Lost Cities and Climbing Volcanoes!

My alarm went off at 7 in the morning (I was trying to enjoy the coast as much as possible in the little time we had) but I fell back asleep and woke up around 8. I showered and got dressed then stepped out onto the balcony. The coast was even more beautiful during the day. After we all were showered packed and dressed we went up a few flights to get breakfast. I'll miss italian breakfasts when I'm back in America, its all about the sugar and the nutella. We finished then walked back outside to walk to the lowest level of the hotel which touches the water. Down down we went until there was a patio overlooking the edge and a ladder for boats or swimmers. There were plenty of lounge chairs and we sat and soaked up some sun. I looked at the water reflecting the light from the sun and it looked like fireworks on the water itself. Definitely took a mental picture. As we were sitting there a couple came down in bathing suits and jumped in the water. Oh how I envied them. We had to leave in about 30 minutes and I didn't have enough time to take a dip. I thought about jumping in in my clothes. We even asked the concierge to help us figure out a way to stay another night, but we had no way back to Rome. I guess the coast and I will have to wait until we meet again.

Our balcony and the sea!

The view from the left of our balcony

The gorgeous water below

Where we ate breakfast

One of the staircases leading down to the water 

Staircase by the bottom of the hotel

Looking up at our villa

Breathtaking view of the coast 

Waiting for the van to pick us up above the hotel

I'm coming back to this place, who's with me?

Kyle and his family came and picked us up and we were off to Pompei! It was only an hour or so away, and a much less confusing ride than the one from Rome. We were still up in the mountains and had to drive up and across the mountain to get to Pompei. We arrived and waited for our personal tour guide to meet us. There were a few vendors and I walked around and ended up getting a camio ring made from seashell found in the Mediterranean. Impulse buy. While we were waiting for the guide I actually ran into my friend Courtney! She was also on the JMU trip and stayed in Italy longer with her sister. It was such a coincidence to see her there! You don't expect to run into people you know in a foreign country.

We found our guide Fabio, yes that's his name, and started walking over to the entrance of the city. Right away it was more than I had anticipated. I had no idea how large Pompei actually was. 20,000 people lived there before the eruption. We walked from arena, to shop, to house, and it kept hitting me that people used to live there and an entire group of people was just wiped out like that. They didn't know Vesuvius was a volcano, they thought it was just a green mountain where they used to have vineyards. Everything was smaller too, the people who used to live during that time were very short. I don't think I would've fit in too well...I know I wouldn't fit in the doorways haha. Throughout the streets there were these large rocks used as crosswalks. Fabio explained that in the fountains all around the streets people used to dump...well...their dump. So no one wanted to walk through the streets to get their feet dirty so they used the raised rocks. There were also white rocks throughout the streets used as reflectors. And people would use red rocks in the ground in front of their doorways to welcome people to their home, how cool! We walked into some old homes that still had fresco artwork on the wall. Fresco means fresh, so people would paint while the plaster of the walls was still wet and that's how it survived for so many years. By the way, about 2,000 years to be exact.

Mom in one of the doorways, she's even too tall!

Fabio in the arena used for performances 

One of the main streets and a "crosswalk"

One of the funniest things we saw on the tour was what Fabio called, fast food restaurants. There were places to get food along the streets which was just like fast food. What differed from the average McDonald's, is that upstairs in these restaurants there would be prostitutes. Quick bite to eat and a quicky as Fabio said. We also walked into the towns brothel. There were 5 rooms, and the beds were made of stone (Fabio said they used stone because wood broke too easily...yuck). What was too crazy was there were paintings on the walls of different sexual positions and acts so if someone came in and didn't speak the language, or they didn't know what it was called, they would point to a picture to show that's what they wanted done. Prostitutes were female slaves as young as 13, and the average prostitute cost the same amount as a glass of wine. There were also carvings in the streets and on the sides of buildings in the shape of penises. They were used as arrows pointing towards the closest brothel. Fabio also said that the penis was a lucky symbol, today they've adjusted it to a red horn which is more acceptable in society.

Stairs in a house leading up to the slaves quarters

Fresco on one of the walls in a house 

More fresco paintings

So cool we could still see this!

One of the fountains on the street

One of the um...orders at the brothel

This is awkward...

One of the beds at the brothel

View down one of the streets of Pompei 

Beautiful and eerie fountain

The city center with Vesuvius behind it

Each house used to have tile right as you walk in with different artwork and patterns, one that was still in tact was a picture of a dog with words meaning, "Beware of dog". Inside the houses they all had a courtyard and garden in the center with rooms all the way around. 40% of the town were slaves, and the slaves lived in the homes with their owners.

