- 54,000 Steps and Exhausted
- A Fumble and Some Spikes in Corniglia
- Hot Hike: Corniglia to Vernazza
- The Cinque Bust
- A Tour of the Castle
- An Unforgettable Umbrian Pizza Party
- Siena v. Florence: The Rivalry Continues
- Mi Piace Formaggio di Capra
- Yummy for my Tummy: Pizza and Gelato
- Hill Town Trekking, Part 1
- Hill Town Trekking, Part 2
- Three Days at Sea, and Almost No Sleep
- Just Call Me Skipper
- A Day in the Ruins
- Cooking in Italy
It Started with a Volatile Volcano
I have always loved ruins of ancient cities. One day the city is there, and the next…it’s vanished from the surface of the earth. In the year 79 B.C.E, on August 24th and 25th, Mount Vesuvius erupted. When we started this trip and even before that I always wanted to see Pompeii. Not only did I get to see the ancient city of Pompeii I also got to visit the more well-preserved Herculaneum. Let start from the beginning with Pompeii.
Pompeii
We were driven to Pompeii and met up with our private tour guide, who showed us the way into the ruins. Before we actually started exploring the ruins, we looked at the cases that held people frozen in time. It was so amazing to see how well-preserved the bodies are. We saw many different positions like a mother and her baby. There was also this man that had his hands over his eyes probably because he was scared, or protecting himself from fall ash or debris. We finally entered the ruins where we started. Our tour guide showed us that there were many more layers than we thought.
Fun Fact 1: Did you know that Pompeii was never reached by lava? It was the burning ash that killed the people and buried the city.
Anyways next we walked over to the “stage”. Do you know what a gladiator is? Well now you know where they use to fight. This place is called the Amphitheater. Even though it was really sunny you could still make out the theater and you can also see some steps and where people sat and watched the fights. After that exciting scene we went to this house that used to be owned by this rich guy. Did you know that they found some shriveled up seeds, and now they grow what used to grow in front of the house almost 2,000 years ago. As we venture into the house you can see that it is more of some ruins than a house. If I told you about everything that we did in Pompeii than that would be about eight hours of reading so I’ll save you some time. We visited a lot of amazing places in Pompeii and in the end of the tour we stepped out into the main square. It was so amazing! There were pillars, and ruins, and it just so hard to describe. So look at the pics instead!
Herculaneum
Unfortunately we had to move on to Herculaneum. Herculaneum was so much like Pompeii but Herculaneum was smaller and better preserved. The main reason why it is smaller is because some of Herculaneum is still covered. The really sad thing is that there is a village around it so the can’t unearth much more of the city. In Herculaneum you can interact more with the ruins and you can go into more parts of the houses than you could in Pompeii. We started out at the entrance to Herculaneum. As we ventured down, you could see how deep down they had to dig to get to this city. It was so much deeper than Pompeii is. We had the same tour guide from Pompeii. She gave us “houses” that were in the Roman times that we could have made our home. I think that we started out with Tommy’s house. It was big and spacious. He kindly invited us into his house and we gladly came in. Our tour guide showed us where the toilets were.
Fun Fact 2: Two interesting and gross things people did in Roman times… (1) the toilets were in the same room as the kitchen so if you were cooking and going to the bathroom at the same time or two people were there that would be absolutely disgusting, and (2) do you know how they washed their clothes? Well they would collect urine and that is what they used to wash their clothes. Isn’t that disgusting?
After Tommy’s house we left and went to Macy’s house, which was cool, but then we went to MY house!!!! I owned a winery and I had a house. I was a super wealthy person. I had this lovely mosaic on my wall and man was that exciting. We went to Mom and Dad’s house and then we saw some other things then we left.
I really loved our trip to Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Hello, my name is Cupcake. I am 11 years old, and just about to finish my first year of middle school. My passions are baking and art. My specialties include lemon madeleines and cakey chocolate chip cookies. My dream is to someday open a bakery with my friend. I love to sculpt with clay, and paint with acrylics. I'm extremely excited for our Europe adventure, especially visiting Germany and seeing our old au pair!