Amalfi Coast: Day 3

Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius 

A shot from the top of Mt. Vesuvius.
I felt like I was flying! 

The sky was CRAZY when we were in Pompeii!

This morning we got up, packed our bags, had a little breakfast, and hopped on the bus to head to Pompeii! I have been wanting to visit this ancient city since I was in Mrs. Kunderts third grade class when we did our big “Pompeii” unit. It is one of the only units from elementary school I can still recall quite vividly so I was very excited! 

We got to Pompeii and it was pretty hot. We took a guided tour of the ruins which was very cool, although not what I was expecting. I thought Pompeii was a city covered in ashes and there were random people laying everywhere in different positions trying to escape the volcano. This is untrue. Pompeii is actually a huge, modern day city and the thing everyone flocks to are the ancient ruins abandoned after Mt. Vesuvius erupted. 

A huge amphitheater inside Pompeii

There were people displayed in cases and a few on the ground in a building but what we saw were mostly houses, shops, huge theaters, cathedrals, and bath houses that have since been renovated and restored to what they would have looked like. We found out that the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius happened in 79AD (pretty hard to wrap your brain around something that happened so long ago!) and most people did not die from the ash of the volcano, but from the poisonous gas that came first. When the volcano initially began to erupt, the people of the town thought it was the Greek gods getting mad at them for something and no one took cover. Because nothing like this had ever happened, they had no idea how to react so instead of evacuating right away, they went about their daily routines which is how so many of them were frozen in time. After this happened, people in the surrounding areas forgot about Pompeii and it was later rediscovered and is now still being renovated by some of the best archeologists in the world. They have been working on restoring it for over one hundred years and are still only 80 percent of the way done with the restoration. That just shows how huge and intricate this place is. 

A brothel inside Pompeii. Who knew
 this is what they're famous for? 

The stories our guide told were very interesting. He talked about daily life in Pompeii and showed us the bath houses (everyone bathed in the same place because they had no form of sewer) and a huge "mansion" where the wealthiest family in the town lived. It is so interesting to think that even though the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius was a horrible tragic event, it preserved this amazing city for people to see forever. That was probably my favorite part of the morning. It is not every day that you can see how people lived over 2,000 years ago. 

One of the casts of a servant who was found
in the ashes. When the ashes covered the city,
it preserved the shapes of bodies, almost like
a bubble. You can see the bones sticking
outside of persons head and feet! Creepy! 

Some ruins and Mt. Vesuvius in the background. 

Beautiful marble carvings on the walls of the bath house.
So intricate and incredible that they're still around! 

After Pompeii, we took a bus over to Mt. Veseuveus and hiked all the way up to the top. The view was amazing, however, we were above the clouds so it was a little hard to see the city and ocean in some spots. It was a long hike but such an amazing feeling to look into an actual volcano! There was Sulfur gas coming out the side of the volcano at the top, which was very freaky. They told us that the Volcano is very closely monitored but I still couldn’t help but think about what will happen when this thing decided to blow again. Yes, it is still “active”… scary! After our breathtaking hike, we got back on the bus and headed back to Florence after an amazing weekend. What a perfect place. Seriously the best weekend maybe of my life. My quote of the weekend “You know, this kind of stinks that we’re seeing all of this when we’re 21 years old. I feel like nothing will ever live up to this the rest of my life!” Everyone of course agreed with me. 

A picture of Pompeii from Mt. Vesuvius 

The inside of the volcano. It was a huge crater!
Did you know: When the volcano erupted, it blew
6,000 feet off the top? It is only 1/3 of the
size now than it was before it erupted!

I hope you all had a great weekend and am LOVING the feedback through e-mails. If you would like to e-mail me about any questions, or for more pictures of my trips, my address is gilbertsdd08@uww.edu   

CIAO!   Dana