Pompeii with Vesuvius in the background
For us Pompeii was a day trip from Rome – 4 hours travelling each way! We’re still not quite sure if it was worth it; I think we were expecting better displays capturing those tragic moments where everything was covered with ash. Also, they ‘ran out’ of maps (they have a printed No More Maps sign that looks like it comes out every day) so we spent much of our time trying to find where we were.
Fear preserved in time
Nonetheless, the site has some extremely well preserved features of the Pompeii town from AD 79 when Mount Vesuvius blew. At the entrance to one of the houses is the first ‘Beware of Dog’ sign, a beautiful mosiac on the floor.
Cave Canem
It was also interesting to see a lot of the white marble structures had been repaired with red brick after the earthquake of AD 62. Unfortunately for the citizens of Pompeii, there was no rebuilding after the eruption.
Pompeii Forum - notice the repair work to the pillars
I think I need a ‘beware of the aquatic dog’ sign, or I should get a guard shark instead. We’ve had about 300mm of rain at our house in the last few days, so the yard is a bit of a lake currently.
Doesn’t look like it will let up either, with at least 24 hours of decent rain forecast…
At least a lot of it is falling over the dams.
Good to hear about the rain, barring further flooding…
It keeps getting warmer here. 30+ in Parma this week. Some heat wave story in Italy on the tv news tonight.
Sat down to watch a mid-week football match and was really getting into it, seemed a very passionate game, cat streaker (73″) and all. Good coverage too, uninterrupted and replays of everything no matter how dirty or controversial!
Turns out it was the UEFA Cup Final…