A Lifetime Of Dreaming - We Made It To Pompey (Pompeya, Pompeii)

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Update:  Chatting with a friend, we had a discussion of how to spell the city name.  It's all over the map so I will leave the title as is and change the name throughout the post.

A comment before getting into Pompeii.  We have had a couple of Airbnb disappointments on this trip compared to all the other places we have used the service, Mexico, United States and Spain.  There are no written instructions in any of the places we've stayed.  It requires constant communication with the host and some take hours (according to their stated response time) to answer.

In Barrea, the wifi stickers are everywhere but the host said, "sorry" no wifi, have to use your android hotspot.  We have plenty of GBs so that isn't an issue but you paid for it.  

Here in Naples, it was specifically stated that there is a parking spot on site.  The day of arrival the host asked if we wanted him to reserve a paid parking spot.  Why?  Well the one available has no security and it may not be safe.  The day wears on and now, "you're on your own".  We went back in forth in Italian and Spanish to no avail.  Very few people outside a tourist venue speak English or Spanish.  He then asked to switch to WhatsApp.  Against my better judgement we did.  I did backup the conversation should I need it for proof.  By the end of the afternoon he would send messages asking if we liked the place and if all was fine.  I blew him off.  I cut the cord.  I won't give him an evaluation.  If I do, he will give me a negative one as well.  Never message with the Airbnb host via Whatsapp no matter how convenient it may be.  We've never had these issues before.  Anyway, on to Pompeii.

We took the 20 minute drive to Pompeii. The city opens at 9:00 a.m. and we arrived at 8:30.  As we were filling up with gas we asked the attendant a few questions on where to park, etc.  He has a paid parking behind his station which was less than half of what the others were.  His is offical and it is marked as such.  We walked the two blocks to the entrance and lined up. Less than 30 people were in line and all but four of us didn't have online tickets.  Many people paid online and many others bought a guided tour.  We do pretty well with reading the signs that are in English and Italian at each stop.  We also have a very good map which they give you at the entrance.  

My interest started in Pompeii when I was a sophomore in high school taking two years of Latin.  Stories ranged from Romulus and Remos, Dido founding Carthage, the Caesars, and Pompeii with famous people such as Mamia.  

We lost the tour groups in the first ten minutes.  We wanted the nitty gritty and we found it right away.  After all these years, we were finally walking the streets where Pompeians had once walked.  It gives  you a sense of how, in some ways, most of us are in significant and a few go down in history only to find out later they may not have been who they were reported to be.  

Monument to Apollo

Off of the main plaza (the Forum) was the Tribune.  Judges sat on the stage and listed the lawyers defending their clients.

One of the many streets lined with homes that people had lived in.

The first villa we walked into had an elaborately painted bedroom.  

This painting on the wall in the bedroom sends a message to people who misuse the internet and post risque pictures of themselves!  Some things will be there forever.  I don't know if the owners intended to share this with us almost 2000 years ago.  😅

Columns alongside the forum.  Very interesting to note that Pompeii wasn't the richest city at the time.  You see all the buildings public and private including columns in this picture.  They really weren't made of marble.  Even then, marble was hard to come by in this region.  Instead, they created a plaster made from ground marble dust and covered the brick with the plaster.

Here you can see an example of the use of the marble plaster.  Some pieces were made from a mold.

We enjoyed the first few hours on pretty much desolate streets winding in and out of the houses and public spaces.  By noon, the tour buses arrived and hoards of people began to flood the park.  We were very happy we chose to go early.  Many Asian and English speaking groups.  We were presenters for many years and we realize that each person adds their own personal touch.  In other words, quite a bit of exaggeration in some of the stories or I should say, ad lib.  

Streets, sidewalks, someone's kitchen, public bathhouses with painted frescos and statues.  All of this was buried under ash from the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius.  It wasn't the first time or the last but this was did in the Pompeians.   The ash that covered the city was up to seven meters deep, that's roughly 22 feet.  Excavations began over three hundred years ago slowly revealing life in that time.  Unfortunately, after the earthquakes, human beings did what they do today.  The city was ransacked of many valuable pieces, tombs were robbed and housed gutted.  

What you see of the bodies today are actually plaster casts.  After the ash had settle, decomposition began and left pretty much empty shells that were filled with plaster.  There are a few examples in the city but it is not what you find of the online pictures, many which were taken in museums.  However,positions of the bodies are original.  I can't imagine the suffering and I'm sure it was fast.

After all these centuries or actually 1946 years, one third of the city is still buried and excavations continue.  We saw afew places where archaeologists were quietly and obscurely working to restore a couple  homes.  There is another city, Herculaneum, nearby.  Those bodies were preserved by a lave flow versus the ash layers in Pompeii leaving skeletal remains.   

22,000 people live in Pompeii today.  It is a thriving small town on the perimeter of the city.  Many people who live there have excellent views of ruins and the cemetaries.  

Here is the part I was truly looking forward to.  This is a section of the city that will cost you 4 Euros more but well worth it.  It covers the necropolis where many of the upper-class and well-known Pompeians.   The tombs and the villas are very elaborate.  The homes and their painted walls and frescos survived the eruptions as they were in a lower area on the outskirts of the city.  They were buried deep in ash as well.  It may have been due to the quality of materials and paint. 

It is hard to believe that these walls have not been retouched in any way.

Here there is no imagining what people looked like, how they dressed or how they lived.

Complete with a full tiled floor undisturbed for 2000 years.

It's so surreal.  A true picture based on paintings and not statues of what we might think life was like.

We finished the day with over 17,000 steps.  A long day but we made our way through.  Too much to absorb but I would do it again.  I would like the three-day pass and go early during weekdays and do a couple of sections at a time.  We don't have a bucket list but this portion of our trip fullfilled a dream.  We have more pictures and several of all the cats that live in the city.