Semester Excursion Numero Uno Part 1

Pompeii

This weekend was the first of two semester trips we go on that are paid for by the school.  Only the St. John's students go, so there was only six of us (me, Lorraine, Cos, Matt, Vicken and Luis) plus our two chaperones (Stefano and Flaminio).  We left on Friday morning at 6:15, headed for Naples.  We got to Naples at like 9 am or so.  We checked into the hotel, but our rooms weren't ready yet, so we dropped off our stuff and me, Lorraine, Cos and Matt decided to go explore the area near our hotel.  We walked around and Lorraine did some shopping.  We got lunch at a pizzeria and we all had our first Napolitan Pizza.  I had Magherita pizza, and it was delicious.  Absolutely delicious.  The crust is thicker in Naples than in Rome, so it was doughy, and  the sauce was saltier than usual.  Very enjoyable.  We hurried back to the hotel to get our rooms and get ready to leave for Pompeii.

Columns in Pompeii

We took the train to Pompeii, which took about 45 minutes or so.  When we got there, we had some time to kill, so we walked through the little stands and looked at the trinkets they had.  The people there are so pushy, and they don't sell much of any use at all.  We met with our tour guide at 3, and headed inside the city. It was pretty cool to see the city, but I think I was lead to believe that it was preserved better than it was.  I mean, it was amazing, but the ruins are still, well, ruins.  But we walked around and learned some history about it all.  We could see Mt. Vesuvius, so it was interesting to think of how it all went down; how it was before the eruption, and how it was immediately following the eruption.  

Columns from the Forum in Pompeii

The tour was okay; it touched on most of the important stuff, but I didn't feel like I was learning anything new and interesting.  The thing I found the most interesting was the bodies.  They had two bodies on display.  When the people were trapped under the ash, they were stuck there.  Over time, their bodies decomposed, leaving their skeletons inside a hole in the ash.  One of the archaeologists had the idea to fill the holes with plaster and create perfect molds of the bodies, which would contain the skeletons as well.  They're shaped exactly as they were when the eruption occurred, which is what makes it most interesting, however, I was disappointed in the ones they chose to display.  I know for a fact that they have far more interesting ones than the two of slaves that we were allowed to see.  

Head of the plaster mold person

There was other interesting stuff in Pompeii, but I honestly can't remember it all.  One of my favorite things about the place is that there is a colony of stray dogs living in the city that just wander around and interact with the tourists.  The people who work at Pompeii take care of them, and let people do distance adoptions to fund food for the dogs.  They were adorable, and just wanted to be petted.  It was nice to be able to play with the stray dogs and not really have to worry about it.  

Street in Pompeii

Okay, I'm completely exhausted from the long weekend, so I'm going to stop there for now.  I'll write about the rest of my absolutely amazing weekend tomorrow when I have nothing to do.  Ciao!