Pompeii!

family selfie with the ship docked in Naples

Our last tour of this trip was Pompeii. The ship docked in Naples (Napoli if you're Italian!). Our awesome driver (Mario from http://www.visitamalficoast.com) picked us up at the port. Naples is about to host a giant athletic event like the Olympics but for collegiate athletes from around the world, so the city is almost in panic mode. The port is very secured, so much so that the drivers and taxis and buses can't get in. We found Mario and walked over to the waiting van where he whisked us about 35 mins away to Pompeii. Mario was awesome because he talked to us the whole way about what we were seeing. He also let us ask questions about the insane traffic and drivers. Does anyone have the right of way in Italy? By law, yes, but traffic laws are just suggestions. I truly do not understand how there aren't more accidents.

In Pompeii with Vesuvius in the background

The scenery on the way to Pompeii is really lush and green because of the volcanic material in the soil. We saw Vesuvius and heard about how when Pompeii was settled, the settlers had no idea it was a volcano because it didn't look like a volcano. It now has a volcanic look to it (flat on top) but at the time it was peaked and almost twice as tall as it is now (8000 ft vs 4000 ft now). Vesuvius has an eruption every 100 years or so with the most recent being during the 40s.

Another thing Mario explained that I found really interesting was that during WWII many Italian towns were "doubly bombed." They started out getting bombed by the Americans but when the Italians realized Mussolini was awful, there was a civil war in Italy. The Americans came in on the coast near Pompeii in a trial run for D-Day using similar tactics and helped the Italians. Then these towns that were anti-Mussolini started getting bombed by the Italians. So, like many things we've seen in Europe, in Naples you have really really old next to old next to post WWII construction.

Getting a lesson on Pompeii with our guide Lucio.

When we arrived at Pompeii, we met our tour guide, Lucio, who is with the Pompeii Archeological Society. He was very warm and friendly. AND he had an umbrella. Again the temperatures were in the upper 90s with not a cloud in the sky. I was really worried Pompeii would be miserable because there aren't trees really. But being nearer the ocean and not a big city, there was a nice breeze most of the time, and whenever we stopped, Lucio held the umbrella over us to tell us what we were looking at.

Pompeii was a city with roots dating back to 8th century BC. It had primarily Greek settlers until around 340 BC when the Romans arrived. It lasted as a Roman city until 79AD when it was buried by up to 20 feet of ash (not lava!) from Mount Vesuvius. It stayed mostly hidden and forgotten about until the 1700s when the Spaniards were digging around looking for proper spots to establish homes for their rulers. The excavation though didn't start in earnest until the 1800s. Even today they find new things that change the popular thinking about life in Pompeii. Our guide told us that as recently as last week they discovered something new about Pompeii.

one of the plaster casts, a mother trying to hold up the
collapsing ceiling and her baby at the same time.

Much like Rome, Pompeii is too vast to fully explore in the 2.5 hrs that we had, so we hit highlights. The first stop was a small museum like display of objects found in just one of the houses in Pompeii. We all found it fascinating. Some of the furniture inside, from 2000 years ago, was furniture some people today might have in their house. Elaborately shaped iron legs with white carrara marble tops. It also housed 3 of the famous plaster casts, which are models of the people of Pompeii just as they died. Since the ash was fairly light (lighter than soil) and inorganic, as people died their bodies decomposed and left cavities in the ash. Excavators filled those cavities with plaster, let it harden, and then removed the ash from around the plaster leaving "casts" of people. Seeing mothers trying to hold both the ceilings and their babies up was very moving. Lucio said that 70% of the people had evacuated Pompeii before the ash hit, but some stayed, either because they were unaware of what was happening or they thought it would stop as all other prior bad weather had eventually stopped.

Streets lower than sidewalk (far left)

The streets of Pompeii are a good 12-18 inches lower than their sidewalks. This is because to keep the streets clean, they ran water down them multiple times a day but people didn't want to walk all over wet roads all of the time. They have stepping stones at the intersections so that people could walk up above the water. The streets have white marble pieces placed regularly throughout the large lava stones because Pompeii was fancy, and they wanted to impress their visitors. The curbs have holes carved into places for people to tie up their horses. The engineering was fascinating everywhere we looked.

stepping stones across a street - all the same height.

Entrance to a shop, see the
track where the door goes.

