Pompeii

Continuing with the last trip...

We left Paestum and moved on to Pompeii.  Pompeii was really awesome to see.  Everything in the city was so well preserved, thanks to being buried under ash from Mt Vesuvius.  If I remember right the eruption was in 79 AD, the city of Pompeii was actually trying to rebuild itself from an earthquake that had happened some years earlier.  This earthquake is responsible for some of the damage caused to buildings around the city.  The plaster casts of the voids created in the ash (where people and animals were buried) gave an eerie sense of what the final moments of the city were like.  Unfortunately many of these have been moved to a museum in Napoli.  Wandering around Pompeii I really could almost imagine myself living in that time period.  It was really an interesting experience.  I took a lot of photos in and around Pompeii.  They don't really even come close to matching the experience of being there, but I've attached a few to sort of give a sense...

The view down one of the streets, you can see the ruts worn by wagons/chariots

An interior, all of the color on the walls is original and preserved from the ash it was buried under.

Interior court in one of the houses, all coloration here is original...

Metal inlay, found in the bath complex

One of the plaster casts that remains in Pompeii

The metal gate to the this area was left open, so we figured it'd be ok to wander around...

A view down a another roman street. 

Sam and I at the circus/colosseum in Pompeii