Day 15

There are extra pictures for this post, to make up for the previous day's woeful lack of pictorial representation. Don't worry. (there would have been extra pictures regardless)

Friday we went to a ruin site and a museum as is our rote extended-excursion. But the ruins happened to be POMPEII and the museum happened to be the NATIONAL ARCHEOLOGICAL MUSEUM. It was a day worthy of italic caps indeed.

We had to wake up freakishly early to jump on the bus to arrive at Pompeii at an hour not totally swarming with tourists. This hour is approximately 9:30 am. We were to meet back at the bus at 11:30 am, a paltry two hours later when confronted with the entirety of Pompeii. So confront Pompeii we did, though hardly the entire thing and with probably much more confrontation than the excavation security intended, considering that the tours only stop in front of the houses and never go through them. Such a waste. I, for one, made it my goal to climb every set of accessible Ancient Roman stairs in my accessible vicinity. (this dream was first realized at Paestum, actually, where there was a rather magnificent staircase just waiting for me to clamber up it) Said Pompeian stairs were frequently only plural by a margin, but still. We (myself and two friends) meandered through villas and gaped at wall paintings (wall paintings!! extant ancient roman frescoes!!) and generally had a blast.

Unfortunately, we did eventually find ourselves on the main thoroughfares and dodging tour groups, but by then we were running out of time and had a more direct path in mind. (a path they were all milling around in) We ended up running through the forum, pretty much, making a detour to visit the house of ill repute that was so packed with tours the first time we had to swing by again in hopes of a lull (there wasn't one, but we pushed our way in anyway) and then dashing down the streets in hope of catching the last theatre before we had to leave. I would not, mind you, recommend any kind of dashing on any roman road, ancient or not, as they tend to be cobblestones of the most ankle-breaking kind. Me and mine are fine, much to my honest but greatful surprise.

En route to the theatre we ran into the professor and those who toured around with him, and a few other tagalongs joined us (there's no fear of being late when you are accompanied by the professor) After a cursory entrance and viewing of the amphitheater we decided to forge our own path, by which I mean push through brush, jump down a ledge, and hop a fence, in order to return by some modicum of the correct time. Once ensconced in our transportation, complete with warm sandwiches provided by the Villa and then left carelessly in a hot bus, we were shuttled to the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli.

The museum, though vast, was mostly under construction, it seemed. Regardless, it held not only more ancient roman wall paintings, but famous ancient roman wall paintings! Like Sappho's! There were also, you know, the Farnese Sculptures and hallways and hallways of imperial busts and cult statues and the ilk. It was truly impressive, despite the renovation distractions. The gift shop was disappointingly lacking, though, as they had neither postcards of Sappho's portrait nor the Farnese Sculptures, undoubtedly some of their most well-known acquisitions.

That night at the Villa was preposterously hilarious, in part because one should never be able to play one's professor in wine-pong, nor have one's TA/Italian instructor mediate a game of flip-cup. And yet...