Napoli, Part II: Pompeii

The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth is this: Pompeii changed my life. It was my favorite place we saw the entire trip, and it did something to me that was beyond emotional. It was sublime. For that reason, this will probably be my best post, and I say that knowing that when I talk about Rome and tapas and croissants, you will think "Why? Why Pompeii?" I will try to tell you the best that one can when they attempt to write about deep, powerful, impacting, transcendent things. I will try.

Like all things in my life, this won't be without comedic relief and the occasional snarky comment displaying my fake ego.  We should start wit the ego part though, because our arrival at Pompeii was B.A.!!! It's like entering in to a museum when you go there, with lines and admissions and insane crowds.  The park doesn't open until late in the day and we spent the better part of the morning at Vesuvio, so we were arriving just as everyone else was.  Best part about a private tour with a personal driver who had no American driving etiquette? We rolled up like we owned the place! The driver just hit the gas, the crowd parted, and we came to a stop and hopped out front and center! People were staring. I felt like Jennifer Aniston, minus the perfect locks and hot body.

The squares you see in this wall are tombs.  The city was originally founded by an ancient Italian people and went through many different over throws.  First the Greeks came to conquer Pompeii, and then the Romans. The Greeks and Romans are the two cultures that built it in to the beautiful and elaborate city we see uncovered today, but the tombs were part of the original ancient Italian people who made this place home.

 We walked the streets of stone and saw the most amazing wonders. This was a courtyard, a public gathering space if you will, that lead in to see the smaller of the two theaters within Pompeii. This is where the gladiators or the animals would have waited for entrance in the large theater.  Unfortunately, the larger theater was closed the day we were there, but you can see the seats through these columns in the back on the left.

The small theater seemed magical enough to me.  It was here in this theater that I noticed a shift within myself. Daniel was so knowledgeable that he was more than just a tour guide, he was a historian, and Pompeii came to life with his words.  Amanda and were both fairly quiet throughout our time in the city, listening to Daniel and observing the world around us.  The atmosphere almost demanded it when you were breathing ancient air older than your brain could even get a hold of.

The base of the stage was marble.

As we strolled these ancient streets, we saw market places. Thousands and thousands of shopfronts. Political propaganda with peeling paint on the front of homes and stores supporting a politician.  The advancement this civilization had was astounding.

Pompeii was a city on the sea, a highly sought after vantage point that facilitated trade from all the corners of the known world at the time.  So much of the city is made of these shop fronts.

We visited one particular ruin that historians believe is the large house of a powerful Roman diplomat.  The home was marked with his name and a bench sat out front where he would receive people from throughout the day.

It was just unreal the technology behind the home. There was an open roof to collect rain water from, and a pool like structure in the ground to collect it. The home was complete with a shrine for the Deities, bedrooms, an office, and a corridor into the courtyard. The painting and colors on the wall that have stayed for all of these years, buried under ash and dirt, and protected during excavation are astounding. It was truly hours of awe in this city.  The architecture was VERY Roman. 

Surrounding the courtyard were more rooms of the house and the walls were once covered in elaborate paintings. There was a bathing/spa room, a dining room, and even a room where the Romans could go to worship their ancestors. 

Mosaic Tiling

Bathtub

Depiction of Dionysus and the stag.

When the city was first being excavated, everything was underground tunnels. Thieves would break in to the tunnels at night and steal real silver utensils to sell.  This particular band ended up trapped and died when the tunnel collapsed on them. They are seen in the room adjacent to the dining room of the same great house.

The city was huge. I cannot even attempt to explain it's size.  It is amazing that an ancient civilization constructed a city of that magnitude. I said as much, and Daniel reminded us that is was through the use of slaves. There were more slaves than citizens within the city of Pompeii.  

As we walked the stone streets, we noticed there were flattened boulders mimicking modern day cross walks at certain - seemingly random - locations throughout the city.  Amanda asked Daniel and he told us that as advanced as the city was for it's time, there was no plumbing, and everyone wore sandals year round because it is a hot climate.  The purpose of the stones was to avoid walking in the sewage running through the streets. Daniel looked at Amanda and said, "You know, how you say? Pah?" Amanda said, "Poo!" and Daniel excitedly said, "Yes, poo!!"  we chuckled and had a good time walking around on the poop boulders.

