I told you Pompeii would be a long series of posts. I just couldn't bare the idea of summarizing this crazy awesome trip in one tiny post. There was just too many unplanned adventures for that.
So to continue our unplanned adventure to Pompeii we began here, at the Via Di Castricio, on the road that leads out of the main city and into the colosseum.
On our way in there was a man sitting with a guide badge, I thought it would be no trouble at all since he only said hi as we walked in. Turns out 4 Americans without a map looking all around trying to figure out where to turn with only a small fragment of time left before this massive outdoor museum closes invites Italians looking to make a quick buck. For some odd reason they think that we are overflowing with money since we traveled to Italy. Needless to say 3 college students and a teacher are not at all in the land of milk and honey.
Gorgeous pine trees. I think these were called umbrella pines, and if I heard correctly they are the type of tree that gave Dr. Seuss the idea for how the trees are shaped in his books.
The open field before the colosseum. I swear I learned what this was used for in the documentary I watched, but I can't seem to remember it now.
Pompeii's colosseum. Even here without all of the pomp and circumstance of Rome's grand Colosseum they still managed to have the gladiators fight lions and other animals.
It took forever to find the entrance. We could have walked up any of the staircases on the outside, but they were all blocked off.
Looking down one of the entrances to the ground level of the colosseum.
Finally we found the way in.
The sign at the end of the entrance, who on earth knows what it said. There wasn't even an explanation in Italian-I would have asked Christina to translate the next I saw her if it did.
Inside the Colosseum.
Not nearly as large as Rome's.
The way out.
View of where we entered from.
Walking back into the city. You can enlarge the sign and read it if you like.
After leaving the colosseum we headed to the left of the main road to the far wall of the city. There they had the amphitheater and many statues.
To exit the city we had to turn back to the right, so we trudged through the old streets and searched for the exit. It was really easy to get turned around here, especially for someone like me who shouldn't be allowed to leave my house without a gps.
Anyone figure out what these flowers where? Well at this point, seeing as there were so many of them I ran across the street and picked a few. To my surprise they weren't lavender. Lavender would make sense right? It was all rosemary. I was absolutely stunned.
Considering how much I cook I couldn't get over how much there was. I wanted to stuff my purse with handfulls of the stuff. It's $3.99 at WalMart here! I wanted to make bank. But Jeremy talked me off that ledge due to the fact that customs would probably not like me very much with a purse full of rosemary.
Can you tell we were around the brothels again, tons of nudes.
View of the surrounding cities from the hilltop in Pompeii. We couldn't ever figure out how to exit exactly so we wound up on a hill above the city and walked it until we finally looped back into Pompeii.
Pompeii from the hilltop.
A shot of the main road in Pompeii from the hill.
You can slightly see the Mediterranean Sea in the background.
Sunset in Pompeii.
After much searching I finally found the bodies I had wandered all over this city to see.
The only thing I was disappointed in is the fact that I was hoping to see the one of the woman holding her child. Either it was in a part of the park we never found or they just didn't have it on display.
Finally back at the train station with time to spare before the train strike. In the next post I will cover night life in Naples. It was interesting, the stories from this night deserve their own post. Are you as surprised as I am that it is taking 4 posts to get through day 3 as I am? Hopefully you all are enjoying it, other wise I might lose followers with all the picture overload posts.
