Today we were scheduled to head out to the ruins of Pompeii and we were alternatively looking forward to, and dreading, it. Pompeii has always been somewhere we were all interested in visiting, hence the excitement, but it was going to be 38 degrees with no shade, hence the dread.
This tour was also booked through Rome4Kids and were picked up outside our apartment at 7:30am by our driver, Massimo, who was a 7th generation Roman. He drove us up to Pompeii, a drive of 250km that should take about 2.5hrs. Massimo was friendly and helpful, but he did drive pretty slow (unlike most Italians) and we ended up taking about 3hrs. On the way we stopped for coffee and a croissant at a roadside stop - they even had vegan (no dairy) croissants for the boys so we were happy.
Ok, so some brief history of Pompeii - I'll keep it brief as most people know most of the story. Pompeii was founded somewhere in the 7th or 6th century BC, by the Oscans, and was conquered by the Romans in 80BC. It became an important Roman town and held a population of about 11,000 people until its destruction.
In 79AD, Mount Vesuvius erupted, one day after the celebration of Vulcanalia, the Roman festival for the God of Fire. The eruption released no lava, but instead threw a massive amount of pumice, stone and ash. This cooled in the air and landed on Pompeii and nearby Herculaneum. The explosion also released a pyroclastic flow when the side of the volcano collapsed. This was a wave of heat, over 250 degrees C (482 F) which caused instant death for up to 10km (regardless of shelter).
Pompeii was subsequently covered in 25m of volcanic tephra over 6 hours. The kids were surprised to learn that no-one was killed by lava or by being covered in ash - they were instead suffocated by the poisonous gases or killed by the wave of heat.
After the disaster the town was deserted and the fertile tephra became covered in natural flora. It was discovered in 1748 by accident, during the laying of a pipeline. Since then the town has been the site of excavations. So far several bodies have been recovered, but the technique is relatively new so in most cases the remains were removed without any preservation. The technique to preserve the bodies was quite interesting - the person died and was covered in a thick layer of ash. Over time, the body would rot away leaving just the bones and a hollow cavity in the shape of the body. In the early days these cavity were dug out and the bones recovered, however it was found that plaster could be poured into the cavity and then excavated carefully, this let a mold of the body be extracted intact and with a great deal of detail.
Outside the ruins we met our guide Giuseppe. He was really good and patient, but he had a rough job - the kids were pretty hyped up after spending 3 hours in the bus, and the heat made it fairly uncomfortable.
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| Looking out over Pompeii |
Pompeii was completely not what I expected - I thought we would see a field of ash with a few remains of buildings sticking out with preserved bodies where they fell. Instead it was a relatively complete town, with houses, a forum, bath house and even some intact murals. We only saw three bodies in a storage area, but our tour was tailored to make sure we saw as much as possible in the two and a half hours we had. The site is massive and there is no way we could see it. Fortunately, with a guide, we were able to hit all the highlights and hear about what function they all served.
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| This is the unexcavated area of Pompeii, showing what it looked like before it was discoverd |
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| Mount Vesuvius - plugged by solid stone, but currently considered active and still capable of erupting |
In the picture above, note how far away Mount Vesuvius is. Cameron had expected the town to be on the side of the volcano and we all definitely expected it to be closer, it was scary how far away it was.
When we were ready, we headed into Pompeii through the double gates. These gates were believed to be the Marine Gates, connecting Pompeii to the river Sarno. The entrance was rather steep, so these gates were never used for wagons.
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| The Marine Gates |
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| One of the honeycomb designed walls within the city - this allowed flexibility in the seismic area |
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| A ruined house just inside the marine door |
One thing that always surprised me in Rome was the technologies and tricks you didnt expect them to have at the time:
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| Use of quartz as cats-eyes to reflect light at night |
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| Looking into Pompeii from the Marine Gate |
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| Another ruin - the nametag is new and denotes "Region 7, Intersection 7" |
Guiseppe shows us the way to tell the difference between shops and homes. There were many shops near the entrance, all with counters near their entrances, likely to sell food to travelers on the street. You could tell the difference between a house and shop by the entry - the shops had a groove in the ground across the entrance that allowed a wooden sliding door so the shop could be closed up. Of course none of the wood survived being buried for 2000 years.
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| A shop with counter and groove |
Our first major stop was the Basilica or Justice Courts. This was where rulings were made and there were makeshift prisons under the area:
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| The Courts |
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| Wall of the courts |
Rome4Kids had an activity for the kids to do - placing a sticker of a Roman, who might have lived or worked in the area, on a map. For this area they stuck a judge down:
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| Placing the judge |
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Next stop was the Forum. This was the figurative centre of town, where most of the public life took place. It was capped at one end by the impressive Temple of Giove (Jupiter). It also appeared to have multiple levels, judging by the surviving columns and dividers:
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| View of the Forum from the courts (looking East from Basilica) - the holes beneath the pillars housed 2nd floor support beams |
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| Columns in the Forum |
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| The Forum - the statue is a recent addition and not one recovered from the site (Mount Vesuvius in the background) - looking North |
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| East side of the Forum |
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| Remains of columns in the Forum |
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| Mount Vesuvius rises silently over the remains of the town it destroyed, like the Grim Reaper. But is it poised with scythe to strike again? Ehem, sorry, brief attack of poetry there. |
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| Ruins of the Temple of Giove (Jupiter) |
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| Consulting the map for the next sticker |
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| Posing in front of the Temple |
Next stop was on the Northeast side of the Forum, the Marcellum - an indoor market that mostly sold food. There was a well preserved wall mural showing standard life in the Marcellum, as well as a central circle where fish bones had been recovered.
