Pompeii - Our Italian Vacation Part 3

On the last day of our Italian visit we took a tour to Naples and Pompeii. The concentration was on Pompeii but there was a very quick tour of Naples at the beginning.

Every morning my dad goes to the local restaurant for coffee. He doesn't really only go for the coffee, he can make coffee at home, he goes to talk to the people there. Most all of them are retired or at least retirement age. In Naples the custom is slightly different.

Lots of old European mankinis...

Now on to Pompeii, first a little history... sorry if it is boring. Pompeii was buried by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. It was lost for centuries and was eventually found during a construction project in the 16th century. The excavation were stopped and then started again in 1748 and continues to this day. During our visit there were a couple different areas where excavation was in progress.

It is a very large place. Once you have seen a few highlights the rest of it makes you say, "Look, more ruins..." That was the same thing we started saying in Rome on the third day too. During this tour we actually had a tour guide for the first 2 hours of the visit to the ruins. He followed a somewhat haphazard route through the city hitting most of the high points.

He explained interesting facts about the temples, the forum, the men's bath, the women's bath, the residences, and the whore house. Yes, the whore house. Only the guide called it the "hospital." I'm not sure if it was a concidence or not, but the "hospital" was next to the pharmacy. If you didn't know where the "hospital" was, there were various markers that pointed (ha ha) you in the right direction. Here is one such directional marker.

Once you reached the "hospital" one interesting thing about it was that there was a menu, so to speak, of the services offered.

Now I understand why the "hospital" was next to the pharmacy...

One of the other interesting things about the market outside the ruins is the great variety of souvenirs that you can purchase. One thing there seemed to be an inordinate number of penises and all of them had wings. I had to buy one or else nobody would believe. Here is the picture as proof...

They also had various other types of key chains. Here is another one we bought only so you will believe me.

I didn't see that on the menu. That must be on the menu at the women's "hospital."

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