Whilst on holiday to Sorento me and Andy decided to visit the ruins of Pompeii. This was one of the best experiences of the holiday. If you're staying in the town centre you are about a train journey of about an hour away. I have to say that Pompeii is a very popular destination and as such, the train is extremely packed. You have to be vigilant for pick pockets and just be very cautious to avoid anything bad happening. We saw a lady almost have her passport stolen, but thankfully another passenger noticed and stopped this from happening.
After the train journey, you walk down the street past the restaurant and can buy your tickets directly from Pompeii itself, however we brought ours for a mark up of 1 euro as the estimated queue was an hour and a half. The day we went was exceptionally hot so the extra money was worth it to be straight through the gates. We chose to go it alone with a book to save money. I wouldn't recommend this as someone who loves history even I struggled to figure out what was going on. The book doesn't follow the points exactly and finding the corresponding numbers to read about them proved rather difficult. We think we got the main parts and if I'm honest we jumped in with the tourist groups whilst they were stopped at each part so we got to learn a little bit extra.
One thing that struck me about this place, that is steeped in history, was the level of preservation. There were buildings and mosaics that had survived all those years and it is quite an overwhelming place to visit. It felt extremely strange to be walking on volcanic ash that has once consumed life and you get a very strong sense of needing to be respectful and fully appreciate what happened.
The archaeologists are actively excavating and discovering new artefacts all the time. It was really interesting to read about what they were working on and see them in action. Towards the front they have all of the preserved artefacts and boxes upon boxes of pottery.
The large ampitheatre is located quite a walk away from the main houses and there is a really interesting museum containing lots of information just before this theatre. The sheer size of this was astonishing and walking through the archways you really felt as if you were heading to battle or off to entertain the crowd. There was an exhibition that showed Pink Floyd when they played there as a concert, which was a very surreal sight to see.
One of the most upsetting things about visiting Pompeii was seeing the people and animals who had died whilst fleeing the eruption. Whilst walking around you read all about the families who lived there and how they unfortunately died, however it really is a different feeling when you genuinely see their bodies for yourself. I had overheard that these are casts of the bodies that the archeologists took whilst uncovering Pompeii and that the real bodies had been placed to rest. I did get quite emotional whilst learning about this aspect of the history as some of the bodies found were reaching out in pain or cowering in fear and that just struck a chord with me.
The day we Pompeii was uncharacteristically hot and even the wasps were gathered around the water taps desperately trying to rehydrate themselves. Whilst I waited for Andy to come out of the bathroom I saw a little lizard that seemed to be struggling. I threw some water on the log pictured above and the little guy quickly started licking the log. I found a small leave and poured some water into there so he could have a drink. After a couple of minutes I think both curiosity and thirst got to him and he spent the next five minutes drinking. It was probably one of the greatest experiences and one I will definitely cherish for life. Once he scuttled on his merry way. I literally felt like Snow White and couldn't stop talking about it all day!
If you ever get the chance to visit Pompeii please go. It is definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity and is steeped in so much history. The views are absolutely breathtaking and although we didn't get to visit Mount Vesuvius due to forest fires we still had the most wonderful day.
This post unfortunately concludes the Sorrento Series... Which is sad, but we hope you've enjoyed seeing what we got up to. Keep your eyes peeled as we'll be starting two new travel series in the form of Budapest and Amsterdam! So don't forget to follow our social media's to keep up to date with our travels and daily lives!!
Until Next Time
T
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