The detail in the columns and marble was beautiful.  After connecting the slavery to the elaborate details of the city, I was worried I wouldn't be able to appreciate it as much, but I did. It was astounding. Daniel knew Pompeii like it was his house. He was taking short cuts and alley cut offs, and more than once Amanda and I looked at tourists struggling with maps trying to get to the places in the city and were so glad we had Daniel.  He took us up a lesser known stair passage that lead us to a hill overlooking the city.  It was breathtaking.  

From that hill, Vesuvio seemed so far away. It was hard to imagine an eruption that reached that far and buried a city for centuries.  While we were standing up there, Daniel told us we were actually standing on top of more of the city that has just not yet been excavated.  Fascinated by the glory that these ruins truly are, I asked probably a little too abrasively, "Why haven't they recovered it?!"  It was then that we learned that they are prohibited by Italian authorities from excavating any further ruins until the current ones are completely stable for one complete year. Daniel said every single year, a wall falls and they start the counting all over again.  It is estimated that 20% of the city still remains buried.

One of the two peaks of Vesuvio over the city

As we left the perch on the hill, Daniel said he was going to take us to a brothel.  I am not going to post pictures of this particular area, but I am going to talk about it. If you are interested, I am sure you can google it, but Daniel warned us that we would see explicit art work on the wall. Remember that Pompeii was a trade city, a booming metropolis where people brought goods from all over the world, and as such, the prostitutes were also from all over the world.  Hundreds of languages converged in this one location, so the "menu" (for lack of a better word) at the brothel was done in photographs. Pointing seemed to be the sure ordering method.  I'm an immature child so I had a hard time containing my giggles, and swiftly switched from embarrassed and amused to appalled.  It served as a good reminder that the same vices and corruption we see in our world today existed so many years ago, and we can't seem to escape the cycle. Doomed to repeat history if you will.

We left the brothel and moved on to the main town square and market.  Temples were built surrounding it, but all that remains are half walls. There is marble everywhere! We were walking on marble!!

The wood and brick seen in these pictures was done to restore the area after uncovering it.  It was here that it truly hit me how astounding of an experience we were having.  We were walking through the very same town square that was once bustling with Greek and Roman warriors.  The gravel crunching under my tennis shoes is the same gravel that crunched under the sandals of a beautiful woman I picture with gold rings on her upper arms, long flowing hair, dark skin, dark eyes, and a playful smile.  Standing there was like an out of body experience and it was as if I could literally see the ancient people hustling through the square, children playing with rocks in the corner, teenagers laughing and gossiping by the fountains, old men arguing politics, and the sadness of what happened here, the loss of all of that life, all of that culture, all of that history, fell down on me all at once and I was saddened by the tragedy.

We saw the bodies. We did not linger long or take pictures of the tragedy right in front of us. I was grateful for the quick exposure to remind me of the humbling reality the ancient city faced, but neither of us lingered long there.

Daniel had heard Amanda and I talking about cooking. If you know anything about her, you know that loves to cook, and that she is damn good at it. I, too, enjoy the occasional dabbling in baked goods, but nothing like she or my husband like to do! Because he'd heard us talking about it, he took us to the bakery. I think we saw the original brick oven. No wonder Napoli is famous for their pizza! They have been doing it for more years than archaeologists can count!

For the sake of brevity, I better back off on some of the details.  We saw their versions of restaurants, which look much like modern day buffets. We toured areas used for community bathing and the time there also served as a location for meetings and socializing for the Romans. Business and personal affairs alike took place in these areas. The city did not have street names or signs, all meetings and directions were based off of nearby fountains, statues of Gods, or locations of important houses.  Some areas of the ruins were regulated by employees making sure that tourists were not using flash photography or touching the walls. Other areas were so abandoned that a person could have peed on the wall and no one would have ever known.

As we toured Pompeii, Daniel pointed out that a lot of the statues, art, mosaics, etc. were replicas and that the originals were at the National Museum in town.  I wished I had more time in Napoli, I would have gone to the museum to see them.

