Pompeii

We visited Pompeii on our way off of the Amalfi Coast and north through Florence and into the Dolomiti Mountains.  The scale of the excavations and ruins at Pompeii is something that I wasn't prepared for.  The town had a population of around 11,000 people when it was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.  The town that I grew up in had a population of 2000, and the homes and businesses were spread over a comparable sized area to Pompeii. Archaeological excavations at Pompeii over the past 250 years have exposed most of the town.  Our visit lasted from mid-afternoon until sundown.  At night it was pitch black and without a GPS and our iPhone flashlights we might have still been stumbling around the streets when the packs of stray dogs inhabiting the town began to rouse and prowl the empty streets.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast