Day 128 Pompei Mark II

Friday 27/07/2018 (Day 41SZ) Itineror Ergo Sum BnB Via Provinciale Vigne Sant'Antonio, 65, Pompei, 80045, Italy

Awake today after a restless sleep...I think all this chopping and changing of beds is not to bad,but having some weird dreams really weird dreams...which makes a restless sleep... I will live... out for breaky and the owner had left us lovely fresh croissants 🥐 only thing is they are sweet and me and sweet stuff first up don’t mix anymore... so I stashed mine for later...

I am a bit excited as we had been to Pompeii 18 yrs ago in 2000 with our Comos Tour... only thing was we only had a few hrs here and were taken to specific sites all part of the time poor allowance on a trip like we did... I always promised I would return one day and take my time to see as much as I could on my time... not a yours... No guide, no group. Just me and John of course but if he hadn’t if wanted to come I would have done it by myself anyway..

We organised ourselves and set off in foot the 1 1/2k walk to Pompeii old city... past dirty old shops... a heap of wedding shops in the middle of the dirt area... a guys paddock between the shops and the bridge... looked so funny shops then a healthy paddock of newly planted something... right in town. Crossing the road to get to the other side we needed up between a bus load if Koreans and a large group of Boy Scouts turns out they are from Germany, they had American leaders a group of 30 kids..l they live in Germany but are all,US citizens... not sure why they live there.. we ended up in the huge cattle line up to get in, took us about 3/4 hr to get from the back to the ticket office... so we had plenty of time to take in those around us and even talk to some.., an English family in front of us and the about Scout leaders behind us... interesting people watching and at the last minute some guy from a completely different line that was t for our ticket officers jumped the que in front of us... ohh that makes me wild..when you do the right thing and wait and wait then some yobo punches your spot... plus some Italian women and her big group in front of us was jumping kkup and down and yelling waving her arms at the poor ticket office person.something didn’t go her way as it was all in Italian we had no idea what she was saying.. but her body language told the story... eventually we got to the ticket office, got our map and off we set...

We set out at 9 am got home around 6pm a big day was had.... we walked up and down the streets ... checking out sights we had seen before and sights we have never seen... tried our best to stay away from all the crowds and managed to do that most of the day... we met a family from Australia also living in Germany, hubby worked there and they all lived there wife and 3 kids plus mum from Aust visiting at present... I had commented to him how brave he was flying all the family all the way here from Aust, she laughed and said no they dove from German so not such a big trip... but his mum had just flown over for a visit..l they said it was their 2Nd time living in Germany for work... Good on them... their kids would be getting such a great experience... the little girl told me she is learning 3 different languages what a great asset to have later in life...

People from every nation gather at places like this it’s unreal to see them and be in amongst all these people from all different walks of life and lifestyles...all enjoying something so ancient as Pompeii ruins...

We had lunch at their very new restaurant within the ruins area... not sure what had to go to put it there... but much needed and to be honest with the heat and the amount of people they really need other ones set up around the perimeter... especially to buy water... the heat was unreal...

Sights were equally unreal... the huge Villas and their courtyards... how they setup their watering systems to gather water this is before Christ the modern systems were feats of genius for their day... the sewage all though it ran through the streets to, yuk,yuk, it still had an unreal system to get it away... their piping sadly was out of lead which many died from poisoning from this... but not all lead, some clay and underground even then... how they heated the bath houses ingenious again... the beautiful frescos on the walls that some can still be seen today... apparently the bath houses were well used and mainly in the afternoon.. I’ll never forget the bath house I went to with the other women in Morocco...it was full of women we are all together with only undies sitting around the walls.... a local lady wets you down, scrubs the crap out if you with a rough hand washer thing then washes you down again.all in together thus fine weather.. unreal experience, but I gather it’s the same as it was in ancient times... nothing much has changed.... so I am assuming it was the same back in the day of pompeii, men in one and women in another all, together no pride in these places....drop it all the door and pick it up on the way out... the building in Morocco was the same style as it was in pompeii... thick cement walls...arched roof and only a door in and a door out a few rooms like this in the communal bath house... so very different to how we do it today thats for sure... the Victorian era changed all that!