It was such an amazing tour full of rich history that I have never before (or since) experienced. You can only get those feelings in ancient places of the world. It felt like standing on sacred ground in holy places. It was sublime, and spiritual, and moving, and humbling, and unlike anything I have ever done before. I felt a legitimate sadness walking out of the sea gates to leave the city.  I was truly changed by the experience of being there.

Hunger was winning out though, and I was ready for lunch.  At the restaurant they served us pasta in a red sauce with egg plant. My stomach was still sensitive so I was careful with what I ate. We enjoyed the pasta very much though and I ate like it was my last meal once I knew it would settle well. After they took away the pasta, they showed up with a salad and we were thoroughly  confused.  Turns out in Italia, the salad comes second.  THEN they showed up with pork in a tomato/apricot sauce and (OF ALL THINGS) french fries. Our dessert was a chocolate cake with powdered sugar.

We noticed the bottle of wine said 11% alcohol on it at lunch, so after lunch we mentioned that to Daniel and he said that was a cheap bottle of wine and that the way Americans serve wine ruins it, in Italia they usually drink 14-17%! Mylanta!

After lunch we bought some trinkets for souvenir purposes and headed back to the ship. Our ship was beautiful and we enjoyed a few nights of dressing up for fun.  We fell asleep changed women that night, better for having experienced the kind of day that changes your life forever.

Naples, Part I: Napoli and Vesuvio

Ancient Sea Wall in Naples

The view of Naples from the base of Mt. Vesuvius

I should probably warn you that some of the most awesome things about our trip were pretty front loaded. Prepare yourself for the kind of life Rose lived for the next few days. Trust me, we return to Jack's people soon, but for now, buckle up.

As soon as this birthday/graduation trip was revealed to me, the first thing Amanda and I agreed on was that we would hike Vesuvius, Visit Pompeii, and do the Vatican in style. We knew it meant no paid tours for the rest of the trip, but we didn't care. We didn't want to go to these places and tour around the cities shopping. We wanted to experience these countries, and that is just what we did.

Naples was our first stop, and the very first thing I noticed after getting off the ship was that the locals call it "Napoli." Henceforth, so shall I, to live as the locals live.  Upon arrival we met our personal tour guide, he was the perfect quintessential Italian man named Daniel.  The Italians don't pronounce it like the two-syllable name Americans do. They draw it out. They turn it into three syllables with an emphasis on the end of the name. Listen here. He was handsome, and stylish, had a leather bag, a low man-bun, tall, skinny, dark, and everything you think an Italian should be. He ushered us towards a black Mercedes, opened doors, and we stepped in to the air conditioned, plush leather seats while being greeted by our personal driver, and in that instant, the private tour was worth every penny no matter what the rest of the day looked like.

High Rollers

As we began our drive to the volcano, we experienced another perfectly Italian moment as we sped along narrow and twisting roads and spotted a parked Vespa, behind it a couple making out passionately as if they were plucked from a painting and on display perfectly perched on a rock wall. Despite their attempt at sucking the other's tongue out of their face, it was too perfect to start our experience in Italy by laying eyes on the very love they are known for. Daniel filled us in along the way with a wealth of knowledge and background about the area.

It wasn't all sunshine and roses though. I ate a huge breakfast knowing I'd be doing a lot of walking. The tour brochure indicated "light exercise" and I didn't want to be hungry. Remember those narrow roads I mentioned? Well, combine that with me in the back seat of a car, a foreign driver who knows only two speeds: stop and fast, winding switchbacks that put the Big Horns to shame, and a full belly, and what you have is one very, very car sick Ayzlynn. Amanda was smart enough to get motion sickness patches from her doctor before we left, I was not.

Finally the torture in the car ended and the driver dropped us off at what I believed to be a location near the top of the volcano.  Once out of the car and able to breathe some fresh air, my stomach started to at least settle a little bit.  Daniel indicated that the path to the crater was closed and gave us some wonderful information about the history of the volcano.  We stopped and put sunblock on, oblivious and happy and observing the delicious smells all around us.

At the base of the Mt. unaware of the fate that lay ahead of us.

