PompeiiLetterP2

Pompeii letter continued: Almost everything that was found in the houses had been removed. It was really hard to tell which of the existing walls belonged to any one house. Our favorite building was the bakery. The authorities had left the stone grinding "machines" which were fascinating. They consist of two parts, the top one with a waist sitting on the base stone, with both parts perched on a round table. You insert poles in holes in the top stone and use them as levers to turn it. Grain is placed in the hollow top of the upper stone and that slowly feeds down as the grinding proceeds. The flour falls out on the table. (Picture 1 shows the flour grinders found in the ruins of Pompeii.) We did see hundreds of buildings, but never were able to view the water system. We had entered at the main entrance, and discovered too late that if we had gone in a different entrance, we would have been able to see more of the famous houses!

Even so, it was an amazing experience. An entire city two thousand years old is spread out before you. The book did give us a lot of information but Pompeii requires a modern person to understand a highly organized, beautifully engineered city that had different sensibilities. It was difficult. There was nothing in most houses, except for an occasional copy of a statue, a fresco or a mosaic. Despite the bareness, it was overwhelming. We did know from our book that most of the things they found at the site are now at the National Archeological Museum in Naples. That would be on our agenda on Day Three.

We had already decided on Day Two. We would take the train to Sorrento, and then a bus that takes you to Positano and Amalfi on the Amalfi Coast. We know that the roads are narrow, clinging to the edge of hills and very convoluted—lots of hairpin turns, so tight that a car and a bus cannot negotiate them at the same time. That would not be a fun day in an RV! Were we glad that we opted for the bus! That road was as bad as the Connecticut couple we met at the Pompeii Ruins said it was. (They had noticed Ron’s UCONN hat and asked where we live!)