Semester at Sea

Semester at Sea

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Napoli Day Three! Pompeii.

Woke up early today. We hung out with Sabina and rode out to Pompeii. What can you say about Pompeii? It’s underneath Mt. Vesuvius which erupted in 79 B.C. burying the city and those around it in tons of volcanic ash. Years ago they found it and they have been excavating since. It’s intense. From looking at the city, one is supposed to be able to tell what Roman life was like. Some interesting things:
First of all, the Romans were obsessed with sex. Gaudy, public sex. There is a whole street of Red Light District. It was accepted that all men went there. If you weren’t sure where they are, no problem, just look to the road where carved out penises point the direction. There are penises on the wall that show vitality. If you go inside a brothel, you can pick your service by pointing to the appropriate painting (porn) that is above the room. The beds were made of stone, so things were hurried along. Ridiculous! Have the tour we talked about how baudy and constantly aroused the freakin Romans were. The other half was viewing the solidified bodies and looking at some of the architecture that was being excavated. There were some fascinating things besides the penises, I promise. For instance, the roads were built on an incline so that the water that would come with the rains would flow to the bottom. There were stepping stones that were put on all the streets so that when the water was flowing, you wouldn’t get your feet wet. Lol. They were all about their style and their clothing I guess. They loved to dress richly. They made the first carts and there were specific dimensions that are still used for railroads so that all the carts could make it through the stepping stones. They would put marble specs in the road, so that they would act like reflectors on dark nights. There were lanterns, but it wasn’t always safe on the main road, so they liked the reflectors to add a little light. They had fast food restaurants back then. They would store food in jars that would keep for the whole day and sell it for cheap. The people would nap in the middle of the day even back then, but they stayed up late as well.
The ruins are wonderful. It’s so intense to see how much they have excavated. There are full houses and different places that you can walk through. It was really pretty amazing.
After Pompeii, we went to Sorrento, which is where Sabina is from. This town was beautiful. We had lunch, which was nice, and then walked around the streets and shopping centers. There is a view of a beach there that give Capri some serious competition. We had twix flavored Gelato and bought some things. It was a nice place. After getting back to the boat, we had a nice little fourth of July barbecue (on the fifth, I know). Afterwards we studied for our test the next day, Global Studies. Napoli was nice. Different, but nice. The sights were amazing. Capri was great. Pompeii was awesome. I love Italia!

Overall thoughts on Italy (short):
I think that I like it a bit better than Spain. The history is so rich and the sights are amazing. The people are just like I’m use to (The Celenza’s are legit), and the way of life is a lot different but in a nice way. Oh. The most important thing. We all know that Bentley is a little smarty pants, but we didn’t know just how smart. We thought she was talking baby talk whenever she wants a drink of coke. We’re totally wrong. She’s just askin in Italian, Coka. ☺

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