"Beauty out of Destuction" a Pompeii Travel Page by monorailgold

Pompeii was a thriving city. People had lived there for centuries when devastation occured. Vesuvius erutped in 79 a.d. It was one of the largest eruptions known at the time. The city was pummeled with ash and pumice for hours. If it had ended there, some of the inhabitants would have survived. But it didn't end there. A pyroclastic blast sent a tidal wave of super-heated wind hurtling down onto the city. No on survived the blast. They were incinerated instantly. Ash and pumice continued to rain down on the city completly covering it. The city wasn't re-discovered until the late 1600's. Since then excavations have been revealing this beautiful city, street by street.
A trip to pompeii is like a trip through a time capsule. Walking down stone streets that have grooves in them where the carts use to drive is amazing. Seeing the stone buildings and shops with the decorations still on the walls makes you realize this was a real city with real people going about their day to day lives. You can walk on the same stone paths that the residents used. You can get a sense of how life was and what it was like to live in 79 a.d. It truly is a trip down memory lane.

Pompeii is a large city and it will take you most of the day to see it all. There are tours offered and are a good choice if you have limited time and want to see all the highlights. If you are on a daytrip from Rome, this would be a good choice. You can get good maps of the city at the gift shop before you enter the site. A map also comes with your ticket and will help make sense out of the different buildings in the city.
There is so much to see in Pompeii. The first sight you walk into is the forum. This forum is very big. Not "Rome" forum "big", but still a good size. It has a few temples, some columns, a courtyard and an incredible view of Mt. Vesuvius. Take your time to wander and look around. There is a storage building that contains treasures uncobered throughout the city. It also contains the body casts of several brave but crazy citizens that stayed behind when the volcano erupted.
There are several large houses that can be seen as you wander the street. Many have beautiful courtyards with fountains and tile still visible. There are also shops that line the streets. You can walk up to the counter in some of these shops just like the patrons use to do before Vesuvius erupted. One of the sites not to be missed is the colosssum. It is not as large as the one in Rome but it is well preserved and great fun to walk about. There is also a small theatre with some of the marble seats still in place.

Getting to Pompeii is very easy. It is an easy day trip from Rome. You must take the train from the Termini Station in Rome to the Naples Station. At that point you must change from the high speed train to the commuter train. From Rome to Naples is about 1.5 hours on the high speed train. It costs about 55 euros round trip. You can buy your tickets at the train station that morning or even the day before if it is convenient. Make sure when you book the return trip, you give yourself enough time to see the excavations. Four or five hours in the excavations will give you a pretty good overview. When you get to Naples, go to the lowest level to catch the commuter train. You buy your ticket from the counter as you head toward the track. The train comes every half hour so the wait won't be long. You want to get off at the pompeii scavi stop. This takes about half an hour and cost about 5 euros round trip. From the Pompeii scave stop it is a 5 minute walk to the entrance to the ruins. Take water with you into the ruins. The restaurant there, when open, is very expensive.