Honeymoon in Italy: Pompeii

When we chose Italy as the destination for our honeymoon, I KNEW I wanted to visit Pompeii. This was the ONE thing I insisted upon doing on this trip, and we are SO glad we did! This was our favorite part of the whole vacation!

I first learned about the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD when I took Latin classes in middle school. I was (morbidly) fascinated by how terrifying that experience must have been; the casts made of the bodies that remained in the ash really showed the humanity at that scary moment. More than 1,500 lives were lost that day. The eruption is said to have had the power of 33 atomic bombs, and people would have died from the heat of the ash, breathing in the ash, or being weighted down by the ash on top of them. When archeologists found coal in stoves and the seeds of fall fruit, as well as some writing listing dates (and letters from Pliny the Younger, who witnessed the eruption from afar), we can rather confidently say that the eruption happened on October 24. It is incredible how we can pin-point even the exact day!

This is a cast of someone covering their face so they wouldn't breathe in the ash or get it in their eyes.

But other than seeing the casts in person, I wasn't really sure what else to expect from Pompeii. But after a long bus ride in the rain, the skies cleared for our tour of the ancient city. Pompeii is the second largest archeological site, made up of more than 160 acres (and a third of the city still has yet to be excavated!). The ruins were first discovered in the late 1700's (after Herculaneum, another city destroyed by the eruption, was found); throughout the years of excavations, some things were lost (for example, the bones left of people were mostly removed as trash), but there is still A LOT left that remains, and in amazing condition at that!

The main square area

The city was first built in the seventh century BC by Greeks, Etruscans, and native peoples in the area. It only became a Roman city in the third century BC. In the main square, or forum, there was a temple of Jupiter, as well as a large marketplace and administrative offices. The entire area had a travertine floor before the eruption; now we were walking on the ash that is still there today.

This would have been a fish market.

My favorite part of Pompeii were the bath houses. They are in AMAZING condition! The mosaic floor is still intact, and you can still see decorations along the walls, mostly sea-inspired. There were four rooms in total, and it sounds like the Korean baths I've been to (I miss Spa World!). There was the entry room or waiting room where guests could leave their clothes, a warm room where there was oil for washing and massaging, a hot room which was heated by the steam of the hot water for the spa, and a cold room to finish the experience (they believed in cryotherapy even back then!). 

There were many little statues along the walls in the bathhouse, and all of them were in great condition!

It was awesome to be standing in a spa that is thousands of years old and survived a volcanic eruption!

After going to the baths, the people may have stopped by a bar for a drink or snacks. We saw countertops like these throughout the tour, so the people of Pompeii liked eating out as much as we do now!

And we all know that even back then there was great engineering (as I said in an earlier post, we were drinking water from the ancient aqueducts!). In Pompeii, that same water flowed freely in the streets to wash away debris, horse waste, etc. So the sidewalks were elevated, and instead of flat crosswalks, there were three large stepping stones that people would use to walk across the road. I was so excited to walk on the same steps from so long ago. And why were there three stones? So the wheels are carts could still go through! And along the sidewalks at the thresholds of doors, if there is a groove at the threshold, that means it was a public place, like a store, which would have used sliding doors. 

These were the fountains from which the water would flow into the street. The streets didn't have names, so you would use the decorations of the fountains as your markers ("cow head" fountain, etc.).

This was a mill stone in a bakery; a rod would go through the square hole, and two animals attached to the rod would walk in circles to spin the top rock and grind the grain in between the two stones. Thirty-four bakeries have been found in Pompeii!

The technology for pizza ovens has not changed much!

We also walked inside a very wealthy person's home. Of course the size showed how rich the person was, but so did details like the mosaic floors and frescos on the walls. In the atrium, rain would fall through the skylight into a basin, and that water would then go into a well. That would be the household's main source of water before the aqueduct was built. There would also be a garden at the center of the home which would help cool everything down. 

One of the most entertaining parts of the tour was visiting a "lupanare," or brothel (coming from the word "lupa," meaning "she-wolf"). It was built along a curve in the road so it would be harder to see clients coming in and out. This is the only brothel that they have found in Pompeii, but sometimes prostitutes would work in the upstairs of snack bars. And while most people slept on wooden beds, the beds in the brothel were made of stone (with a mattress on top, of course); the stone was much stronger to withstand, erm...use. You can still see frescos painted on the walls that feature sex acts; the prostitutes and their clients (many of whom were sailors coming into port) may not have spoken the same language, so the clients could simply point to what they wanted, like a sexy Denny's menu. On the outside of the building, there was a phallic-looking stone pointing out of the wall, which was supposed to protect the building and those in it. That is why all over Sorrento you can find souvenirs of chili peppers or horns, like necklaces and ornaments, that are the modern-day interpretation (Note that the protective powers will not work if you buy the item for yourself! You can only give it as a gift, and then you can receive one as a present, too.).

Which position is your favorite? haha

Our tour only lasted two hours, but we were told that it would take two weeks of exploring to see everything. In the late 1800's, excavators divided the city into neighborhoods and labeled the areas by name as well as block number so they could create a map of the city. The streets were like a maze; I certainly would have gotten lost if I had not been with a tour guide. But I feel like we could have been there all day and never get bored. There is so much to see, and it's still unbelievable that this entire city was covered in ten meters of ash for nearly two thousand years, preserved in such an amazing way.

Next post: Hiking Mt. Vesuvius, the same volcano that destroyed Pompeii!