Today was our earliest start yet, as we needed to meet at 6:30. While Allie and I were ready at our designated time, mom texted us that they had overslept! Instead of our original plan of taking the metro and walking to the train station, we ended up taking a cab to get there on time. We got to the meeting spot at the train station with plenty of time to spare. Allie and I were able to pick up a little breakfast. I got a crema, which literally tastes like coffee ice cream, and a chocolate croissant. We boarded our train and headed off towards Naples. We took a high speed train so it was going almost 300 km/ hour. It took about an hour to get to Naples and from there it was another 25 minutes by bus to Pompeii.
Once we got there we met up with our tour guide who told us some information about Pompeii. The city was covered in 30 feet of ash more than 2,000 years ago after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The city was completely lost for 1,700 years. In this time, new cities were built on top of it, never realizing there was an entire lost civilization underneath. He told us that a farmer was building a well and fell down it. When he did, he landed in an amphitheater and realized that he had found something big. In the last 200 years, they have been able to excavate a lot of both Pompeii and Herculaneum, however they are still continuing to excavate and learn new things about this lost civilization. It was incredible to see how everything was so well preserved due to the ash. We walked in and out of houses, shops, and temples, as well as along roads and saw fountains. Our tour guide told us that they found more than 2,000 bodies while they were excavating. The bones and teeth were still there and they were able to caste plastic molds of these people. They were able to take DNA samples and figure out how wealthy they were based on what they ate. It was amazing how much information they were able to piece together about Pompeii.
Once our tour was finished, we enjoyed a granita, I got lemon, and then headed back to Rome. We arrived in the train station and was able to take the metro two steps back towards our hotel. We stopped for some lunch and had two kinds of pizza: 4 cheese and sausage and mushroom. We also had a caprese salad. After lunch, we decided to do some souvenir shopping, which we had yet to do in Rome. Everyone was able to get something they had been looking for. We took a longer break this afternoon to get out of the heat and relax.
We met back up for dinner and went to a restaurant closer to the Pantheon. We got prosciutto and melon, meatballs and spaghetti (yay), and tagliatelle with mushrooms. The restaurant also gave us some free champagne! Everything was delicious and we enjoyed a relaxing meal. We capped the night off with, you guessed it, gelato. We went to a place that had 150 different flavors. I opted for mint and chocolate. It was delicious!
Tomorrow we have a little later start to the day, so I am exited to be able to sleep a few extra hours!!
No comments:
Post a Comment