The Grand Tour - Day 12 (Up Pompeii)

View from Naples end of tunnel to Agerola - Bay of Naples to left

This morning we trotted out, early as you like, towards Pompeii which should only be 40 minutes from here.  I stopped on the way to take a panoramic view since we are camping very high up.  After about 10 seconds of standing on a wall in the layby to do so, I suddenly appreciated the vertical drop below me and then took the photograph with one hand only, the other grasping a thin and rusted pole.

View over Pompeii, Vesuvius behind

Well, goodness me, I am so very glad we did not stay at Campeggio Spartacus.  One might think these historic ruins are set in the middle of nowhere, but in fact, since they attract about 2 million tourists per year, they are in a filthy, shabby area where you have to pay 3 Euros per hour to park and the air is thick with fumes and noise.  It took about an hour and a half to get here from our campsite which is around 18 miles away and today was about 30 deg C.  Any romanticism I may have held has died.  At least now I am completely inured to the awful driving which seems to be inherent.  I thought Tuscany was bad compared to England, but now that is a civilised memory.

View from Ampitheatre region

So, Pompeii is a large Roman settlement above the bay of Naples which was destroyed during the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD.  Most of the 25k inhabitants had evacuated, but around 2000 remained and were killed by poisonous gases and ashes.  

Casts of the voids left by bodies were taken but have been removed from site. The site is vast but full of guided tours and has little character.  Most finds have been removed and quite a bit of what you see has been reconstructed rather than being original.  You will gather I was quite disappointed but it was still worth a visit.

Dancing fawn - bronze statue

 Probably my favourite thing in Pompeii was the bronze statue of the dancing fawn. This was in the entrance hall to a particularly large and lavish home.

Beware of the dog mosaic

Moulded plasterwork

There were quite a few extremely explicit frescoes: this is maybe the tamest!

Anyhow, after several hours at Pompeii, we headed back to the campsite where it promptly started to thunder and rain, although not as fiercely as the previous two evenings.