Naples and Pompeii

Good Morning Italy! Our first day in Italy we arrived bright and early in Naples or Napoli as the Italians call it. We had visited Naples Florida which was very nice so we were hoping for the best.



Naples is a fortified port with a big wall and tower to help defend it from attack. That was about the only thing cool about it. The port in Naples was one of the dirtiest, nastiest, seediest places I have seen in Europe. Trash every where. People trying to scam you on stolen goods. The traffic is crazy and you literally just have to run out into the middle of a busy street and pray they stop in order to cross the road.



Luckily we were here to see the active volcano Mt. Vesuvius and the long dead city of Pompeii. The volcano is a crazy thing to think about. It is still active. It is the only volcano to have erupted in the last 100 years and it has a history of very explosive eruptions. There are 3,000,000 people living in the immediate area of this thing. If you think Pompeii was the last we will hear about this area I would think again.



Pompeii did not disappoint. I had read about this place since I was in elementary school and was extremely excited to see it. This city was a bustling community around the time of Christ. They were known far and wide for their wines and goods. They were a rich community with ports all over the world. One day in AD 79 the entire city was covered with 26 feet of ash and that was the end of Pompeii.



In 1748 this city was accidentally rediscovered and the digging began. What they found was a city that was in great shape under the ash. The colorful frescoes and painted walls are still there. The architecture is really beautiful and the streets look like you could still use them today.



One of the craziest things we learned was that people who were suffocated and buried by this volcanic ash left behind a perfect impression of their last seconds on earth. The ash hardened around their bodies and as they decomposed they left a perfect mold of themselves. When the archeologists stumbled on these cavities in the earth they had the bright idea to pour plaster of paris inside of them. What they got was perfect plaster people. They literally have these just sitting around in a little caged in area.



We saw this poor fellow, a pregnant woman, and a dog on a chain. It was a bit sad. There were also lots of examples of the pots and cookwares they used during the period.

Here is an example of a store in Pompeii. The roof was added (all roofs collapsed under the weight of the ash). The outside of the store is painted and very cool.



Ryan did great in Pompeii, we let him run around on the street and he loved it. He's quite the adventurer.