A Day Trip to Pompeii

One of the sites that we were all most excited to visit was Pompeii, which was a full day's trip from Rome.  We got up early and headed south on the Frechiarossa (Italian high-speed train) from Rome Termini to Naples Centrale.  In Naples, we switched to the un-high speed Circumvesuviana train, a local commuter line.  This stopped right in the city of Pompeii, just a few hundred yards from the entrance to the archaeological site.

Hanging out on one of our train rides.

Before traveling, we like to learn more about something in particular that we will see.  Both boys read Vacation Under the Volcano, a Magic Treehouse book that takes place when Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried Pompeii under ash (79 CE).  We also read a couple of non-fiction books about Pompeii so we had an idea of what we were going to see.  Well, sort of.  The books didn't prepare us for the awe-inspiring and also sobering feeling of standing in the midst of the victims, art, and buildings that were all buried under layers of ash and stone for over 1600 years until they were first discovered in 1748. 

The boys standing in Pompeii's ancient town square.

Frescoes on the walls of a building.

The boys loved these stones, which were ancient crosswalks across the town roads.

A mosaic in an ancient bathhouse.

Elaborate detail in another bathhouse.  The cubbies were for bathers' belongings.

When Mount Vesuvius erupted, it covered everything in the area in a layer of ash and then stone.  The people who died in Pompeii were covered by this ash, and over time as their remains decomposed and the ash hardened, there were pockets of space left behind.

In the 1860s, the director of the excavation work had a moment of brilliance that changed the course of future archaeological work.  His workers came upon one of these pockets, and the director had the idea to fill it with plaster.  After letting the plaster dry and harden, the archaeologists gently excavated the ash-covered plaster mold.  They then chipped away the ash layer and were left with an exact replica of the person who died in that exact spot.

A replica cast of a crouching man.

This man was buried by ash from Mount Vesuvius as he crouched down, his head in his hands.  His pose is so vivid, so emotional.  I looked at this cast for a long time and could only imagine how scared and sad he must have been feeling at that moment.

There was a temporary exhibit with even more molds of Pompeii's victims.  Some of the molds were so detailed that you could see the shape of victims' faces and even their teeth.  In addition to another mold of the man above, there was one of a woman and a small child.  Standing in front of these molds was a stark reminder that we were walking in the place where thousands of people lived and died.  It was also a vivid reminder that life is precious and can change in an instant, even in 79 CE.

A mother and small child who died together.