You know how sometimes you read about some famous place when you’re nine or ten years old and you think how wonderful it would be to go there someday, and as you get older you keep hearing about it–maybe you see a couple documentaries, read an article in National Geographic or something–and you keep thinking how you really have to get there and years pass and then one day you actually make it there and it turns out to be not half as big or exciting as you expected? Pompeii is definitely not that place.
When I first told my sister and her husband that John and I would be visiting Italy, she immediately shot me off an email saying they would take us to Pompeii, their treat. I’d planned a quick visit to Rome before heading for Tuscany, but who could turn down such an invitation? We hurriedly changed our flights, cancelled hotel reservations, and eliminated a number of other places from our itinerary to fit in a trip to Pompeii. It was a decision we’ll never regret.
The entire city of Pompeii seems to ring with astonishment. There is the astonishment of the residents who’d lived for generations in the shadow of the pretty hill to their East and suddenly found it burying them under 20 feet of ash, concealing every trace of their existence for 1700 years. There is the astonishment of archeologists who started digging up a few artifacts and ended up uncovering a 160-acre city. And then there’s your own astonishment at the size of the city, at the extent of the excavation, at the sheer beauty of the place.
Pompeii has a lived-in feeling. So many of the sights of Italy are extravaganzas built to glorify emperors and popes, but Pompeii was just a town. Its residents–merchants and bakers, teachers and homemakers–lunched at little cafes (dozens lined the streets of town), bought breads at one of the 35 bakeries, went to concerts, thought up campaign slogans (some can still be read on the walls), and kept pets. If ghosts exist, there must be quite a few haunting the streets of Pompeii.
You may have heard of the famous Dog of Pompeii, whose remains were among the best preserved of any in the town. Unfortunately, the dog was on exhibit in Germany when we were at the ruins. We did, however, see the less-famous Cat of Pompei:
For a nine-year-old, the ruins of Pompeii are not nearly as interesting as the game on your Ipod.
I, however, couldn’t get enough of the murals:
i loved pompei! dispite living in india surrounded by ancient history it was pompei where i had the epi-whatsit ARCHAEOLOGY! one of the few memories i have that is not traumatic but ecstatic. pompei, herculanium, pliny and vesuvius and of course gelato, chianti and the smell of the bay…cool still!
Exactly my feelings. Although, I have to admit, there were quite a few things in India that blew me off my feet, too.
I loved Pompeii, too. So much to explore.