Pompeii

Yesterday we abandoned our staging hotel in Tuscany, at Montecatini, and headed south, past Rome, which we skirted, down the coast past Naples, and stopped for our late afternoon adventure at Pompeii, the Roman city abruptly smothered by volcanic ash by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD.

The ruins of Pompeii with Mt. Vesuvius in the background. The city was mostly excavated in the late 19th and 20th century, and much was stolen, destroyed or damaged in the process. Some 25% remains to excavated, and we can only hope they do a better job. Still, their are an astonishing amount of city revealed here.

One of the famous "petrified people", actually casts from voids left where people were covered with ash, died, and subsequently decayed away.

A bronze statue of Apollo, in his temple. The statue is a copy of the original, which is in a museum. He faces Diana, his sister, across the square.

Oh wait; that's not her!

There she is.

Saying arrivederci to Pompeii and of to our next base in Sorrento.


Thanks to Wombat-Socho for indulging me and linking this (and my other Italy Rule 5 posts) on The Other McCain for the last two weeks.