COMMENTARY FROM SARA: Before providing a description of our day in Pompeii and Sorrento, Sara would like to provide her thoughts of Italy in general.
I love Italy! It is one of greatest countries in the world to visit. While I do not have a traceable drop of Italian blood in the my body, I think that I was meant to be of Italian heritage with my use of broad hand gestures to punctuate my speech; my cravings for all Italian foods, wine and gelato; and my vocal variety when I am excited. We spent 10 days in Italy in October 2007, visiting Rome, Florence and Venice, when the weather should have been warm and wonderful. On most days it was cold or rainy, or cold and rainy. We traveled between the three cities on the train, and every day we arrived or departed, it seemed to be pouring. But Italy was still magical.
I love the light pastel houses built on the cliffs like decorations made of icing on a giant chocolate birthday cake. While I am not sure that I would feel comfortable driving in Italy, I love the narrow winding streets through the small towns with buildings and homes only a few feet from the streets. Everything is packed in tightly with long expanses of old stone walls. I love the warm, friendly residents who are accustomed to welcoming visitors and often speak a little English. I love the solution that the people have found for a lack of space by growing lemon trees protected by wire cages for limoncello with trellises of grapes for wine growing above them. Lemons and wines are two of my favorite vices. I love the olive trees, cherry trees, tomatoes, garlic and artichokes. Because of the lack of space, there is no room for tractors and other machines so the farmers must harvest the crops by hand, so everyone gets involved in the act. I love the narrow streets lined with shops where friendly store owners are happy to help you find everything from top designer fashions to local handicrafts. What is there not to love about Italy!
POMPEII--While we have visited three cities in northern Italy, we have never been this far south. The Bay of Naples is breathtaking with its sapphire blue waters and m-shaped peaks of Mount Vesuvius. Even the ancient Romans were attracted by Sorrento's natural beauty and built villas and estates there, as well as the ones they had in Rome and other Italian cities. Sorrento also is the doorway to Naples, Pompeii, Capri, Positinao, Amalfi and both the Amalfi and Sorrento Coasts. The coasts are very similar except that the white limestone of the Amalfi Coast is more intact while the dark color of Sorrento Coast is the result of volcanic ash.
No one could go wrong with any of the tours offered by the Pacific Princess or by taking a taxi or public transportation to do independent touring. Less than a week ago, we visited the lost city of Petra, abandoned because of changes in the trade routes and invasions from foreigners to all but the Bedouins who always knew the city was there. Today we chose to visit Pompeii, another city that was lost but in a much more tragic way. Pompeii, which means five in Italian, was a congregation of five villages built at the base of Mount Vesuvius. Because the crater was hidden in the mountain, no one knew it was volcano until it erupted in 79 A.D., buring the city in 22 to 25 feet of ash and killing 2,000 people who died of suffocation and the corrosives ashes that burned their insides. What a horrendous way to die!
However, the volcano totally preserved their way of life and froze an entire society at one second before the eruption so that we are able to study the lives and customs of the Romans 2,000 years ago in the imperial age. A visit to Pompeii can teach us more about the ancient Romans than reading every book that a significant library would have on the subject. Similar to the story of the Terracotta Warriors in Xian, China, Pompeii, and eventually the neighboring town of Herculaneum, were discovered in 1748 when a farmer was digging a well. Today about two-thirds of the town has been dug out from under the ashes and more than 3,000 tourists visit the 165-acre site annually.
As the playground for the rich and famous in the first century, Pompeii offered a seldom-seen look at the lavish, indulgent lifestyle that the world's most affluent and powerful people enjoyed. After passing through the ruins of the two temples, we came to the Basilica, which was a courthouse. Most of us think basilicas are churches but Pompeii was destroyed before Christianity had spread through the country and the residents were still pagans. The huge structure sported huge frescos in vivid color and large columns that were made of terracotta that had been covered with plaster to look like marble. The road from the Basilica led to the Forum, where merchants bought and sold wool, silk, gold, spices and olive oil, and citizens participated in political life. Paintings on the walls of the Forum in rich reds, blues and yellows depicted what the vendors were selling because most residents could not read.