Lucio pointed out how to tell if a building was a shop or a home. Shops have "tracks" in the front where the wooden door slid open and closed. He showed us two of the THIRTY bakeries in Pompeii. The flour grinder was fascinating. It consists of a ~3 ft tall pointed obelisk with a separate round bowl shaped thing on top. The bowl had 4 openings where a team of people or mules would be tied to it and walk round and round and round to turn the bowl which in turn grinds the flour. There were restaurants, which you could tell by the marble counters with "bowls" carved into them. The marble served as a kind of thermos to keep the food warm.

a bakery in Pompeii. This is the flour grinder.
They put poles into the square holes and tied
either slaves or donkeys to the poles and made
them walk round and round to grind glour.

Some of the buildings had multiple stories, which really surprised me! They can tell which buildings were multi-story by the holes in the top of the first level which were where the wooden support beams would be placed. Lucio told us that some buildings in the contemporary time to Pompeii, but in Rome, were up to 15 stories high!!! I had no idea.

mosaic around a fountain. 

Another interesting engineering thing that unfortunately I didn't get a picture of was archways built into walls. They did this because they would run a pipe inside a wall and then if anything got stuck in the pipe, without the arch they'd have to take down the entire wall to access the pipe. But with the archway providing support for the rest of the wall, if something needed to be done to the pipe they could just clear out the stone inside the archway and not destroy the entire wall.

The decor of the buildings, especially decor that is still around 2000 years later, was amazing. They have intricate and colorful tile mosaics both on floors and on walls - especially around their fountains. They also have beautiful frescos on interior walls. The market place must have truly been a sight to behold because it was in a giant square with stalls around the exterior. The stalls each had exquisite frescoes all the way up to the top - which was about 15 feet up. They had fruits, vegetables, fish, and meats all in this one market.

We went to see the temple to the ancient Roman gods, which was set-up with a perfect view of Vesuvius in the background. Almost as though they did it on purpose! The columns were built to look like marble but were actually brick inside. They then ground up marble and mixed it with plaster and spread it all over the outside to make it look like the columns were solid marble.

in the temple to the Roman gods with Vesuvius in the background.

Much of Pompeii had to be rebuilt about 15 yrs before Vesuvius erupted because a massive earthquake destroyed many buildings. So on many walls you can see a difference in building at a certain height. The top parts of many walls were built in the "modern" at the time way instead of the old way - which didn't really matter because then all walls were slathered with plaster - a very very thick (~6 inch thick) plaster that served as insulation.

in the garden of a rich person's home in
Pompeii. They didn't have enough space
for proper columns so they painted them on
the wall!

Our guide was very excited that a new exhibit was opened a week earlier than planned. We were his first guests to get to go in. It is an actual Pompeii home, from a very wealthy person. All homes were pretty much the same - a gated entry way with a large fountain at the front. You could tell whether someone was merely wealthy or extra wealthy by whether or not you could see the tops of the cisterns to collect rain water. If there was a cistern, they were only wealthy because they couldn't afford running water. This house was an extra wealthy house. On the interior each house had a main living area, dining room, kitchen, and bedrooms. The ceilings were really high to let the heat go up and also since the lighting was all candles and lamps - it kept the ceilings from turning black. The bedrooms were tiny. Think small college dorm room. At the back, each house had a garden with columns and usually another fountain. The house we went in didn't have enough space for a proper garden with columns so they painted columns on the fresco around the wall. It was really neat to walk around inside the home of someone that lived essentially the same time as Jesus. It was actually far more "advanced" than I would have ever believed. Of course this was one of the wealthiest people in Pompeii. 40% of the Pompeii residents were slaves. 45% were poor. 10% were rich, and then 5% were like the home we were in - extra rich.

Our final stop on the tour was the town square and the basilica. The town square was a vast open space. They were in the process of adding a second story all around when Vesuvius erupted, so you could see beginnings of that. The basilica was enormous. It started out as kind of like a government center - where they administered justice, where the price of goods was set, etc. It later became a place where the Christians gathered to pray. It was started in the time of the Greeks, and you can see that influence in the ionic, doric, and corinthian pillars (why on earth did we all have to learn that in elementary school???)

inside the Basilica. The low columns were damaged in the earthquake about 15 yrs before Vesuvius erupted.
They were in the process of being rebuilt.

Pompeii is a really amazing look at what life was like in an ancient civilization. Their tools and furniture were shockingly modern. Their money doesn't look that different than what we use. Their homes have the same basic structure as ours. And it sounds like their societies had similar issues to what we face today. I really enjoyed having such a knowledgeable guide - he definitely made the place come to life.

money found in Pompeii.

After Pompeii, Mario picked us up and took us to a pizza restaurant (which is one of his favorites, and he grew up in Naples!) where he had reserved us a table. Doug and the girls had GIANT pizzas and I had Sorrentine gnocchi. I should have gotten the pizza. It was delicious, but there was more than enough to share. My gnocchi was great, also, but the pizza was better. I just really really love gnocchi and never get it at home.

