My Italian Adventure: Rome and Pompeii

I set my alarm early for the next day. I wanted as much time in the eternal city as possible. I had a lot on my plate and had to be at Villa Medici by noon for the only tour in English. Since discovering that the continental breakfast costs money, my snacks also had to serve as breakfast. Granola bar in hand, I headed for the bus. Let's hope I could do the same thing as last night, but in reverse.

My little "bungalow."

 

I did like this little decoration on the way down from the hostel.

 I had a map from the hostel that I used to navegate to my first stop: Trevi Fountain. This required getting off at Barberini station. And I figured i might as well go by Palazzo Barberini as it apparently had a cool statue.

The first of many fountains.

Fontana del Tritone

 I thought it was a cool fountain, but not as grand as I was expecting. Was this all Trevi Fountain would be? I had seen some pictures, but perhaps it just looked big.

As I walked to Trevi Fountain, I thought that it wasn't located anywhere special. Down a lot of side streets and through some alleyways. Was google maps even taking me the right way? Maybe this wasn't as cool as I was expecting it to be. Perhaps I would be let down.

I wasn't.

Because of the sun, I couldn't rightly document its grandeur.

It was fantastic! Looking back, I would actually say it was my favorite part of Rome. I've always been drawn to water. That's why Lake Tahoe is one of my favorite places and why I chose to study abroad at a school right across from the beach. Even at the end of the trip, when I reflected back, this was at the top of my list (tied with the Roman Forums as decrepit and ancient things are also a love of mine).

Random old columns attached to a more modern building.

A short walk away was the patheon. Since it was on my list of things to see, and everything was going quicker than expected, I figured I would stop by. And now that I was starting to get more in the heart of the city, everything was beautiful.

These fountains were all over the city.

The Roman Patheon is one of the best preserved buildings from ancient Rome. Right now it is used as a church dedicated to Saint Mary and the Martyrs, but originally was used to worship more ancient gods.

Patheon and the Fontona del Patheon

Closer look at the fountain base.

Felt so ancient and historic to see this in front of it.

And since it's a major historic sight, someone has to peddle cheap souvenirs by it.
Trevi Founatin had one of these too.

The interior was small, but still astounding. I didn't know it was a church at the time and was expecting more of an old fashioned worship temple for the gods.

I didn't spent too long int there as it essentially was just a room. Now pretty much all I had left on my self-made day plan was Spanish steps before Villa Medici. I had to find more things to do. I did want to see the third-longest river in Italy (like I said, I like water), and so I decided to make my way over there. I followed google maps, but also took side trips whenever I saw something interesting to explore. There is so much in Rome, that you can barely walk anywhere without seeing a really cool building or giant fountain. I had no idea what I was seeing nor what the historical significance of it was. It simply looked nice and I happened to run into it.

I loved all these tiny fountains scattered around the city.

Oh good, I found a sign. So apparently that's what the building is with the fountain in front of it.

Another sign. What's this for?

Apparently for this. Cool.

I didn't find a helpful sign this time, but lots of tourists. Must have been significant.

I just did an Internet search for "cool building in Rome with big fountain in front of it" and apparently this is Fontana dei Fiumi (The Fountain of Four Rivers). Wikipedia has a page listing all of the fountains in Rome, which has now become a very handy resource.

Apparently fountains back then were used for people to get water before their was plumbing available in homes. They were also monuments to papal patrons. Oh the things Wikipedia can teach you! That explains why I saw so many.

Along with fountains being popular, military police were in abundance. I've never been anywhere so well patrolled. The police in the UK and America seem a lot less threatening than these guys.

I found another fountain nearby that one. They were in the same location (Piazza Navona), but I am not quite able to figure out the name of this one. Pretty, though.

After finding some cool fountains, it was time to finally see the Tiber River (Fiume Tevere). I knew it would be pretty, but had no idea just how pretty it would be.

I like taking pictures through trees. I think it adds something.

For those who would like a tree-less view of the Tiber River.

The cool building across the Tiber River.

The other building.

I tried looking it up and even routing along my location to it. But nothing. I have no idea what this big important looking building is. I just know that it is looks cool.

Statues alongside it.

Cool church.

Another fountain.

