Italy remains one of my favorite destinations. After our journey to the top of Mt. Vesuvius, we took an expertly guided tour of the ruins of Pompeii. Mt. Vesuvius destroyed this ancient Roman town in 79 AD, but the ash, evidently, preserved quite a bit of it. There are lots of photos and I only saw, probably, a quarter of the town. All of my information comes from our tour guide. So, if there are any historians out there that think I have it wrong, please let me know. I am a tourist, not a historian. Please enjoy my photos and the mini amateur tour through the ruins.
Before we entered the walls of the city, we viewed the mass graves in what would have been right outside the city walls. 
We first entered the Gladiator training grounds – a big courtyard, basically. The trees are magnificent.
Then we made our way to the amphitheater. You can see the courtyard we just left in the background – and look at those mountains – wow!
So, then we started walking through the ancient streets. We were told that the giant stones in the middle of the road were for pedestrians to be able to cross without stepping into the sewage that flowed in the street. Each of those gates represent a different shop. This was the market street, evidently.
This is a wood burning pizza oven – ha! Seriously, it was said to be a bakery. They thought this because the fireplace was so much larger than that in the home areas.
Random street of Pompeii.
Me and my best travel buddy, Kelly. We make a great team. She makes laugh and laugh – we have so much fun together. We are standing outside the infamous Pompeii brothel. The middle school group that walked through with us could not quite handle the artwork on the walls.
So, this is the brothel. Do you see the upside down cross?
As we made our way from the brothel to the city square the tour guide pointed out the map on the ground carved into the stone. It points to the brothel so that those visiting the city for the first time know where to go. The brothel does, in fact, have artwork that survived on its walls, as well. Images of people, men and women, in various sexual positions cover the walls of the brothel. Our guide explained that a customer would simply point to the desired position. Bed pictured below.
Another random street. We are on our way to the city square. We just left the brothel.
You can’t really make out the walls, exactly, but this street was “apartments”.
An example of the residential fireplace. 
The courtyard of the gladiator school. This area was one of the best preserved. The photo below was the ornate, arched ceiling. The photo does not do it justice. The colors and the artistry took my breath away.
This was displayed within the walls of the gladiator school. I am not sure why he was separated from the rest of the artifacts that I posted below. This was just mesmerizing. The thought of all of those people being buried so quickly in the ash that they were frozen and then preserved. Amazing.
So, a regular ally leading to a beautiful courtyard. These small private courtyards were blocked off and we could not see them up close. They were off of private residences.
The next several photos are of the many artifacts recovered from the ash.
Lots of vases and urns. The plastic crates in the background unfortunately detract from the collection. Did you see the dog in the glass box? I think that was a dog…I never did get a definitive answer.
If you saw my Mt. Vesuvius post, then this photo may look familiar. That’s it in the background – the devastating volcano that covered this city in ash.
More images of the city square.
Some of those last pictures really show the beauty of the area. So that’s it. My trip through the ruins of Pompeii. A very hot day that ended with overpriced frozen lemonade and a stroll through the vendors outside the gates. Oh – and we saw a demonstration of cameos being made from shells – then we went for the lemonade. They were beautiful, but not for me.
If you have not seen my Mt. Vesuvius post you can find it in this link to the top of the volcano.
Thanks for reading my post and traveling with me! Be sure to follow me on fields of poppies to see where we go next!!
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