Pompeii

We learned all about Pompeii in school, the city buried in ashes. I always loved history, I found it all so interesting, but before this trip, I never realized how much more rich a countries history made its culture. We LOVED Pompeii. Not only were the ruins and mosaics we saw absolutely incredibly, but weaving our way through the ruins made our brains squirm at the idea of what it probably looked like back thousands of years ago. 

To me, it's incredible to think that after all these years these incredible colors could still be unearthed. Not to mention the structures of things such as this, and even the tiny sculptures. The saddest part however, is the thousands of people that lost their lives and were quite literally stopped in their tracks. 

That was the most astounding thing we saw that day, the discovered bodies. Some of which sculls could be seen through the cast that was inflicted upon them when the ash from mount Vesuvius rained down upon the city. 

After spending about 4 hours exploring every inch of Pompeii possible, we decided we wanted to hike mount Vesuvius, however we discovered you could only climb the short 20 minute trailhead, but the view from above was still beautiful. I'll admit I was a bit sad that we weren't able to see the opening of the crater, for gravel, rocks and boulders have slipped down to cover it in the meantime, although it is still active. 

When we ended our Vesuvius adventure, a small shack at the top sold us a nice glass of wine that's made right in the old vineyards of Pompeii! 

On our way down from the top, on the bus next to us was a nice young man backpacking from London; after talking for a while we discovered he was staying at our next destination, the hostel so we were lucky to have someone to show us the way, so for once, we didn't get lost! That night the girls we met in our room gave us all sorts of advice about traveling and certain places they'd stayed and we even ended up going to dinner with one! We ended with the most delicious gelato and looked forward to our next day!