Pompeii travel tips! Located on the Mediterranean Sea just outside Naples, Italy. This archaeological wonder reclaimed from the ashes of Mount Vesuvius is a deeply moving experience.
The world is full of memories served up in a variety of packages for the traveler to open. Grandiose castles and humble huts, tall stadiums and flat arenas, mighty walls and little piles of rubble; each call out for the passing visitor to hear their tale. Some sit lonely in a farmer's field while others are fully wrapped in glitz and glamour.
Visit them all, for each has a story worth listening to. Buy the postcards, snap your pictures, follow the group through the museum tour, and you will return home with some new memories of your own to share with others. Then one day you will arrive at Pompeii ...
You don't look at Pompeii, you experience it. That experience is typically of the open mouth, wide eyed, variety. However sophisticated you may be when you first enter the city once claimed by nearby Mount Vesuvius, you will quickly become the child in the candy store running excitedly from one spot to another in a futile attempt to taste all that is offered.
Walking through the streets your imagination will whirl as you effortlessly fill in the missing parts to clearly see the kids running in the streets dodging the chariots and splashing through the open kitchen drains running down the center. The old folks will be leaning on the counter at the sidewalk coffee shop exchanging family stories (maybe speaking of young Julius who was seen leaving the house of ill repute last night). You will easily picture the animated scenes around the Roman bath houses and the busy market places, then quietly stand in a living room or bedroom and wonder what thoughts that family had as fear and panic replaced every day life as the volcano rained its fury on Pompeii.
At some point, you will blink and the young child in you will run off to play somewhere and be replaced by the intellectual you. But the excitement will not be lost, in fact it will continue to build as you now see everything in a new light.
Ever wonder about the fall of the Roman Empire? As you raise your eyebrows at the bedroom frescos on the walls and glance awkwardly at the erotic sculptures in the gardens, you could build a good case that the moral degeneration of their society was a factor.
Interested in the folklore that the inhabitants of that era were more than a little crazy? You might find some truth in those stories when you examine the city's surprisingly sophisticated drinking water system --- and notice that the pipes are all made of lead!
Mentally crinkle your nose in distaste as you step on stones designed to keep you above the raw sewage that flowed down the street you are crossing; but then marvel at the road engineering that spaced those stepping stones precisely to allow chariot wheels to fit between them.
As the time to leave approaches and you draw closer to the exit you will sadly notice that your images are stepping back into their homes and closing their stores. By the time you reach the gate and turn around to take a final picture, the streets will be empty once again. As you peer through your viewfinder you see just another dusty ruin and realize that this time, you will not be able to share this memory with others because Pompeii is not a sight to be shown, it is an experience to be lived.
