After the rough edges of naples, it was amazing to get out of the city. Pompeii was nothing like i had expected!
In 79AD the roman resort town of pompeii was buried in burning pumice stone, mud and slurry when Mount Vesuvius exploded. I had expected a few buildings and a temple remaining, but pompeii was amazing, the town is roughly at least 2km squared, and we spent 4 hours wandering and didnt see it all. It was huge, a few buildings are shut for restorations but the majority is open. There are cobbled streets leading around the town, and restuarants, bakeries, houses and temples can all be clearly seen. Alot of the houses were painted on the inside, and alot of this also remains (some at the site and some at the archeological musuem in naples). There is an amazing town square, amphitheatre and stadium to visit, andyou can walk inside alot of the houses.It really was like walking back in time. All the while, mt Vesuvius still towers above.
Many of the earthenware, jewellery and statues were uncovered and are on show or at the museum. There are also plaster casts os people and animals that were buried. When they were digging, the found that because the bodies had been there so long all that was left was air pockets, so when they discovered these pockets they pumped them full of plaster, let them set and then could retrieve whole bodies. They are a little scar to look at, one you can see its mouth open with teeth in it. the ones we saw are curled up and its easyto imagine what it would have felt like to be buried just by looking at them.
In summing up, pompeii was amazing and i would recommend it to anyone willing to brave naples for the stoppver.
After pompeii, we had the late afternoon to go a little further south of naples. We got as far as sorrento, which is just before the beautiful amalfi coast. Sorrento is a town built on the coast, the view was amazing, with cobbled streets (ken, i pictured u driving the ferrari on these!) and restuarants and shops scattered. I had a really good gnocchi late lunch/dinner and then we had gelati (i had caramel..best icecream ever!) as we strolled around sorrento. I would have loved to go down to the amalfi coast but we ran out of time.
We have also tried the italian pizza at the supposed homeof pizza in naples. Its a really thin base with lots of tomato and cheese and a little salami or ham, it sounds simple but has loads of flavour and is really good.
Lauren- instead of japan, come to europe and we can get fat together again..gelati, pizza and ive discoveredreally good chocolate crossaints-really really good.
cathy-congratulations on your scholarship for belize. I thought of you jumping in the water to the hot springs at at santorini because i knew u would be there doing it with me if you there.we could have frozen together!yay.
