Today was our day in Pompei! It was a long day. We got up and left for the train station by 5:45 AM! I wore Jordan's cute long, strapless dress. I was excited to borrow it because it's so cute :). We got on the train, and headed to Rome, where we boarded another, nicer train. This one had nicer seats, and all were paired in fours facing tables in the middle. I sat with Ashleigh, Clifton, and Stephen on the first train, then Ashleigh, Tiffany, and Clifton on the nicer train. I couldn't stop yawning, it was too early. The first train to Rome was about an hour. The one from Rome to Naples was about an hour and a half. Then the train, the crappy train, from Naples to Pompei was about an hour. All in all it was about three and a half hours to Pompei from Civitavecchia. Once we got there, we found a taxi outside that Clifton bargained with to take us to Pompei's ruins. I am not even sure if we had to pay, but I know the students didn't. We crammed twelve students and Clifton in a seven person van. That was interesting, but we weren't going too far. They obviously don't have legal issues being a taxi service and overfilling a taxi. Oh well. They really love using their horn in Pompei. Clifton said the farther south in Italy you go, the more they use their horn. There are even signs that say don't use your horn because they use it so much. Our driver really did use it every five seconds. We thought he was just in a hurry but I guess not. Italian drivers aren't the best drivers either.
We stopped, and Pompei ruins, we have arrived! It was exciting to finally be there. We walked in, and eventually bought our tickets in (Clifton bought) and we got our guidebooks and maps in English. We went to town on the pictures. It was such a nice day that it was perfect picture weather. It was around 77 degrees, or 28 degrees celsius here. The ruins were really cool. All of the bricks and stones that are still there after all of this time, and all of the eruptions from Mt. Vesuvius. It was amazing to see the molds of the bodies. We didn't make it around the entire city, so we did not get to see all of the bodies, but we did enter a farming area where some were held. It was weird seeing them in their positions. You can really tell that they were real people by the way they are laying, and can almost imagine their pain as they suddenly were surrounded and suffocated by ash. It is unbelievable to think about it. Other than the people of Pompei, the scenery was beautiful. All of the wild flowers were pretty. In Italy, they have these bright red flowers that just grow wild. I love them. I took a few different types of flowers and pressed them in my wallet to take back with me. I hope they last. I have a pink, purple, yellow, and red flower or flowers. Back to the buildings and ruins, some were really apparent that they were houses. It was so cool to be in one of the old houses that were there in 79 AD. One house, because of the first eruption and the amount of volcanic debree that took up the inside, it is still preserved exactly how it was when excavators took off the roof. (something like that). When the volcano erupted again not too long after the first eruption, the previous ash and soot had preserved the house, and you can see how it looked back then. It was really amazing, as if we were going back in time. I took a lot of pictures, over three hundred. Some of them have me and others in them too. I made sure I had pictures with people in them because those are the best ones. We probably walked around four about 5 hours maybe? We got to see the ampitheatre, the largest house in the city, the House of the Fawn, their version of "fast food" restaurants, common houses of the time, and so much more. I took pictures inside houses and buildings, outside of them, on the street, with Mt. vesuvius in the background. Funny story about Mt. Vesuvius, when we got there and were taking pictures, we could see that it was smoking and stuff was coming out of the top of it! It was so scary, we were joking that it was going to happen again! Of course it didn't, and we are fine.
Well, there are only so many ruins you can see without the proper info about them before they all look the same. We were really hungry, so we left. We looked at the souvenier shops, and one guy tried to sell me a camio (cameo?) ring for thirty five euro. I obviously was not going to pay that. He eventually went down to twenty euro, but that was still too much, and I turned it down. Clifton said that was too much too, so I am glad I didn't buy it. There will be others in Rome to buy and or look at. We walked down this big hill/road away from the entrance of the ruins, and stopped at a "Ma and Pop" restaurant. He got them to give us an antipasta, pasta, second dish, and french fries and or salad plus wine and water for thirteen euro. That was a good deal, and one that we all wanted. We didn't want to spend that much on food. So, I had bread to start out with, these fried fish ball things that were basically batter with fish in it, and fried. They tasted like hush puppies but with a lighter crust. It was really good. Then came the lasagna. It was delicious too. Last was veal, breaded and fried, with french fries or a salad. Everything was so good, and we were all SO hungry. We left, and got on our train to Naples. I fell asleep because I was so tired, but when I woke up we got off the train in order to wait for our connecting train. We got done with Pompei earlier than Clifton expected, so he eventually changed tickets for an earlier time. We were all just SO wiped out from the heat, and our sun tans/ burns on our shoulders and chests, and from walking SO much. I just sat on the side of the walkway, slouched down and trying not to fall asleep; everyone was. But, sure enough we got on our train to Rome, which was the nice train again. I sat with Ashleigh, Jessica, and Clifton, and you better believe I was sleeping most of the time. We got to Rome, and got off the train, to the connecting train to Civitavecchia. We actually got seats too, which is difficult considerring we got there around the time people are coming home from work. We got on at Roma Termini, and by the time we were through all of the Rome exits, there were so many people standing. I fell asleep, again, and we also talked about the dance in culture class people will be taking over the summer. Once to Civitavecchia, Clifton bought us train passes, and we went on our way into our hotel. A few of us, Ashleigh, jessica, Mara, Kylene, Kaitlyn, and Jordan went to get food and make up. I got a pizz rossa con mozarella. It was good, with a coke and gelato. I had amarena (cherry) and chocolate. We then mapped out what our day in Rome is going to be like. I honestly am worried about getting it all done. We will thought, we just have to stay focused. We can see what we need to see, we just can't take too much time. Well, I am extremely exhausted, and I want to go to sleep. We are leaving here for Rome at 8:45. Ciao everyone! Italy has been great so far!!
-WooHoo for dance in Italy
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