Blogs from Pompei, Campania, Italy, Europe - page 12

Naples and Pompei, that's the tour we went on today. It was by coach with as Nic puts it a bunch of old people. I'm not complaining though, it was one way to see something that we wouldn't have seen other wise. Naples is the capital of it's region in Italy with seemed to me a port for major import, export. The tour included lunch at a traditional italian restaurant. First was pasta, then salad with pork. Grapes for dessert. Pompei for those of you who are interested is a city that was built by the very wealthy a very long time ago. Right next to it is an active volcano but sleeping. It had erupted around 700 bc so they didn't know there was a city there until 1700 bc. They are excavating to this ... read more

The history of this city is pretty sad. But it's impressive how much they were able to recover. This place is huge and they're still digging. ... read more

Bet you thought we had dropped off the face of the earth...Is anyone actually reading this thing anymore? As we sit in our air conditioned room in our hostel in Barcelona, it's easy to look back on Italy and see the things we didn't enjoy - massive crowds of tourists, mopeds nearly taking our life in a crowded market, a lady on the bus getting her purse snatched - but there were plenty of great sites too, Pompeii being undoubtedly the highlight. On the 24th August 79AD the nearby volcano Vesuvius erupted and spewed ash all over Pompeii. After many years of excavations you can now walk through the town and see how the people of the time lived. The first thing to strike me was the size of the place - it's comparable to the ... read more

The ship docked in Naples and our internet directions for today were perfect. We found our way to the Circumvesuviana train station easily and purchased our round-trip tickets to Pompeii… we were there before 10am! Train tickets - 3 Euros… Guidebook - 8 Euros… Audioguide - 6.5 Euros… Admission - 22 Euros… experiencing Pompeii in person… Priceless. We were both shocked by how well-preserved the ruins were - whole walls and buildings with paintings on the walls and mosaic tiles on the floor! The town is large and we explored all day. The civilization in Pompeii was incredibly advanced and lived over 2000 years ago. The architecture is marvelous and the large structures (theatres, amphitheatre) are awesome. Building materials included a mixture of brick, stucco, cement and marble. The bath houses were incredibly ornate and the ... read more

Our trip is quickly winding down to an end and we can't believe it. Though it seems like years ago that we were in England, I can't believe that soon we will be back in the states. Currently we are in Naples in southern Italy. This city has a reputation of being the mafia capital of the world and they tell you that if you are in downtown Naples then you are not to go out at night at all. They also warned us not to buy anything off the streets from people because they will give you a box and when you later open it you will find a brick in it instead of the thing you bought. The city is also much dirtier than any city we have been in. There is trash ... read more