Up Pompeii

When you’ve seen one ruin .... you’ve pretty much seen them all...

We woke this morning to another bright sunny day, ..... there is something wonderful about drawing the curtains and seeing blue skies every day...... trouble is, one very quickly begins to take it for granted...... the sight of clouds can lead to a very grumpy outlook if one is not very strict with oneself.....

And so to my suitcase..... the room was not very big which meant that the bags were on the floor.... first thing to piss me off, having to bend down in order to rummage for a pair of clean knickers!!! Please can someone tell

me how it is that no matter what you are looking for and where you thought you had put it, somehow during the journey from one place to another, said thing, be it knickers, bra or three piece suit , has managed to re-position itself right at the back of the case underneath everything else...... so as you can imagine there was a bit of swearing.... no not mild.... full on ....anyway, knickers located I cracked on with my makeup routine.....and then we went down to breakfast, rucksack in tow. Now.... as I have outlined before, we have taken to having breakfast whilst at the same time purloining a variety of easily portable comestibles.....mostly bread rolls, hard boiled eggs, tomatoes..... honestly I’ve eaten so many tomatoes since we’ve been here I’m starting to look like one!!! ......if we have remembered to bring a plastic bag some ham, that’s a treat.... cheese and possibly a little cake or two, all secreted in the rucksack.... what do you mean it looks a bit suss taking a big bag to breakfast.....don’t judge, as I said before we have a lot of trip left so a few pennies saved means more wine at dinner!!!!..... and that’s pretty much the breakfast menu.... at least in this hotel the scrambled eggs are hot and the coffee is fabulous, I have to be a bit careful though, more than one cup and I start to feel very spaced out!!!

So , feeling full..... and a little smug.... we set off to view yet more ruins. Now I’m sure I don’t need to bore any of you with the history of Pompeii, you will all be familiar with the catastrophic events of 24th August 79 AD....when Vesuvius exploded and sent molten lava, hot ash and rock fragments twenty miles into the air at a rate of 100,000 tons a second. Pompeii, being only about five miles away..... was right in the firing line and within two days it had been completely buried in ash, along with a great many, but not all of its inhabitants. Those who perished it seems were the ones who stopped to gather their possessions or take refuge in sealed rooms where they believed they would be protected. Anyway.... all that was a flipping long time ago, in fact no-one really started to dig Pompeii up until 1594 when some workmen digging a tunnel in order to divert a river discovered some Roman wall paintings, and so began a very gradual excavation of the ruins that we can see there now. So, I mention ruins, because that’s all that is left.... except that there are so many other day to day objects which remain, it is really possible to get a sense of how it must have looked here before Vesuvius unleashed holy hell and brought it all to an end. The roads are still intact , with the huge stones that chariots passed over, and seeing the ruts worn away in the cobbles by the vehicles passing over them is incredible. All that said.... it’s still ruins and it was a very, very hot day. The place was also absolutely rammed with people...... another thing which made it easy to imagine what life there must have been like.... everyone going about their business, laughter and chatter everywhere...... the heat and the crowds didn’t make for easy viewing but we spent several hours wandering along......we saw all the best bits.... the brothel.... goodness knows how those poor girls managed on the stone beds!!!!! Must have been most uncomfortable even with a few cushions. None of their customers can have been very tall either.... there wasn’t a lot of leg room if you know what I mean!!!

We tramped around for ages looking for the villa Vetti..... won’t go into detail as some of you might be of a sensitive disposition.... bit of a let down that one, but an eye into the Roman preoccupation with size!!!! We saw the amphitheatre, well there were two actually but the biggest one was the venue for a Pink Floyd concert in the 70’s, there was an exhibition of photos and music from the time.... amazing to think it was all those years ago and they managed to get permission to hold the event there. I downloaded the album which they played ..... Meddle... I had forgotten just how much I liked them back in the day. Dark side of the moon holds many memories of sitting in the 6th form common room playing cards....

Then of course there was the forum, it was huge, and once again so crowded.... might have been something to do with the fact that the only cafe was located here.... which was also heaving !!!!

As we made our way to the exit we both remembered the series Up Pompeii..... yes I did steal

my title from it!! ..... so later that evening , after dinner , we watched a couple of episodes, and it was still really funny.....Lurcio, the servant

( Frankie Howard) .... I realise that at this pint I have lost the attention of anyone under 55, ....His master Ludicrus Sextus, his master’s wife Ammmonia, their son Nausius and daughter Voluptua.Other characters included Billius, Scrubba and Erotica.

We ate in the hotel , tired out

after a day in the sun, delicious pasta under the lemon tees.... a bit of a gamble sitting there as if one of the giant lemons fell on you it could be

dodgy!!

Then, off to bed exhausted, I fell asleep and dreamt of Frankie Howard skipping through the ruins of Pompeii , once again hoping that Vesuvius would behave herself and not unleash the sequel to AD 79!!

PS, There were a good few of our friends from the East visiting Pompeii so a few weird hat opportunities..... I have included a few here..... is it just me that finds it humorous???