There are some other perks of course to adventuring by yourself. If you're in Rome, others may want to focus on the famous buildings and historic areas. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy this. And I saw plenty of it during my trip, as you can see in the above photos. But sometimes there are more modern pleasures in life as well.

Disney always welcomes you.

To be fair, it was a little cultural. The store was themed to fit Rome and all of the talking toys spoke in Italian (I checked). Even the Disney music and scenes playing in the background were Italian. So there was a little bit of culture there, just perhaps not as much as you would find in the Roman Forums, for example.

Roman statue done Disney style.

Very Roman. Clearly.

Donald Duck as a Roman behind giant Mickey tsum tsums.

Even the ceiling

A very old and historic mosaic.

There were some other cool Roman designs, but I don't want to fill too much space with the Disney store. Sarah has rubbed off on me and so I may have gotten a little excited. Plus I'm a camera happy tourist (for the blog, mainly) and that isn't always a good combination.

I did continue to wander some more. It was fun taking the long way to the Spanish steps and just getting caught up in the uniqueness that was Rome.

Some deeper meaning to this? Or a Roman oddity?

I think these guys were meant to display their clothing collection.

But eventually I did make it to the Spanish steps. Without realizing I made it to the Spanish steps. I figured that it would be a "you'll know it when you see it" type thing (as with Buckingham Palace), but in this case I did not realize I was staring at it. Instead, I was very enamored with the fountain in front of it.

There were also palm trees and it was warm. So in my mind this looked like a scene from Southern California. Soon enough, I realized where I was. But in my defense, the stairs were under construction and didn't look particularly grand. That was the problem with visiting in the off-season for tourists. They take that time to fix everything up.

Nonetheless, it was the Spanish Steps and I wanted a picture.

Although most people might ignore the little things, when travelling alone, you are hyper aware of everything. So I have pictures of the tiniest and strangest of details. Including the world's oddest trash cans. Or rather, hoops that hold a bag for your rubbish.

Seriously. LA vibes anyone?

Climbing the Spanish steps.

I'm sure it would be even cooler to walk there though.

Stood on my tippy toes and stuck the camera behind the glass to get this photo.

Stupid off-season construction.

This is supposed to look far more impressive. In fact, that was the girl from Belarus' suggestion to me. Get a cheap bottle of wine, some prosciutto, and sit on the Spanish steps watching everyone. A little more difficult to execute when I was there though. Not that much room to walk so I would no doubt be bothering some people.

At the top was Villa Medici, but it was an hour before the noon tour. I decided to wait a little. look out over Rome, and eat some almonds for lunch. Plus, water was needed as it was actually really warm there and the only jacket I had was my warm one. If I took it off, there wouldn't be anywhere to put it as it is quite bulky and my travel backpack extremely small. So I suffered and drank tons of water. But therewas a good view.
 

While I was here, a man tried to give me a rose. He was very pushy, and so I just took it. But it wouldn't be like London. This time he wouldn't get a penny out of me. When Jason was handed the flower, he just handed it back when they asked for money. This one was a little persistant. He allowed me to hold onto it for a bit. Imagine how nice a shot of me by Rome with it would look. But I think this photo looks good enough without it.

He did offer to take my phot, but like hell I was giving this beggar my camera. I'd never see it again! Instead, I used my usual trick. I wait for another tourist. They are identifiable by cameras along their necks, travelling in families and looking around, speaking something other than Italian, or generally just have a sense of wonderment about them. They are surprisingly easy to spot. I get now why pickpockets have such an easy time plucking them out of a crowd.

But they are the ones who took this photo. Right in front of the beggar too. Sorry dude!

I did give my money to a more deserving gentleman. Outside the area by the villa were many street artists. I was attracted by the stunning watercolors by this man.

He spoke to me in Italian initially and I was able to hold a small conversation with him using some Spanish I still remembered from high school. I was very proud of myself. But I did have to use English in the end when I asked hom for a photo. He seemed flattered. Or just used to it.

After that, I decided I would just buy the ticket in case they went quickly. It was still an hour away, but I needed something to do with my time.

It also gave me the chance to use the toilet. Pro tip: ALWAYS take advantage of a free toilet when travelling. They aren't as easy to come by in America. You can't always just walk in a Starbucks without ordering anything. And there aren't even always Starbucks. Italy would be quite offended by one, I'm sure.