We saw some of the bodies which had been recovered from the site. They were coated in a sort of plaster to preserve the body. That was the only fake part, underneath were still the bones and even some clothing of the bodies they covered. It was heart wrenching. You could tell these people had no idea what was going on. Two of the bodies were saw were said to be sleeping when the eruption occured, and their bodies are laid down with scared faces and defensive hands. There was a body of a pregnant woman, and the body of a man praying. Fabio said that it was so hot, about 600 degrees, that the clothing actually melted onto the bodies. On some of the people we saw you could still see the outline of the clothing they were wearing. It was so creepy.

One of the bodies found and coated in plaster

So sad :( a person found praying when they were killed

After going through Pompei for a few hours, which actually felt short because it was so interesting, we all climbed back into the van and Fabio directed us to Vesuvius. He rode in the car with us as he was going to be our guide at Vesuvius as well. Had I known what we were getting ourselves into I probably would've chosen a different outfit for the day. I was wearing a dress and sandals, and we just found out we were climbing a volcano. Oy vey. We climbed out of the van and prepared ourselves for the journey. We looked up and saw Vesuvius before us and the people coming down were covered in dirt from the hike. We paid our tickets and they gave us walking sticks, don't know what I would've done without it. So up climbed Kyle, his sister Casey, his mom and dad, my mom, and I. Gigi and Fabio made it part way and stopped. There were other guides closer to the top to tell us some more information. Up up we went admiring the view of Napoli and other cities down below. We could even see Pompei. The higher we went the more we could see of the inside of the volcano. It was incredible. I can't even describe in words what we saw. There were actually people camping on the inside wall of the volcano, their tents were attached to the rocks. We could see steam coming off of the inside as well. The guide at the top told us it was 3 miles down from the top of the volcano down, and we were about 3,000 feet high. The funniest thing was even though we were on top of a volcano, there were two shops along the way, one of which sold cappuccino. Never fear, if you're stranded on top of a volcano you can get your caffeine fix.

Mom climbing up Vesuvius!

Beautiful view of Napoli below

Up we go! About a 40 minute hike

Looking into the center of the volcano 

Me trekking on up! 

Momma

The people camping on the inside of the volcano! I could totally see Becca doing this haha

Me, thank goodness the dress didn't fly up for the picture

Look at her go!

I am woman hear me roar! Made it to the top!

I felt like Mulan or a warrior climbing up this volcano. My feet were grey from the rocks and the dirt and I couldn't even tell what color my sandals were anymore. My dress felt like it was flying up the entire time and I probably flashed a few tourists, but none of it mattered as I was climbing up. I started feeling so emotional at the top because it was so breathtakingly beautiful. After many many pictures, and some deep breaths, we started our way back down. Mom, Casey, and I were checking out rocks along the way to bring home as mementos and for Poppy's grave. We caught up with the rest of the group we found talking to a man who worked there. He leapt over the roped edge and I gasped. He was hunting around the side of the volcano looking for rocks for us. He grabbed specific ones then came back over to the path. He took a large rock and slammed it down on them cracking them open. He showed us what was inside and told us what kind of rocks they were, they were gorgeous! One was a light pinky shade and another looked like it had blue and green pieces of glass in it. We continued down the path back to the beginning and when we gave our walking sticks back to the old italian man he gave me an apricot. Best apricot I've ever had haha. We met up with Gigi and Fabio then climbed back in the van. We dropped Fabio off in Napoli, where he lives, and he was telling me how everyone in Napoli is scared of Vesuvius. The last time it erupted was in 1944, and they say its dormant (in between not active and active) but volcanoes are unpredictable. The guide at the top also told us because of build up of rocks and dirt at the center that the next explosion will likely come out through the side of the volcano which is disastrous for all of the towns around. I don't think I'll be investing in any real estate there.

The drive home was a lot easier than on the way out. We stopped for snacks on the way home and decided to eat dinner when we got back. We were a van full of 10 year olds. The snacks we picked out ranged from licorice, sour string, a pack of 20 twix bars, tons of cric crocs (like Italian Lay's chips) in the paprika flavor (which is very popular in Italy), and gummy bears. We all were going to have belly aches later haha. We got back and I showered immediately trying to wash the volcano off of myself. After we were all dressed we met up with Kyle's family again then headed across the street to the restaurant I ate at last Sunday with Mariel and where we had our last group dinner. It was about 11 o'clock at this point and we were starved. I ordered the risotto with tomatoes and mozzarella and it was beautiful. The way they present food here just makes me even hungrier. We had white wine to accompany the meal and I even got to try some free tuna from the chef. It was raw, but I decided to eat it anyways because it was free, and it was actually incredible! By the end of the meal we were all pooped and headed back to the Residence for some much needed sleep. I popped the ear plugs back in and passed out. It was quite a successful and beautiful day.