Day 48: Pompeii

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The day dawned bright clear and hot as the Med often is and we headed off late to the ruins of Pompeii, they are huge and seem to stretch for miles. It is interesting to note that these ruins surpass the Roman Forum in Rome in terms of condition, whereas The Roman Forum were really ruins much of Pompeii is intact and you can almost feel the old Roman town bustling with life. There is a large Greek influence in the south and it comes to the for when viewing these ruins, this is a must do when in Italy. We spent nearly 4 hours roaming around until we found the 13 bodies that were excavated in 1960, plaster casts were made and the bodies lay now where they died in 79AD. The other interesting fact just come to light several years ago are some artifacts have been found in the area during recent excavations of tools and pots dating back to 4000BC so that makes the area more that 6000 years old in some form or another. Leaving the ruins around 6.00 we were in need of some famous Pompeii gelato, we found a cheap little Pizzeria called of all things the Empire that serves the best Gelato we have found so far in Europe and in fact our entire trip. Note that fellow Travelers, The Empire in the main street on Pompeii.

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