Friday morning and we were up very early as we were on our way to Pompeii, which involved a train ride to Naples and then another train to Pompeii.
Arriving at Pompeii what a surprise I got, I really didn't know that the site was so big, 170 acres in total but only about 12 of that are open to the public, the site was first discovered in 1599 and then left for 150 years and that is when the real digging began, the objects below the ground were buried for about 2 thousand years, the lack of air and moisture preserved them with little or no deterioration whatsoever, two thirds of the city has been excavated but weather, light exposure, erosion and poor methods of excavation, introduced plants, animals and tourism is rapidly causing deterioration, the site was in 1997 made a Unesco World Heritage site and it is believed that the plans are under way to close or protect the site somehow,
We walked and walked for hours truly amazed at what was found and what the city was like, we came across houses with still painted walls, a few mosiac floors, a still half circle ampitheatre where plays were held and the courtyard behind where apparently the people would congregate during intermission and have drinks and eats, also saw the bath houses, and in two glass cases are two bodies, but I couldn't find out if they are original or just fake displays, how the roads were built to allow the water to run down the streets and enormous stones standing on the roadway to allow you to step across to the other side when the water was flowing and how the stones were so positioned that still allowed the carts to use the road, very clever.
Mount Vesuvios in the background is awesome and I am at the understanding that it is still an active volcano, but I was surprised to find out that Pompeii was not the only town that was affected by the eruption, there were several other towns in the region that were also buried, but I think Pompeii is the most known due to the amount of inhabitants that lived there.
Even though only about 12 acres are open to the public and we spent most of the day there, we by no means saw everything, I think it would take a month of Sundays to be able to truly say you have seen it all.
Finally left the site and made our way back to Rome and the hotel, in all it turned out to be a 12 hour day and we were exhausted, a quick rest and then out to the restaurant that we had found the previous night and shared a pizza, as only the Italians can make,

Saturday 13th

Nothing planned today so a long sleep in was had, finally going into the city just to have a walk around, and found our way to what is known as the oldest part of the city which is within walking distance of the Coleseum and there is this enormous white building that we had wanted to see, and couldn't work out what it was, only to find out that it is a military museum, saw the changing of the guards and went inside and had a quick look at the exhibits, the building is way more impressive than the exhibits, running alongside the building and all the way to the Coleseum are excavations of roman buildings, columns,, walls, archways, very interesting, found a cafe and had lunch of bruschetta and salmon salad, and I also ordered a cheesecake and it was served hot, very different,
Tonight for dinner we had found a new corner restaurant and Chrissy had pasta and I had a ngocchi dish, once again it didn't disappoint.
Last night in Rome and I have enjoyed this city, there is so much history and so much to see. Tomorrow we are on our last leg of Europe and travel overnight by train to Paris.