On our fourth day in Rome we took an early morning train south to Naples.  From there we took a local train and found ourselves at the ancient destroyed city of Pompeii, in the shadow of Mt Vesuvius. We spent hours walking around here.

One thing I really appreciated was that in ruins we have seen before like Ephesus and Pergamom, we were seeing the great buildings of the time.  Pompeii was an ordinary thriving city, covered in ash and preserved when Mt Vesuvius erupted.  Because of this, we got to see lots of amazing insights into daily life, like the fast food stalls (people would serve food from under the holes), the baths (with the most incredible preserved frescoes we have yet seen), the bakeries and the brothel (with a “menu” of available services in pictures!) as well as some of the bigger temples, a forum and theatres.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The site was huge – we walked for hours and still didn’t see all of it.  We used an internet guide off our phone – this worked well and meant we could go at our own pace around (and add to our cool picnic sites by sitting at the ruins).  One of the creepiest things we saw was plaster casts of people in their moment of death, made by pouring plaster into the holes where bones had disintegrated away.  We loved our day at Pompeii!  We grabbed some dinner in Naples before heading back to Rome…both Mums fell asleep on the train but I shall refrain from posting that photo!