After some wonderful sunny weather in Scotland, having lived in Portugal and not been in proper heat for a few years – we were very ready for arriving in 30 degrees.
Or so we thought.
We flew easyjet with only hand luggage so you know the deal, wear as much as you can, right? That was fine in Scotland at 5am. We stepped of the plane peeling clothes off and cursing our hiking boots pouring in sweat at 11am in Naples.
There were no direct flights from Edinburgh to Catania so we decided to stay one night in Naples and fly to Catania the next day.
Our first impression of the city wasn’t a great one, I wont lie, it looked a total dump. Everything run down, peeling paint the least of anyones worries, windows were caving in!
We booked an air b&b in the centre, right near the train station for just £30! It was a nice self contained flat with air conditioning – yeeees! The lady who gave us the keys however couldn’t speak a word of english, but we gathered it wasn’t quite ready. The plan of showering and changing went out the window then. Speaking of the shower, we later discovered its disco powers!
We didn’t let the lack of shower and fresh cloths change our plans and jumped on the next train to Pompei to visit the ruins of the ancient Roman town Pompeii.
I confess to only half listening to David’s information, we were going to see some roman ruins that had been buried after a volcano erruption, cool. Neverthless, even David was amazed at the sheer size of the ruins.
It’s literally a whole city.
Parts of it are in total ruin, which is expected seeing as researchers believe it dates back to 6 BC, the eruption that sealed the city from the world was in 79 AC.
But others are so well preserved due to the lack of air and moisture for centuries. There does seem to have been a lot of renovation going on too…
The detail that has been persevered in places is amazing, or to use the word in its original sense (hey, René!) awsome, awe inspiring,… Ok, ok, you get the idea!
Walking through the streets really was like walking through any city, layout wise I mean, obviously the fact most of the buildings are in ruins makes a difference, or maybe not after seeing Naples haha.
Its incredible to think that centuries ago humans where already building essentially like we still do!
I wonder what these big stones at the beginning of main roads were for though, or if its just how it has been excivated… There was nothing about them in the guide book…
Aha! Thank you Wikipedia! “The blocks in the road allowed pedestrians to cross the street without having to step onto the road itself which doubled up as Pompeii’s drainage and sewage disposal system. The spaces between the blocks allowed vehicles to pass along the road.”
An architectural feature that caught my eye was the use of cobble like bricks laid vertically to create diamond patterns (example above my right hand), I wonder if they where covered in plaster or left for their decorative qualities.
Pompeii also boasts the oldest surviving amphitheatre! Capable of holding up to 12.000 people it is a very impressive structure indeed!
There are also two theatres in old Pompeii, the roman theory of giving the mob entertainment and bread definitely played a part here.
It would have been really interesting to have a had a look around the modern city of Pompei, but all we had time to do was get ridiculously ripped off buying an ice cream (too excited and short of time to ask prices before the result was a wopping 4€ each!!! Eek! They where delicious though) and jump on the train.
A glimpse of Pomei today:
Traveling Bugs and other Animals 