Day 11

A day in Pompeii!

Pompeii was buried in ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted. It was covered in 25 feet of ash in only 3 days. Almost all of the people died with in 3 minutes and because of the ash it was really well preserved.

It was so amazing... it was a lot bigger than I expected and in better shape. We had a tour guide and I believe he said that there was 60 some acres in the town and it was made up of predominantly wealthy people. It was originally created by the Greeks and then taken over by Romans. You could actually see where the Greeks had built walls with volcanic rock and a stucco material and then the romans had rebuilt it with brick. They were very innovative too. For street lighting they used tiny white marble stones in the sidewalks which shines in the moonlight apparently. They also had raised stepping stones across the street. Apparently they used to throw refuge in the streets and then the aqueducts would send water through the streets and carry the mess down to the sea. They even had pipes- even if they were lead. Oh and the city was built on the sea- it was a seaport but when Vesuvius erupted the sea moved back about 3 miles!

We even saw some of the plaster body casts, there weren't a ton of them though. I think most of the artifacts like those have been moved to museums. These casts were made when they found holes in the ground when they were excavating. They were curious so they filled them with plaster and found out they were empty spaces where bodies fell.

A lot of the art work was saved too. They would paint pictures/murals on their walls as decoration. The coloring was even still rather vivid. It was an overcast day so the lighting was perfect and I have really good pictures to show everybody!

It was so interesting to see all of this. So much of it is still standing- it's amazing. It was definitely a highlight of my trip so far. Mom- you would have LOVED it... someday when I'm rich and famous I'm bringing you there.

I even got to ride a real train! It was a fun experience. The first train we took was EXACTLY like Harry Potter- with the little rooms for people to sit in. The other one back though just had seats. It's definitely been an experience though.

Last night was the midterm and overall I think I did okay, we'll see once he grades them. After that we all had a group dinner. It was pretty good. Tonight I'm not sure what's going on. We have some reading to do for tomorrow's lecture- only 2 days until another midterm and journal is due! We might all just chill tonight, we're pretty exhausted from all of the traveling. It took almost 3 hours to get to Pompeii and we had to take two trains each way.

That's about it, I believe tomorrow is the half way point of this trip. It's going by so fast! I'm ready to be done with Rome though, I feel like we've seen anything and I'm super excited to experience Florence and Venice (again!). Anyways, I hope all is well and everybody had a good day!

Love ya!
Ash


P.S. Kelly- I am 7 hours ahead of you so I'll probably have to wait until the weekend to call you unless you are free earlier in the day at all... Let me know your weekend schedule.