Pompeii

We had a relaxing morning then caught the train at noon to get down to Pompeii.

We had the whole carriage to ourselves – best train ride ever!

This train was clipping along at 140kmh. I started tracking our speed and it kept climbing and climbing.

It got up to 299kmh (186mph). I kept taking screen shots of the speed app on my phone and was excited to see how fast we were moving. That was cool!

We got to our hotel in one piece which was amazing considering how crazy the traffic is around here.

The view out our window.

We ate dinner at the hotel's restaurant. This was the best burrata we've ever had. So rich and creamy and delicious. The pizza was also one of the best.

This meal was in the top 3 we've had in Italy.

We visited the Pompeii ruins today.

I found the "Go, Dog. Go!" tree! P.D. Eastman wrote this children's book I enjoyed as a child, and enjoyed reading to my children when they were young.

At one point the dogs are high up in trees playing tennis and other various activities. The illustrated trees were interesting to me because they were mostly limbs, but at the top was a fairly narrow layer of foliage. I've never seen trees like that. Until today :) And here is this tree standing out alone, perfectly framed, over the ruins of the old Pompeii.

The orange poppies were all over and we enjoyed them.

The door below was on one of the bigger houses. Those doors are huge, and we wondered what those knobby things are.

Our understanding is that there was so much muck and sewage in the streets from waste that they build these cross walks so people could cross the streets without stepping in the mess. The chariots or carriages could go between them and the axels were high enough to clear them.

We saw a lot of beautiful mosaics in the floors of the houses.

This one below is inspiring Mitzi to build a quilt with this pattern.

I particularly enjoyed this room that had dark walls, except for these windows that were painted in bright. Really impressed with their interior design and decor!

The people carved and painted these phallus' all over the place. Nobody seems to know why.

Someone had a double oven – Mitzi was feeling a bit of envy :)

We decided to have lunch at our hotel restaurant and got the 4 pizza sampling and some of the amazing burrata.

The food was delicious, and we enjoyed a deep conversation. Brandon and Mindy are very fun to explore and share ideas with. We've enjoyed our many conversations over the last few days.

I saw how happy Mindy was seeing this amazing pizza, had to capture the joy of the moment.

After lunch we went to a very small exhibit of ruins from the Pompeii countryside. They had a nice inside areas displaying a lot of artifacts.

And outside they have restored a barn and farm buildings.

As our time winded down we went to an ice cream shop. Mitzi got some cheesecake and the rest of us enjoyed a gelato.

Brandon and Mindy caught a train back to Rome this evening. Tomorrow Mitzi and I catch the train back to Rome. We'll be there for a few more days and then embark on a two week cruise from Rome and back to Rome. All roads lead to Rome I guess, we keep popping back :)