Adventure 9: Climbing Mount Vesuvius

Destination: Herculaneum and Mount Vesuvius

Status: Breathtaking.... I feel lucky.


Ciao! Come stai?

Bene :) MOLTO bene!!!

Herculaneum was another village that was destroyed by Mount Vesuvius shortly after the city Pompeii.

At this point in the trip, climbing Mount Vesuvius was my favorite event so far. The day started out nice and sunny and I was looking forward to visiting the ruins of Herculaneum. There were a lot of visually appealing thing in Herculaneum, including some charred stairs and iron bars. I found the mosaics quite impressive that were left over in the men's and women's wash rooms. Yes, I do mean public washrooms....very ornate ones that are famous because of the decorative mosaics that survived. Sadly, I don't have any pictures :( ....Oh well!  Some other visually appealing objects were this fountain....

 

aaaand these buildings!

 

I remember walking around the corner at one point and feeling like I was in a western film, with the street above on one side and the street below on the other. The sun was high in the sky and it was slightly humid, the dust walkways completed the setting. So, I made a joke about it when my friend Adrien was on one side of the street and I was on the other and I pretended to draw a gun.

 

The boy's. Nick is on the far left, Evan is the one with the backpack, Richard is in the blue, and our excellent professor Mark Moak is in the khaki.

 

I love columns.....especially this one.

 

I thought this was a cooking object when I first saw it but turns out its a giant vase with a piece missing out the bottom.

 

This section below was closed off and had some people working on restoration, but I peeked through the bars. I loved the red columns they were working on.

 

Here's a good shot of them. I wanted to show them to Cody too cause red is his favorite color.

Mount Vesuvius

Prepare yourselves for something AMAZING!!!

 

Cody and I in the car ride up.

 

Picture from the car window.

 

The walk up.......

 

It was a pretty vertical walk up. I'm pretty sure I burned off everything I had eaten previously, but as you can probably tell from the pictures it was well worth it :) One thing I noted as I walked up was how beautiful the scenery around me was and the mountain itself. I found it ironic that Mount Vesuvius was breathtaking....but yet it caused extreme destruction and devastation.

 

 

The top.

 

People walking. Some of them had walking sticks that they rented. Cody found one at the top of the hill and was going to take it, but I said it was probably an elderly persons who would stumble because of his actions......didn't change his mind much though. Haha

 

Some Italian men looking at the view.

 

The group! Smile :D

 

 

To finish this post here is a gorgeous shot of the ocean and city. This day was definitely up there on the happy adventure scale. Thanks for reading!

Adventure 8: Destruction (Part 2)

Okay, this is the second part of the post I made yesterday. So, if you haven't read that one yet....please, do so now. 

This is the chamber where two of the victims from the event are kept. I'm giving you a forewarning that the pictures are a little eerie. 

I have been taking pictures of hands on several statues...figured he should be included since he had a dramatic impact on me. 

The setting definitely didn't feel right for the two victims we saw. There were a lot of people surrounding them and snapping pictures in broad daylight.....personally I thought the resting place could be a little more respectful...not sure if that's the word I'm searching for though.Yes, I was one of those people who snapped pictures but I wanted to be able to share visually the kind of emotions I was feeling...as best as a picture can give those emotions anyway. 

Here I was being a creeper again and snapping pictures of strangers. There was a group of African girls who were with a group visiting Pompeii. They were either from Jamaica or the Bahamas, I could tell from the way they spoke. I thought they were gorgeous. 

Cody giving a shout out. 

And to end this post...Here's a picture of an adorable old couple holding hands :) Ciao!

Adventure 8: Destruction

Destination: Pompeii,

Status: Respect....and curiosity.

Ciao!

Welcome back to my blog/adventure! Today's adventure took place in the ruins of the city Pompeii and Herculaneum. I was anxious and curious to explore and learn more about the tragedy that took the lives of many...which seems a bit morbid but I guess I'm not the only one if tons of people visit the sites.

For those who don't know...Pompeii was a Roman city that was destroyed in AD 79 when Mount Vesuvius erupted, it was rediscovered 1748.

I'm not sure why I took this picture...probably because of the pomegranate that's Cody's favorite fruit. 

People walking up to the entrance of the city. 

 

Columns, columns columns...I love columns.

 

Eventually, Cody and I seperated from the group. We walked around and took in the ruins. One topic we discussed was how the feeling of something bad having happened there felt stronger once we were away from the group. The feeling of mournful respect towards a tragedy, such as when walking around a cemetery, was in the atmosphere. So, there isn't much I can say about these ruins or the people who died there...except that I feel gracious I was able to walk around what was left of the city and be able to respect it.

 

aaaaaaaaand I guess I just maxed out the amount of photos I can put on this blog haha. So, I will post the rest in a second blog!