



Pompeii was one of those places that really changed my perspective on human history. It is the astoundingly complete ruins of an ancient city, preserved for two thousand years by being buried in volcanic ash from the eruption of nearby Mt. Vesuvius. When visiting the site, you can walk through blocks and blocks of ancient buildings, literally visiting the homes of Romans from a time before Christ existed.





Pompeii is one of my favorite sites to visit. I was there once ~ten years prior, and I had to show it to my wife when we had the chance to visit. What I learnt from my trips to Pompeii was that we're not really different from people who lived long ago. You can see how people decorate their homes, places where they would eat lunch in the city center, even a brothel is in the city complete with paintings advertising different sexual positions! So much for society's moral decay...





(I touch on trains in my article on Florence). My first visit about a decade ago I used a guided tour with a bus to get to Pompeii, but it is extremely easy to get there using the wonderful Italian rail systemFirst you take a train to Naples, then one to Pompeii Scavi (Scavi is ruins in Italian). The train from Rome was very easy to find, a speed train for ~43 Euro one way (~1 hr) or a much slower train that stopped at every little village on-route for ~13 Euro (~2.5 hrs).

Above the city, Mt. Vesuvius looms, promising another round of destruction that will make Naples a very nice archaeological dig in 4200 AD:

The roads were used for sewage, so they had large stepping rocks to permit both carts through and pedestrians across:

You can walk along the back side of the city and see somewhat of a panoramic:

More importantly, lots of paintings:

This room was painted black with trim:

These blue paintings were interesting (we hadn't seen so much blue before):

They've got paintings of battles below:

The ceilings were quite intricate, probably because people would lay down and look up at them:

In the town you can also see the brothel, complete with beds:

And so you can walk and walk and walk throughout the town:

Time to take the train home!

And kitty payment to all the Redditors who have made it this far without the tl;dr.

And a lizard we saw for bonus!

The speed trains are great with monitors telling you how fast you're going (> 200 km/hr).The train from Naples to Pompeii uses the Circumvesuviana , on the Naples-Serrento line. The train is often extremely busy, since there are so many tourists on it. We got smushed a little bit, but if you push yourself away from the door, you can get some space.An entrance to the ruins is very close to the train station:From the door by the train station you will see first a more open area that is fenced off. This is a temple to Venus.The best part about the site is that most of it is original:They've placed statues along main causeways but for the most part, it feels original:They of course cleared everything of rubble, artefacts and the vacant spaces where bodies decomposed:But they still show the bodies of people trapped during the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius:The original excavators decided to move everything to a central storage area:There you can see how much the ancient Romans relied upon amphoras:Like us they also had dogs:The original excavators filled vacancies left behind decayed bodies with plaster:And moved them to the central area:But it seems like they are trying to recreate some areas, and will be moving them back:The city doesn't have any of the original wood left, but you can imagine floors & roofs:Large Roman arches still stand:And warehouses probably used for grain storage are there:As you walk along the streets you can see vestiges of a once great city:But it's not too high:Still you can see the complexity of the site:And you can see how much dirt has been layered over the city:Here's what used to be one of the entrances:Throughout the town you can enter various buildings, often decorated with floor tiles:A sexy lady:A selfie:Some colors are brighter than others:It's amazing how free you are to just wander around:Now they have some major construction going on in half of the town:But it still leaves so much to see it's not a big deal:You can tell some houses were richer than others:I assume it cost a lot to make decorations:Intricate tiles:This one almost looks perfect:Here they've recreated a garden and roofs (most roofs were destroyed by the volcano):Plenty of floors were patterned:Here's probably the house shrine, or where they put their keys:You can see signs of life throughout the town too, like these millstones:And this pizza oven (it is Italy, right?):Here's another temple:Where they worshipped palm trees:Tiny tiles:You can see some grain boundaries:This was a cool one:Here's an intricate one:This is in the house of the faun:Ave also spelt Have, means Hello or Welcome!Here's an old well, used for naked wrestling orgies:Sexy photo:Selfie:Outside the baths:Intricate plaster designs were everywhere:The whole walls were presumably used:You can see an old locker room:Some super artwork:Germanic tribes even bathed their:The floors were raised with coals laid underneath to heat the water:Several different rooms are their:An oculus to provide light (and perhaps remove smoke):They also have paintings describing the various positions:Not my favorite, but to each their own:Doggie style:Reverse cowgirl:I don't know what this one is:See old table stands:And old paintings... even ancient Italians used their hands a lot:Here's a submerged patio:This was from what amounted to a fast-food restaurant, just outside the city center:People would work in the main square, and buy their lunches there:Here's along the outside of the city, where there are a lot of crypts:You can see a large palaestra where they would learn Greek wrestling:And a large amphitheatre:It's on the outskirts of the town:You can still enter the amphitheatre but the palaestra was closed:It is a very old example of Roman style amphitheatres:You can't go up onto the stands though:So, after a long day of walking it's time to go home...No access to some places!I saw this guy and thought it was a good one: