Nothing prepares you for Pompei. I don’t think I’m alone in having set off in almost a dutiful frame of mind. I mean, you’re here, it’s just up the road, realistically you may never get back this way…you kind of have to, right? Even though it’s quite expensive (‘for what it is’), and it’s sure to be swarming, and it’ll only confirm all those pictures you’ve seen on the telly. And then you get there, and pay up, and get funnelled into the whole ‘tourist experience’ and….find yourself absolutely blown away. It’s stunning.
First it’s the sheer scale of it. It goes on and on. And the preservation means you really do have the feel of walking through a town, along gnarled, flagstoned streets (complete with well-worn wheel tracks – boy, that must have been a teeth-jarring ride on a cartful of firewood), between proper walls, which just feel like buildings from which people might sell fruit & veg, or emerge to greet their neighbours – “Maximus, how’s things with you this fine morning?”
Above all though, it’s the paintings on the walls, all brightly coloured (and as Jens overheard a guide saying, if they’re like this now, imagine how vivid they were 2,000 years ago). Everything from fish to domestic snapshots (doubtless those three are the parents and child who lived here) to mythical creatures to hunting scenes. All of life, so alive, on wall after wall after wall.
What began as a bit of a box-ticking exercise turned into a couple of hours of dazed enchantment, before the rain really picked up and we decided to call it a day.
Back to our garret for a bit of chill time before heading out to the soggy streets for another episode of the ongoing extravaganza that is…Napoli!
