Italia Mercoledi 26/3/25 (Pictures)

Today was the first of two day trips. I went to a site that had intrigued me for a long time. Pompeii! Yep, I took a trip just to see a city that was destroyed by a volcano nearly 2000 years ago.

Well… Another day begins. And again I’ve walked through those gardens from the other day. These mark the end. After this, I’ll be heading to Pompeii, I swear. Here, let GPT give you a caption for these:

🌿Gates of Time: The Propylaea of Villa Borghese

From one side, a neoclassical welcome into the calm of the Borghese Gardens. From the other, a farewell to the modern chaos of Roman streets. Built in 1830 and crowned with Roman eagles, the Propylaea stands as a threshold between past and present, nature and noise, reflection and rush.

This was a gate I spent a lot of time staring at, because I am neurotic, and have to be early to things. So I stared at this as I waited for the tour guide to show. GPT says this is the Porta del Popolo. I will actually see the other side on the day of my final day trip. For now though, some GPT info:

This was originally called the Porta Flaminia and was part of the Aurelian wall that was built by emperor Aurelian between 271 and 275 CE. It marked the beginning of Via Flaminia which connected Rome to the Adriatic Sea. Much like everything in Rome, the facade was commissioned by… you guessed it, one of the Pope Piuses, in this case Pius IV.

I know exactly why I took these pictures. Off in the distance there is a mountain. A mountain that goes by the name Vesuvias. Yep, that is the famous volcano that destroyed Pompeii back in…79 CE, I believe. Prepare for Pompeii pics!

This is the pretty much the first real view of Pompeii. The outer city walls, to be exact. You can see the scaffolding that they are using in their restoration/excavation. GPT says that arches and windows were the homes of the upper class and overlooked the sea. The shoreline managed to move over the last 2000 years.

I dunno how much I can really say about the pictures here in Pompeii… I generally just took a bunch of pictures of random things that I thought looked interesting. I do believe that these columns aren’t 100% original, and were partially reconstructed, look at the two different materials making up the columns.

GPT says this was a gymnasium. The columns were part of a covered walkway surrounding the central gymnasium.

This is just another view of the same area. GPT did remind me however, that those square holes on the building on the left, may very well have held wooden beams to support a second level, but we all know how wood fares against time and burning ash.

This was the theatre of Pompeii. GPT says this was built in the second century BCE, and would hold 5000 people. Obviously the wooden stage is rebuilt. The lower sections of the seating were for nobles and upper class. The upper levels were reserved for commoners.

This one was always going to be an iffy picture. I was trying to capture some of the graffiti carved into the wall. The guide said that the graffiti was original Pompeii stuff and not the work of modern day vandals. He did note that the color is original, too.

This was one of the longest roads in Pompeii. Look how far it stretches. I can’t remember if this is the north-south road or the east-west road. Looking at the shadows, I think this was east-west. The stones lthat make up the street are original Pompeii road. You also might be able to make out faint depressions in the stone that were made either by or for chariots and carriages. On the side they had sidewalks. Just imagine, these streets were once alive and bustling with daily life, and not thousands of tourists. Business and homes lined this street.

Looking down an alley. And GPT has nothing really to add to this. It does do a nice job of showcasing the way the walls of Pompeii were built.

Another road. Notice that this one is narrower than the big street from earlier, this was not a main road.

This one I remember! Although much like the graffiti earlier, this may be hard to see. I was told that much like today’s yard signs, politicians of the day would paint their ads on the buildings. To the right of the door, you may notice a vague red scribble on the section right above the ruined section. It says “Cornelium”. I was told this was an original feature from Pompeii.

It might be a little easier in this one. Just below what I assume was my finger, you should be able to see the “Cornelium” I just scrolled through some of the other pictures, and if you can’t see Cornelium here, you will see it soon. The second picture was because I noticed my finger in the previous picture, and wanted to reframe it… sadly, I also lost the Cornelium.

GPT was straight up wrong about this image.

I promised Cornelium, and I delivered!

These are all part of the same room/area. I believe that the second picture was a side room. The third picture is just an expansion of the basin down at the bottom of the first picture. What was being pointed out to us at this point was just the sheer size of this room. This was very clearly a noble’s house. Look at the still intact pieces of frescoes. In the basin in the third picture, not pictured is the hole in the ceiling right above this. This was literally made to catch rainwater and drain it elsewhere. Notice the holes in the sides of the basin.

Same house. This is where the gardens would have been. Obviously the plants aren’t original, although the guide said that it was likely that the plants in the garden were very similar. And you can see the guide, who looks like he is dancing to Thriller at this point.

Same home, another room.

Okay, I’m going back to GPT on this one. This is another area focused around a central basin which was called a impluvium. The brick columns are a reconstruction. They were likely built using archeological evidence and were built to support other parts of the building.