It was during this waiting time for the path to open that we learned that while the rest of the world calls the Volcano Mt. Vesuvius, the Italians call it, simply, "Vesuvio" and they have a healthy respect born of borderline fear for the danger they live in constantly.  The path finally opened, and Daniel, Amanda, and I started walking up the 4500 feet to get to the crater, and discovered that the path was never less than a 45 degree angle (at the least!) the entire hike. It was No. Damn. Joke.  We had to stop for the occasional rest and Daniel cracked a joke about he was an old man. Amanda told him to pace himself and he quickly picked up on that American phrase making ready jokes about "pace-ah youself-ah!" 

I will be honest, I didn't know what I was in for, and I was already sick from that awful car ride.  I should have done some research. Below is an aerial of the path you take to get to the base of the crater.  I should have known better than to listen to the "light physical activity" claim. I felt like I was dying. I was weak from the heat and still nauseous from the car, and now, exhausted from the exercise.

Where those switchback things start at the bottom is where started hiking, and that incline you see is done in less than two miles!

We were all sweating bullets, so Daniel stayed and waited for us while we went off with a guide for the crater and joined another English speaking group.

I told Amanda, "I am going to throw up in front of all of these people."  Luckily, the guide was discussing something really interesting and the group was pressed up against the railing to the crater. I walked to the opposite side to the edge of the mountain and leaned over the ropes. Amanda shielded me with her body as best she could, and after 2 dry heaves, I hurled my breakfast down the side of Mt. Vesuvius.  Amanda had her hand on my back (it's the Mom in her) and as soon as I was done, she spun towards me, handed me off a water bottle and a mint, and started kicking dirt over the edge to cover up my humiliation. Just that quickly we rejoined the group and moved on.

She said it was the quietest vomit episode she'd ever heard and only 3 people looked over at me.  It was a ninja team effort, I felt immediately better, and it will remain as one of our most ultimate boot and rally stories of all time.

This is a reenactment and for entertainment purposes only.

So anyway...back to the crater! Continuing with the theme of love in Italia, our tour guide had us shout "Amore!" in to the volcano. It was cool to hear our voices echo back at us. We truly enjoyed the top of the volcano. I was feeling like a whole new person, and when we reached the peak, we stopped to learn that in that moment we were at the highest point in Italy.  It was beautiful, and you could see all of Napoli. The city was stunning from up there.

In Italy, they believe that breathing in the air from the crater is good for your health. We gulped that air like it was our life line, and it was so fragrant and fresh. It was a sweet smell, like a flower, but it did not smell like any flower I have ever known. Sweet, but not too much, and also such a clean smell. It was so surreal standing there with my best friend, gulping in lung-fulls of air as it were the only life source we'd ever had, closing our eyes and just feeling the energy and history of the ancient volcano all around us.

We learned A LOT about the history of the crater, and I wished I had taken a recorder to keep keep track of it all. One interesting thing we learned was that Vesuvio used to erupt every 50 years for the past 400 year period, right up until 1944 during WWII.  Now, it has gone over 70 years. It gave me some healthy respect for where I was standing for sure.  There also used to be a chair lift that took you to the top of the mountain to view the crater - wouldn't that have been nice on my car sick tummy! However, the forestry surrounding the volcano became a protected park and the lift could no longer operate.

There was gift shop at the end of the crater where we purchased animals carved of the lava rock from the mountain, and we were able to walk back at our leisure.

Daniel was waiting for us at the base of the volcano, and having just learned about the 50 year regularity of the volcano, I asked him if he lived in fear of the eruption being overdue.  He told me, with his thick Italian accent, with his soft spoken voice, that yes, there was a tiny bit of fear, but he believed it was a good thing, for it keeps us humble and cautious.  He said that although scientist believe the volcano to be dormant, the Napolian people do not largely believe that, and he himself was unsure if he believed it. Too many years of the mountain proving them wrong.  It was a powerful moment as we began to hike down that slope.

As we were walking down the very path that lead to my loss of breakfast, some kids skip/ran by us, and Amanda decided that looked like a fun time. She will always be a kid at heart, and it's one of the very things I love so much about her.  So she started skipping along and slid on a rock, almost falling. She did some mad ninja-dancing and caught her balance before she went down, and laughing she called back to me, "That's what I get for trying to be cool!" Daniel, very seriously, says, "Don't-ah try to be-ah cool!"

