Day 40

Day 40. Sun 9th May.

After our traumatic arrival yesterday we calmed ourselves with therapeutic housework, or wangwork in our case. We sluiced and scraped out the remaining mud, three loads of washing, filthy wet carpets draped over the Oleanders. Our space was bedecked with washing lines and all our worldly possessions piled up in the sunshine to dry. It looked like the Clampets from the Beverly Hillbillies had arrived.
What a blissful nights sleep in a fresh bed in preparation for a day in the excavations at Pompeii.
Though nothing can prepare you for the scale of Pompeii; the site has no less than three theatres!
Thousands of tourists swarm around but you can still find yourself alone. We followed our noses and wandered down an empty street with Vesuvius directly in front of us. You can imagine the scene of destruction 2000 years ago.
We continue towards the volcano and end up at the “villa of mysteries” one of the few house’s open to the public.

(Most houses are chained off and much of the frescos, sculpture and mosaic have been removed to museums.)
The villa is thought to be an out of town holiday home for an upper class Roman and is breathtakingly splendid, decoratively and architecturally with frescos mainly in red adorning many of the walls.
. Remains of a courtyard garden.

Leaving the villa we walk outside the city walls and enter the town via the Roman arena where many gladiatorial battles were fought, unfortunately we had run out of Christians so had to miss the lion feeding at lunchtime.The roads now feel hard underfoot, the sun beats down and we sit under an avenue of trees and eat pears, a few stray dogs wander over to see what’s on the menu but drift off when nothing is forthcoming. We cross the city and see more Doric columns, houses, villas, market squares, bath houses, whore houses, civic buildings, palaces and temples and leave via the city gates.

Scoot past the hawkers who seem to haunt every tourist attraction and 20 meters later are sitting in the cool comfort of our sparkling caravan, hoping the volcano sleeps tonight. What an amazing day!