Our day in Pompeii

" A journey is like marriage.  The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it." 

 John Steinbeck

Isle of Capri

We went to Italy for our anniversary. Part of that trip we did as a tour, Rome, Venice, Florence. We spent the last week of our trip in Sorrento, which is across the bay from Naples. We spent one day on the isle of Capri, which was wonderful. We wandered the streets of Sorrento, explored the Amalfi area, and drank lemoncello. We only had one day left, and we had planned to go to Pompeii that day and see the ruins.

We got up early and started walking down the hill from our hotel to catch the train. About half way there the sky opened up and the rains came down. Now, I grew up in Washington state, so a light rain would not have stopped my plans, but believe me when I say – IT RAINED! We were drenched in seconds and headed back up the hill to the hotel. We got dried off and sat on our balcony and watched the rains over the bay of Naples.

Pompeii & Mt. Vesuvias

Around 2PM the rain finally stopped and the sun actually came out. I said to George that maybe we should still try to go to Pompeii, it was our only chance to see it. So we headed back down the hill, caught the train and went to Pompeii. I understand that usually Pompeii is packed with tourists. The lot is usually full of tourist buses and it is a crowded spot. But because of the rain that day, the lot was empty and the ruins were also empty. It was an eerie feeling, walking around the ruins with no one else there.

plaster casts in Pompeii

If you have never been to Pompeii, you might not realize that they have plaster casts of people. When the ash came down the people of Pompeii huddled down and put there arms over their heads, and they were buried in ash. When excavating the place they found holes and pored plaster down into them and they came of with the shapes of people huddling down to avoid the ash. So some of those plaster images are there to see. You can feel the horror of those people by looking at those casts.

So we are walking around Pompeii, and we are feeling a bit eerie, because we are all alone, not another soul in sight. Then we hear music, children singing. It is sweet, and it is floating on the air. We feel like we are hearing ghosts from the past. We followed the sound of the music and discovered a group of children. A school bus had just arrived and the children were going to tour Pompeii, but they stopped to sing some songs first. We were glad to see that it wasn't ghosts, but children of the present.

I will always remember that day in Pompeii, and the voices of the children floating on the air.