Not Intent on Arriving

What an incredible place.  I’m used to going to touristy places and thinking, “I mean, this is nice, but I’m annoyed to be here with half the world.”  With Pompeii, I didn’t even mind.  It was incredible.  We looked at so many cool things there.

First, the ancient people of Pompeii were pretty smart people.  They added stones that reflected the moonlight to create the first illuminated road into a city. Then, owing to the impracticality of underground sewers, they added a series of elevated rocks to form crosswalks across the roads (so people didn’t have to walk in human filth).

Pompeii with Mount Vesuvius in the background

We walked into the main piazza of the city, which would hold the open market.  In the heyday of Pompeii, the area was covered and merchants sold their wares throughout the area.  Now, on the left of the ruins, there is an impressive collection of artifacts found during the excavation of the area.

Some of the ancient artifacts of display

One of the more disturbing sights in the ruins was the discovery of  a modern cafe/ restaurant in the middle of the ruins.  This place was constructed for tourists in the 1960s in the middle of the ruins of the Roman baths.  There was nothing added by its presence and, in fact, the kids thought it detracted a lot from the scenery around us. Oh well, got to make a profit I guess.

An awesome part of the tour was our visit to an ancient bakery.  Our guide, Silvia, showed us the ancient oven.  When archeologists finally arrived at the bakery and opened the oven they found over 80 burnt, but perfectly preserved, loaves of bread. It was incredible.

Another really cool part of the visit was seeing graffiti.  Yeah, who knew it, but the Romans loved tagging too.

Graffiti in Pompeii

It was a great visit and it made me think of the horrific events that took place there thousands of years ago.  Our guide said the mountain was due to explode in the 2020s.  Who knows?  Maybe something similar will happen again.

A tribute to the dead and departed

Vino. It’s one of the nicer parts of Italian culture and something that should be enjoyed.  Not, however, if you’re a teenager on the Experiment.  Our orientation made it quite clear that the kids on the trip could not have any alcohol with the exception of cultural events. My personal opinion of this rule aside for the moment, I had to follow it.

After an afternoon at the pool, we set off with the kids into the city of Pompeii for dinner.  Something I never knew before our long walk to the center of town was that it plays an important role religiously as well.  In fact, the duomo in town is technically a part of the Vatican state and the Pope has been known to vacation in Pompeii occasionally.

The Duomo of Pompei, a part of the Vatican

Unfortunately, we got down there and the duomo was closed.  The kids were starving at that point and Enzo took us to the restaurant quickly. We arrived at the Trattoria Add’ù Mimi’ (no idea what that means).  We sat down in two tables (because they couldn’t bring them together).  I, along with nine students and Enzo, took one table.  Importantly, Caitlen and Lowell were both seated close to us.

So we’re just chatting as the kids have their own conversation at the end of the table.  As per usual, Enzo ordered me a litro of vino bianco (even if I didn’t really want it), which we were drinking slowly at our end.  As we’re in the middle of the conversation, Enzo grabs the pitcher and pours a bit of wine into Caitlen’s glass.  I’m kind of shocked.  Everyone at the table sees it.  Except for Caitlen.  She’s wondering what’s going on.  The other kids tell her and Enzo gradually offers everyone in the area a little wine. I’m powerless to stop it.

Of course, the kids didn’t have enough wine for anything to happen.  But I was still shocked. We emerged from the restaurant with everyone jubilant as this photo shows.

Jubilation after our first Pompei meal

Unfortunately, the excitement would not last.  For Pompeii has one really undesirable trait at night.  Dogs.  Stray dogs.  The kids were deathly afraid of dogs and I’ve never seen dogs so quick to follow someone as these.  From the moment we left the restaurant, one dog followed us all the way back to the hotel.  Even there, he followed us as we held our evening meeting.  As we were going inside for the night, something alarmed the dog and he barked.  Lowell screamed and almost pushed two of us into the water.

I was particularly on guard because one of the other group leaders was bitten by a cat earlier in her trip.  It was at her host mother’s house.  Even though it occurred in a house, she had to go to the hospital and get rabies shots because the dog did not have its shots.  A bad scene to be avoided at all costs.