Given not only the importance of the site but also its scale, we have embarked on our discovery of the city of Pompei in the morning, just after having visited the archaeological museum in Napoli, in which many sculptures and artifacts from the region but surprisingly even from Rome are housed, shedding light on some subjects through the help of prof. Jan Gadeyne, especially the baths of Caracalla. Certain things such as the mosaic of Alexander was also on display, allowing us to see the original before departing for Pompeii, where only a copy is preserved and present at the original site.
Pompeii itself was a completely different world. The domus is a major typology of the houses in Pompei, which is played with, added onto, enlarged, down scaled and so on, creating diversities in some cases striking, in others intriguing and in a few absolutely astonishing spaces. Having had the expertise of prof. Jan guide us, we discovered the water system, the daily life of the Pompeii citizens and some special additional sites such as for instance the Villa of Mysteries. Having sped through in order to see the main sites, we stopped briefly for lunch and continued on to things such as the breath taking local public baths and casts of the corpses from the era of the eruption that preserved this city so well. An amazing trip that was indeed very exhausting but gave to some the urge to maybe come back and see more, as it truly is a special site.
(all photos credit to Ihwa Choi)