I have no idea if this is still the same house.

I was taking a picture of the frescoes.

House gods! This is another view of the room from before (you should recognize the raised bit. This was likely an altar to the ancestors of this particular house. GPT wants to tell me that these house gods were called Lares.

Obviously this was taken of the fresco. There was something special about this one. I think it was supposed to be a famous poet or something, and this was likely near a place where one would go to read such works.

Three shots at differing angles of the same wall. This fresco is depicting a mythological scene. After I recounted what I thought, GPT says I am likely thinking of the myth of Acteon. One day while hunting Acteon stumbled upon Artemis (Diana) bathing. Artemis/Diana was mildly irate, and turned Acteon into a stag. His dogs no longer recognized him, and proceeded to tear him apart.

A floor. Look at the tile work. Someone did that like 2000 years ago! Crazy, right?

So, not all bodies found in Pompeii were those famous molds that were made of the bodies. There were actual bones found, too. This is not the last time I will be posting bones.

This was a picture taken to show some of what the excavators are dealing with. Volcanic ash and such apparently makes a great fertilizer and trees and other plants have taken over.

This was one of the many fountains in the city. If I remember correctly, this was fresh water, and was a primary source of drinking water for the families of Pompeii.

Another street. The numbers by the doors are not addresses, but rather markers for the excavation.

I… I’ve got nothing for these I’m sure I had a reason…

This was likely somewhere that people went to get a quick lunch. So effectively a restaurant. The various holes would house vases or bowls filled with food to be sold to the populace.

I had mentioned the carriage/chariot grooves before right? They are easier to see here on the right hand side. Also notable are the 3 large raised blocks in the street. These were effectively an ancient crosswalk. See, Pompeii back in the day was a coastal city. It was prone to flooding. When the streets overflowed, people could use the stones to cross safely. It is worth mentioning regular flooding wasn’t the only type of flooding… sometimes it was essentially sewage.

This was possibly a bakery? You can see a central well-like structure. This was likely a mill to grind up the grain into flour. The structure right above it is likely an oven.

More possible bakeries. You can see the oven-like structure.

Another long street.

It is hard getting into the brain of the me that was taking these pictures. I’m thinking that because of the large open space, this might have been a square of some sort?

I liked the design… that is all.

I’m in a bathhouse at this point. The stone tiles allowed water to flow beneath a floor, that doesn’t exist.

Still in Pompeii. Pictured is one of the cats we ran into.

I’m in a brothel y’all! Notice the frescoes above the door. These are paintings of various sexual positions. The guide said that it was possible that the images were there so that patrons could ask foreign slaves to perform specific acts.

This is just more detail to those sexual frescoes.

Every good brothel needs somewhere to lay down… This was presented to me as a bed for patrons could get their freak on.

These were at the end of the hall of the brothel. You can see close ups of frescoes that you could barely make out in the image two pictures ago. Ya know what? I’m gonna see what GPT has to say. The only thing GPT has to add is that the brothel was called Lupanar. Derived from Lupa, which was a she wolf, and also a slang term for prostitutes.

No more naughty frescoes. We’re back to one of the fountains. It is worth noting that the fountains all had different images that the water came out of.

I like the long shots down a side street. Tried for a fun perspective on this one.

Getting close-ish to the end of Pompeii. I’m pretty sure this is the main forum.

So, when the bodies of the citizens got covered in ash and debris, they were basically frozen in space. However, the method of death, as well as the fragility of humans kinda left large empty spaces in the debris. Someone had the bright idea of pumping plaster into those voids, and this is what the result was.

Frescoes around the body casts seen above.

This was definitely the forum. Lets put up GPT’s blurb.

“This grand open-air plaza was the beating heart of Pompeii. Temples, government buildings, markets, and statues once surrounded this space, echoing the city's wealth and importance. With Mount Vesuvius looming ominously in the background, it’s easy to imagine the moment when daily life was halted in an instant in 79 CE.”

A tunnel of some variety? GPT didn’t know either.

One last shot of the stonework.

I hate taking pictures in a moving vehicle… too much blur. But on the right center, you can see a coastal town, and I believe that is Mt. Vesuvius again.

The bus stopped here, most people got off the bus, I stayed on the bus. The girl in the third picture is doing something that terrifies me, and I wanted to be nowhere nearby when she fell.

This is another statue. This time of Saint Antonio Abate. GPT translates the message on the pedestal as

“To Saint Antonino Abate
By decree of the vows of the Municipality of Pompei,
of the fellow municipalities,
of the devoted people,
of the millions of pilgrims who invoke him
as protector and confidant—
In remembrance of such veneration and the owed
gratitude,
this monument was erected
P.P.P.
Year 1889”