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| Central area of the Marcellum |
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| Mural |
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| Mural showing food vendors |
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| Marcellum |
Our next stop was a storage and display area for the various things excavated in the ruins - such as the hundreds of amphora pots, statues and a few of the bodies:
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| Storage area |
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| Body mold of a child |
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| Amphorae |
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| More pots and the body mold of a slave |
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| Body of a dog that was chained up at the time |
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| Body of a older woman |
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| Recovered anchor and statues |
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| One of the streets of Pompeii |
Next stop was the baths. The kids enjoyed pointing out the similarity between these baths and the ones we saw in Bath, England. This building was really well preserved:
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| Entrance to the Baths |
There were separate female and male baths, however the female baths were destroyed when the roof collapsed, so the site has been taken over with a cafe.
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| Gymnasium - exercise area between the male and female baths |
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| Baths |
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| Statues and storage niches |
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| Murals |
Outside the Baths we came across another of the main roads, this one was heavily rutted by wagon wheels:
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| Wagon ruts - this was a main road into Pompeii |
Next stop was a large restaurant area - the holes in the counter originally would have held amphorae with food or wine:
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| Counter |
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| Tomas was convinced that this was a toilet, however it was likely a sink or storage hole |
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| Food pots |
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| Which sticker goes here? |
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| A mural in a house entry - literal translation - Beware of the Dog |
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| Back out onto the street and into the shadow of Vesuvius |
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| This was a pedestrian crossing - allowing people to cross over the streets that could flow with rain or sewerage |
We then were able to enter one of the houses:
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| House - this pillar stands where a basin was place to capture rainwater, which would fill the basin and then flow into an aquifer under the house. |
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| Murals |
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| Fountain in the house |
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| Floor mosaic |
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| Mural |
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| One of the original lead water pipes |
The people of Pompeii used a lot of lead pipes, however they were spared from the detrimental effects of the lead as the water they used had a lot of calcium, which formed a layer inside the pipes, insulating the water from the lead.
Next stop was a pizzeria. This area had mills for grinding the grain - originally pulled by donkeys (hence the stone floor instead of marble).
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| Mills and stone pizza ovens |
We then walked towards the theatre area. In doing so we walked down a long narrow passage that would originally have served both as a toilet for patron, but also for an entry area into the theater for performers:
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| Passage |
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| Ancient graffiti of a gladiator |
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| The theater - this would have been used for dramatic performances, not gladiator fights |
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| Stage area with trenches and areas where sets and backdrops could be changed |
We then headed over the amphitheater area where the gladiator fights would have been held:
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| Amphitheater |
That ended our tour of Pompeii. We headed back to meet with Massimo, who took us to a small pizzeria that had pretty decent prices. Kris had a calzone, I had a Neapolitan Pizza (since we were in Napals). Then we headed out to Mount Vesuvius.
We were driven up to the near of the volcano and given the option to walk the final bit to the summit. They've recently started charging to climb to the summit - 10 euro for anyone over 120cm, so it cost us 50 Euro (approx $100). It was a nice view, but I think the price was pretty steep. We weren't sure if we would climb due to the temperature, but since I'd paid 50 Euro, I acted the slave driver and forced the kids up to the summit. It was very hot walking on the ash and dusty dirt with no shade. I had expected it to be a short walk, so we left our water bottles in the car (BAD IDEA!) and it was about 38 degrees so we struggled a bit. When we finally reached the top they were selling small plastic cups filled with ice shavings and the juice from a single orange for 5 Euro ($10) each, or bottles of water for 3 Euro (they were 1 Euro at the bottom). We had no choice but to buy a couple of bottles, so they had a good scheme going.
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| Mount Vesuvius |
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| Former lava flows on the side of Vesuvius |
The views from the drive were pretty amazing:
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| On the way up |
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| Base Camp :) |
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| Walking up |
The crater of the volcano is currently plugged with stone but Vesuvius is still deemed active - there is still the potential of another eruption - the last one was in March 1944, and it had erupted more than 30 times since the Pompeii-destroying eruption of 79AD.
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| Crater of Mount Vesuvius |
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| Interesting rock formations around the edge of the crater |
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| Looking down into the crater |
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| Bottom of the crater - those trees will be in for a nasty surprise if it erupts again (but then again so will thousands of tourists..) |
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| Side of the crater |
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| Side of the crater |
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| Looking out from the top of Vesuvius |
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| View |
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| Us at the crater |
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| Us at the summit |
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| Small collection of buildings on the way back down |
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| Some recreations of statues found in the area |
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| Back through the lava fields |
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| Kris tried to get a photo of a giant head sculpture, but just got this reflection of herself |
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| Statue and lava fields |
The drive back took about 3 hours and, while the car had nice air-conditioning, it was pretty uncomfortable sitting in sweaty clothing for that long. The apartment was still hot when we got back, so we had long cold showers and sat on the kitchen floor and balcony to cool down.
