Contemporary Pompeii

Currently inhabited part of Pompei does not differ much from other villages in the area which encircle Mount Vesuvius. There are normal restaurants, a train station, churches and other necessary buildings. However just a few minutes from the centre there lies an entrance, to what was a great Roman city in the past.

The Ancient City

Classifying all the places I’ve personally decided to visit, Roman Pompeii would definitely land in the strange category. It is not the nature, nor the architecture I was there for. I would not even consider the visit a part of my vacations, even though it was far from home.

It felt like visiting a traumatic place.

Plants are growing as we presume they used to in the past. Scattered around the city were countless vine stems, with wooden supports.

Alleyways

Long empty alleyways with partially destroyed houses, which stood untouched for nearly two thousand years. There are many tourists, each of them slowly striding on the sidewalks. It is April and the weather can be described as warm, with the lack of trees in the vicinity a bit too warm.

House of an Aristocrat

Out of many places with only a few bricks left, there’s a notable and extraordinary structure. Inside, there is an untouched atrium and then a plot of land, which used to be a wonderful garden, or even an orchard.

Second Floor

Pompeii had about 40,000 inhabitants at the time of the catastrophe. The photo below shows a two story building, which must have housed a great number of folk. This is the only one I’ve found to have had its roof part restored. However the entrance was guarded by steel bars, as was the case with many other buildings off the main alley.

Grand Theater

At last one can immerse themselves on a proscenium of an amphitheatre hidden at the verge of the town. There were a lot of tours which stopped by, presumably because of the great space around and the amplified sound distribution. At the top of the theatron Mount Vesuvius emerges.