We spent the day immersing ourselves in the past today, with a visit to Pompeii. It was a short, but very hot train ride from Sorrento, but we arrived just outside the excavation site by about 10am. Matt and I had both been on the fence about whether we wanted to visit Pompeii or if we wanted to take in more of the Amalfi Coast or Capri, but we are both really glad that we decided to see it. It is hard to describe the size of the excavation site….it really was a decent sized city, and you can walk all of the streets, just like you woud have two thousand years ago. The site is so large, and they are still excavating! While most of the great artwork and statues have been taken away from the site to be preserved at museums, there were still some amazing architectural sights and mosaics that decorated the interiors of homes and temples. We got lost a few times, as we tried to find our way to all of the major spots…the roman bath, the restaurant, and of course the brothel! It was all quite creepy, when you would walk down the street and see Mt. Vesuvius looming behind the city….what that day must have been like! They had a few casts of bodies that were found during the excavations and you could make out their horrified facial expressions as they struggled to breathe.

It was a very hot, dry day at Pompeii. We were both covered in sweat (it seems like we are always like this!) and the dry ashy dirt just seemed to stick to our bodies. While we tried to keep hydrated, I don't think it was quite enough. When we returned to Sorrento we headed straight for our favorite pizzeria where Matt was excited to devour his favorite Margherita pizza….and then it hit. He went flush and got a pounding headache, feeling nauseous. Sadly, he left his pizza uneaten as we quickly got him back to the hotel. Sun stroke! Needless to say, we took it pretty easy for the rest of the evening!

P.S. I posted about 3 blogs today, so check back for Blogs titled 'Naples', and 'Sorrento'. I'm having trouble uploading photos on the site the last few days.