We woke up early with a great view of Vesuvius outside of our window.
Opa & Oma were there & we were complete. . . 8 adults & 8 kiddos, 11 pieces of luggage, & 4 very jet-lagged family members. We woke up & had a WONDERFUL breakfast at our hotel.
The breakfast was only 6 Euro per person & it was delicious. There were plenty of croissants, breads, yogurt, cereal, fruits, meats & cheeses, & juice. It was delicious & well worth the price.
After breakfast, we packed up ALL our luggage & put it in the breakfast room of our hotel. They hotel was kind enough to watch it all day for us while we explored Pompeii, as long as we picked it up before that night. Dragging 11 pieces of luggage (one broken), all around Pompeii & hiking up Vesuvius with it all did not sound like our idea of "fun" so we were very grateful to our hotel for watching it for us.
We got the kids outside & let them pose with the Roman statues outside our hotel while we finished up inside & waited for our Pompeii tour guide to arrive.
Francesco was great. He picked us up at our hotel & we walked a few blocks to the archaeological site of Pompeii. This was going to be the highlight of my trip. Archaeology has always been a love of mine, & Pompeii is still an active archaeological site. The STILL dig here. I was SO excited.
Pompeii was amazing. It's the most incredible archaeological sites in the world because it's literally a perfect dig site. When the lava rushed down from Vesuvius, it covered the entire city in 35 meters of ash & rock, perfectly preserving this ancient city. It is untouched & beautiful. Everything is there. . . roofs, walls, carvings, doorways. . . . all in tact. It's incredible. They've been digging for hundreds of years & they just keep finding more & more layers of the city that haven't been touched in thousands of years. I was in heaven.
I was in heaven, but I think everyone else was dying. It was 93 degrees outside, we were in direct sunlight most of the day, & the kids were bored to tears. I know I love history, especially cultural history, but they just wondered why we were still staring at rocks after 3 hours in the sun. Poor things.
The Colosseums in all these areas are pretty incredible. These guys INVENTED stadium seating. It's so crazy to see it first hand to.
I always thought Pompeii was a small village, but it was actually a huge bustling city full of homes, stores, religious temples, & more. They've uncovered several MILES of city so far & are still finding more as they dig.
Craiger & Ella were really interested in the volcanic rock.
This was a Pompeii water fountain. The water came out of the mouth & into the pool/fountain below, but the face has worn down from the people living in the city rubbing their face against the rock to drink directly from the fountain. . . . just like we do at a drinking fountain now.
The mosaic tiles all over the city floors were insanely beautiful & completely intact.
And I loved it every time we looked up & saw Vesuvius looming over us. It must have been terrifying when it exploded. The whole top half of the mountain came down & covered Pompeii.
The bodies were terrifying. These poor people were covered in ash with absolutely no warning whatsoever. Before they even knew what was happening, they were dead. This poor woman was pregnant & was trying to cover her face from the ash. You can still see where her clothing burned to her skin. It's very very sad.
This was almost like a street food marketplace area. People served fast food here.
We literally bathed in sunscreen this entire day. It was SO HOT.
I loved seeing the active archaeologists working the sites. They were digging & removing debris in some of the areas. It was fascinating to watch. Our tour guide is an archaeologist. They dig some of the days of the week & other days, they work as tour guides (which pays more).
The carving on the walls were beautiful too. I can't believe how much detail is still gorgeous after all these years. The archaeologists have done a wonderful job & keeping the integrity of their beauty.
I could have spent a few days here myself & I would have loved to join in on a dig. But I'm glad we got to spend the time that we did here. It was beautiful, interesting, & just amazing. It was hot, we were tired, but boy am I glad we got to go.
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