Because Pompeii had no sewage system as a result of the underground lava, the streets acted as the sewage system with wide sidewalks for the pedestrians. So that people could cross from one side to the other, workers had placed steeping stones across the streets at various points. One of the most interesting sites was the urine collector. (Everything was recycled with the feces being used as fertilizer.) The uric acid in the urine was used to bleach and dye the woolen fabrics. To contribute to the economy, people were paid to pee. When the emperor learned of this practice, he taxed it and increased Rome's economy in another way. The main reason why Rome had not accepted Christianity at this point in time was that Christians believed that all people were equal while the emperors preferred to consider themselves gods.
One of the most gripping exhibits was the human-sized plaster casts of the molded bodies of two residents who died of suffocation. It was hard to believe that only minutes before, they were living, breathing humans who expected to live their lives in comfort to a very old age.
Then we toured the residential areas. An important part of the lifestyle was the bath and the gym. These early Romans enjoyed all the pleasures of a lavish spa. Open 20 hours a day, the baths were the place to socialize, meet new people and trade political favors while cleansing the body, luxuriating in an alabaster steam sauna and enjoying a relaxing massage to soothe tired muscles. A braiser with a warming fire was donated by a politician who had his slogan imprinted, "You will pay less tax."
The houses were a mirror of who lived inside. One of the most spectacular homes, the House of Faun measuring 33,000 square feet, had four dining rooms, an atrium, two gardens and the largest mosaic in the Pompeii with more than a million pieces that depicted the Battle of Esus. Mosaics were really frescoes made out of stone. From that early mansion, we viewed a development of the not as fabulously wealthy. The area boasted 31 bakeries (archeologists found bread inside the ovens,) 89 wine bars and 26 brothels. One of the most popular of the last category showed frescoes of specific services that the prostitutes provided and the passion of the sailors for the prostitutes. Because the line of people to see these frescoes was long, our guide suggested that we peak inside when we passed the front of the line at the entrance. That line was longer than the line to see the Great Sphinx in Egypt!
On our way out, we were able to catch a glance of the big theater that seated 5,000 people, which is under construction and then go inside the smaller theater. Actors were considered the lowest level of society with artisans who used their hands being the highest level. We toured the barracks of the gladiators, who were considered professionals in Pompeii. They went to schools to learn how to use their weapons and were considered celebrities. Punxsutawney Phil, who was peaking out of Sara's purse, actually jumped out onto the ground when our guide described the life of the gladiators. We think that he had found his favored profession for when he was not serving as the Weather Forecaster Extraordinare.
When we returned to Sorrento after our tour of Pompeii, we strolled the narrow streets of the old city, stopping to admire the wares of the storekeepers. Sara must accept the fact that Ken will never be a shopper if these romantic storefronts did not interest him. We then returned to the ship by bus and tender to continue our packing.
One suggestion we would give anyone planning to take a long trip is not to attempt to pack everything you brought plus all the souvenirs you bought along the way into four suitcases when you started on the cruise with five suitcases. To meet the baggage weight for the airlines and not pay the charge for an extra suitcase, we ended up leaving behind clothes and shoes. Ken was way too happy to leave his dress shoes behind. He thought that this sacrifice equated to never having to wear a dress suit again, Sorry, Ken, it doesn't! He has some weddings to attend in the fall. We also borrowed the scale of our next door neighbors' Doris and Claude to ensure that no piece of luggage to be checked weighed more than 50 pounds. Before we went to the dining room for our last supper with our table mates, we placed our checked baggage in the hallway.
Dinner was delicious with Baked Alaska for dessert. The world cruise farewell showtime was the Beatles Celebration, a fab performance stage tribute to the Beatles. Tomorrow we leave for home. Can it really be the last full day of a 107-day trip. It's so hard to say good-bye!
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