"Open my Heart and you will see,  Graved inside of it, "Italy"."---Robert Browning
Day 3 (continued) 

         Pompeii
Growing up you hear so much about Pompeii, we weren't sure what to expect. How much was myth, or movie magic, and how much was fact? We've all seen photos of the plaster cast bodies found among the ruins. What else was there to see?  We're use to seeing recreations of historic sites in the United States with very little original construction remaining, especially on the West Coast, so to us Pompeii was a marvel. After more than 2,000 years it still stands much as it did prior to August 24th, 79 AD.   The homes, temples, government buildings, and marketplaces, were all laid out in a neat grid pattern.  Our guide took us into the bathhouses and brothels. We saw the homes of the wealthy and the working class.  We stood in the large open plaza as our guide tried to recreate the scene as it once might have been.   The misfortune of the citizens of Pompeii is now the great fortune of modern day historians and visitors.  It was well worth the long drive.
           Did you know?
  • Pompeii had around 20,000 residents of which 2,000 were killed.
  • Pompeii was settled around 600 BC and became a Roman colony in 80 BC.
  • The ruins at Pompeii the discovered in 1599 but reburied possibly due to the x-rated nature of the many frescoes, then discovered once again in 1738.
  • Pompeii has 2.5 million visitors a year.
  • Pompeii became a World Heritage Site in 1997
  • Mt. Vesuvius hasn't erupted since 1944 and is considered active and very dangerous.
  • Currently 2 million people live within range of an eruption.
Did you know? Pliny the Elder, a Roman author and naturalist, was witness to the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and died during an attempt to rescue a friend and her family.  He was something of a philosopher credited with the following well known bits of wisdom:
  • "Home is where the heart is".
  • "The only certainty is that nothing is certain."
  • "In wine there is truth".
  • "True glory consists in doing what deserves to be      written, in writing what deserves to be read.
In Hindsight:  I wish we had a map of the entire Pompeii excavation site and a little more time to explore on our own.  I'm sure we missed a few important sights.

Getting Lost in Rome

We returned from Pompeii tired and hungry and decided to take a quick stroll to get a snack.  All we planned to do was go around the block and right back to the hotel but we took one wrong turn too many and found ourselves in very unfamiliar territory.   And since we weren't planning on going too far we didn't bother taking a map with us.
                                                  ***
Suddenly all around us we saw people  dressed to the nines, wine glass in hand,   strolling the narrow streets that had been closed off to traffic. There were bands playing in the streets, all the stores were open and busy, and everyone was having a wonderful time. The women all looked like fashion models and there were photographers everywhere. Block after block of people, music, and food. Running on fumes we found a hotel and asked the very nice manager for help.  He gave us a map and drew us a route that would  take us back to our hotel. When we asked what was going on, he told us that it was Fashion Week and all the stores were staying open late and all the Italian designers were there with their runway models showing off the latest in fashion. 
Lessons Learned: 
  • Take a map with you everywhere.
  • There aren't many  street signs in Italy.  The name of the streets are sometimes written on the side of a corner building and often hard to find. But without a map street names are useless.
  • We should have installed a GPS app for our phone
  • The reason they all looked like models was because they were. 
In Hindsight:  It wouldn't be an adventure if everything went as planned.  If getting lost on our first day in Rome was any indication, our Italian adventure had just gotten off to a great start.  I just wish we hadn't been in such a hurry to get back to our hotel and had taken the time to sit, relax, and enjoy the spectacle.
  • Direct route = 1.3 km,  estimated 18 minute walk.  
  • Our route = A two hour walk & who knows how many miles.