It turns out it was also a good idea to get there early as there was a Balthus exhibit I could visit before the tour. He was the painter hired by the family and many of his works were on display. I don't know if photos were allowed as there was security everywhere, but I did get one.

Then up the stairs we could see the rooms of the villa, only some of which we were allowed to take photos of.

Why are the stairs always so windy in Europe? But you can see I was
quite high up and had to climb a decent amount.

The photos that I could take did not have the best lighting and so they didn't turn out the best. There were bedrooms there as well.

Salon de Musique (Music Salon)

The cafe in the villa. You could order stuff here.

Many teapots.

There was a couch near a balcony view of the city where a group of Italians were quite happy to sit and enjoy the view. I felt bad asking them for a picture, but it was incredibly scenic and in the end they really didn't care.

I would love to live in this villa just for the views.

At long last, it was time for the tour. I had learned about the Medici family in my art history class last year at SSU. They are a huge name in art and this villa was used (apparently still being used) as an art academy. But not just any academy...The French Academy. It's quite a famous one.

Random head statue in the gardens.

Damn off-season...

I was most looking forward to the facade facing the garden. I had googled images of it and was quite enthused about the prospect of seeing it in person. It was stunning! But what I got to see instead was lots of metal scaffolding. I won't pretend I wasn't disappointed, but at the end of the day I was still in Rome and still got to see the rest of the gardens. I chose to focus on that instead.

And seeing the man polishing the marble fountain was a little funny to see.

Imagine it all looked as cool as this bit. Or google a picture for yourself.

 You weren't allowed to see the gardens on your own. It HAD to be on a tour. I don't think this was a money making tactic, but rather a way for them to secure the gardens from being tamered with. There was a lot of old stuff there and since it was so maze-like, it would be difficult to overlook it all.

 

This is a statue of Dea Roma, or the goddess Rome.

She dwarfs all those who stand below her. An interesting thing that the guide told us was that the sphere in her hand did not represent the world, as they believed it to be flat during those times. Instead, it represented perfection as there is no beginning and no end.

This is a statue of the goddess Niobe and her children. As punishment for bragging about having so many children, the god Leto (I think) killed all of them. Pride is a sin often punished during those times. The goddess herself was turned into a weeping rock.

We were then let into the plaster room. This is where many recreations of famous statues were made out of plaster for learning purposes of the academy.

We were also shown what I believe was the music room. It has a painted ceiling with many different birds. We weren't allowed pictures, but the guide did inform us that it was insteresting as it had a turkey. Those are not native to Italy, but were brought back from the Americas.

Outside the music room. The best I can give you is a bridge.

 I just loved walking through the gardens in general. Things might not have been in bloom, but there were plenty of cool statues and shrubs to keep me interested. And without bloooming things, it seemed older and more decrepid almost. With black moss covered stones and vines.

Silly selfie time. Beard envy.

 And the view, once again, was incredible. Soon I forgot all about that simple facade I had wanted to see so bad. There was so much more to this place. And my art nerd got to geek out a bit. (Wasn't one until I took that class.)

The next stop on my list was to see the Roman Forum and the Colosseum. The Colosseum has it's own metro station and square dedicated to it. It's pretty massive, but what I don't know if people do, is look around them. It's quite interesting around the Colosseum as well.

But yes, I think this is what most people come to see. And yes, part of it was under construction.

I decided to start with the forums and then make my way over to the Colosseum. On the way, I did see a great many things, some of which were unitended and part of me getting lost. However, the first was this impressive arch.

Such a beautiful city.

I mean, dang!

 At this point, I was heading to what I thought was the forum, but little did I know that I was completely wrong. The sides looked old and were covered by a gate, and so I didn't think I could possibly be going anywhere else.

But instead, I came across a quaint little church. It wasn't the forum, but a lot of people were making their way up this giant hill to get here (part of why I thought it was the forum, but I think also a lot of people made the same mistake I did).

It was a nice little church, but I really couldn't see going out of your way to take a look at it. There's always the possibility that there was some huge historical significance of it that I missed, but that's the problem of exploring a city without a tour guide. You know the obvious stuff, but not the little things. And if you're uncultured like me, even some of the obvious stuff isn't obvious.

But eventually I was able to correct myself and navigate to the proper entrance to the forums. It was quite a ways off from that little church.

