POMPEII
1. THE HISTORICAL TRIP BEGINS…
I am back on the posting of my Italy trip that the hubby and I had in March, 2019.
The next city is Pompeii. Knowing that the Pompeii trip would be an interesting one, we hired a special tourist guide, Roxanna, to bring us around the ancient city. Roxanna is a vibrant and cheerful person and we totally enjoyed her presence. Her charming personality definitely fits into the excellent tourist guide category.
To begin with, once upon a time, the Roman Empire, and as mentioned in my earlier posting, was a powerful ruling kingdom. It was a hegemonic superpower. Its influence was to be reckoned with that it had ruled Europe and stretched into the nearby continents.
Pompeii was an ancient city of the Roman Empire. During its golden era, Pompeii was a prosperous city and wealth was in abundance. They were owned by many of its citizens.
The Roman Empire erases left its mark until today. It gave birth to new thinkings. This new thinkings or ideas are utilised by the global community until the present times. Put succinctly, citizens of the Roman Empire had made an impact with regard to knowledge on science, technology and innovation of the world. Hence, the visit to the city of old Pompeii was actually a journey of enlightenment for me.
2. VOLCANIC ERUPTION
Pompeii faced its doomed when the city was buried in volcanic ashes of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Sadly, the people of Pompeii was not prepared for such a magnanimous catastrophe to hit the city. Thousands perished in the aftermath.
Interestingly, the ancient city was excavated by the archaeologists centuries later. And, with it, there was an abundance of knowledge learned via the artefacts discovered with it.
It was a discovery to be rejoiced by the modern Pompeii and the global community. Pompeii is well kept and religiously maintained by the Italian authorities. Its presence has attracted thousands of tourists from all over the world. The historical site provides revenues to the local authorities.
3. TOURISTS SPOTS
Walking around the location, I found many interesting founded artefacts and old infrastructures on display in the Pompeii ruins. They were all associated with the living and lifestyle of the ancient people of Pompeii.
The amphitheater concept interestingly had its origin here and was first established by the ancient government of Pompeii (see pix 3). The open venue specifically had shows and theatres with the people of ancient Pompeii as audiences. In fact, this specific kind of venue was emulated by the global arts institutions. Interestingly, during the time there was such concept as the “allotted seats” for the VVIPs and VIPs. Their names were carved on the stone rock seats (see pix 4).
It was good to learn that international trading had existed even during the Pompeii era.
The sea merchants global activities were obviously in existence. Pompeii was actually an international trading port and a famous stopover for traders. It was recorded that traders from China, India and Africa converged in this prosperous port. Products from the global communities were traded and exchanged amongst the traders.
Simultaneously, the existence of traders contributed to the flourishing of another kind of profession. Specifically, the world’s oldest profession, prostitution, was in practice during the time. The traders came and prostitution activities of the women in Pompeii were parcel of the ecosystem.
A visit to the hotel, one can witness the pictures of sex positions imprinted on the walls. According to Roxanna, since language was a barrier the traders need to just point at the pictures for the activities to proceed.
There were 8,000 segregated lands resembling that of shop lots on the site. This evident depicts on the buzzing everyday business in the ancient city. This also cited the prosperous business activities taking place at the time. For example, there were scattered cooking pots in the shop lots, reflecting the restaurant and hotel businesses.
The stretches of basalt stone were used as roads. The roads were used by the pedestrians and chariots of the ancient city. The extensive use of this mode of transportation witnessed the tremendous activities of transportation in the area.
A visit to a nobleman’s house reflected the abundance of wealth he had then. I watched in awed at the walls decorated with painted pictures. They were still intact after the heavy excavation activities. A pool was placed in the centre of the house and a large garden was enclaved with the big marble columns. Yes, the Romans were crazy about marbles, and marbles for them was a symbol of wealth.
The story goes that the owner of the house had a daughter who was married to the last Roman Emperor, Nero. Nero had made the trip twice to Pompeii to visit his in-laws in this very house. Whoa, I was in the house where Nero used to visit. Interesting indeed!
When the volcano erupted in 79 AD, the prosperous ancient city of Roman disappeared under the ashes, but it was not destroyed. In the present ruins, tourists were able to see victims of the eruption, individuals and a dog, covered with the liquid plastered “ashes”.
The question: why was Pompeii not destroyed? The volcano erupted ASHES and NOT LAVA. The lava would destroy everything on its way. That is the reason why our generation is able to walk into the ruins and learn about the life, culture and systems of the ancient Pompeii.
4. NAPOLI
We visited Napoli which is nearby Pompeii. Napoli is the third biggest city in Italy after Rome and Milan. The few hours that we spent here were not as exciting as in the other cities of Italy.
I would say the selling point of this city is the uphill view of Napoli, and overlooking it, its continuous attachment to its neighbouring cities. One can see the cities sprawling from one corner to another. And, of course, the reflection of the blue sea adds colour to the beauty.
Another interesting itinerary was when we had pizza lunch. Our tourist guide, Roxanna, and also Andrea joined us for lunch at a pizza place where its owner won the best pizza making in the world. Yup, the pizza was great.
Thank you for reading, folks. Have a great day.
noorul.ainur@gmail.com
#pompeii #ancientromancity #romanempire #whatretireesdoforfun
#napolipizza #napoli #whatretireesdoforfun
Sojourner Noorul 