient kilns. There have been 20 loaves of fully preserved bread discovered in the ruins sites!

As we travelled the streets, we also saw a few fountains with different decorations on them. We filled up our water bottles a few times as it was very hot! Luckily, the pipes are no longer made with lead but Vince told us how the ancient Romans suffered from lead poisoning due to the pipes and this affected the fertility of the people. In fact, fertility was a real concern for the people and people would draw/paint penises on their homes and give necklaces with "penis" charms for good luck (this was not seen as sexual or inappropriate).

We then visited one of the most well preserved homes in Pompeii - the Vetti House. We understand that 2 brothers called the Vetti brothers lived there. They had been slaves and worked for their freedom and when they were freed they started a number of businesses including a brothel - ancient entrepreneurs! The frescoes in the Vetti House are so well preserved and very beautiful! The frescoes show many mythical stories and explain a lot about the people's beliefs and understandings at the time.

This was the end of the fantastic tour so we walked around for another hour or so ourselves. We went to a watch tower for a view over the ruins and visited the arena and the amphitheatre.

After leaving the ruins around, we sought out what would be our last gelato - Gab had hazelnut and caramel whilst Daniel had chocolate and coffee.

We drove back to Arce with google maps not working, thankfully Daniel could remember the way back! We arrived back at Arce at around 5pm.

We chilled out for a bit before heading out for Aperol Spritz in the main ‘piazza’ of Arce, meeting some of the other locals in the process (many of which don't speak English so we used a lot of charades, Google Translate and a bit of Italian). We then headed back to the house for a delicious outdoor dinner of truffle ravioli, buffalo cheese, seafood salad and tomatoes from the garden and of course the rest of yesterday’s tiramisu!

After having some fun attempting to string conversations together (with Daniel and Margherita speaking some weird hybrid of Italian and English!), we all went to bed around midnight after another fun day.Read more