Italy 12 - Pompeii

We woke up at 6am, made our first train, and missed our connection by about 30 seconds. Oh well, it was a local line so the replacement train was there in 30 minute anyways. The best part of the new train: It came with an accordionist. Some busker wheeled his speaker onto the train and I honestly contemplated pushing it back out the door as they closed... but I let curiosity get the better of me and he proceeded to bash his way through Italian classics and dance hits... decently well, but still, on an accordion at 7am. I did turn down his speaker when he wandered off to collect change which earned me a few sly nods, and after three songs he disembarked to entertain/harass another car.

Anyways, onto Pompeii!

Jupiter in the foreground, and I edited in the calculated size of the pre-eruption volcano in the background

Pompeii is wild. Same as the forum, it was only preserved because it's been buried for so long, but in this case the burial was so sudden and so complete that the preservation is so much better. I assume everyone knows the basics of Pompeii, but the photo shows a fascinating before/after of Mt Vesuvius. If you want to read more about volcanologists nerding out and arguing, check out the details here. Cool note: They're measuring these eruptions in cubic kilometers of ejecta. That's a massive amount, and explains how it could cover the town to height of 30 feet.

Our first, and essential, stop in Pompeii was breakfast, where we met this cat that really just wants chicken, and who wanders around the cafeteria all day, following the sound of rustling bags.  Then we proceeded to the town square. This was very impressive, but pretty ruined. The only thing that really set it apart was that it had intact toilets (with different sizes of holes, lol), and their temple of Jupiter had a Jupiter! Or a head, at least. Definitely cool to finally see Jupiter after seeing so many temples to so many gods sans gods. But overall, it was still about the caliber of the rest of the ruins we've seen during this trip. Heading to the basilica (local courthouse), things were a bit more together. Here we started to see more details that weren't visible in the other ruins. For example, the columns had a center ring of stone, and then bricks stacked around them so that their points protruded. This surface was then covered with stucco to create fluted columns that looked like they were crafted from marble, while being cheap and quick to build. The basilica had rows of columns that were only about 3 feet high. Not because they fell in the eruption, but because they fell in the earthquakes a year before the eruption. Turns out there were a lot of warning signs, but they didn't really know volcanos so they didn't know what they should worry about... until it got bad. And then most of them did heed the portents and evacuate, so it's only a small portion of the population that got entombed here. Fun facts of death and destruction!

After seeing the town center we went to see the baths (but they were closed), so we went to see some fancy house (but it was closed too), and at this point we sorta gave up on the suggested tour and just started wandering. Once we learned to recognize the hallmarks of various buildings we could identify them on sight: Marble countertops with inset holes for pots (a few of which were lead-lined and still watertight)? - restaurant. Small pool inside the door? Noble home. Domed rocks on the floor? Bakery. Frescos of scantily clad women? Brothel. And there were a lot of all of these. I believe the stats are 40 bakeries and 30 brothels uncovered so far. We also learned to look for the telltale signs of good ruins: Awnings. If something is so good it has to be protected from the rain, it's worth checking out. By this trick we found probably the best ruin there, the House of the Cupids. Frescos still on the wall, both artistic pieces and general pattern-work, much like we'd use wallpaper in a modern home. Tile floors, some mosaic, some patterned, and some just random.  There were gutters to collect the water from the roof and funnel it to the cistern in the center of the garden in the courtyard. The noble's home showed a high degree of craftmanship, disposable income, good layout, and to my surprise, mass production. After seeing several of the homes you start to recognize things.  That birdbath looks a lot like the one over there. This miniature obelisk looks exactly the same as the ones those brothers had. That carved funnel to catch the rainwater from the roof and make sure you don't step into the hole it drains through... that's a complex piece of work and it's identical to the last two I saw in other nobles homes.  This mass-production makes a lot of sense, I'd just never thought of it before, not this early, this specialized, and at this scale.

It was about this time that I realized the hill next to the road we were on, the hill with minor rubble sticking out... that was more of Pompeii, ruins that haven't been excavated yet, things being preserved for future archeologists with advanced techniques. Which meant there were probably bodies (or more accurately, the hollow chambers left by bodies when the ash and ejected cooled around them), just a few feet away from us, and we had no idea. While increasing crowds (and sinking land) mean I would recommend visiting Cinque Terra or Venice sooner, rather than later... For Pompeii, I'd advise later rather than sooner. They're going to keep uncovering, restoring, and increasing access so take your time. But definitely do it. Seeing the actual homes, in color, added a lot to our understanding of actual daily life for the ancient romans -  far more than temples and Cathedrals (which are still admittedly very cool).

At this point we were running out of time. We hadn't realized how large Pompeii was and how much fun it would be just to wander the streets. Oh! Speaking of the streets! They were sunken in, with sidewalks on either side. And for the crosswalks they used two larger stones, spaced so that a horse could walk between them, and wagon wheels could pass outside them. Very cool.  And why did people not want to walk in the streets? Well, basically, because they were sewers. They would wash the rubbish (and, well, sewage) out of the streets by uncorking cisterns at the top of the streets and letting it all flow downhill. This meant the streets had to be lower than their surroundings so none of that would wash into your home (or business, or bath, etc). Anyways, we decided we would hit the theater and the temple of Isis on our way out in our limited time left. The theater was an amphitheater, very well preserved, and decently large (300 seats?).  But when we walked around the corner we realized we had been in the small theater. They had a large field for gladiator fights and various sports, and next to that was the large theater, which must have sat a few thousand. All perfectly preserved, you could still hold a play there if they'd let you. The temple of Isis was fine, but it was all closed off, so we just speed-ran a few more noble houses and a bath or two on the way back to the train. 

The trainride back was unremarkable, except that after a day of using Vesuvius as a landmark for navigating the town I was locked in on it, and I couldn't help but notice how close modern Naples is...  What will future archeologists make of us? "And along this street, we have 10 shrines to the glass tablet. This God was the most important in the 21st century pantheon, and worshippers (nearly 98% of the population) would keep a miniature glass tablet votive with them at all times, and often wrapped it in decorative and protective coverings". 

On the walk back from the train station we noticed that the street near our apartment had been dug up to repair some watermains. And a few feet under the street, filled in with dirt and rubble, there was a brick arch, made of the same thin bricks that were used all over Pompeii. This entire city is just layer upon layer.  Dinner was good, my parents and I ate at the place next door to last night's pizza place, while Ethan and Hannah went out for a date night. After dinner we strolled down to the colosseum, just because we could (besides, we were only at 15k steps. That's low for us!). In doing so we noticed a set of ruins we hadn't seen before - the gladiatorial training school, right across from the Colosseum. We also took in the Arch of Constantine and the colosseum at night, all lit up, and walked through or past at least 30 various selfies or photoshoots.  Early night again tonight, tomorrow is the Vatican. After that... we fly home, and finally, I get to sit in one place for 8 hours. Even if it means catching up on emails and the real world, it'll be a nice break from the daily 8 miles and go-go-go.