Friday on our cruise we went to Pompeii and then Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast. I have a ridiculous amount of pictures from this day, so I am going to do Pompeii first and then another post with Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast.
Once again we had a private tour set up so we met our guides at the port and headed to Pompeii. We had a private guide in Pompeii which was awesome!
Pompeii was an ancient Roman city near Naples. In 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius erupted and covered the town in 13-20 ft of volcanic ash and pumice.
As with Rome, I was surprised to see so many trees when we arrived in Pompeii. Our guide told us that they put in all the trees to offer shade for the tourists.
This is where the gladiators practiced.
Our guide is in the lower right hand side in red. She was great! She never stopped talking and told us such great stories.
Where the gladiators performed. The women, even royalty, had to sit in the designated section at the top.
These are the gladiator barracks.
When we were standing up in the theater you could see over Pompeii for a really neat perspective.
Mount Vesuvius
We walked back down and began walking through the streets.
They put these large rocks in the roads so they could use them to cross the roads when it was raining. Our guide told us a lot of things that they invented that were so neat.
Pompeii is huge and we only saw a very small portion of it. When you first walk in, it is very crowded, but then everyone goes a different direction so it's not this crowded everywhere.
This was a store.
Just like in Rome, there were drinking fountains here as well.
This wall was amazing. Can you believe the paint still looks this good after all these years?
We made it to the red light district. Things are about to get a little risqué. You know it is the red light district because of this "thing" sticking out of the wall. It is meant to resemble a certain male feature.
Once inside the brothels, they have a menu of services the patrons could choose from. Instead of writing the out, they decided to draw pictures:
The beds were small and all concrete. They did not want the patrons getting too comfortable and staying too long.
Moving along...
This hole in the ground is part of their drainage system. The rain water, waste, etc. went in here.
I thought this mosaic tile here was amazing! Look how small the tiles are. It must have took them so long and would be such tedious work to lay this all out.
The temple of Jupiter with Vesuvius in the background.
Next we walked over to see some of the artifacts that have been collected. Here, there were people who died on the streets of Pompeii from inhaling the ash. They were covered in ash and pumice. Absolutely heartbreaking.
Someone praying, so sad!
This just broke my heart. A woman who is pregnant. So sad.
Another wall with paint that still looks so good.
We went into the bath house. This is similar to what we would call a spa. People gathered here throughout the day to sit in the water and they also had dry and wet saunas. They way they built these bath houses was amazing! I didn't take a lot of pictures inside them because it was so dark, but here are a few.
Some random streets of Pompeii.
We only saw a very small portion of Pompeii, but what we did see was amazing. I would have loved to see more of the city, I have heard there is a house that is still pretty intact and is really neat. But, it was very hot this day and with very little shade, we were all ready to be leave. Plus we were headed to Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast, which I was so very excited for!!
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