Day 4: Monday 20 Jan (My birthday outing)
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| The Ruins of Pompeii City |
We had mostly covered what we had planned for Rome, so we were searching for another place to visit nearby Rome. Many friends suggested Venice, but to me, that was just too far. HH was very surprised to find out that Pompeii was so near to Rome, and was excited to visit. She told us about the stories of the volcano and how people died there. It sounded interesting. To get there, we had to go to Naples first, and then take another train to Pompeii. Naples rang a bell in my head. I had often watched movies about Naples, being a beach town, with many resorts and palm trees. On hindsight, I think I mixed it up with Naples, Florida and not Naples (Napoli), Italy.
So Pompeii + Napoli it was!
Pompeii, from what I gathered, was an ancient Roman resort town for the rich. Researchers believe it was founded between 600-700 BC, and captured by the Romans in 70BC. Disaster stuck when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, and buried the population of 20,000 people under 4-6metres of ash. Over 1500 years later, it was discovered once, and rediscovered again in 1748. The objects beneath the ash have been well preserved due to the lack of air and moisture. Rumors say that the rich people had already fled when the volcano erupted, leaving behind the poorer workers who died there. The most ghastly part of this story is that the bodies disintegrated, leaving behind a cavity under the ash. During the excavation, they filled up the gap with plaster, in order to re-create the bodies lying underneath. So you can even see the expressions on their faces when they died. Ghastly!
