Pompeii

Pompeii--by Henry and Rohan

Photos by Kelli and Henry

 Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii

Pompeii is like Ostia Antica but much larger and expansive. Herculaneum was a nice warm up, but there are fewer streets and less variety of types of structures than Pompeii. We did see a cat though!

 

Photo by Henry

 

The bones stuck at the docks were indeed a grim reminder of the destructive power of Vesuvius.

 

Skeletal remains on the dock of Herculaneum of those waiting for a rescue by sea that never came. 

There were fewer plaster casts of the dead on display at Pompeii, despite the greater number who died there.

 

Plaster casts of remains of people and animals buried in Pompeii 

Perhaps a little disappointing but probably for the better that Pompeii doesn’t show its visitors heaps of body casts, although personally I would have liked to see some more casts in more unique positions other than just the general expected ones, when someone is being burnt and pummeled by a pyroclastic flow. 

We started our visit to Pompeii with a visit to the gladiator training grounds, which also had some burnt bread that I think I would like to try one day if it wasn’t probably very carcinogenic and would give me 324 different diseases and medical conditions.

The amphitheater was next, where we entered through the tunnels that the gladiators used directly onto the arena floor. In the regular theater, we were able to sit in the stands where the audience sat. The theater was an impressively preserved structure and had a very calm black cat who was sunbathing even under the barking of a dog. 

It’s impressive just how well-preserved Pompeii is, and it’s hard to truly comprehend just how similar it is to be walking around the streets of modern Rome or Naples until the you are walking on the cobbles and surrounded by mostly intact houses.

Photo by Henry

Although Caecilius’s house (whose story we read about extensively in middle school Latin) was closed to the public and was probably undergoing some restoration or whatnot, at least we could see the garden and imagine that Caecilius est in horto.

 

Caecilius’s house

More experiences in Pompeii: