Pompeii

A new excursion today, a trip on the local train to Pompeii. Quick walk down to the train station and hop on the train, takes about forty minutes to get there.  There is a "dd" (fast) train, which only makes 4 stops but we got on the one that hit all 14 stops.  Cost 8.80 return.  The train stops 100 yards from the entrance to Pompeii. You can see the ruins from the train.  Outside the station the hawkers start their selling game.  Bottles of water, souvenirs, books, tour guides.  They had everything for a price.  

After a great recommendation from a British couple from Nottinghamshire we decided to book the 2 hour guided tour with an English speaking guide.  12 euros each, but well worth the money.  It took them about 45 minutes to get organized and we were off.  Tip:  they had lots of fresh water fountains for water inside, you need it, and there were lots of toilets that didn't cost anything.  

We were her family and she was mamma.  She had a beautiful orange umbrella for us to traipse around behind.

Not only did she know the history of Pompeii, she put a nice touching and funny realism to the tragedy that was Pompeii.  20,000 people died.  They figure 90% of them from the ashes, day turned to night. People were racing around trying to escape and couldn't see a thing.  They died where they were in the middle of the street, in their kitchens.  And then the next day the survivors came back to look for family, they were so devastated that a lot of them thinking they were safe lay down to sleep where they thought their homes were.  And then the gas came, most of the survivors then died from the gases erupting out of Mt Vesuvius.  They found them in sleeping positions.  A lot of these bodies are on display in different museums around the world.  I couldn't take a picture of the bodies, it was still too sad.  It was a little shocking to see the real side of a book and story I had read so long ago.

Pompeii was home to 20,000 people 2000 years ago.  Aurora only had 15,000 people in it when we moved in in 1985.  This was a huge town, with temples, theatre, and a large coliseum.  And mama's favourite spot - the brothel.  A lot of the girls were from other islands and didn't speak the language so they had pictures that the men could point to, to show what they liked.  Some of these pictures were still on the walls. 

The first coliseum

The opera

These were ovens,

The pizza ovens

A house

A mansion, over 10,000 sq feet.

On the way home we needless to say stopped for a drink at a love bar overlooking the harbour. Hotel excelsior vittorio.

Back to the room, off for dinner, a limoncello for Jim in our favourite market cafe and to top it off a huge fireworks display at 11 pm.

Ciao