Dayna serving a Coke at the Taverna
Vesuvius from Pompeii
Two of the plaster casts from victims
On our second full day we took the local train for 40 minutes to Pompeii. It is amazing to see an entire city so well preserved from
2000 years ago. It really helps you to understand what life was like -
although it was a very wealthy city. The girls loved wandering the
narrow, cobblestone streets and enjoyed jumping from one side of the
street to the other. The streets also served as their drainage system
so there were steps in the middle that the carts could roll right over
but that could be used by pedestrians to cross over one side to the next
without getting wet.
Karissa's favorite things were the "stepping stones" and the little "tavernas" everywhere. In Pompeii, you always ate your lunch "out". The big pots set into the counter held the food and drinks as Dayna demonstrates above! Dayna's favorite was the "Beware of Dog" floor mosaic at the entrance to one of the homes. She waited nearly the entire day to get to see it.
We also liked the ornate
communal bath houses - huge. It was THE place to see and be seen (boys
and girls were separate however). People from our time go to Starbucks,
THEY went to the baths and hung out for a few hours. The number of
intact frescoes and mosaic floors were astonishing. They were REALLY
into decorating their homes - pretty nice places all with interior
courtyards for their outdoor living and frescoed walls facing the skinny
little streets. It was difficult to tell where the houses started and
stopped so you definitely couldn't tell much about the house or its size
until you entered it. Much different than our modern way of displaying
our wealth!!
With our Vesuvius visit and the recent eruption in Iceland (remember our favorite friends here are Icelandic so we get lots of updates on it!) we have learned more about volcanos than ever! One of the unique things about Pompeii is that the city was buried in ash and debris, not lava. It literally rained down from the sky and most people that died, died from the toxic gas or suffocation. They have found empty cavities in the shape of humans as they have dug through the site. They "backfill" these cavities with plaster and it shows the actual shape and position of the person or animal as it died! There are many of these casts around the city and it's pretty eery and makes the whole affair much more human.
After our daily gelato at the site we closed the place
down. Much to our amazement the girls were really engaged and attentive
and enjoyed showing their American friends "Flat Kayla" and "Flat Ryan"
around. ( They are "visiting" us from the second grade at Pullen
Elementary in Rockwall.)
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