Pompeii and Pill-boxes
Julianna, Baba, and I ate lunch on our tour at this lovely place around the corner from the ruins of Pompeii and had a delicious meal. First course was a salad tossed with oil and champagne and bread were offered. We drank red wine with our pasta: a delicious ricotta cheese cannelloni. They served limoncello cake for dessert.
From there, we walked to Pompeii, I helping my sister who had polished off both bottles of wine at our table. She stumbled us into one of the six gates of Pompeii, both of us listening to our guide tell us why Pompeii is such a miracle to behold. He told us about many unique things within the ancient walls, like the holes on either sides of the boulevard where you could tie up your horses, or about the drainage problems and the raised pathways to cross the roads so pedestrians wouldn’t dampen their feet. Our guide showed us how the shops had raised doorways so water wouldn’t seep in and how there were fast food restaurants where food was kept heated for hours for the busy merchants.
We headed to a wealthy home where stairways led to the servants’ quarters upstairs were by the entry. There were mosaic tiles on the floor and paintings on the walls. A collection pool in the center of the first room gathered water falling from an opening in the ceiling above. There was a fountain in the back room decorated ornately with seashells. Faded paintings lined the walls.
On our way out, our guide showed us the different types of stones you could see around the ruins: the Roman style large cement blocks, the smaller stones from when Romans invaded, and the bricks families used to patch holes after the great earthquake some years before the devastating eruption.
I helped Julianna stumble out after she fell and banged her knee and arm on the 2000 year old stone. We saw our last view of the tragic city, and headed down to the street vendours where we sampled three liqueurs of the area before taking a bathroom break with added free time. We spent it shopping the vendours; there was a shop of handmade seashell art, and I watched, mesmerized with their unique carving process. I bought a cheap, fake version pill box from a street merchant outside.
The journey back to the ship after our wonderful day was dismal. After boarding, we packed our bags so the attendants could carry them off the ship first thing tomorrow. We soaked up every last bit of our evening aboard, heading to the pool, eating our favourite food at the buffet, and sitting in the Park Café and getting chili cheese dogs from the lunch lady we befriended.
