Pompei

We have hired a car because the direct train from Solerno to Pompeii isn’t running this week.

We can’t believe we are here in Pompeii, a place we have all heard about for years.
It is more impressive than we could have ever imagined. The size and scale of the city, how well preserved it is and how sophisticated things were 2000 years ago. We love the stepping stones across the old roads that kept the residents feet up out of the dirty roads. The shops had sliding doors as well as counters with built in storage. The homes they lived in were beautiful and had courtyards, water features, mosaics and sculptures.
Ruby and Colm enlighten us about different Greek and Roman gods when we see a statue of one or walk through a temple dedicated to another. I am amazed how they can recall complicated background stories and family trees of the different Gods they have read about in the books by Rick Riordan and Stephen Fry.
Throughout the day I find myself looking towards Mount Vesuvius and thinking about the twenty feet of ash that fell and buried this entire city. We visit the casts of bodies found in the garden of the fugitives. It is moving to see them lying down, as they were when their died.
We stay for most of the day, taking in as much as we can until our minds and bodies are overwhelmed.
We head to the nearest Gelateria for the cure.Read more