Our day was exhausting up and down streets... It a huge place and we didn’t get to do it all as I had hoped I think you would need 2 days to do that... p,us the fact they open some sites al one time and others at other times... you arrive at the times it’s closed...and being so big there’s no way you’ll get back to those sights again when they open..... it is a weird feeling walking on streets that are as old as they are...really puts perspective on how old our world really is.. as a Christian and a believer in the Genesis factor I don’t believe in millions of years ago... but that our world is not much older than 20,000 yrs old... but wether it’s millions or 1,000’s its still old and being on these very,very old streets really brings it back to you just how long people have been building, living and dying in our world.

John had a celb encounter was sure he was standing next to the younger actor out if Prison Break.so that was his little highlight of the day...

I have loved my whole visit here again, only thing is we are just so buggard the heat had been unrelenting and the people have been full in even when you try to dodge them best you can. Plus walking all over the ruggard huge cobblestone streets just wares you out... by 5 pm we had, had enough... going out the gate we see another building inside it are movies about Pompeii and displays... at least it’s airconed......
so another 30 mins later we finally farewell Pompeii, this time I know it will be my last... but so glad I have had this opportunity to revisit it again...

We walk across the street I need a cup of tea, a John wants a cappuccino, so we have these as the restaurant closes up shop around us...

Another night of revived, veggie bake getting my moneys worth out of this meal that’s for sure...

A good shower a rest, a drink and a meal..big day, let’s hope sleep is good tonight...

Info about Pompeii copyright thanks to http://www.pompeiisites.org/allegati/pompei_ing… © 2015 Soprintendenza Speciale per Pompei, Ercolano e Stabia

Pompeii rises on a plateau (approximately 30 m a.s.l.) of Vesuvian lava, overlooking the Sarno river valley, at whose mouth was once a busy port. The origins of the city are uncertain: the oldest reports date from the end of the 7th and the first half of the 6th cent. BC, when the first ring of tufa walls, called ‘pappamonte’, was built around an area of 63.5 ha.
A 'mixed' civilization—which blended native, Etruscan, and Greek elements—led to the city's development.Towards the end of the 5th cent. BC., the Samnite tribes came down from the mountains of Irpinia and Samnio, and spread across the plains of what is now known as Campania (meaning 'fertile plain'), conquering and including the Vesuvian and coastal cities in a league, with Nuceria as its capital. During the Samnite era, Pompeii received a strong push towards urbanization: also in the 5th cent. BC, a new fort was built of Sarno limestone, which was to follow in the footsteps of the first.Towards the end of the 4th cent. BC, after a new wave of Samnite immigration,Rome began to look towards southern Italy; systems of alliances and victorious military campaigns made it hegemonic throughout Campania (343-290 BC). Pompeii thus entered the Roman political organization, or res publica, as a socia (ally), but in 90-89 BC it rebelled along with other Italic populations, who demanded equal social and political respect from Rome. Placed under siege by the troops led by P. Cornelius Sulla, the city surrendered and became a Roman colony with the name of Cornelia Veneria Pompeianorum (80 BC).
After being "downgraded" to colony, Pompeii was enhanced with private and public buildings, and further embellished especially during the reigns of the emperors Octavian Augustus (27 BC-14 AD) and Tiberius (14-37 AD). A violent earthquake struck the whole Vesuvian area in 62 AD. Reconstruction began immediately in Pompeii, but the extent of the damage was so great—not to mention the aftershocks that followed— repairs took a very long time: 17 years later, when Vesuvius suddenly erupted on the 24th August of 79 AD to bury it under ash and rock, Pompeii was still an ongoing construction site. It was rediscovered in the 16th century, but exploration did not begin until 1748 under the King of Naples Charles III of Bourbon, and continued systematically into the nineteenth century, until the most recent works of excavation, restoration and enhancement of the ancient city and its extraordinary wealth of architecture, sculptures, paintings, and mosaics.The archeological area of Pompeii extends for approximately 66 ha, of which approximately 45 have been excavated.The city was divided into regiones (neighbourhoods) and insulae (blocks) by G. Fiorelli in 1858, to simplify study and orientation.When the owner was not well known, the excavators invented the building names based on particular finds or other circumstances.もっと詳しく