Pompei, Italy - May 21 2010

During our stay in Sorrento, we made a day trip to Pompei, which is located on the train line halfway between Naples and Sorrento. We were hoping to see some "volcanic remains" in Pompei, but it's all been cleaned up, which is a huge shame since we felt it really stripped the ruins of its potential character and made the ruins much more similar to any other ruins than it really should be. The main issue being that now Pompei doesn't look at all like it was destroyed by a volcano! 

Introducing Stefan, the new king of Pompei! He doesn't have much to do though, since all the inhabitants are dead!

In one section of the site (behind glass, no less) are these plaster casts of some victims. Better than nothing, right?

Here you can get a bit of a sense of how sprawling Pompei really is. It was a very large city.

Some columns in Pompei (don't ask us what building they are from!)

Ruins of some houses in Pompei.

Frescoes!

A little temple...

Hey, we didn't know they had gelato way back then!

The outside of the colosseum in Pompei, which is apparently the best-preserved colosseum in the world!

Inside the colosseum.

A shot from one of the entrances to the building.

The colosseum exterior.

Last but not least... some random columns! Obviously you see how much attention we paid to all the different ruins in Pompei! After having visited Athens and seen all its ruins, we got a little "ruined out". Heck, even when we were in Knossos in Crete we had a bit of "ruins coma" going on! Anyway, Pompei, it was nice to meet you. Now onto the Amalfi coast!