Jason had advised my to give at least two hours to this, and as soon as I entered I saw why. It was HUGE! A vast, endless expanse of ruins without a path to follow. You pretty much had to find and explore as much of it as possible.

I started with Palatine Hill. Apparently in the ancient days there was an aquaduct, and this arch is one of the remnants from the later restoration of it. According to the sign, the aquaduct was fed by a spring in the upper Aniene valley, supplied by the Caelian hill before reaching the Palatine. So it had quite a journey before reaching it's destination, where it would then be dispersed into large collection tanks and from there an even larger network of distribution lead pipes.

This was at the top of Palentine Hill. People on TripAdvisor said this hill was a climb, but I thought it was pretty easy. I don't know. I'm used to hiking up mountains.

It truly was like stepping back in time. Words cannot describe the amazing sensation of being completely and utterly surrounded by ancient ruins. Also, it was quite hard to imagine that these ruins were once a fully functioning city. And scary to think that at one point our modern city might one day be visited by future generations and looked upon as ruins.

This part of Palentine Hill fell victim to the fire of 64 A.D. Brick walls survived that were once part of grand private houses. Excavations show marble pools and grand mosaics. Those are not kept here anymore and likely are housed in museums. But the brick wall that survived and was turned into shops can be seen (pictured above and below).

Now it was time to leave Palentine Hill and enter the Roman Forums.

Always fountains in Rome.

These are the rooms of the Domus Augustana overlooking the Circus Maximus. According to the sign, "These rooms overlook the porticoed courtyard on the underground level 10 meters below, which hosted private apartments still accessed today via an ancient staircase. There are also the remains of a suite of rooms arranged symetrically and with the typical recesses for triclinia (couches). Each room opened onto a semi-circular courtyard, adorned with a fountain and communicated through doors with the porticoed panoramic terrace, which closed the facade of the palace on the side facing the valley of the Circus Maximus."

I just thought that set the scene very well. And you would never know just looking at it.

Looking over at Circus Maximus

 And if you zoom in reeeaaaallllyyyyyy far......

...farther....

Awesome statue. Just look at those details!

 Back to the cool ruins.

I thought this one was especially impressive as you can see the roof and actually
picture it as once being a house.

  

Made extra large for a good view of the statues.

 

I got really goofy this trip....

 

The exit was on a very different side than the entrance and led me to a cool discovery. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  It is apparently a very sacred space.

It's an incredibly large tomb.

It's guarded as well.

On the way back to the Collosseum, I found some more ruins. 

And then had another view of the forum.

Then another forum altogether. This one is the Forum of Trajan.

And then the Forum of Augustus. No escaping these ruins where I was, I suppose.

 I had a hard time finding the line, and then found out that despite the fact that it is open until 7, they stop letting people in at 3. I would have to come back another day (and pay for another ticket, unfortunately) if I wanted to actually go inside the thing.

But honestly? My feet were killing me. I had walked over 30 miles that day and hadn't sat down since 7 a.m. I was ready for dinner and bed. 5:30 is when all the old people eat. I can handle that. Back to the metro!

*snickers*

I hopped off one random metro station and decided to eat at some place around there. But nothing looked good and so I tried that tactic once more. This led to something much better. The inside was gorgeous and reminded me of fine dining, yet the prices were very reasonable all the same.
And my earliness paid off. For being the first customer of the day, I was given a free small glass of wine (which he later refilled).

Since I was the only one in Carlo's Pizza, it went very fast and the customer service was superb! I tried a four cheese pizza, which he served with a bowl of chili oil to try dipping it in. It was good, but a little spicy. And yes. I ate the whole damn thing. All I had eaten that day was a granola bar and almonds. I deserved this! And man, was it incredible!!!!

At the end, I ordered a capuccino, which he decorated very nicely for me. Like I said, the customer service was superb. And apparently he's actually been to California as well!

After that, I went back to the hostel to meet my new roommates. It was not two girls as I was told, but rather a couple my age from Australia. We got along extremely well and talked for hours that night. They were at the end of a tour around Europe with a touring company and were resting up before continuing around Europe on their own adventure.

