Travels With Snacks: 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.