LIVE your LIFE: Pompeii and Herculaneum (July 2)

When I woke up this morning and excitedly looked out my window, I was greeted by the sight of a beautiful day in Napoli! This first sighting of land was different from Barcelona- before Spain, I was nervous to go into port. I’d never been to Europe before. How would I communicate? The idea of such a huge looming unknown scared me! While in Barcelona, though, I got more comfortable with the idea of traveling in foreign countries. I learned that communication and transportation is difficult, but can be accomplished! Gestures, drawings, and maps can go a long way! As I got ready to go out into Naples, no longer was I anxious in a nervous way- I was anxious in an excited, get-me-off-the-ship way!

At lunch yesterday, Darwin was bringing us food and refilling our drinks and asked why we weren’t doing Sea Olympics. We told him we were too exhausted and need to catch up on sleep and homework. We were then dubbed as “Darwin’s Angels”- like Charlie’s Angels, of course- because during the Sea Olympics we were in the dining room with him! So Darwin’s Angels we are.

We had to get our passports before getting off the ship since we’d be staying overnight while in Italy. When I finally got off the ship, I had an FDP for my Natural Disasters class- we were visiting Pompeii and Herculaneum! I ran out to my bus (the passport line was long) and made it just in time. On the bus ride there, it was so cool looking to my right and seeing the beautiful coast, then looking to my left and seeing a huge volcano (Mt. Vesuvius).

We visited Pompeii first. Was it hot? OHHH my gosh, so hot. I had a backpack (with water!), so my back was just a wall of sweat. Ew. We had a great tour guide, Sandra, who brought us around the destroyed city and explained everything we would ever want to know. Pompeii was a rich city in the times of ancient Rome. Many of the genius design techniques could still be recognized as we were there today. Those Romans! For example, they wanted to regulate the cars coming in and out of the city, so their roads had 3 large crossing stones (for when the roads became rivers) spaced perfectly so only cars that were 4 feet, 8 and a half inches wide could get through. The sidewalks of the roads were raised quite a bit. One would think this was just for walking, but lo-and-behold there’s another purpose! Since the city is hilly, mostly up on a hill, when it rains the water drains out down the roads. The “sidewalks” create a path for the water to travel between, and the stepping stones are used to get across! We got to see so much of Pompeii- and it’s huge! The brothel was so vulgar- there were paintings all over the walls that were quite detailed, and penises everywhere. The beds were hard and uncomfortable to make business move quickly. When men came to the brothel, they were given a “menu” with risqué pictures of the women and different “deeds.” They could choose the person, and what they wanted to do with them. On the outside of the brothel, there was a protruding- shape- coming out of the building. Our tour guide told us that this particular one was an advertisement for the brothel, but that in the times, the erect penis was a symbol of fertility and good luck. She said they were very popular and people would wear them as necklaces and have them as decoration in their house. I’m glad she told us that—otherwise I would have been more [shocked when we got to the “bookstore” where they were very prevalent! As we had our tour, Sandra spoke into a microphone and we all had little radios with headphones. If we decided to wander off or lag behind, we could still hear her. I thought it was pretty cool. Turns out the tours are like that ALL over Europe! Anyway, I’ve spent so much time on little details of Pompeii that I didn’t even talk about what I was supposed to be focusing on (because it was a class field trip for Natural Disasters). The reason we visited Pompeii was because it is located about 9 km from the base of Mt. Vesuvius- one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world. Why is it so dangerous? Because there are 2 million people living around the base of it, and the volcano is still active! The last eruption was in 1944. Anyway, Pompeii was an ancient Roman city- very rich and high class. In AD 79, Mt. Vesuvius erupted. Pyroclastic flow and ash completely covered the surrounding cities- Herculaneum and Pompeii included. Pompeii was buried under 24 feet of rocks, dirt, ash, and hardened magma. The people living in Pompeii didn’t have time to leave- the pyroclastic flow (a speeding rush of hot rocks, magma, dirt, and dangerous volcanic gases) came rushing over the city and buried it as is. When the site was discovered, archaeologists found that there were complete cavities where bodies were when the city was destroyed. Everything that could decompose, decomposed- and left perfect cavities! Archaeologists poured plaster into all the cavities they could find. The plaster hardened, and when taken out were an exact mold of the city when it was destroyed. We were able to see some of the shops and bodies as they were when disaster struck. People were laying on the ground, covering their mouths and gasping for air. Some were holding each other. There was a pregnant woman with her hands on her face trying to breath. The buildings even had original paintings and tiles on them- everything I am talking about is 2000 years old! Is that crazy?? I sure think so!