Also, despite being 19 and 20, they were engaged and working on figuring out the wedding. They both had a lot of fun figuring out what Aussie slang confused me. For them it was just normal speech, but for me it was strange. Eventually they would start quizzing me. They call flip-flops thongs, which is one funny example.

Despite trying to get an early night for Pompeii the next day, I was up until practically midnight talking to them. But only having three people in a room did make it fairly intimate, and so it was a good thing we all got along so well.

The next day, I hated the sound of the alarm going off at 6:30 and wanted just to sleep some more. But the bus and metro take awhile, and then I still had to take a train to Napoli and another metro into Pompeii. So I needed to wake up early in order to make the most out of this day trip to Pompeii.

This is when everything went wrong. When I arrived at the train station, a very sketchy guy helped me buy my ticket with cash (I wasn't sure if he was an official helper until he asked for money for his service at the end). The machines would only accept cash, which made me panic as I realized I had no more. How would I make it back? The last thing I wanted was to be stranded in Pompeii.

I called my parents and asked if my credit card had a pin number (it didn't). That meant another trip back to the hostel as I stupidly decided I wouldn't need my debit card (which the machines also accept and which has a pin to get cash using). With slow buses and having a hostel at basically the other side of the metro, another hour and a half practically was lost. One of my hostel roommates did wake up and was very confused (which he would tell me later when I got back from Pompeii).

When I was back at the train station, I discovered that my ammendable ticket was only ammendable for an hour and that now I had to buy another one. Pompeii better be worth it. I wouldn't be getting there until around noon or one, and Jason said it closes at 4. I googled how long people take in Pompeii. Jason had told me to get there as early as possible so that I had the whole day. Now I was concerned.

Online reviews said that some people can explore the ruins for the whole day, but others just need a couple hours. This relieved me. After a train to Napoli and a metro to Pompeii, I discovered that they only accept cash. Thankfully I had gotten some with the debit card using the cash machine by the hostel. It was a smart move to go back. What was even better? They didn't close the site until 5:30 and so I would have plenty of time. I'll admit that I wasn't sure what to expect, but I purchased an audio guide (it had a map) and started to make my way in.

Along the way to the entrance, you could catch a glimpse of some ruins and see signs with little quotes on them. My favorite? Carpe diem.

You can see the path on the lower right corner.

Someone's house, probably.

It was nice to have the map, but unfortunately after the first couple of stops, I found it to be extremely confusing as not many things are marked and I am a terrible navigatior (directions confuse me, hense why I love google maps). So really, I only knew what I was looking at for the first couple of hours.

Despite this, I actually don't remember what this was, yet the map says it is the Dorico Temple (Tempio Dorico).

 I do rememer the next place, as it was very impressive. The Grand Theatre! The audio guide had reading from some of the plays that would be shown there, which really allowed me to put myself in the shoes of someone from Pompeii.

Special guests had front-row seats. Political figures were the typical occupiers of these. From a lot of my travel experiences, political figures were ranked a lot higher in ancient times compared to now when we go out of our way to mock them.

Although there were fenses and gates preventing access to some places (which took away some from the experience, but this is an ancient place and no longer the safest), but nonetheless it was stunning. I tried to imagine these buildings in their hay day, filled with people.

But then this had to go an erupt, killing all of the citizens.

Morbidly, I really just wanted to see the famous casts created from the molten lava turning the bodies into hard, ashen statues. There was a specific place circled on the map for them, but it was quite a way away. Until then, I hit some of the other highlighted sights.

One of these was the bath house. I initially thought, "Wow, this looks like the Roman Baths in Bath!" before catching onto just why that was a really stupid thought. Happens to the best of us?

Basically the same interior design, but less fancy.

But to be fair, this one did survive a volcano eruption.

The little square rock things I saw all over Bath's baths.

Some surviving wall art.

Surprisingly, even some of the color has survived the years and lava.

I next stumbled upon the brothel. This definitely isn't what you expect to see when you visit Pompeii, but sure enough there was a thriving sex industry. Apparently Pompeii was not a sophisticated city, but rather the Las Vegas of Italy. This apparently was just one of many brothels. For their more nervous clients, they even had paintings along the walls to suggest positions.

Innocent enough on the outside.

But ancient porn on the interior.

Not sexual.

This might have meant fertility. Symbolic of something at least.

Don't worry. They put real mattresses on the rock.

