From Praiano to Pompeii was quite a trip. Praiano isn’t the most easily accessible lil village in the world, but what it lacks in convenance it makes up for in sheer beauty. We arrived in Pompeii roughly around 10am. To our surprise there was a crowd waiting outside. We discovered that there was a strike that morning and all the workers at site were striking. Luckily for us, the strike ended just as we arrived. Apparently, strikes happen all the time in Italy and don’t last too long thankfully.

We were approached by a kindly Italian gentleman about doing an english tour of the ruins. Apparently, and we got this a lot throughout our trip, we look American. We opted to take the tour because, for one reason, it got us in ahead of most others waiting in line.

Above is our fantastic guide who was so elegant and animated in his descriptions and history of Pompeii as it was 2000 years ago. He took us on a 2 hour tour around the city to all the major areas of the city. After his tour we spent another 2 to 2 and half hours just walking around the once grand city.

That’s me in the forum of Pompeii. Behind me is what remains of Mt. Vesuvius.

This was a temple that was Greek in origin and was probably one of the earliest building in Pompeii, existing, I think, several hundred years before Pompeii’s run in with Mt. Vesuvius.

Down one of the streets. You can’t tell but these walls and streets were once all white and bits of inlaid marble in the road helped to reflect the moonlight so the city would glow with subtle light each night.

A plaster cast of one of the unfortunate people who decided to stay behind when Mt. Vesuvius began to erupt.

We were told, jokingly I think, that this is the first “beware of dog” sign. LOL It’s amazing to think someone had this as basically their doormat over 2000 years ago.

another long road.

Pompeii is beautiful and the inhabitants definitely had a lot of what we would consider modern amenities. They had a stadium, amphitheater, brothel and bars…many, many bars. Most of the architecture looked like you would find in many of today’s buildings, with break, mortar and streets, sewage, and plumbing all well laid out.

paintings (frescos) usually covered the inside of the houses and buildings. You wouldnt find paintings or elaborate molding. Inside paintings would be painted right on the walls and fake paneling and molding, including painting to look like stone, brick and marble was the style of the day. You can see an example from the picture above.

Above is the amphitheater of Pompeii.

This is a Pompeii bar where wine was stored in large earth ware urns.

The coliseum at Pompeii. It wasnt very big but could easily fit several hundred people and probably most of the city’s inhabitants. There was a training area next door where the gladiators trained.

Lastly, a view of modern Pompeii and a building built when in the last hundred years or so.  This building was primarily used I believe to house artifacts from the digs.  Unfortunately, it was built on top of more of the city and so this building will be torn down soon and excavations will be done to unearth what’s below…

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