Pompeii - finally

I had planned to go to Pompeii on this trip already two times before and so I decided to go in whatever weather. I took the circumvesuvius train from Naples centrale and after 30 minutes arrived to Pompeii Scavi. The old Pompeii is very short walk from the train station.

After buying a drink bottle with horrid price got my 11 euro ticket to the site. After some thought, I went back and also bought the audioguide. I usually am not a great fan of them, but this time it was better option than just a map or a guide book.

Area is big and pretty complex. Audio guide gave nice historical details as well as information for most of the open excavations. There is nearly 100 different specific sites you can visit and I nearly did all of them that were open. Some which were in the map, where not open, but then others that were not in the map were. It was a bit confusing.

I walked around for nearly 6 hours. I did not do any of the suggested tours, but made one of my own and managed to escape the big tourist growds sometimes. Even in November there were quite a few tourists and big groups. I can just imagine how it is in spring or summertime. Ugh.

I was very impressed by the site. This is one of the top Roman or Greek ruins I have seen. And I have seen a few by now. In Pompeii you can go into houses, imagine how people lived there and see their taste in decoration and furnishing. I loved the deep red painted walls and beautiful decorations. I wish I had the patience to paint my house walls similar style. I am very inspired by the colors and I am ready to go and buy the paint when I arrive home. :)

Lot of the statues and mosaics have been taken to museum in Naples, but still there is plenty to see here too. You can see the storage full of artefacts found on the site. Some of these were people living in Pompeii when the Vesuvius erupted. The city was just recovering from the earthquake and then the volcano erupted. People did not evacuate the city, but stayed and hid in their houses, which they had just been renovating.

You can see the volcano looming over the ruins. It is active volcano and can errupt any day.