And a toilet in the back. 

I think the brothel was my favorite part because it was so unexpected. I've always viewed Pompeii as being a dignified and ancient city that sadly met it's end when Mount Vesuvius erupted. I saw it as a city of sophisticated culture and people. No doubt there was culture and it was a tragedy, but it wasn't the high class society I always expected it to be.

These were houses where real people lived their lives. Now it is a museum for people to walk through. There was a certain mental block that I had to get past. So easy is it to view the rubble as just stones and rocks and distance yourself from the reality. But I forced myself to remember that this was a thriving community that all died together. One day it was buisness as usual, they went to sleep, and then never woke up. As the largest group of casts (dead bodies forever encased in ash and essentially turned into sculptures of the people) were people asleep, I assume this is how the majority of them went. But the audio guide I used didn't focus on the end, but rather the life before.

Most everyone comes to Pompeii with the morbid desire to see the dead bodies we learned about in school. People are drawn to disaster and ruin. But what the society here wants us to remember is not their tragic end, but rather their culture before it all died. 

There were water fauntains scattered all around, much like in the city of Rome today. Coming here after spending time in Rome allowed me to fully appreciate the similarities between the two. ANd there is no better way to learn the history of a place than literally walking the ruins of the old city itself.

There weren't many casts, which I thought was another indicator that they wanted us to focus on the life before rather than the ultimate death.

The Forum

 This was the main square of Pompeii. The hub of the city. This is where they would shop, worship, and generally live their lives. Like the city centre of Swansea. Or the downtown of Novato. Imagine this full of life. Full of horse drawn carriages, people gossiping in the streets, and children running around and laughing.

The life of the city juxtaposed byt the very thing that destroyed it. My favorite
picture from the ruins.

 The last two photos showed the main place of worship. The Temple of Jupiter. Then the Temple of Apollo when the Romans invaded. This was the main temple of Pompeii.

The following is the Building of Eumachia, which might have been a wool market or just a general place to sell goods. It was financed by the preistess Eumachia and even had a sculpture to show its dedication to her.

The entrance

The vast interior. Could easily sell many goods to the citizens.

In the back is a replica of the statue of the priestess that used to stand here.

The ropes and barriers did take away from the image of ruins some.

 Leaving the forum, I was ready to see some bodies. That's what I came here for and I admit I was a little frustrated by not seeing them. I had a map with them circled on it, but it was an incredibly difficult map to follow. Halfway through I couldn't even use most of the audioguide as I was often confused as to where I was.

At least my questo to find dead people was interesting. I found the ruins of a wealthy family's house.

Again, a replica of the original statue. Many of the originals were in a museum
in Napoli.

I was always amazed at how much color has stayed throughout the years.

Wealth just becomes ruins in the end.

How the garden might have looked.

Again, a replica. They even removed the original mosaic to display in Napoli.

Perhaps there were palm trees in the garden of the rich in ancient civilzations?

Their home is now open for visitors to enter and see at their leisure.

I continued on my way, trying to follow the audioguide to the best of my ability. There was so much more to this city than I could have ever imagined. Throughout the houses were little food areas, where people could stop off to buy a meal. Like Tesco Express, but with ready-made stuff instead of ingridients.

Storage pots.

Where they would keep the prepared food and serve customers from.

Reenacting my role as a deli clerk in ancient Pompeii.

 It was easy to see who had money and who didn't. Instead of shabby little squares, the rich had large, opulent mansions.

So colorful.

Ancient fancy furnature.

The rich also had gardens.

And skylights. 

 This next building was the Fullonica of Stephanus. A.K.A. The Laundry of Stephanus.

This is a workshop where people would go to spin wool, weave wool, and make fabric. Of course, it's also where they would go to remove dirt and stains from fabric, much like modern day laundramats. People would drop off their clothes here for the workers to clean. 

Either for washing or dyeing fabric. Not sure which as both were done.

 Cleanliness standards were different back then, as animal or human urine was one of the ways in which they cleaned clothes as it is an alkaline substance. Camel urine was the best, and was therefore imported for use.

 The lives of the people of Pompeii were not so different than our own. Which is why visiting this site made me appreciate the tragedy so much more. A whole culture. A whole civilization. Ruined in one night.