After the tour, we all went into a refreshing air-conditioned room to enjoy our first AMAZING Italian meal! We were first given a huge bottle of cold water- yes, it was worth mentioning! Then we got thick slices of doughy bread that was quickly devoured. Next was gnocchi with red sauce- the first of Italian pasta. :) Then we got French fries and slabs of pork- that part was interesting. For dessert, we got delicious, moist, rich chocolate cake with vanilla gelato. MMM!!! That was JUST what we needed after such a long, hot tour. Once we were all full and refreshed, we boarded the bus and made our way to Herculaneum. I think the tour guide might have talked, but pretty much all of us passed out. Something about air conditioning, food coma, and the humming massage of a bus. When I woke up, we were at Herculaneum! Herculaneum was similar to Pompeii, but was only 6 km from the base of Mt. Vesuvius. The difference was that up until the 1970s, archaeologists found no sign of humans in the area. It was quite odd that NOBODY stayed behind- that everybody escaped. As far as they knew, it was just a city that was buried and no casualties occurred. Herculaneum was a very rich and upscale vacation city for the richest Romans. It was a beautiful coastal city with a lifestyle focused on relaxation and beauty. The pyroclastic flow from the volcano covered it SO much that the city was about 75 feet below the current surface of land. Again, it was so odd that nobody was found! In the 1970’s, it was finally discovered that there WERE humans present and killed. As it turns out, the volcanic pyroclastic flow was still so hot when it reached Herculaneum that it disintegrated the flesh of everyone it touched. But what about the skeletons? Well, archaeologists just hadn’t been thorough enough with their excavation in the past. As more of the city was dug up, many skeleton cavities were found down at the port. The people of Herculaneum saw Mt. Vesuvius erupt and ran back to their homes to collect their valuable-they most likely were not being shallow by grabbing their finest jewels, but rather smart. They were going to escape by ships and boats off the coast, but what would happen when they got to a new place? They would have nothing. They likely got all their jewels so they would have something to sell when they got to land. This way, they could start a new life and have some kind of money to do this with. Our tour guide was so amazing! She grew up in Italy was about 10 when skeleton cavities were discovered in Herculaneum. Her family knew the head archaeologist very well, so she got to visit the site often. She described to us the most disturbing site she has ever seen. At age 10, she visited the site just after the skeletons were plastered and uncovered. Her young, naïve eyes witnessed this- she saw groups of skeletons hugging and holding each other down at the port, waiting for the next ship and covered in piles of jewelry. She said she will never forget the sight of one particular group of skeletons huddled up hugging, and the skeletons were draped with tens of necklaces, bracelets, and jewels. They were so scared and desperate for survival- they had their survival jewels and were so close to catching the next ship. How do we know? There were ships just right off the coast. I imaged myself at ten, if I had seen what Sandra saw. At ANY age, that is so heartbreaking and just real. As we began our tour of Herculaneum, we had to walk down about 75 feet to get to the city. I couldn’t see the coast from where I was, which was crazy considering the old coast was below our feet until the volcano covered it with land. All the people (skeletons) were down by the shipyard. The houses were empty, and we did get to tour them. They were beautiful! The fact that these houses are 2000 years old and resemble nice houses we live in today is just crazy. I hope I can post pictures soon! One house looks like a nice home people live in today! There were ocean-view gazebos. There were rooms specifically there for napping- windows on both sides so the ocean breeze could flow through. All of the rooms had elaborate fresco paintings on the walls that were still partially there. There were huge spas with sauna rooms and “locker” rooms. There was a huge swimming pool. So much of their buildings and the lifestyles they reflected were so similar to ours these days. They were even more relaxed than us with all those spas! I still am so bewildered by the fact that this was 2000 years ago- just after the time of Jesus’ crucifixion- and so much of it is preserved. It is so similar! It was an amazing experience, brought to life even more by our great tour guide.

Once we got to the end of our day, we were all exhausted! When I got back, I realized that I was a couple shades darker- there was dirt CAKED onto me! When I took off my clothes to get in the shower, it looked like I was still wearing clothes- white ones! Thank goodness for that shower.

That night, the group was reunited. We went out to dinner for Andrew’s birthday- there were 30 of us! Everyone didn’t know each other, but we all knew Andrew. We walked out into Napoli about 20 minutes down the coast and got to a place called Ciro (I think). They ONLY spoke Italian, so we finally communicated that our huge group wanted to eat together. He brought us up to the balcony and we took it over- it was like a private party! IT. WAS. BEAUTIFUL!!! The sun lowering in the sky so there was my favorite yellow light shining on everything. The shadows were dramatic where sides of buildings hid from the sun. We were right on the water, with a small harbor in front of us. Small sailboats and colorful canoes sat in the water in front of us as we ate. To our left, the sun was setting. The colors got deeper and deeper as we ate, and eventually the stars came out and were shining brightly in the dark sky. To our right, fireworks started going off. It was such an amazing dinner! We all sang Happy Birthday to Andrew and managed to point-and-eat from the menu. I had a Pizza Margherita (my typical cheese pizza- but what they are known for!). It was so good! I also had some wine- since I was going to hike Mt. Vesuvius the next day, Brittany and I got a bottle of wine made from grapes grown on Mt. Vesuvius. Well, I drank the wine and tried to enjoy it, but made sure to tell Mt. Vesuvius that I didn’t like its wine the next day! It was much too strong and peppery for my liking, but I’m glad I tried it! The coolest part was the fact that it was grown on the volcano!

As we made our way back full and happy, we leisurely strolled back along the coast (where the water was covered in reflections from ship and building lights). We wanted to get back kind of early rather than going out, because a lot of us had to be up at 6 am the next morning to hike Mt. Vesuvius. We meant to go straight back to the ship, but could NOT pass up our first gelato experience (I had it with lunch, but it didn’t count because it wasn’t chocolate!). I got some chocolate gelato- MMM it was good! Then we passed a mini kid’s theme park/circus, and some of the people wanted to ride the mechanical bull they saw. Just to check it off their list! Most of us were wearing dresses, though, so I watched. As we continued on our way back, we noticed the tons of trash piles all over the place. On the roads, sidewalks, lawns...Oh, how Naples is a political disaster. It can’t even control its waste. We were warned about this disorganization prior to arriving in Naples, so it didn’t come as a shock.

When I got back to the ship, my roommate wasn’t there. She was spending the night out in Italy so I was alone! Outside my window was the beautiful sea, reflected with lights along its coast. I kept my window shade open. :) Because I was alone, I started really missing all of you! I’ve been so busy that I’m constantly on the go. When I finally got to be alone, it hit me how much I miss everyone! My family, friends, boyfriend, acquaintences, dog (CHLOE!)…Everyone! Having moments like that was inevitable, but I embraced it, let myself miss everyone, looked at some pictures, and fell asleep next to the beautiful coast feeling so blessed and being so thankful for all of you in my life.