This morning we set off bright and early (again! Child free and on holiday and we haven’t slept past 8am yet! Not our fault, just can’t stop waking up early) and took the Circumversiviano (goes around Mt Vesuvius) to Pompeii.
It was an absolute scorcher, by 11am we were feeling hot and frazzled. But Pompeii is worth frying a little for, because its a facinating place. True, most of the really interesting bits have been carted away to a museum in Naples, so it felt a little like entering a tomb after the grave robbers have been there, but there is enough to get a good idea of a town interrupted.
I got the audio guide (my third time this holiday – I must be a grown up) and learnt all about life in Pompeii and how it was excavated and the body-shaped cavaties found and so on. I’d already seen a bit of this on the discovery channel too, which was a good thing. The body casts they do have in Pompeii are pretty horrifying, there is one of a man with his face contorted in terror or pain, or both I would think. All of his teeth
are visible, as well as a belt around his waist that marks him as a slave. There is another of a man crouching, holding his hands to his face to protect himself.
The most affecting for me was a dog, curled up in the way that dogs do when they are trying to nip a particularly annoying itch somewhere near their tail, but this dog’s head was twisted so far back it took me a while to realise it was a dog and not a strangely short and wide snake. It was just a picture of agony, and very pitiful. At least the poor little pooch would not have suffered for long.
The houses and forum and temples and markets are so interesting, it really does facinate me to think of Romans going about their business in the very place I was now standing, but 2000 years before. As Andrew said the Time Team crew would go into an absolute frenzy of excitement if they ever got unleased in Pompeii. (For those of you lucky enough not to have seen Time Team, it is a programme following a group of the most eccentric archeologists ever put together as they attempt to unearth some potential site of great historical significance in three days. They are all utterly barking, in their own special way, and run about saying things like “oh the archeology!” and “what will geophys say” and “lets put in another trench”! with mad glee. Then they find a tiny speck of pottery and conclude it is pot 316C from the handy manual of olde age potterye, and from that are able to pontificate with great scientific accuracy on exactly who lived here, when and for what purpose, constructing an entire villiage in computer graphics, and conclude that although it is not really startling news for anyone its all jolly good fun. Then they fill in the holes they have dug and go home. We watch it every week.)
The streets of Pompeii are very uneven, as they are made of large cobblestones, and covered in volcanic ash, which led to a lot of slipping and sliding around by all. Some poor people had bought baby buggies and found them completely impossible to wheel around. By the time we got back to the hotel my exposed bits of feet were almost black, so I washed them in the bidet. Because it was low and it had a plug (why? I didn’t know they had plugs. Bidets are a bit of a mystery to me, uncultured antipodean that I am. Do you fill them with water and then put your bottom in? I always thought a dainty little rinse was the procedure). Once I had let the water out I noticed there was quite a clear brown rim around the bidet, so I had to rinse that out too. Don’t want to leave the wrong impression.
Pompeii also has a town square that is…wait for it…a triangle!!! How strange. The Italians are so fond of their piazza and yet they somehow made a triangular one. I was most puzzled, especially when the audio guide told me it was planned in a very particular way to…zzz…by that point had got heartily sick of the audioguide. It started each section with bizarre jangling/thumping sound which I think was meant to be a horse’s hooves and bridle, but honestly, any horse trotting around Pompeii would have four broken hocks in no time, so I’m not sure why. Other sections started with approximation of sound of Vesuvious erupting, which was fine the first time but 10 times later started to grate.
Anyway, despite all my piss-taking we did really enjoy Pompeii, and we merrily ended the trip with our customary serve of gelato, and got the train back to Sorrento.
Have just realised I’ve not said anything about these extremely important topics.
First up, the food is fantastic. Needless to say pizza, pasta & gelato are plentiful and major part of our current diet. I’ve eaten so much risotto and pasta I could probably be mistaken for a Swiss ball were it not for the incredible amount of walking we’re doing. The salads are also spectacular, and I’ve suddenly taken to seafood in a big way so you can imagine the happy combinations that makes for.
The people are also wonderful, most Italians seem to speak some English and we do our best at the few Italian words we do know. Overall we have a very positive impression of Italians. They are also terribly well dressed and stylish. There seems to be no age that is too old or young to be well dressed.
The shopping is also great, except for being generally horribly expensive so of the window variety only. Sorrento specialises in inlaid wood, which sounds rather fusty and boring but which is actually incredibly beautiful. There was one tiny wee table in particular that I seriously would have bought except for the headache-inducing thought of getting it home.
I haven’t bought any clothes yet, I’m keeping my powder dry for Florence…leather…silk…ooh can’t wait!!
So, thats Sorrento really. Tomorrow we go to Siena, where we hope to find time to visit San Gimignano before continuing on to Florence on Sunday.