Pizza in Naples!! (well, outside of Pompeii, but authentic!)

Then we walked for our very last gelato (serious tears of sadness) and a coffee, which was extra tasty after a week of on-board coffee..... from there Mario drove us back to the ship.

our last gelato. we're crying inside.

We had most of the afternoon to just relax. The girls did stand up surfing on the flow-rider and both were surprisingly good (although not as good as the seasoned adults). We had formal night for dinner, where I had arancini for the first time ever - it is a battered and fried rice ball. Mine was mixed with mushrooms and served with a spicy tomato sauce. Holy deliciousness!!! I could have eaten thirty.

Everyone got their second dessert and settled in to our room in time to watch Le Grande Match - US vs. France in the Women's World Cup Quarter Finals. It was an exciting match and a big win for the USA! On to the semis!

Then we tried to sleep but our new neighbors next door tried their best to prevent it. This cruise is kind of strange in that half of us boarded in Barcelona and have a round-trip, and half board 4 days later in Rome and do their round trip from Rome. Our very quiet neighbors disembarked in Rome and our loud, party late neighbors arrived. Something shady is going on in there though because yesterday on our way to dinner some cruise employees were asking them for their photo ID and trying to determine who was actually staying in the room. We'll all do ear plugs tonight and be thankful that we fly home tomorrow.  Today is a rest day/day at sea where we'll try and fit in all of the last things we want to do as well as shove ourselves back into the 4 suitcases we came with in advance of our flight home.

another plaster cast Pompeii resident.

a view into one of the 30 bakeries of Pompeii

the rectangles along the top of the wall is where wood beams would go.

inside the Roman Temple with Vesuvius in the background.

Family cooking pizza in the pizza oven!

some of the building pieces look like legos!

another plaster cast. also in the back are the amphoras which are the vessels goods are shipped in.

a "beware the dog" mosaic!!!

a fresco in the dining room of a home

a fountain in the garden of a home.

the basilica of Pompeii

Family selfie - Naples lunch

Roma!

Our driver extraordinaire!

Whew this was a long day. It is also a long write up. Rome is about a 60-90 min drive from the port (Civitavecchia). We hired a private driver and guide for the day so that we could see as much as possible. The heat wave continued today, with the high according to my watch being 99 degrees at around 3pm. There were no clouds in the sky. It. Was. HOT.

Our driver picked us up at the port and drove us to the Collosseum where we met up with our guide, Maria Teresa Ferrari. Is that an Italian name or what?? Our goal for the day was to do a panoramic tour of Ancient Rome since both girls have studied it in school and then to see the Vatican Museum, Sistene Chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica. We were aiming to finish this with enough time left to get gelato before a 4pm pickup for our drive back to the ship.

We started by looking at the Victory Arch, which is Constantine's Arch. Constantine was the Emperor who allowed Christianity to be legal, and in fact converted to Christianity himself. This arch commemorates his victory over Maxentius. There are multiple victory arches sprinkled throughout Rome but this one is next to the Collosseum. And is arguably the most important one when looking at both the history of Rome and the history of Christianity.

Victory Arch - our first stop, at the Collosseum.

From the arch we walked to see the most preserved section of the Collosseum's exterior. We opted not to go inside the Collosseum because it would take up too much of our day. This ended up being the first of our fortuitous choices because as we were walking by the entrance to the line, our tour guide talked to another guide who explained that no one was getting into the Collosseum anytime soon because it was already at capacity so groups had to leave before more could go in.

listening to Maria Teresa tell us about the Collosseum.

All hatted up.

It was already blazing hot at 10:30am. We only brought two hats to Europe: Doug's running hat and my "France" hat that I bought on our trip 7 yrs ago in France when we had blazing sun and no hat. For those keeping track at home, that's 2 hats for 4 people which is not enough hats. So we decided in addition to a France hat, we needed 2 Italy hats. Conveniently there are no shortage of guys peddaling hats. They wanted 10 Euros per hat, per crappy almost paper glued together hat, but our tour guide told him that was ridiculous and we would need 2 hats for 10 Euros. He much too quickly agreed, but we didn't feel like haggling any more so now we have one running hat, one (nice) France hat, and two (not so nice) Italy hats. Since we'll be in blinding sun at Pompeii tomorrow, this was a good investment.

family photo at the Collosseum

Circus Maximus with the old Roman
Palace in the background. The white
pebbles are the old track. 

