Sunday, October 11, 2009

Pompei

On Sunday, we had to meet with the rest of our program bright and early so we could leave for Pompei. We checked out of the hotel, then boarded the bus...the trip from Sorrento took about an hour.

When we arrived we split ourselves into three tour groups (our program has around 70 people in it) and we each followed our tour guide.

A history lesson for you: Pompei was a city that was completely buried during an eruption of Mount Vesuvius that lasted for two days in AD 79. The eruption buried Pompei under 60 feet of ash, and the city was lost for nearly 1,700 years before it was rediscovered in the 1700s...ever since then, excavations have been going on to recover the city.

Here's Lino, our tour guide. He was really great!





Inside of the old theater


Painting


Brothel...looks very inviting, no?


Petrified person from the eruption






This one made me sad...poor puppy :( He was trying to get away


Some of the many things that have been recovered from the site


The still-active Mount Vesuvius


After our tours ended we had some free time for lunch, then headed back on the bus to go home to Rome. The ride was quick -- most of us slept. When we were about ten minutes from home, our bus stopped in the middle of the street and our program directors asked for a few boys to get off the bus. Everyone was confused and wondering what was going on, and we soon learned that they needed to help "move some cars." That's right...there were cars parked alongside the road that we were on and our bus couldn't fit through. So our program directors and some guys picked up some cars (they were SmartCars so they were lighter) and moved them aside so we could fit through. Apparently this is a normal occurrence?! Only in Italy! It was SO funny!

2 comments:

linanne said...

Uncle Butch requests that you please bring home some homemade red wine (gallon size preferred or only a quart) in your suitcase. Oh one more thing, this is not to be shared with your dad! He made me write this.. Sorry Sweetie, Love Aunt Linda and Uncle Butch

Danielle said...

Haha Aunt Linda...it's shocking that he said that! ;)

I actually really do wish I could bring wine home, but since I'm under 21 I'm not allowed to...when I go to Tuscany in a few weeks I'm going to see if I can have some shipped home though.