From the very moment that we started planning for this trip, it was known that we HAD to go to Pompeii. Around the middle of 2017 H had started learning about volcanoes and quickly heard about the ancient city. I had the wonderful chance to visit this city back in 2002 but even though Laura has been to Italy twice, she had never been.

Getting to Pompeii is pretty simple if not a little lengthy. You can easily grab a high-speed train from Rome's central train station (we hit a top speed of 180mph) to Naples which takes about an hour. After that, you pretty much need to follow the other tourists to the Circumvesuviana train. This is a pretty old train and will be extremely crowded. This portion almost takes as long as the Rome to Naples section. Once you are to the Pompeii Scavi station you just need to by-pass all of the fake ticket sellers and walk to the gates which are about 5 minutes away.

Pro Tip: If you want an easier time getting there you can purchase a bus tour from Rome. With that being said doing all of the transportation and no tour was about a third of the price.

Upon entry, you see exactly how massive this site is - which is about 2 miles in circumference. The overall layout is done respectfully and is free-flowing. This is great because you can wander around and happen upon things. It is also not great because you can wander around and miss things. Because of this, I would say a majority of people have either an audio guide or a tour group. We decided against both and to wing it. I'm still torn on if we made the right decision or not but I'm leaning towards feeling okay with it. Just remember though that there is little to no information on what you are seeing so I had to add information that was given to me by the tour my family took years ago.

At lunchtime, we visited the restaurant within the city and grabbed a few sandwiches. There is a fair amount of reasonably priced options but there isn't much seating so we had to eat outside but I'm glad we did because we got the chance to meet our new friend Caesar.

Speaking of places easily missed, after lunch, we started our wandering again and right next to the restaurant was one of my highlights of the trip: The very well preserved Forum Baths.

After I picked my jaw up from the ground I honestly didn't think it would get any better than that for the day. The whole day, in fact, I needed to remind myself that Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D. and here I was walking down a road within the wagon ruts checking out the old bakeries. Crazy.

One of the perks of not being on a tour IS the fact that you get to wander. Villa dei Mistiri was one of those moments that the wandering paid off. It might have been THE highlight of the day. The Villa dei Mistiri was covered until 1909 which is awesome considering they had been excavating the city since the late 1500s. Walking through the inside of the home was like walking through a time portal. Many of the walls, ceilings, and frescos are still intact due to only being covered in ash and not destroyed by rocks. In fact, it holds some of the best examples of Roman art.

There is so much to see in Pompeii in one day, let alone 5 hours. Building after building led to unique results to wander through.

Two locations that I had in my mind that I wanted to see before we arrived was the theater area and the amphitheater. The theater area was very close to the central forum area and was a delight to sit in. While these aren't quite as massive as the Colosseum of Rome you aren't able to sit in those seats which makes this site all the more special.

The amphitheater is a bit more of a walk from the central area. I can't stress it enough, it is hard to get to one location because you just keep stopping along the way. A 5-minute walk turns into a 45-minute journey because you just want to see EVERYTHING. I'm glad we made it to the amphitheater though because inside was a nice little exhibit about the live concert that Pink Floyd did in the 70's at the location. Alas the day was nearing an end and our 9 year old was hitting his end and reaching peak angst.

All in all, we walked around 10 miles that day but before we went back to Rome we made sure we stopped for some pizza in Naples and it made all of the exhaustion melt away.

Until next time Pompeii.

-Jonathan