Settimana di Compleanni Continues... (part two)

Thursday morning arrived just as early as it always does. It was a little earlier than I might have wanted, but it was Pompeii day!! Appropriately, it was also Rob's birthday. I texted him what we were doing for the day and wished him a happy birthday, then Felix and I headed down for breakfast with the family and confirming the itinerary. Today's plan is to walk up to the train station a few blocks away and take the train to Pompeii, then enjoy the sights and retrace our steps home on time for dinner. Once again, the weather was phenomenal; I highly recommend visiting Southern Italy in October! Clear skies, warmish temps, gorgeous views pretty much everywhere you look... like this lovely view down the main drag:

 We did get a little bit lost on our way there... missed a turn, then found a wrong turn, then found the right turn... but eventually we made it to the station and still had plenty of time to get tickets and do a little socializing. There was a lovely view of the ocean from the platform. There was also built-in entertainment for us in the form of three men cutting down a tree. It was definitely interesting to watch and some of us were absolutely certain that the pieces of the tree were going to rain down on the guys below in a catastrophic mishap of epic headlining proportions. Fortunately, that did not happen but it was still scary watching the pieces fall as they were cut off!

 As our train arrived, my phone rang. I'm not sure why I even thought to bring it with me today, but I did and it was Felix's school wondering where he was. The attendance officer told me she had tried to call yesterday as well which I found odd since I had no missed calls, but phone service here hasn't always been reliable. I told her that if she checked with Felix's teacher she would find that I had sent in a letter explaining his absences this week and that it should have been on file with her for almost a month since we had plenty of advance notice for this trip. I bring this up because I feel it needs telling. I was very well prepared for this trip and tried to make sure everyone around me was as well. I guess we can't win them all. She did wish us well and hoped we'd enjoy Pompeii, so that's a plus! All of this takes place while I'm attempting to get Felix and myself onto our very first train in Europe... and the train is pretty much packed. We wind up standing near the doors and hanging on as best we could. It wasn't exactly a slow train. Felix said the train ride was really cool because he got to stand up the whole time, but it was a little scary how fast it went and he said it scared him out of his mind when we were "stuck in the cave"... in reality, we paused in a tunnel for other train traffic. We were stopped for less than five minutes. The entire trip took much less time than I expected but I should have realized it wouldn't be as long as an American train trip of the same length. The trains here do not slow down at intersections, if you're stupid enough to try and cross once the gates are down, that's on you. We arrived unscathed at the Pompeii station and I promptly took a picture:

This little vacation seemed to me to be all about food: whether we needed it, when we were getting it, when it was available, what kind we were having, et cetera. Upon arriving at the station, it was determined that we should get our tickets into Pompeii and eat before heading in. It was also determined that the majority of us needed a restroom break. So we all went and stood in a pretty long line to use less-than-amazing restrooms that cost 50 cents a person. Good times. Then we wander over looking for food and souvenirs and the ticket office. Felix is with Aunt Ceil and we're looking at different souvenir stands when I get cornered by one of the ladies working the stand. It is at this point that I find my best friend's birthday gift AND get separated from my group. I step out from the little stand and don't see anyone I know. I walk down to the entrance area for the ruins and don't see them. I walk back toward the restaurants thinking that maybe they decided to have a sit-down meal before heading in, but they're not there. Then I walk back towards the train station checking every stand on the way through. No sign of any of them. I'm officially panicked at this point but I know that Felix is with Aunt Ceil, so he's good to go and worst-case scenario I'll have to practice my pathetic Italian skills with the local Caribinieri to find them. I walk back over to the entrance area and there they are, looking for me. Crisis averted! At this point it is decided that we will pick up "to go" food from the little stands while a couple of the guys stand in the ridiculously long line for tickets and tour guide stuff and we'll all eat lunch on the benches just outside the gates. From these benches, we have a pretty cool first view of the city itself:

Well, I think it's cool anyway! We finish up our lunches and accidentally feed one of the stray dogs, then head off into the ruins. Pompeii is a much bigger city than I thought, although I truly don't know why I thought it was small except perhaps for the misguided belief that all ancient cities must have been small because of the lack of motorized transportation during those times. Just because they didn't get around fast doesn't mean they didn't get around... or have large populations in certain places. As we walk in, it is not immediately apparent that it's a decent sized city so my misconception remains firmly intact. We walk past a garden receiving area along a cobbled road with pretty massive gaps in it. It blows my mind that there are women there wearing pretty tall heels and not falling every five seconds. I wind up with an audio tour around my neck and I'm supposed to narrate, but after looking at the maps it is decided that our group is going to split into three smaller groups and tackle different sections of the city. Aunt Ceil, Felix and I are one of those groups and we head off to see what we can see. I do wish I had picked up a map of the city because I want one for every place I visit, but since we're going back I'm not going to cry about it. The down side for blogging purposes is that I don't have actual names for the places I'm trying  to describe. We walk through into what I consider (at the time) to be the main square. It's freaking HUGE with these awesome columns and roads splitting off leading to all other parts of the city. Then we turn into the first place of interest we come across, which according to the audio tour, is a temple to Athena. Felix takes advantage of the broken columns here to pretend to be a sleeping colossus.

