Visiting Pompeii: Ashes to Amore

“The vast majority of us haunt the world our ancestors built, not the other way around. Their echoes grow more vivid for potency and effects as time goes on.” – Old Sean

Proper Cacophony of Alarms

TRIGGER WARNING: This post contains images of the Pompeii cast forms of those who perished in the erruption of Mount Vesuvius, which some viewers may find disturbing.

The morning after my explorations of Naples, I awoke to a screaming array of sounds overlapping one another in a wildly unpleasant jangle. Groggily, I flailed out of bed, scrambling around the room to shut a trio of cell phones off, struggling slightly since I tucked my phones in several hard-to-reach places.

This effectively forced me to wake up despite my exhaustion, staggering around the room until I finally gathered enough of myself to head outside into a light drizzle.

It’s not my favorite way to wake up, but its certainly effective.

I started walking to the train station, hoping to catch a ride to Pompeii. The sky stayed risky, growing darker and lighter at dizzying intervals. During my odd morning walk, I passed a large amount of scaffolding covered in rows and rows of hanging jeans, an art statement of some sort.

Finally, I purchased my train ticket to Pompeii, settled down for a caffeine-and-chocolate heavy breakfast and relaxed until it was time to go.

Outer Scam Ring

Getting to Pompeii is quite easy. I highly recommend going early in the morning, as the archeological site gradually fills up with crowds as the day goes on. But the real reason it’s nice to beat the crowd is to evade the ring of scammers and scalpers just in front of the gate.

Pompeii has three entrances, none of which are inheritly easy to find while walking. In front of each entrance, there are plenty of bright signs announcing the existance of an entrance. But these aren’t entryways at all. Instead, they’re aggressive salesfolk attempting to get people to purchase a tour or scalped entrance tickets.

On some level, this is fine. Tours in Pompeii are great, even if I’m not personally a fan. However, many of these salespeople insist that the archeological site tickets are sold out and the only way to get entry is to pay them a solid chunk of cash.

It’s nowhere near as bad as the Pyramids in Egypt or anything, but it’s a bit of a morning slog. I wasn’t feeling lively enough to fence with the salesfolk. Fortunately, I arrived slightly before opening times, so the idea that Pompeii was entirely sold out was laughable. I did my little sidestep dance while wearing headphones and bypassed these entirely.

I made my way to the ticket office, got me map and strode into the eastern entrance.

Stonesweep Streets

As far as ruins go, Pompeii has everything a person wants. The entire complex is massive. On many occassions, visiting ancient ruins requires a lot of walking, but this is mostly to get from point to point over large expanses.

Pompeii is quite the opposite. The ancient city sprawls grandly, largely intact from corner to corner. With ruins at every block, there are very few empty places. Visitors can follow stone walls for miles, never exiting the considerable area.

When I learned about Pompeii back in high school, I had always pictured a rather quaint town that had the misfortune to remain seated beneath Vesuvius. In my mind, it was perhaps a street or two looping a block, similar in size to an old western ghost town. But visiting in person shattered that belief. Pompeii is sizeable and requires nearly half a day to explore adequately.

Those Romans were certainly builders of uncommon ambition.

Over the next several hours, I wandered through streets while soft flickers of rain came and went. The entire complex has a slightly lowered road that allows for easy drainage. There are elevated sidewalks and little island boulders in the streets letting people cross the road while it’s “flowing.” The design is something that could only exist in an entirely pedestrian city, as the elevated stones would bar virtually any carriage or car.

The city switches between fully restored ruin sites to large crumbling spaces. Many other potions are braced up by modern restorations, jarring the feeling of walking around an ancient world. Between the rain and early hours, crowds were virtually nonexistent, allowing me to explore in virtual solitude.

Artmakers

Pompeii has strong early shock value, no matter which entrance visitors arrive from. I opted to enter near the Amphitheatre of Pompeii, which makes a lasting impression. Over 20,000 people could comfortably sit within, making it a splendid first sight. With the usual magic of stone acoustics, I could hear my footsteps echoing back to me as I walked the tunnels.

Nobody can fault the echoing reverb of the arena. In a unique quirk of additional history, Pink Floyd once performed in the empty amphitheater, doing a recording which was fully captured by filmmaker Adrien Maben.

Just outside the structure, rows of bare vines rested on wooden pillars. There was something quaint about seeing an agricultural space amongst a destroyed civilization. After a few more steps, I following the roads.

