Arriving in Pompeii was a bit eerie!

There were no taxi cabs at the pseudo bus depot (it was a parking lot!) and there were no people on the streets!!

Mount Vesuvius in the background wasn’t erupting so it wasn’t a repeat of Pompeii’s catastrophic history.

The main issue at this point is; Where’s the hotel? How to get there?

It’s over there and walking is the only way to get there and like much of Europe…..it’s walking uphill (which means at some point walking downhill is required which isn’t a very pleasant task either)! I’m unable to tell really how far I just know it’s in that direction.

Another flippin’ surprise!!! No elevator (‘lift’ as they say in Europe)!!!

Let me digress with a little history before my arrival.

Pompeii was buried under 4 to 6 m (13 to 20 ft) of volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. Volcanic ash buried inhabitants who did not escape the lethal effects of the earthquake and eruption. There was very little time for these people to escape because of the accompanying rush of heat and gasses from the volcanic explosion.

Life turned to death was preserved under the ash, the portion of the excavated city (excavation continues to present day with more in the future) grabs a unique snapshot of Roman life. Frozen at the moment it was buried and providing an extraordinarily detailed insight into the everyday life of its people of Pompeii, also the less heard of city of Herculaneum. Organic remains, including wooden objects and human bodies, were entombed in the ash and decayed away, making natural molds; and excavators used these to make plaster casts, unique and often gruesome figures from the last minutes of the catastrophe.  That’s how we see the figures that are shown today.

Pompeii

Back to me.

Dragging the luggage thru the cobblestone streets was surreal….no one in sight, going uphill most of the way. Well actually all the way as the hotel was the top of the hill. From there, looking west a half block away was the historic catastrophe of Pompeii.

I’m not gonna tour you thru Pompeii today, just a cursor visit…..we’ll get up close and personal tomorrow.

Something I didn’t do that I wanted to do but……whether I could actually do was a little iffy and if I paid and couldn’t (I’ll explain), there would be no refund. That which I wanted to do was visit the top of Mount Vesuvius!!

In the off season right before winter sets in it’s cold and windy….so most times the tour can’t reach the destination and stuck about halfway up the mountain and must turn around.

So, I said thank you to the tour operator, but no.

I ate pizza, drank wine (and beer) and a whole mixture of different Italian foods.

OH!!!!! One of the biggies which we will get to when visiting the ruins is Pink Floyd!!! Standing, right there, my mind rushing thru that moment….another part of history that most aren’t aware of.

Details tomorrow!!!!

I’m still in Pompeii in my mind and will be returning physically too!!!

Peace, love and beaches,

John

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