I would have these deep thoughts...and then get distracted by a dog. Perhaps the ancient Romans had dogs roaming their streets as well. Guarding houses and begging for food. They did own dogs, and so this is not much of a stretch. Though what dogs are doing here now is a mystery to me.

I then exited the city in favor of exploring the outskirts, where apparently the casts were.

The main entrance to the city. With a dog walking out

 This is the area by where the main road used to be, and where a current road still exists. Bodies were buried here both to keep the stench away from the main city and to display the dead to passerbyers on the road. Tpically the wealthy would be placed right by the road for all to see.

Among the tombs was this collection of statues.

And the rubble of what may have then been something great.

Large structures where the wealthy would be buried.

Wall between the road and the outskirts of the city.

I entered back into the city through a different entrance in order to find the casts. Appropriately, the anciant volcano loomed in the background, leading me to its devistation.

It's hard to express what it's like to witness the casts in person. They were bodies displayed behind glass, not unlike any other museum. Mummies, skeletons, and such were frequently shown to visitors.

But these casts were different. They looked like a dusty version of the real people when they were alive. Not skeletal remains, but closer in appearance to corpses. What was even more distressing was the fact that they were captured in their last moments before death. This is really what they were doing before molten lava stopped them in their sleep.

It can be fun to think of Pompeii in the same way that we think of action movies. But these were real people, not actors and fake blood. Here they showed a family asleep with their baby. This is what really got to me. A child brought into the world only to leave it so quickly. You don't think about that part of Pompeii.

I stared in silence, taking pictures so that I had something to do rather than just stare. The camera lens offers a filter between me and what I'm seeing, which took some of the emotional edge off of it. I could focus on framing the shot, rather than the fact that the shot was a dead baby.

It was hard to leave the section once I had arrived there. As mentioned, I was quite frustrated earlier by the fact that I couldn't find them. I was even FaceBook messaging one of my friends (the one who told me to go here) in an attempt to find it. But apparently he hadn't even gotten to see these.

But there was still more of Pompeii to explore before it closed down.

At the end of the day, this is a museum. And so there was an exhibit with some of the archiological finds. This, for example, is an old mural that was found.

But there were other things on display. Clay pots that they dig out when they discovered the site. It would hae been interesting to be an archiologist working on excavating Pompeii. Being one of the first to discover this ancient city.

Round adobe fastening messed from the "Ediface of triclinia." There is a restored version and an older one.

Next stop was the arena where the gladiators fought. This was the Las Vegas of Italy. So after they've had their booze and girls, they will want to see some shows. In this case, brutal fights.

Entering

I don't know what the triangle in the middle was for as this was a sport everyone would want to witness. But around it were seats for people to cheer, boo, and probably bet.

What's inside the pyramid?

Perhaps this was the fighting ring?

It was time to leave and start heading back to the entrance. And see another dog along the way. My friend also informed me there are some casts in the forum, and so I would stop off there first.

Still hard to find my way back in this city.

Oven?

I made it back to the forums. Apparently the bodies were in with the pottery.

When I went there, I saw something even more heartbreaking than the dead baby body.

A dead dog. He would have been so adorable in life. The ancestor of all the ones here today.

Nearby was another heartbreaking one. This person is sitting with their hands clapped together, presumably praying. They knew what was happening and didn't want to die.

And there was another dead baby.

But the sun was setting and it was time to head back on the train to Napoli for the train back to Rome. Plus I hadn't eaten, so food was in order.

Goodbye Pompeii. It's been great!

Well, I wasn't willing to venture away from the train station despite being in the pizza capital. So instead, I settled for train station food. I got some raw pasta to bring back and cook for friends in Swansea and for dinner went to this cafe.

Where I may not have made the wisest of choices.

Was a nutella cupcake the best thing to have when all you'd eaten that day is a variety of nuts? Probably not. But it looked so good!

So on the train back, I enjoyed this Italian delight. It was an easy trip back to Rome after figuring out the complex train system earlier in the day. And once back to my hostel, I was greeted by my Aussie hostel-mates. They wanted to hear all about Pompeii. As they had just finished up a European tour, they hadn't done much of anything. They're stay in Rome was for laundry and resting before exploring more of Europe. Very adventurous ones.

Part of what I loved about Rome was being able to come back to them at the end of each day. We became a nice little family. :)