The roads of Pompeii are well-organized, making navigation a simple endeavor. The biggest challenge isn’t getting around, but not accidentally bypassing unique sights around the ruins. Features are so numerous, it makes walking an especially slow act.

With that being said, large swaths of the ruins are closed. Iron gates bar certain houses and buildings, indicating they open at a later time or are currently under restoration. But even these show tantalizing glimpses of ancient Rome behind the bars.

My favorite aspect of these buildings are the gardens within. Often, towards the back of a house was a hortus (garden) or peristylium (an open courtyard). Many of these were intentionally and lovingly maintained by modern hands. But there were also areas where roofs collapsed ages ago. Blankets of slick, bright moss grew within, showcasing a similar, lively beauty.

Another one of the somewhat bizarre features scattered around Pompeii is the graffiti. This isn’t modern artwork birthed from a spray-can. But instead, this is ancient graffiti and scratches left on walls prior to Pompeii’s burial. Getting notes from these is interesting and makes ancient people seem ever-more human.

Intact Brightness

Another aspect of Pompeii, especially the restored buildings, involves art. Romans were profound collectors and creators of artwork and the numerous houses showcase unique pieces.

While several statues linger outside, such as those found at Foro di Pompei, the truly impressive creations are combinations of mosaics, painted walls and temples. For me, the House of the Faun, the House of the Vettii, the House of Octavius Quartio and the House of the Tragic Poet.

When I was in high school taking Art History classes, I remember gazing at a famous mosaic known as The Alexander Mosaic, otherwise known as the Battle of Issus Mosaic. I knew that the unique artwork originally graced the floor of the House of the Faun. Though the original has been removed, there was a honest recreation which slapped me with a moment of recognition.

Part of traveling is seeing the new and the old fresh. But the other part is being reminded of all the steps taken to get somewhere.

Rain Tap

In truth, I could talk for paragraphs about the various ruins and images of Pompeii. But since I took a fair number of photos during my visit, going into heavy detail doesn’t seem too necessary.

Needless to say, I looped through the entire town twice. I gradually grew damper as a I walked, the weather ever-diminishing. My half-busted umbrella wasn’t capable of shedding water to a necessary degree.

But onward I went.

Walking in the rain is especially nice in the city. The stones are rough enough to avoid slipping, so I was able to travel despite the swift little streams tumbling though the streets.

The Casted Ghouls

It’s impossible to talk about Pompeii without talking about its most disturbing, unique features.

The erruption of Mount Vesuvius was a tragedy in its era, wiping an entire town off a map. It slew many of the communities inhabitants under burning ash. Recent studies suggest these deaths were horrific, instantly burned to death by a oven-like blanket of ash.

These bodies fell, eventually decomposing as time marched on. However, the indent their bodies left in the ash remained. During excavations of the city, archeologists discovered air pockets in humanoid shapes. Teams poured plaster into these pockets, let it harden and then chipped free the remains.

I’ll forever be darkly amazed by these echoes of humans. These aren’t bones, nor preserved bodies. They are mere imprints given form again in positions of death and rigor mortis. I don’t deny that these casts have done wonders in enhancing our studies of Roman life. But every time I passed one of the Pompeii citizen casts, I felt decidedly ghoulish overlooking the substantial imprint of their forms.

Struck Again

I finally left Pompeii in the early afternoon, briefly stopping for a small lunch.

My original plan for the day involved visiting the city of Salerno, where I planned to rent a scooter and explore the scenic Amalfi Coast.

However, my plans were twice-foiled.

First, upon trying to get a train ticket, I was hit by a strike again.

Traveling around Europe by the public transportation system takes an almost supernatural amount of patience. It seems like there’s almost always a strike ongoing or a planned strike inbound. Whether it’s France, Italy or Spain, I always travel slowly, ready to toss away my plans on a whim.

On some level, strikes in Europe are understandable. They’re often legitimate and effective pushes for better wages and humane working conditions. More often than not, these strikes do improve the lives of workers. And I cannot fault those goals or triumphs.

But bless, are they annoying to deal with.

I mentally crossed my original plan off my vacation checklist. Amalfi and Salerno simply weren’t going to happen. Shrugging idly, I found a train line that wasn’t hobbled by strikes.

There’s a train inbound in about twenty minutes or so, which I plan on hopping aboard. I decided to swiftly hammer out some notes regarding Pompeii while I waited.

So I guess my pivot is taking me a new direction. I’m off to the coastal town of Sorrento.

Let’s see how fortune fairs.

Best regards and excellent trails,

Old Sean

Written December 1st, 2023

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