On the next round of slopes, Daniel lost his own footing under a rock and, like Amanda, caught his footing before he fell down.  He quickly poked fun at himself by repeating his advice earlier, "I must-ah pace yourself! A little bit of fear is good!" We all laughed uproariously as if he was part of our lasting friendship all along, and Amanda jabbed, "Don't try to be cool!"

It was the perfect ending to the check mark on a bucket list I've been growing my entire life. I hiked Mt. Vesuvius.  Who can say that? I hurled down the side of the one of the most well-known volcanoes in all the world. Now who can say that?!

This blog is getting long, so I will leave you with that for tonight. Next stop, Pompeii!

P.S. Amanda took every single one of these pictures - even though she was embarrassed to be using a selfie stick, I encouraged it. I have no shame. 

The Truth About Jet Lag...And My Girls Trip To The Mediterranean

Everyone always raves about traveling.  I, myself, am joining the ranks of people raving about traveling - because quite frankly - it is totally bad ass. However, I'm late to the party to start blogging our journey because I've been trying for DAYS to recover from jet lag. In fact, I felt like such a whiner that I did some research on it, and I discovered for every hour you are off from your home time zone it takes a day for recovery. I'm on day 5 with 4 to go to feel normal again.  So far, I've felt no progress!

The thing about the Miami airport is I hope to never see it again. We spent HOURS waiting there for our connecting flight to Barcelona.  However, being transcontinental virgins, we had no idea what we were in for!

Turns out even if you are a peasant riding in the steerage (as seen in the photo of the two sexy ladies above), the plane gives you blankets, pillows, and it is so big you have two aisles and 9 seats across! You could even stand comfortably as long as you weren't over 6 feet tall.

Where that TV ends is where Jack's people end. After the TV is an entire other section of the plane where I would guess the maestros and musicians reside.  At the front of the plane is first class in style - I'm talking leather seats that become a bed for the 9 hour flight. Definitely for Rose's people only. The good news is that even the peasants get dinner!

It wasn't the most delicious food I'd ever eaten, but it wasn't awful either.  The ride over wasn't that terrible for adjusting. I was so tired from flying overnight to Miami and sitting around awake in the airport all day that I slept the whole flight after they fed us.

Arriving in Barcelona was fairly easy.  They stamped my passport on some random page in the middle, which always annoys me. Why can't those customs people go in order on the pages?!

We rode a bus right from the airport to the pier and were on the ship within minutes. Eating, of course, at the buffet, where I took these lovely pictures of the Barcelona port.

As soon as the cruise set sail, we had to start wandering the "plank" and getting the most fabulous pictures of all time.

At dinner we took a selfie and we 100% looked like sisters.

The first night of dinner was not the best experience.  We sat with these cranky old people who would not engage in any conversation with us, no matter how hard we tried. And seriously, if you don't find me funny and friendly, than there is something wrong with you. Ok, maybe that wasn't me I was talking about, but STILL we tried really hard and they were basically like hashtag #wehateamericans.  We were quick to discover they sat us at table 816 when we should have been at 916. What a relief! The next night we would have new dinner partners because hashtag #theseamericansareawesome! 

I had a migraine from all the traveling, the time zone changes and the altitude changes. I was done for. So like the old lady I am, I hit the sack by 8 p.m. Amanda is tougher than I and she went to the entertainment show that night with Lianna and Christy - which she reports as being incredible feats of acrobatics performs by the entertainment staff dressed like pirates. It was a great start, really.

The next day was the only "at sea" day we had the entire trip, so it could not be wasted. The entire day was spent by the pool where everyone else got lovely tans and I just gained a few more freckles.

Dinner was also a smashing success because the 4 of us thoroughly enjoyed our new dinner companions and at a table of 6 and had a wonderful time laughing it up while we ate risotto.

Early to bed that night, though, because the next day these ladies were hiking Vesuvius and Pompeii. Which really, when I write that blog, it will be a must read.

Of course, I couldn't go to bed without catching a beautiful Mediterranean sunset.