2009 Italy & Greece: Day 8 The Necropolis of Pompeii,

Said goodbye to the view and took the bus over to Pompeii, the ghost town of the ancient days. When Vesuvius blew back in 79 A.D. , killing over 20,000 people which is small peanuts compared to the 3 million Bay of Naples who would be smothered by a 21^st century eruption. As I noted before, some Geologists believe she is due to blow sometime in the near future, but despite being one of the most densely populated volcanic danger areas in the world, Neapolitans don’t seem to worry about it too much.

Pompeii was old before even being covered. Its roads were in existence for well over 300 years prior to being buried. Well worn ruts (as seen in this photo) in the streets can be seen all over the city, where countless wagon wheels grooved their way into the massive cobble stones. Each street stone is as smooth as glass, having been well worn from hundreds of years of foot traffic. Often filled with mud, water, waste or whatever, almost at every major street corner can be found ‘stepping stones’ (above pic) to get one from one sidewalk to another without getting down into the street mess.

Shop keepers, wineries, market places, and other types of family owned businesses can be spotted all around the city. People’s homes still bear the frescoes (e.g. wall paper like paintings) that decorated their homes some 2000 years ago. When you walk into somebody’s kitchen, you get the feeling that you are intruding into somebody’s once private home.

Some of these are exposed to the open air, which is actually quite a gamble in my opinion. I realize some of them are shielded from the direct sunlight and rain, but I should think that the humidity and air pollution will eventually take their toll.

Rain water was gathered by the impluvium, a hole at the top of rooftops that allowed rain water to drain and then fall into a cistern which gathered and stored water in underground vats to be later used for cooking and washing.

Our guide was pretty decent overall, but there were parts of the city that he didn’t take us to, that I feel we should have seen. I guess each guide takes people to different areas? The other thing to note was we went backwards from where we had come in 2006, starting not at the docks, but towards the back of the city where the permarium (one of word for perimeter) or ditch like moat that skirts the edge of the city. We visited the Gladiator school, and did a fast walk-by the theater, which the Guide never stopped for. (dumb)

When we arrived at the Forum, it is very difficult to imagine what it looked like, but luckily a bought one of those flip books for Liam, and had it stowed in my backpack, so I tried to do a before and after shot in this picture and then showed the kids so that they could see what it was supposed to have looked like before the volcanic blast.

I asked my 4 future students, Nate, Natlie, Kara & Bria to each get lots of photos and footage while walking around the streets, as I hope to have them do a presentation this coming October for their classmates on Roman daily life. They agreed, and Nate got lots of video footage of our tour. I also asked some of my past juniors to do the same, perhaps each coming in during the day to share pictures, stories and information that they learned. I find it will be more meaningful to the kids if they actually get to view their peers pictures, stories and accounts of these places. I think when we get back in the fall; we can pull our various pics and video clips and make something like a PowerPoint which we can use to show the rest of the junior class.

A group shot of our KC students in front of Vesuvius on the Forum.

We exited by the docks, which the guide really didn’t even address. This is one of the most amazing features of Pompeii, as it used to have access to the sea, whereas today it is 3 miles inland from the ocean due to the pyroclastic lava flow. I think it was Rentar who mentioned that digs are always taking place in different parts of the city, and often times when the excavate an area, once it is photographed and documented, the best way to preserve some of the ruins is to simply fill it back in with dirt to protect it from the outside elements. We actually came across an artist who was sketching the layout of a food shop, most likely a Garum (salted ground up anchovies spread) counter, as she painstakingly cataloged each rock in order, shape and size.

Our tour director Theo continued to remind us that if we ever come back to Italy, bypass Pompeii and opt instead to go to another nearby (better) preserved town called Herculaneum, which has many more buildings preserved than Pompeii, and is much less touristy. Apparently volcanic mud burned less harshly than the volcanic ash which smothered Pompeii. Maybe next time…

Upon exiting the grounds we hit a typical serving café, and had 1 hr of free time after lunch. Some of us wanted to go back into the ruins, but Theo told us 10 Euro to get back in, which was totally ludicrous, since we had already been paid for by the tour guide. My biggest complain on this day would be they should have told us before leaving is that they should have given us the option to stay and have lunch later. Instead we killed an hour walking around various kiosks and street vendors who simply wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. I was pretty angry about this wasted hour I could have been roaming the streets of Pompeii.

Back on the bus, we now cut about 160 miles across Italy’s boot heading for the east coast. Beautiful mountain country surrounded by giant Apennine mountains windmills, massive wheat farms, and scenic landscapes. I tried to take some pics from the bus window, but eventually we arrived at the western sea port of Bari.

Our boat was a massive hunk of metal, which seemed like it wouldn’t make it off the dock, but it was amazingly fast on the water. Meer and I joked about the cramped accommodations after being spoiled at our prior hotel, but the food was pretty good and the observation deck allowed us to get some really nice sunset shots as seen below.