November 10th
We had a 4-day weekend for Veterans Day, but because of having recently moved into our house and being up to our elbows in boxes and packing paper, we did not go on any extended trips. However, we did make it to Pompeii which is about 45 min south-west of us.
We didn't take a tour, and didn't get a guide book, so we mostly wandered around on our own. Our biggest guide was a multi-cache geocache that I wanted to do. If you are not familiar with
geocaching you should check it out; it's a lot of fun.
Anyway, here are some photos and what I remember about them. Also note that these photos are more gathered by subject material than in order of the path we wandered around through the city.
Pompeii and Vesuvius! Weeeeeeeeee!
These are photos from the Amphitheater of Pompeii. It is the oldest Roman amphitheater.
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This is a view from the amphitheater going into the city (left).
Dan in the casa del giardino D'Ercole or the House of the Garden of Hercules (right). I supposed he's really in the giardino del giardino D'Ercole.
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Several buildings had these tables/benches that were covered in opus sectile which is an art technique of inlaying material into walls, floors, tables, etc. None of the other tables were as colorful as this one though.
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A view into what was an interior courtyard, I think (above).
A main street of Pompeii. The big stones in the middle are for crossing the street. In the day (aka Roman Times) it would not be uncommon for the street to be flooded with all sorts of ick that you would not want to have to step in (right).
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Another main street of Pompeii (left).
There is a cafeteria in the middle of the what I'm going to call Downtown part of Pompeii. We got snack there to so we can say we ate in Pompeii (above).
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Pretty sure that's a penis with wings (above).
Legs for a table. We believe this artist had seen actual lions, unlike previous sculptors (right).
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Ceiling art from two different bath houses.
The one above had little statues of men holding up the ceiling.
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Mosaics/Paintings! BEWARE OF THE DOG! (It's being cleaned or preserved or some nonsense so you can only see it through a little hole in a tarp that's covering wire.)
A collection of water spigots. My favorite is the bull thing.
Here's the token proof that I was on this adventure. As Dan was taking the photo, you can tell I'm not quite sure what he's doing.
General thoughts on Pompeii:
- Next time we need to get a book/tour guide pamphlet thingiemabob.
- We went on a Monday in November. There were still a fair amount of people visiting. I cannot imagine what this place is like in the summer when it is very hot and packed.
- After awhile you get a bit ruined out. It would be nice to go find the museum that is holding all of the good bits from Pompeii.
- I would like to see Herculaneum which is the nearby town that was also buried when Vesuvius erupted in 79AD (did I mention that that's when it was buried? Ooops! Now you know!).
P.S.
I found my geocache, in case you were wondering.
