I was super excited about this particular tour. Our day started off with a 6am wake up to get ready and out the door by 7. We all met up with our tour guide and other travellers and headed off by 7:30. The drive from Rome to Pompeii took us roughly 3 hours. A long one.
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| Perfectly preserved ceiling |
When we got there we all headed straight into Ancient Pompeii for a 2 hour walking tour with a local guide. I thought walking in that I would see small/half walls, a few vases in houses, and no casts of the bodies. Oh boy I was wrong. Ancient Pompeii has been so greatly excavated, it’s almost as if you’re walking through normal, populated places in Europe. Half reminded me of Arles actually…
You also see quite a few casts of the bodies they uncovered. They aren’t located in the houses they were found in as quite a bit of Pompeii is still roped off understandably. There were, if my memory is correct, 2 human casts inside one building that still contained the original ceiling artwork and colouring, a cast of a dog inside an area where the archaeologists stored the vases, and 2 other human casts that accompany the dog. I did feel a bit disrespectful and inappropriate taking photo’s of the casts but after seeing so many other tourists take them, I figured I wouldn't be returning any time in the near future and it will be a good reminder of what the people felt at the time of the eruption.
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| Cast of a dog |
After lunch we all headed off to Mount Vesuvius! Once again, super excited about going there. The tour bus drove half way up the mountain and dropped us all off at a little cafe/kiosk/bar. I got out of that tour bus incredibly fast and headed straight up the walking track as fast as I could. Stupidly, I decided to try get up there as quickly as possible. It took me 20 minutes to get up to the top and by that stage I was as red as you can get. I sat down for a while and waited for Grandad to make his way up to join me before I headed out to stand next to the crater. Luckily I had time to cool down a bit before I had my photo, though I am still rather red and sunburnt as you can see.
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| Cast accompanying the dog |
After heading down back to the cafe, we all jumped on the tour bus and headed back to Rome. Visiting Pompeii was such a wonderful experience. Would definitely recommend making the trip out there if you head to Italy. It is such a long tour (13 hours in our case) but worth it.
...and I got to cross something off my bucket list :)
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| View from the top of Mt. Vesuvius |
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| A very red Cate at the crater |
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