On our way from Rome to Sorrento we stopped to see the ruins of Pompeii, a town that was destroyed and buried in ash by Mount Vesuvius' volcanic eruption in 79 AD. The preserved town was discovered in 1748 and excavation revealed what life was like during the height of the Roman Empire.

The town consisted of everything that would be found in a small, modern day town: streets lined with houses and busineses, places of worship, and entertainment facilities. The most interesting of all the buildings, and which drew the largest crowd, was the brothel. After entering we found a small hallway with 5 doors leading into tiny rooms, each just large enough for a stone bed along one wall. There were even many paintings on the hallway walls of couples in various positions! It was quite humorous. There was a young girl taking pictures of all the "neat paintings" on the walls and finally I heard the mom ask her daughter, "do you know what you are taking pictures of?"

When the excavation was taking place, human remains in voids in the ash layer had been found. The decomposed bodies of the victims had left space in the ash, into which the excavators injected plaster to form casts of the victims. We saw many of these bodies, some being so detailed you could see the terror on their face.

Thankfully Mount Vesuvius didn't feel like repeating history while we were there...