Post 5 for June 10 and 12

Post 5, June 10

Today we went to Pompeii and the museum in Naples. They were both really fun tours. We had to get up really early in the morning for both of them, but it was worth getting up to ride in a nice train and see the ruins of the famous Pompeii. Although, the train from Naples to Pompeii was not as nice and more "sketchy". When we got there, it looked just like what Ostia looked like when we got there. The ruins still intact, but unlike Ostia it was crowded in many spots. But it was not very popular in other spots as well. First we got there and saw the main street of the city. it was really cool and it still had all the big stones and everything. we had to climb a big hill, but it made us earn the right to get into the city. Then we walked into the main courtyard or it would have been known as the Forum of Pompeii. It was designed just like a Forum from Rome, it was interesting to see the influence that Rome had on this city. I believe that it originally was a Greek city, judging but some of the artifacts that were there on display and the way the buildings were built looked like it could have been one. Until Rome took it over and made it a part of their empire.

Pompeii on the outside.

Pompeii on the inside int he Forum.

One thing that really caught my eye, and I believe it caught everyone else's too was that there were big rocks that were rectangular in the streets that were lined in rows. One of the guys on our trip said that they were used like a crosswalk on a normal street today, and they were elevated so that people would not have to walk in the streets. It was really a cool invention and unique, not only does it help keep people from walking on the stones on the streets, but if it rained or it was raining the people of Pompeii would not have to walk in the streets.

The crosswalk's

Then we walked around and found some homes of some wealthy individuals from ancient times. There was on in particular that was really cool. He had a huge courtyard in the center and had a fountain in their and looked like they had a second level. After that we tried walking around the city for more homes, we did find some more, one did have a bunk system in it. other than that one, we did not find anymore that would be available for us to walk in to see.

The big house there

We then made our way to one side of the city where the was a villa called the "Villa of Mysteries" according to our professor. The reason why it was called that is because there was a mysterious painting in the villa and no one knew what it could mean. Our professor, Aaron, told us that there is one theory that the painting is of an initiation ceremony of some sort, for a bride maybe he said. Anyways it was very cool.

The Villa of Mysteries.

Then we all wanted to go and see an ancient brothel, it was not in use of course but we got to see what one would have looked like and see all the paintings that were inside of it. They were erotic I will say, but they were however faded so you could not see as well what they could have been. I can now say that I went to my first brothel, but it was closed and it was part of a museum.

The brothel paintings.

Moving on to the dead bodies we found. We first found some that were cast out from rocks with a plaster of some sort and they were in glass cages. Then we found another set them in the center of Pompeii's amphitheater, which was also cool. It was amazing too see what the bodies looked like from back then, due to the ash and part of the lava coming from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. There was one scene of a child standing on top of his mother and they both became froze when they volcanic ash cloud hit. It is kind of like seeing the actual body of the people. It was scary and a amazing to see them like that.

The cast's of the dead bodies.

Very cool statue.

Then we went to the museum in Naples, and that was a fun trip. I fell asleep on the train ride back from Pompeii, should not have done that but nothing got stolen from me there. The museum was interesting I will say, lots of statues, although there was one that was cool I will comment on. It was a bunch of statues in one and it was a very cool action shot. Also, there was another erotic scene part of the museum, that was a little weird, but I could say that I saw it. After that we went to a pizza place near the train station in Naples, ti took a while to get there, but we eventually got there and then we got back to the train station just in time to get on to the train to get back home. We were very worried that, but we made it just fine.

Mt. Vesuvius and me.

Mt. Vesuvius.

June 12,

Today we had the morning off, which went very nice with the day off that we had yesterday, which was an excellent day to get my page mostly done and get stuff caught up around the apartment. But on the 12, we went to Forum of Trajan, and we also herd a presentation about it from our friend Rachel. She did very well. According to her, that Trajan wanted to be like Augustus very much so and he copied almost everything that he did, he built a Forum just like what he did and had the same attitude towards everything like Augustus did. Trajan did a lot of good things for Rome, expanded the empire and also contributed to its architecture. We also got to see the column of Trajan too, which was cool as well. Then we walked around the museum and saw all the artifacts that have been dug up from the Forum and what was found on the ground around it that needed to be preserved. It was pretty interesting.

Trajan's Forum here.

Rachel at her presentation at the Forum of Trajan.

After all that, we went to have a discussion with Aaron about the museum. We talked about how most of the architecture from Trajan's Forum was a lot of cupid and Venus stuff. I think there was mentioning of Apollo too or Mars would be the Roman God. and that they symbolized love or something along those lines. Then we listened to Lisa lecture, and it was interesting to what she had to say about the pre-Christianity items and how making the new testament was happening here in Rome. I remember hearing that again from the book The DaVinci Code, but did not know if that was completely true. Then from there we ended our day.