Travel Tips

We went to Naples for Thanksgiving weekend this year. Not for any special reason other than Ryanair had some great prices for flights to Italy. It was 85 Euro roundtrip for two from Frankfurt-Hahn to Pescara. I've been dying to go to Pompei, mostly for personal reasons, as I know Naples pretty well by now, but hadn't yet visited the real place people come down here for. I just had to see what was so wonderful about this destroyed city of 2000 years ago. Pompei, for those of you who may not know, was destroyed by the Mt. Vesuvius eruption of 79AD. There are countless disertations on Pompei, so I'll limit my travelogue to my personal experiences instead of boring you with scientific mumbo-jumbo. We arrived at Pompei at about 3 in the afternoon, so we only had about two hours to explore the ruins (Scavi in Italian). We decided to rent the Audio Guides, (not worth the trouble) and Mariangela received an under 25 discount. The reason I say the Audio guide isn't worth the trouble is because the information in any Pompei guidebook you read is much better. It was rather tough trying to use the Audio Guide, take pictures, read the book, navigate the city, and try to enjoy myself. It started to rain towards the end of our visit, but only lightly. If you really want to make the best of Pompei, go in the Summer when it's open until 7:30pm. They are currently (late 2002) having a special event at night where you can visit when the ruins are illuminated.

This is probably the most out of the way place in Pompei, but worth the visit. It's one of the most famous houses in Pompei, and has some beautiful Frescos. The story goes that ancient Dionysus rights of passage were performed here. This is a fantastic description of the ritual, as portrayed in the murals of Pompei, - http://jcccnet.johnco.cc.ks.us/~jjackson/villa.html

I know all the stuff you've heard about Pompei, and here is the petrified face of a guy who died almost 2000 years ago. You can see the actual skull on the lower left side of the head

...by the seemingly advanced ideas of these people. I didn't think this stuff was done until M.C. Escher created art like Waterfall, Drawing Hands and Ascending and Descending. Really Cool!!

The streets of Pompei were constructed with some real thought. You may be able to see the stones going across the street in the distance, but they are there for a real purpose. You see, these people used chariots, and with chariots come horses, and horse feces. This enabled the chariots to pass, and the citizens could cross the stree without stepping in feces or getting their feet wet in rain water. Pretty cool, and probably the precursor to our speed bumps.

The Porta Marina is a spectacular sight, but only the first view you see of what lies within the ruins. This view is from near the ticket booth. Rain was starting to come, and the clouds provided an interesting picture

...without the ones you love. A really scary thing happened after the trip. You see, around Pompei there are parking lots, which charge higher fees than you would expect, but we opted to drive a little bit away from the central area to a lot that seemed rather deserted. This time of year (November) there isn't a big tourist flow to Pompei anyway. Anyway, when we went back to the car the parking lot gates were closed, and Mar nearly panicked, but the guy was nice enough to leave the lock undone for us. Thank God, as we would have had to go to the Polizia if it was locked. Here we are by the Forum in Pompei.

...Pompei is so famous is because it took a volcanic eruption to destroy the city in order to bring attention to these artistically advanced people. Remember, go to the National Acheological Museum in Naples near Piazza Cavour if you want to see most of the original Pompei works of art.