Pompeii

In order to get to Pompeii, we had to drive through Naples. OMFG, what a nightmare! Scooters cutting us off, talking on mobiles while riding, trucks cutting off busses cutting off bikes cutting off cars. It was crazy!

Luckily our campsite wasn't too far off the main highway because to be honest, the whole place felt like one big ghetto in 'a lock your doors while stationery' kind of way. In the end we made it in one piece around 3pm which gave us plenty of time to settle in, go grocery shopping and spend the night recovering from the drive with a few beers.

We got up early the following morning to go and see the ruins of Pompeii, which was covered by ash and dust from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. It's a bit of a misnomer actually. All the tourist books advertising Pompeii show an erupting volcano with larva shooting out the top. Of course larva would have destroyed everything in its path instead of preserving everything perfectly (as is the case with the ruins of Pompeii).

Alice is usually pretty good at with directions but when she said the ruins were just across the road, I figured she was purposely underestimating the distance because it was such a hot day. Nope. The ruins were literally a 100 metres away from our campsite. Sweet.

We decided to go on another guided walking tour because we figured it would be the best option, especially considering how good the other ones had been. We teamed up with an American family to bring down the per-person price enough to make it worthwhile. Our tour guide was a really nice old man who had some pretty funny stories but ultimately taught us nothing we didn't already know (except for his description of the brothel which was pretty funny). And he even short changed us because although the tour was supposed to go for 2 hours he wrapped it up in just 1 hour and 20 minutes. It sucks too because this was one of the things Alice had wanted to see since she was a little kid :(

Our tour guide

Greek and Roman contributions to Pompeii Architecture

Notice the grooves caused by chariots over many years

Stepping stones for when the streets flooded

One of the main streets

 

Sexual Position No.1 from inside the brothel

Sexual Position No.2 from inside the brothel

Sexual Position No.3 from inside the brothel

A bed inside the brothel

Preserved body of a man who died in the eruption

Preserved body of a dog who died in the eruption

Preserved body of a person who died in the eruption

Preserved body of a pregnant girl who died in the eruption

Tiled floor

Alice making sense of the map

Looking out to the entrance of the ruins