Last Day - Pompeii & Amalfi Coast

The city of Pompeii was partially destroyed and buried under 13-20 ft of ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. It was lost for nearly 1700 years before its rediscovery in 1748. Since then, its excavation has given us insight into the life of a city during the Pax Romana.

Before Vesuvius blew up and filled in the harbor, the sea came nearly to Pompeii’s gate.  If you look carefully, you can see the stone rings where ships tied up to the dock.

 Dock of Pompeii just outside the city walls (above) and (below) closeup of the dock rings

The intersection of the Cardo and the Decamanus is the Forum (or a piazza.)  This is the intersection:

With a close-up of the Temple of Jupiter:

 This is an artist's rendition of what it would have looked like:

 Remnants of the Basilica near the Forum:

A first-century Basilica was a palace of justice.  This ancient law court has the same floor plan later adopted by many Christian churches which are also called basilicas.

Aqueduct Arch with Kathy and Tom, Vesuvius in the distance.  It almost always has clouds covering the top, we were told:

Pompeii had 6 public baths, each with a men's and women's section.  After working out, one could choose to relax in a hot bath, a warm bath, or a cold plunge.  In the dressing area you could see holes in the walls where pegs used to be for hanging your toga!

Ceiling in the bathhouse

 The water system was really good and there were these public wells for the households:

If you look carefully, you can see 3 large stones in the street.  Everyday the Pompeiians flooded the streets with gushing water to clean them.  These stepping-stones let pedestrians cross without getting wet.  Chariots could straddle the stones.  A single stepping-strone in a road means it was a one-way street, a pair indicates an ordinary two-way, and three means it was a major thoroughfare.

This is the bakery and mill.  It looks like they had a pizza oven going there:

They also had fast food restaurants.  Romans didn't cook in their tiny apartments, so to-go places like these were common:

With granite countertops:

Another one with art work intact:

This house had a mosaic floor in the entry way with the words "Cave Canum" or "Beware of Dog."

It had this lovely dining room:

During excavations in 1860, occasional voids in the ash layer had been found that contained human remains.  Giuseppe Fiorelli realized these were spaces left by the decomposed bodies and so devised the technique of injecting plaster into them to recreate the forms of Vesuvius’s victims.  This technique is still in use today, with a clear resin now used instead of plaster because it is more durable, and does not destroy the bones.  This is one of the victims that were found beneath the ash.  You can see the terror on his face.  The skull and teeth were intact.

 This area wasn't open to the public, but I thought it looked like the mosaic building in the back was

pretty, so I tried to zoom in on it as best I could.

One of the streets:

With a close-up of one of the houses:

The theater:

Soccer field?

Amphitheater

Mount Vesuvius in the background:

 Just a cute house in the town:

 After we were done in Pompeii, we didn't have too much time before we needed to return to Rome, but Tom & Kathy were kind enough to drive us down a little part of the Amalfi coast.  The views were spectacular:

 Tom and Kathy

 Mark and I

I attempted to do a panorama shot.  We headed home the next day.  It was a great trip!

Day 13 - Rome Temple site and St. Paul's

It was Sunday, so we only did a couple of things.  First, we met a group of executive MBA students from BYU to view the Rome temple site.  No one can go on the site except the workers, but we met the group on the top of a nearby mall to see the construction.  The only reason we were involved was because we were staying with Tom and Kathy, but it was fun to see the temple site.  It was especially fun for Mark to meet with the MBA program students because his former favorite professor, Burke Jackson, was leading the group.  Mark had not seen him since he graduated 30+ years ago and was pleased that his professor remembered him.

 Rome Temple site

 Mark & Burke Jackson

After we went to church and had dinner, Tom and Kathy took us to Basilica San Paolo Fuori le Mura, sometimes referred to as "St. Paul's Outside the Walls."  As the title would suggest, it is not in the Old City portion of Rome.  It was built over the burial site of Paul who was decapitated about 2 miles away.  I heard somewhere that although he was a Roman citizen, he could not be buried inside the city walls because he was executed.  In 2006, archaeologists uncovered a sarcophagus with early inscriptions identifying it as Paul's.  Carbon dating places the remains in the 1st or 2nd century.

Exterior of St. Paul's (above) and the inner courtyard (below)

 St Paul

 Dome in the ceiling

 The upper frame has the chains that bound Paul and it has been dated from that time period.  Below that is a window that reveals the sarcophagus that is believed to be Paul's.  The people were praying in front of it, so I didn't want to disturb them to get a better picture.

 More beautiful ceilings

This wall had an interesting title:  Exaltation is the Celestial Kingdom.  Or something like that.  We also heard that there was another wall (that we couldn't find) that mentions baptism for the dead.  We later learned that it was in a side room which was the baptistry.

 Mark in front of the mission home

Day12 - Rome

Kathy and Tom took us to the downtown Rome area and showed us around for the first part of the day.  They had arranged for us to have tickets to the Vatican in the afternoon, so around 1:00 pm they left us to spend the rest of the day exploring.  All in all we spent 10 hours in Rome seeing and walking everywhere.  It was fabulous.  We took the elevator part way up to the top of St. Peters, and took hundreds of steps the rest of the way to the top for a fabulous view.  I'll let the pictures do the talking:

The Colosseum

 The thickness of the walls.  The holes in the surface are because when this and other buildings were first built, marble was affixed to the surface.  The Rome LDS Temple is being built in the same manner.

 Arch of Constantine

Arch of Titus

The Forum (above and below)

 

Victor Emmanuel Monument

Trajan's Column with Basilica Ulpia in the background

 Trevi Fountain

Beautiful flowers

 Pantheon

 Piazza Navona - Fountain of Four Rivers

Castel Sant' Angelo - built originally by Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum

 St. Peter's Basilica - largest church in the world

 Vatican Museum - I thought these guys look like the one in the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland that start singing!

Laoocoan, warned his fellow Trojans: "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts." But the gods wanted the Greeks to win, so they sent huge snakes to crush Laocoon and his two sons to death.

I told you I love ceilings!

 Huge marble bowl

 Mosaic floor

 Grounds outside the Vatican Museum with St. Peter's Basilica dome

 This is a painted ceiling, completely flat, but it looks like it is a bas relief

 Tapestry of Christ emerging from his tomb

 Huge hallway with painted ceiling

 View from top of St. Peter's Basilica

 Michelangelo's Pieta - something I've wanted to see since high school

 Pope John XXIII

 Vatican Swiss Guards - tour books say Michelangelo designed these uniforms, but an internet search yields information about them being designed in in 1914 by Commandant Jules Repond, who the Vatican’s website states was “exceptionally gifted with fine taste in colors and shapes.”  Whaaat?

Spanish Steps

My only disappointment in Rome?  You can't take pictures in the Sistine Chapel!