A Day in Kiersten's Italy Journal: Pompeii

I've already posted an entry from my youngest brother's Italy journal.  Here is a day from my sister's journal covering our day trip to Pompeii.  The pictures in this post are a mix of those taken by Kiersten and Magge.

The first time I ever read, or even heard about, Pompeii was when I was in second grade off a standard reading test. I just thought it was a made up little story about some small village in Italy.  As I found out more and more, I realized this place is not fictional, it’s real!  Pompeii soon made it on my list of Places I Want to Visit When I’m Older.  When I said “Older”, I was referring to when I was an adult, not a few years later. When I found out that I was actually going to Pompeii when visiting Magge and Jeffrey, I nearly wet myself.  I couldn’t wait to see this famous city.

Thursday, August 5, 2010
I went to one of the places on my Top 10 list - Pompeii.  It was utterly amazing.  I just thought this was a little town (well, ‘city’).  I mean, this was a city founded in about 600 BC, how big could it be?  It was HUGE.  It was bigger than huge, it was COLOSSAL.  Spending three hours in the city and we barely scratched the surface.  According to the guide, it would take a good two to three days to fully see everything the city had to offer.

The city was first hit pretty badly in 63 AD by an earthquake and was completely frozen in time fifteen years later when Suma erupted.  I always thought it was Mount Vesuvius that demolished the city, but according to the guide, it was actually Suma.  Suma was a lot taller and created Mount Vesuvius when it collapsed.  When we arrived in Pompeii, you could only see the base of Vesuvius because the top had a blanket of clouds covering it.  When the volcano erupted, it left the city covered in 21 feet of ash.  Much of the site is still covered in ash.  Pompeii was accidently rediscovered in 1748.  Since then, the excavation has given us much insight to what life was like back then.

Vesuvius, obscured by clouds, with an ancient Pompeii wall in the foreground

Entering Pompeii with our guide (far right)

I found Pompeii to be very high tech for the 1st century BC.  They had running water, heating pools, ‘fast food’ restaurants- OH my.  All the ‘organic’ material, such as food, clothes, etc., got burned away by the lava.  The remains are buildings built from terracotta bricks, lead piping, frescos, some pots and amphoras, etc.  The people who are trying to preserve Pompeii used red bricks to help keep the buildings standing.  They used the red to help the tourists distinguish between the old and the new.  The people also made casts of the bodies that got trapped under the volcanic ash - creepy.  While walking through the city, I saw a brothel, original lead piping, a ‘fast food’ restaurant, a bread making place, stores with sliding doors, the thermal baths, a ‘church’ (some open grass with some columns. If you close your left eye, then your right eye, you can easily see the church), the FIRST pedestrian walk way, a very cool amphitheater, and a wee bit more.  It was so cool!  I (as well as the rest of the family) got to see the authentic advertising for the stores.  In the amphitheater, there is one spot in the middle, and if you speak loud enough it will echo throughout.  No other spot would do that.

Kiersten taking pictures at the forum

2,000 year old ceiling in the bathhouse

The Tepidarium in the bathhouse

Gruesome

Crossing over stones that allowed people to step over the fecal matter flowing in the streets

Bakery

Well preserved mosaic

I learned quite a bit while I was at Pompeii.  I had no idea that “Pompeii” means ‘the fifth city’ in the Osci tribe's language.  I also learned that the civilians of Pompeii were no taller than four feet due to the lead piping and mercury paint.  Another bit I learned was that men got all the fancy things.  For instance, while walking through the thermal baths, the guide was saying they found out which side was the men’s and which sides was the women’s: the men had all the sculptures and had a hot pool as well as a cold pool; the woman didn’t have such a nice décor and only had a cool pool.  No wonder they didn’t sleep in the same room.  I learned so much while I was there.  As a little souvenir, Liam and I both took a little piece of porous volcanic rock.  Pompeii was absolutely breath taking.  I would love to go back.  Helping excavate more of the city is one of my many dreams.  It’s sad that this place was burned away.  I found it funny that a lot of the buildings were broken not because of the eruption, but because of the earthquake, and the people of Pompeii didn’t have enough time to rebuild them.  Pompeii is quite the city.

On a side note- there were quite a few dogs that were wandering around.  There is actually an adoption center, where you can take the strays home - yet another reason to go back to the frozen city.

The whole gang in one of Pompeii's theaters at the end of the day