After marveling at the level of preservation, we move back out to the main square area and decide to head down the road to the right and see where that leads us. We wander in and out of people's homes trying to imagine what they were like when they were whole and inhabited. They seem so small but we have to realize we're only seeing a portion of what they had and it's hard to visualize what was when what's right in front of you has faded into near-oblivion. Yes, I realize I just said that the ruins are pretty well preserved, but not all of it is in such great condition. If you're wandering around without a tour guide and group just taking it in, it's easy to feel the more spiritual aspects of the place. I believe it is probably the same anywhere that a lot of people die violently: you start thinking about their last moments, what they experienced and you try to imagine yourself in that situation and how you would respond. It's a good place for reflection of self, I think. There had been a light cloud cover when we arrived and it was breezy, making for a lovely day and only a slight concern about rain. As we turned down our second road, the clouds rolled away and out came the sun and slightly warmer temps. It was just enough to take off a top layer and walk around getting some sun on our shoulders. Extra sunshine made it easier to see inside the buildings where we found a little wall art and some mosaics on the floors.

A little further down the road, I had the opportunity to tour a little more in-depth and see some bedrooms, living areas and such. All of the bedroom floors had mosaic patterned floors which I think must have sucked to lay but the result was quite nice. The view of the volcano from the main living area was pretty decent as well. No matter where we went, Mount Vesuvius was clearly visible and that made me wonder what the people must have thought of living so close to it (or how people who live near volcanos now feel about their odds). I wonder if they had any inkling at all about what was to come or if they just presumed it was safe. I can't remember much of what I learned about them in school, which I'm sure is showing clearly right now! With these thoughts in mind, we wander on to find the home of a very wealthy family. You can tell by size (naturally) and signs... and the columns at the entrance don't hurt! Inside is a wooded park area to the right, the home itself on the left and stairs leading to the theater. More scary stairs. We cautiously navigate the stairs so we can check out the theater. We can hear a girl singing and people applauding and we think that there's a mini show happening as each tour rolls through. We're wrong... some girl (with a fantastic voice) is just singing because the acoustics are awesome. 

We don't stick around because we're starting to worry that we might run out of time to see things and still link up with the rest of the family for the return trip. This is where providence comes in: the only reason we knew the time is because I had my phone with me. Good thing I brought my phone for no apparent reason! We start wandering back toward the entrance, snapping pictures all the way through and when we get there, we still haven't seen any of the bodies. Anyone who knows me knows that I love morbid things. I refuse to leave Pompeii without having seen at least one corpse! So we start asking random English-speaking tourists if they've seen the bodies and where we can find them. A nice Scottish couple helps us find a couple. I'm glad they did because right after we saw them, my camera battery died!

In a corner of one open-air room that was designed to be open-air, were two bodies in glass cases. Yes, I admit to thinking of Snow White and the glass coffin. They were, of course, surrounded by gawkers (I'm not the only morbidly curious person on the planet) and it was difficult to get in and get a picture. I managed to get two pictures of each: one face and one profile. One had hands up in a protective gesture and the other looked to me like he or she may have just fallen and was trying to get back up and run. Although I have that morbid thing going, this still made me sad. I can't imagine burning to death (nor do I want to) and I hope that suffering was minimal, but I doubt it was.

When we left the corpses, we headed a little bit out of our way because we still had a bit of time before we needed to meet up with the family and we came across what struck me as a very American sort of enterprise although I know that it happens all over the world: a snack and gift shop inside the ruined city. Well, someone's gotta pay for maintenance of the place, right? So we go in for a coffee and little break for our feet and we run into the rest of our family doing the same! We compare notes on sights seen and do a little story-telling. Then we head back out into the main area and up to the little gift shops where I got separated from them at first arrival. On our way back to the train station, I stopped in and bought my souvenirs: shot glass for me, drink coasters for my bestie. We get back on the train (just as crowded as before) and return to the hotel. We're all definitely tired and in need of showers before dinner, so that happens, then we have dinner and drinks in the courtyard on one of the most beautiful evenings I've seen so far in Italy. We put exhausted children to bed almost immediately after dinner and returned to the courtyard for more stories and more wine and quite an enjoyable time. I look forward to my next opportunity to explore more of this beautiful place.