Here’s a potted history of Pompeii: The city was partly destroyed by an earthquake in 62 AD. Rebuilding started immediately. Seventeen years later, nearby Mount Vesuvius erupted and covered the city in really, really hot ash, taking its residents with it. The city remained buried until the 16th century, excavation began in the 19th and only two thirds of the sixty-odd hectare site have been dug-up to date.

Fascinating. Oh joy — Squiffy and I have at last discovered a historical site in which we didn’t have to feign interest!

The city has been just well-enough preserved to allow us to imagine how things might have been nearly two thousand years ago. Whilst initially loaded with fellow tourists, persist and one will soon leave the organised groups behind and discover quiet streets in which to allow the imagination to fill-in the blanks.

In many ways, life has changed massively since then. But in other ways, it really hasn’t changed that much at all: You think that take-away food outlets are a response to a modren, hectic lifestyle in which people don’t have the time or inclination to cater for themselves? Not so; Pompeii was served by over 89 take-away food outlets.

Plaster-casts were developed here: plaster was injected into the cavity left by the decaying humans to provide vivid record of the last few horrific moments of the average resident of the city. A most sobering sight indeed; to avoid a repeat performance, let’s try to cut down our carbon emissions, eh?

Oh and Squiffy and I visited another brothel. The ‘menu’ was painted on the walls. :-)