Pompeii

Welcome back, dear reader!

We know that millions of people have visited the sights we are seeing here in Italy but we have only seen pictures before and have a need to actually walk in those places, smell the scents, taste the rain, get wet or sun baked and touch the traces of antiquity.

As we join our intrepid adventurers we find them once again on the road to a place where history happened. We rolled out of bed to the sound of an Mediterranean downpour in Atrani. Our weather bug had said that it would clear off by about noon so we had laid on our half day tour for this day. We caught our tour outside our very well located house and had another experience with the wild ride that is the Amalfi coast road; close calls and many stops while negotiating blind switchback corners and watching the rain melt the countryside. We eventually join the Italian Autostrada outside the town of Vietri sul Mare and the travel becomes more modern.

We arrive amongst the other thousands who have chosen to see the ruins of Pompeii and our guide Giuseppe leads us to the entrance where we get our little radio receivers for him to whisper sweet nothings (guide stuff) in our ears and we head into the ruins. But first, per some arrangement between the local Cameo production place and the guides, we are herded into a short presentation on how Cameos are made and invited to buy them. This (reminding us of timeshare reps in Las Vegas) allows us the privilege of using the toilette for no charge (other places are charging .50 euro). We grab a coffee and walk amongst the typical vendors selling cheap tourist stuff along with umbrellas and ponchos. Did we mention that the rain was coming down in intermittent squalls? Well everyone was purchasing spur of the moment rain deterrents, but not your intrepid adventurers. Did we mention we are from Wet-stern Washington? We scoff at anything other than a driving rain and despise those who inflict an umbrella upon their fellow man! We laugh at the vendors hawking these unnecessary items (besides, our weather bug said the rain would quit) and venture on.

We meet up with Giuseppe and let him negotiate the entrance fee area for us and then walk a nice even modern path to the first gate unearthed by the 18th century historians. A couple of things to note: There was no lava flow at Pompeii, it was an Pyroclastic eruption; pyroclastic flows contain gas, ash and rock super-heated to over 480 degrees f and can travel up to 450 mph. They instantly annihilated anyone in the open and cooked everything that would burn. They then harden and create a negative like a plaster mold would leave. There was even an oven found with charred loaves of bread still inside.

We enter the gate and immediately come into the area where the gladiators were housed and trained. interesting to see the small rooms and open training ground.

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Then off to the amphitheater, where such modern notables as Pink Floyd and Elton John have performed in the shadows of the ancients.

Giuseppe guides us through the ruins of Pompeii with a skill that is enviable. He knows the passages and alleys like his home town. I come to understand why many people say that one day is not enough to see the ruins, only to get a taste that leaves you wanting more. Unfortunately, E is not the same as I in this respect, so we agreed to do only one half day tour to keep from boring her to tears.

We walk along the well constructed and sensible made roads of antiquity, cobbled with massive stone and rutted by chariot traffic.

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We visit the villa of a very wealthy man where there is still plaster on the walls, a beautiful courtyard, two marble fountains and some beautifully intact frescoes. The first ash encrusted negatives of humans were found in this house and plaster casts were made and are on display behind Plexiglas.

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We wander about the town and eventually come to one of the most famous of the Pompeii relics. The Lupanar (brothel) that is just steps away from the house of the very rich man…perhaps we know how he became famously rich? Or was it possibly a woman who owned the rich villa who ran the brothel? I’m sure the scholars know better than me but it just seems that a rich madam makes sense. An interesting thing about the very intact frescoes in the house is that they seem to be a menu of sexual positions. One postulation is that, since the city was made up of many different cultures and races of peoples, it was a menu of items for the person who didn’t speak the language of the day to be able to point at (kind of like going to a sushi restaurant for us non Asians) and make your desires known.

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After seeing this sight and very well preserved house, we headed back out into the streets and wind our way up to the center of town where no chariots were allowed (i guess the movies are wrong about the rich dudes riding along in a pack, street racing through the town square). There are blocks placed along the roads to keep the chariots and wagons out. Here were located the city municipal offices, the main shops, temples to the gods of the day and just generally the pulse of the city. Here we found many marble remains as well as a couple of the famous human casts and room after room filled with amphorae.

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There is so much more to this place than can be imagined. The ability to get lost in the ages of antiquity is understandable once you walk these roads and enter the houses of persons who lived before 79 A.D. One final note about the eruption of Pompeii; the historians now believe that it occurred two months later than originally thought. Why? They found a coin amongst the ruins minted in September, 79 A.D. they now believe that the eruption occurred in October and have checked calendars and are pretty confident of the date now. Just goes to show that you can learn something new after much study of it.

By the way, the rain quit and the sun came out about halfway through our tour and all those folks that bought umbrellas and ponchos now had to carry them. We only barked at a couple of people who couldn’t control their umbrellas.

Join our intrepid explorers on their next adventure…

BFD

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