Pompeii

I'm not quite sure why people think that just  because they are speaking to me in Italian I will magically understand it. It's like ohh ok wait hold on, your speaking Italian? Oh now I get it! This is sometimes even after we tell them we speak English. Cracks me right up.

Thursday we went into the roman fourm because the other time we only just walked by, and I couldn't be in Rome and not go inside the fourm! It was very neat to see it all up close, they even had archeological sites set up where they are still digging which was cool to see. I really wouldn't  want to be in charge of digging anything around here for construction, it must take them three times as long as it would anywhere else. They only have two subway lines for a reason, they started building the third but they've run into so may remains of stuff that they have to keep excavating before they can continue with the subway. The third line was saposed to be open on 2006...that did happen...the next saposed date was 2012...that didn't happen. I'm not sure it will ever happen. The roman were big fans of building temples on top of temples, if one was destroyed they would build it again on the same spot, so when they are digging they aren't just finding remains of one they are finding layers upon layers of ruins.

After the forum we decided to get some lunch at a place we eaten at before becuase they has the best pizza. we ordered a pizza to share along with roast potatoes, and eggplant! thats right i said eggplant. we also got a bottle of wine to go with our lunch, yes we drank a whole bottle worh our lunch. we are really embracing italian culture, have to have wine with our meal! after this we decided to wonder around and do some shopping. Along the way we found some petty cool buildings and piazzas we haven't seen yet, that is the beauty of Rome no matter how many times you walk around you are always going to see something different. The city is not all that large but there are so many tiny winding side streets that you never seem to see it all. Don't get me wrong the man in tourist attractions are a must but wondering around you will get a better sense of Rome and the beauty of it. Once we were done shopping we felt like having some galato, so we wondered around for a bit until we found a place which really isn't hard because they are everywhere. We found this one place it looked good so we walked in ordered our ice cream and at down. We ate it then we got our bill...it was 50€ for the both of us, we both almost fell of our chairs, we could not believe it! It was absolutely rediclous, there was nothing I mean nothing special about the ice cream we got, it was no different then any of the other ones we had which were never anymore the 3€ for one! The weird thing is, is that it wasn't even in a touristy area, and it wasn't a fancy place either! Needless to say that is 50€ we will never get back and it was such a waste.

Yesterday we got up bright and early, (5:30) and went off to the city of Naples and then Pompeii! We decided to take a bus tour because I had heard about the very high crime rate of Naples and we didn't want to chance it by ourselves. Our group was a good size not to big, I would say around 22 people. The drive to Naples of beautiful, it was all mountains covered in snow, even though we were going south. We stopped in Naples first and went to the archeology museum there, it was amazing. Our tour guide said we had an hour and that the museum was not that big, we Kristy and I thought ok so it won't take us long to see it all. HAhahah oh how wrong we were, we started with he paintings and there was so much info to read that it took us a half hour just to do this part, so we had to rush like crazy to see the rest. We actually didn't get to see everything, we were almost to the exit web. Our guide came around the corner and was looking for us. Apperently we were the last ones back,  I guess we were the only ones who took our time to see the stuff, because everyone was done early. There was mostly stuff from Pompeii at this museum but there were also tons and tons of statues from the Roman bath we went to a few days before, which was really neat to get to see it all. Everything for Pompeii was so well preserved it is almost hard to believe that the stuff is over 2000 years old. There was also what our tour guide called the naught bits room...now it's exectly what you think it is, it's like Cosmo magazine but painted on walls. Also there was many faciallces, which apperently are a symbol of good luck. Many families would have these above there doors if their houses. All the naughty bits we seen were from the brothels, which there was 25 of them in Pompeii, yup 25! This was only a town of 20,000 people, however it was a seaport so sailors like their brothels. Pompeii blew me away, I've watched many shows and documentaries on it and studied it in school but it far exceed my expectations, it's hard to get and idea of how big is is from the tv,and how well preserved it is. It was one of the most amazing things to see.

Now the town of Naples, that is quite a site to see,not in a good way. It's the most dirty, nasty, rundown place I've ever been to. It's like the equilant of the Bronx in NYC, including the high crime rate. It's no somewhere you would want to go alone that's for sure. But it was a good experience to see it, and I really enjoyed the museum.