Today was the first of two day trips I will be taking while on this trip. I got up way, way too early and walked down to Piazza del Popolo where I met up with the guide and the rest of the group. We all hopped on a tour bus and headed out of Rome and headed towards our first stop, the ancient city of Pompeii. After about 3 hours, we arrived and began our guided tour around the ruins of this once buried city. In 79 AD, Pompeii was buried under 24 feet of ash in under 2 days from the eruption of the neighboring Mt. Vesuvius. It is amazing to walk around and see what life was like in 79 AD. Since most citizens of Pompeii had little time to pack up and get out, this city is a perfectly preserved snapshot of what life was like back then. I just was amazed at every turn at how wonderfully preserved this city was from 79 AD considering it was buried underground until the mid 17th century. You can still make out the grooves in the road from the wagon wheels. It was a cloudy day, but you can still see Mt. Vesuvius in the background.
After our guided tour was over, we headed to lunch. I made some nice friends from North Carolina who were visiting with their son. In a funny and cool coincidence, they will also be part of my tour to Florence on Thursday too.
After lunch, we headed up to Mt. Vesuvius. Unfortunately, it was cold, foggy and very windy up at the top of the volcano. I was not able to make anything out and wasn't even sure what side of the path the crater was on!
It was a hard hike to get to the top of Mt. Vesuvius, but after 30 minutes of walking uphill, I made it. I didn't stay too long as I was very happy once I got back to the warm comfort of the tour bus. After leaving Vesuvius, we drove 3 hours and made it back to Rome around 9pm. After entering this, I hope to crash and sleep well tonight. No plans yet for tomorrow. If weather is good, I might go to Vatican City, but I think most likely I will save that for Friday.
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