D140 -- Less ruined ruins

Much as we're enjoying Rome, we decided to get out of town and visit Pompeii. The train route from Rome to Pompeii just so happens to go through Napoli, the birthplace of pizza. Hmmm... I wondered why Thomas was so willing to spend four hours on trains today! We ate at Trianon, a place recommended by our Rick Steves guide book. Way to go Rick! The place was filled with locals and the pizza was DELICIOUS!

We finished our pizza pilgrimage and moved along to Pompeii. The second leg of our train journey was not so pleasant, as it was hot and crowded on the train. We made it to Pompeii and when we got out of the hot train we realized it was super hot and sunny outside. Frankly, we all were pretty much ready to call it a day. We soldiered on, though, and I'm so glad that we did. Pompeii was fascinating. In Rome, you have to use your imagination when looking at the scattered ruins to form a mental picture of how the ancient city looked. Because Pompeii was more or less buried by the volcanic eruption back in 79 A.D, however, it's an actual city that is still standing much as it did then. Very little imagination required! There were literally blocks and blocks of buildings to explore.

















We visited a couple of private homes, an amphitheater, a temple, a meat and fish market, and even a bakery where we could easily pick out the wood-burning oven and the mills.

We tried to visit the largest brothel in town (there were several back in the day) but it was closed for restoration. What a shame! Sexuality was apparently a big part of the culture back then, if the paintings and carvings we saw on some buildings were any indication.

Probably my favorite buildings were the take away joints like the one above. We kept passing what looked like stores with counters that had big holes in them. We finally heard on our audioguides that they were restaurants where food was sold out of large clay pots. The holes in the counters are actually the necks of the pots. There was sometimes a little place to eat in these stores, but most food was taken home to eat. And you thought McDonald's invented fast food! Another favorite sight: possibly the oldest “Beware of Dog” sign in the world. Hey - looks like our dog Maddie!

Something I hadn't known about Pompeii… The town actually suffered a pretty bad earthquake in 62 A.D. that killed many villagers, but when the big eruption hit the devastation was much worse. Thousands of people were buried in burning ash in a matter of minutes. When the area was being excavated, archaeologists came across hollows where bodies had been buried but had long since disintegrated. They were smart enough to pour plaster in the voids and now there are several casts of victims. They were an eerie sight. You could definitely see pain and fear in their poses. Very sad.

Enlightened but exhausted, we made our way back to Rome just in time to shower and head out for an anniversary dinner. Today was our second wedding anniversary. We left Sarah to fend for herself and then went around the corner to Piazza Farnese for a romantic and delicious dinner of penne arrabiata and gnocchi. We also grabbed some gelato on the way home. We've pretty much been having two servings a day since we arrived here. I felt badly about ditching Sarah, but when we got back to Campo de’ Fiori we saw she'd made some friends. College students from Iowa, of all places (she's from Nebraska, just across the border). Such a small world.

-Elva