Pompeii, Italy

Pompeii is an extraordinary archeological site. Our tour guide is also an active archeologist for discoveries at Pompeii and she made the tour so interesting. All the artifacts from Pompeii are on display at the National Museum in Napoli except for this one cast of a young woman found at the site. Only the ruins are at the Pompeii site.

The preservation of Pompeii is phenomenal.  We saw reliefs on Forum walls, inscriptions on columns in the Forum, original paint with ancient graffiti in the halls to the amphitheater, and a few tile floors.  The tour guide noted that the Forum was twice the size of the one in Rome.  The center photo above was a fresco on the only intact ceiling in Pompeii in the women's public bath. The rock paved streets still had the ruts from chariots.  They had a water system that in some areas was still intact including the lead pipes used for water distribution, water fountains, and public baths.  Some of the houses of the wealthy who lived in Pompeii also have gardens and rooms that are still outlined with bricks and covered with marble.

What a day of learning about the Pompeii story!  We tried several selfies but each time they got worse and worse.  Pompeii was so crowded that we could hardly take a photo without strangers showing up.  So this is the best I got.