A Bruin Amongst Ruins... My Trip to Pompeii

CAPTIONS: 1. House of the Faun 2. Pompeiian Amphitheater capable of holding the entire population of Pompeii (20,000) 3. Temple to Isis 4. Doorway.. the average Roman was only 5'2" (I'm 6'2, she's 5'2) 4. Wall Painting 5. Couldn't run very fast 6. Pompeii Forum with Vesuvius in the background.

This past Sunday I ventured down to Pompeii with about 45 other students on a bus that left from Rome at about 7am. It was put on by our program: 40 euro for the transportation, entrance, and guided tour for the length of time there. I probably could've gotten a better price doing it by myself, but since I was going to be with a bunch of other students and my Ancient Civilization professor was going to be my tour guide I felt it was worth it.

First a little background info...Pompeii lies near the base of Mt. Vesuvius just off the Bay of Naples (during antiquity, Pompeii actually used to be a coastal town, but now the coast is about a mile out) and is a remarkably well-preserved city of the Roman Empire. In AD 79, Vesuvius erupted and absolutely shrouded the city and its inhabitants with ash and volcanic debris. There was a population of about 20,000 and 10% of them died (if you're doing the math at home... thats 2,000 people) mostly because they didn't want to leave their possessions or didn't think an erupting volcano was that bad. Discovered in 1750, Pompeii was found to be almost frozen in time with the discovery of bodies, houses, temples, and pieces of artwork that gave us much information on the city and home life of people during the time of the first emperors.

Walking around all of these ruins was overwhelming at first because there are such vast quantities of ancient life all around. Without a guide, I would not have enjoyed my time at all because I would have had no idea what I was looking at or its significance, but because I had my Professor, I was thoroughly engaged. If you're not into history, I don't recommend stopping by Pompeii because you probably wouldn't find it too interesting, on the other hand, if you do have any interest in history you have to visit it at some point in your life. I'm sorry to say there isn't too much to report on my time because a lot is just information, and quite frankly, I'm too busy at the moment to spend much time on my blog.

Now for the future... I have a midterm Thursday, next Wednesday, and the Wednesday after that so I'm very thankful they're all spaced out. I've been generally keeping up with my reading and my paper writing as to have free time on the weekends to travel or explore Rome, which is exactly what I intend to do for the remainder of the month. This weekend, I have a site visit to the Papal Summer Residence for my Science and Religion, which apparently you cannot do unless you have the hookups (i.e. Father Larrey, my professor). Then on Sunday, I'm going to Tivoli with other students from the program, similar to the Pompeii deal, but with a different location. Tivoli is home to Hadrian's Villa, the Villa d'Este and other ruins. It is a popular escape from the city life of Rome. On the weekend of October 24, I'm venturing off to Assisi for a little less than half the day on Friday, then going to Perugia for the European Chocolate Festival for the remainder of the day. It should be a fun (fat) filled experience with about 3-4 other people. Then on the morning of Saturday, October 24 Sean and I (the others have site visits on Saturday) are heading to Florence for all day Saturday and Sunday and then heading back to Rome Sunday night. I'm really excited to be seeing Florence for the first time because I thought I might not have time for it. Anyways, the weekend after that is the beginning of my second break where I'm going to Barcelona, Milan, and Budapest. So I apologize in advance if I'm only able to put pictures up or write poorly.