Sunday, April 7, 2013

Pompeii Blog


Zach Wasielewski

Pompeii Blog
3/30/13


            Walking into Pompeii for the first time was an eye opening experience
.  I did not realize that Pompeii was such a large city.  I knew that Pompeii was a city that in the year 79 A.D. Mount Vesuvius erupted blanketing the entire city with ashes and lava.  As I was walking through the city I thought to myself, “What would the city have looked like back before the mountain erupted.”  This must have been a question for a lot of tourist because there had to be more than 2000 people there.   An article I read said that, “Today, the ruins of Pompeii , are the most visited in the world, and welcome every year thousands of visitors from every country on earth, making this small town in the province of Naples, became one of the most important tourist centers of the Neapolitan.”  This was news to me because I didn’t think that would be the case but I noticed it when we visited.  While Pat and I were walking through we couldn’t help but notice how terrible the pathways were.  The paths consisted of slabs of stones placed down.  They were not placed down properly though.  They were more just thrown down and made them have cracks, and be very bumpy. It was like when walking down the sidewalks and stepping into a pot-hole, but ten times worse. Every step I took i rolled my ankle.  I knew that these paths where built thousands of years ago but I still hated rolling my ankles. I finally started to walk with my head down so I could put my feet in the right spots without rolling my ankles.  This also caused me to walk into other people so I couldn’t really win. 
            Some of the main sites that really touched me where seeing the cast of the people that were a part of the eruption of Vesuvius.  There were casts of all sorts of people; young, old, women, or male.  This was hard to take in because seeing the cast of a little boy younger than me, who was bent over his knees and clutched his nose with both hands.  He was bent over to help shield himself from the debris falling down.  His mouth was open, as if he had been screaming or crying.  There was also a pregnant woman, who lay belly down, covering her face. To me she looked like she had just lost the most important thing in her life, which she possibly did in losing her son or daughter.  There was also a dog’s body which was twisted and it looked like it had been strangled to death.  Seeing these casts were disturbing but very informative because it showed the qualities of how these people were feeling when going through the eruption. 
                       
Cast of man lying down.                                   Cast of Pregnant Women.
            There was also a stadium that reminded me kind of like a coliseum.  This stadium wasn’t the largest stadium I have ever seen but when walking in we came through this tunnel.  Being in the tunnel reminded me of Gladiator, the movie, where the gladiators would come through the tunnel and when they arrived at the end they would see the massive coliseum.  While I was standing in the middle of the stadium I wondered how many athletes from all over the world have stood where I was standing.  Also seeing the stadium when they were having some sort of sporting event must have been an experience alone.  When walking out of the stadium I wondered how they fit everyone that lived in Pompeii in that stadium because it wasn’t the biggest stadium I have seen.  I think that there must have been standing seating all around the top of the stadium and it must have been first come first serve. 
            After leaving Pompeii we drove back to Salerno.  We were all getting hungry so we went out to dinner as a group to a pizza place.  Pat and I decided to split a pizza and salad or so we thought.  Then the waitress brought out a calzone.  At first I was confused but then realized that is what I probably ordered because I could not really read the menu.  To say the least the calzone was absolutely delicious.  It had buffalo cheese with bacon, salami, mozzarella cheese, and olive oil.  It had to be the best calzone I have ever eaten.  There was so much cheese and bacon and salami that it filled me right up. Also the salad was delicious which had bacon, chicken, and cheese.  This was the best Italian meal I have had in Italy and would definitely go back to their.   

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