Remarkable Pompei and breakfast eggs???

Sunday morning here in sunny Sorrento began with a quick hotel breakfast at 7:30 so we could meet our shuttle to Pompei at 8:00 a.m. One of the selling points for me for choosing this particular hotel in the early planning stage was that in the breakfast that was available here, it advertised that they served eggs. Uhh, okay, if you count boiled eggs as really being a breakfast egg. So…. how about those pastries? With a couple cups of coffee and a little nourishment in our systems we walked out to the plaza and boarded our transportation to Pompei that was waiting for us.

It took about 45 minutes to drive and arrive at the Pompei gate where we hooked up with our private guide for a two-and-a-half-hour tour of this city dug out from the Mount Vesuvius volcanic eruption in 79 A.D. It was really quite fascinating in that the volcanic material covered this place so quickly that pretty much everything that was excavated was found just the way it was on the morning before the eruption.

Our tour of just 4 people with a guide was so much nicer and easier to hear than most of the tours which had at least 30-40-60 people in them. Those tour guides would hold their arms straight up in the air or hold an umbrella or a flower on a stick up high so those following it would fall in line and try to stay close in order to hear what the tour guide was saying. Uggghh. No thank you please. It was crowded and warm and people in the tours were seemingly getting more and more irritated, especially when our guide would speak with the guide of the big tours ahead of us and get us in front of the 50 or 60 people ahead of us. I resisted the urge to chortle “gee, sure sucks to be you” as we passed by the big groups. Remember, we’re trying to keep a low profile and all! Plus, I’m just not that kind of a guy. 🙂

The roads, which doubled as Pompei’s drainage and sewage disposal system had cross walks (raised stones so one could walk across the street without stepping in the goo that lined the streets). The roads also had tracks cut or worn into the stone streets to keep the wagons on track. We learned also how in the amphitheaters, they had a pool of water in front of the stage to amplify the sound so everyone in the theater could hear. As Doug and Barb are continually reminding us, sound travels around water! The entire town, except for the roofs of buildings essentially survived the volcanic onslaught. This included political statements on the walls outside of individual homes, much like our election yard signs seen around home at election time, frescos or paintings decorating the walls in the homes were all present as if they had just been painted, except this was over 2000 years ago. It was pure and simply remarkable.