Our driver picked us up at the Collosseum and drove us to Circus Maximus, which used to seat an unbelievably 250,000 people. You can still see the chariot race track, although the seating is gone. It sits right in front of the old Roman palace which still looks quite palatial. The old Roman palace sits on top of the hill that Romulus chose for the city, and across from the hill that Remus chose. Romulus of course won their battle and the palace was built upon that hill.

From Circus Maximus we drove to an area where we could walk to the Roman Forum. Maria Teresa took us to a spot where we could see the difference in height between the current roads and the ancient Roman roads. New roads and buildings were just built right on top of old ones, so the difference in height looks like its about 1.5 meters (although we were looking down so it was hard to gauge). We then walked up into a square, via steps built by Michelangelo, into a square that housed both current and ancient Roman government buildings. The exteriors of 2 had been renovated by Michelangelo providing an interesting juxtaposition of the ancient next to the merely really old. This juxtaposition can be found throughout much of Rome. I found it interesting to see normal life going on right beside these treasures.

Photo looking down at the original Roman road.
You can see the new road height is far above the old road.

The very very old contrasted with the merely old, all throughout Rome.

Temple of Saturn in the Forum.

On the other side of the square, past the government buildings, you get to a place where you can look down on the Forum. The Forum is where Roman life took place. It house government buildings, including the courts, places to hold public debate, places where criminals were tried, gladiator battles, etc. It also has several temples, the largest of which (at least in my pictures) is the Temple of Saturn.

A view of the Forum.

Trevi Fountain (see family photo below!)

From the Forum we drove to the Trevi fountain where we successfully saw a beautiful and horrifically over crowded fountain without getting our pockets picked. We then drove through the commercial area of Rome to see the Spanish steps - less crowded, but still bustling. The Spanish Steps are very near the posh shopping area of Rome full of all the glamorous designers whose clothes I will likely never wear. These women are committed to getting their clothes shopping in though, teetering on very tall spiky heels while walking on cobblestone. Not for the feint of heart.

Spanish Steps.

After the Spanish Steps, we went to the Pantheon. Elisabeth was really excited to see the Pantheon. I was hungry. But I am SO glad we went. I haven't been to many places I liked more than the Pantheon. It used to be a Roman temple, finished around 126 AD after being started sometime around 27 BC. The original structure was smaller and built by Agrippa, the current structure was finished by Hadrian. After Constantine legalized Christianity, it was converted to a Christian church in 609 by Pope Boniface. The Roman Gods and Goddesses were replaced with statutes of Jesus and saints. Over the course of the next 1400 years, it has been modified, restored, etc but remains largely the same. The top of the dome is open to the elements and it acts as a form of sundial. If you stand in the center and look out the door, you can tell what time it is. The sun streams in so beautifully from the top of the arch. Kings and other famous people are buried there. We saw the burial site of Raphael, for example. It is a fascinating building and I wish we could have spent more time there, but like I said.... I was hungry.

Exterior of the Pantheon

We had a quick lunch at a pizza place. Maria Teresa told me we had only 20 minutes to get food and be out of there. She apparently told the staff there also because the guy made us order extremely quickly - almost like the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld. The pizza was different than the girls are used to, and different from Napoli pizza so the girls didn't really like it but we ate enough to stave off hunger and then got back into our van for the drive to the Vatican.

Dome of the Pantheon with open top

Interior of the Pantheon.

Family selfie with the dome -
everyone was doing it!

The drive took quite awhile because the streets of Rome are insane. As we approached the Vatican, Maria Teresa pointed out the line of people waiting to get into the Vatican Museum. It went well more than the length of a soccer field. If you get skip the line tickets and have an official tour guide, though, you don't have to wait at all! Huge bonus as when we went into the museum another tour guide told ours that they had reached capacity and those people weren't going to get in. Waiting for hours in 99 degree sun to not get in would be terrible.

To visit the Sistene Chapel, first you have to wind your way through the Vatican Museum. The Vatican Museum has very little if anything to do with the Vatican or Catholicism. It is a collection of art that was collected by the various Popes. They have fascinating pieces in there, but we were on a schedule and didn't have time to see everything (which would take at least a day). We did see many famous sculptures, tapestries, and Estruscan artifacts. She said they make you wind through the Museum as a form of crowd control for the Sistene Chapel. It was HOT inside the museum (except the hall with tapestries, which was air conditioned). It was also jam packed with people. Maria Teresa was pretty expert at zipping through the crowd, but it was hard to keep up with her at times and make sure we didn't lose the kids. She always waited for us and got us a good spot to discuss some of the things we were seeing.

Of course, aside from St. Peter's Basilica, the main thing to see is Michelangelo's Sistene Chapel. Once you're through the museums you wind your way Space Mountain style through hallways and stairwells until you get to the entrance to the Chapel. It is supposed to be silent inside, but in this case the saying "the silence is deafening" is literally true. Every so often they get on the loud speaker and say SILENCIO! It is almost wall to wall with people. There is a bench around the entire exterior that if you hover long enough you will get a spot so that you can sit down and appreciate the masterpiece that surrounds you.

You're not able to take photographs inside because they have recently finished restoring it back to its original color. Breathtaking doesn't quite describe the chapel. Fascinating, unbelievable, captivating, remarkable - those are words I think you could justifiably use. The thought of someone painting all of that ceiling (5000 sq ft!) in one lifetime much less in 4 years is crazy. And then - he painted The Last Judgment which is a gigantic wall on one side of the Chapel. I think my favorite story about the Sistene Chapel that Maria Teresa told us was that one of the Cardinals found some of the scenes in The Last Judgment to be inappropriate (nudity, etc) and lobbied the Pope to have them removed. The Pope apparently liked them. Michelangelo exacted his revenge on the Cardinal by painting him into the fresco as the devil himself in the lower right hand corner.

We sat and stared at the Chapel for about 15 mins before we moved on to St. Peter's. Another brilliant thing about having a Vatican approved tour guide is that instead of exiting then standing in line to see St. Peter's, she was able to take us through the side door which puts you out into the exterior courtyard of St. Peter's. The courtyard had a fountain that puts out potable water so we refilled water bottles and splashed water on our faces before going into St. Peter's.

Michelangelo's Pieta

There is a big holiday in Rome on Saturday the 29th. Its St. Peter and St. Paul day. They were in the process of readying St. Peter's Basilica for a huge audience and so much of the large interior of the nave was blocked off which made it feel much more crowded than necessary. We worked our way around the exterior, first stopping to see Michelangelo's Pieta - which is as gorgeous as I remember it. It is behind glass because a mentally ill person took a hammer to one of the hands and knocked the fingers off back in the 70s. Maria Teresa also pointed out that many of the very large "paintings" high up on the walls are actually mosaics made from tiny pieces of glass. Its incredibly difficult to believe because they look exactly like paintings, but when we got to the very last one just before exiting, you can actually see the individual pieces glinting in the light.

The Dome in St. Peter's over the altar

The most beautiful part of St. Peter's is the altar and the dome above it. When we were there light was streaming in from the windows. The dome was also designed and started by Michelangelo when he was in his 60s. He wanted the dome to be larger than the Pantheon, but it is not. On the interior of the base of the dome is an inscription from the book of Matthew where Jesus speaks to Peter that in English reads "You are 'Rock' and on this rock I will build my Church, to you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven." Peter is buried (supposedly, although this is controversial) within St. Peter's Basilica which is of course the heart of the Catholic Church. In fact the Basilica was built where it is because Peter was buried there, so in essence the heart of the Catholic Church was in fact built upon the rock of Peter.

After we exited the Basilica, we walked through St. Peter's square and pointed out to the girls the various places that they might see things on TV (where the Pope speaks on Christmas, Easter, New Year's, etc) and where the chimney is that announces a new Pope after a conclave. Fun fact: the chimney is not always there. There is an antenna marking where it goes and when there is a Papal Conclave, they install an oven in the Sistene Chapel with a chimney going up onto the roof where the antenna is.

Family photo in St. Peter's Square

Now it was time for gelato (obviously) and then the hour long van ride back to our cruise ship. We. Were. Exhausted. It was so tiring. The heat was draining and we saw so many things that our brains were overloaded. We got back to the ship, had dinner (the Maryland crabcakes were EXCELLENT even if my family made fun of me for getting them all the way in Italy), and then watched a show called Come Fly With Me, which features gymnasts, dancers, aerialists, and singers. It was really loud, but they are all very, very talented.

and, finally, gelato!

Charlotte didn't join us for the show because she has made a group of friends through the kids club, so now she wants to go there every night. She loves it and I am really happy that Royal Caribbean provides fun activities for them. Then it was time for 3rd dessert (those people ordered 2 desserts with dinner!) and bed so that we could be ready for our LAST touring day - Napoli! We will visit Pompeii and then get lunch (pizza) and gelato.

Dinner dessert (x2 for Doug, E and C!)

For those who read this far, you deserve a medal! If you ever want to book a trip to Italy, I highly recommend the travel agent we used to book our tours in Cinque Terre and Rome. I also recommend the people we used in Naples. Both were names giving to us by friends and I am happy to pass them along!!

Us in front of Victory Arch

Collosseum

Family photo at Circus Maximus

Family photo at Trevi Fountain

another view of the interior of the Pantheon