CAPUA and POMPEII

We got on the road to go see the Capua arena ruins. 

Traffic in Capua. There are no trafic lights here. People use common sense, courtesy, the horn and  balls to drive here. I didn't see ONE person on a phone or texting. Pretty smart. The horn is not an "angry" honking like we would use in America, it is more of a "I'm here, don't hit me" beep.

Driving in Capua, in the rain.

Capua arena ruins.

This is not a very well known place so it was REALLY cheap to go in, there was LITERALLY NOONE else there and nothing was roped off.  Just a little old lady at the ticket counter and a few stray dogs here and there. 

The arena where the used to hold the Gladiator Games

Since nothing was roped off, we pretty much helped ourselves to looking at and climbing whatevver we felt like.

Kym striking a gladiator pose

Underneath the Arena

Once apon a time, there were statues on these pedastals

We are now UNDERNEATH the arena, where they kept the gladiators and wild animals

It was an absolute labyrinth underneath the arena

This was huge but the second story is now gone, so imagine this arean twice as high as what you can see here.

This was a burial tomb. They laid their dead (probably had to be well off to be buried this way) down inside surrounding them with all the things the deceased loved in life and sealed the door shut.

This is what Tim would look like if I sealed the door and left his ass there. Good thing i wasn't mad at him. LOL

A replica of the arena

Inside the museum they had replicas of the gladiators

This was one of the most amazing places we have ever been to. To be able to go in and walk the grounds, go UNDERNEATH where they kept wild animals and the gladiators was nothing short of amazing. And to be able to do it with literally NO ONE else ther was so dang cool!

When we were done with CAPUA, we headed out and in the direction of Pompeii.  Pompeii is the ancient civilization that was completely wiped out when Vesuvius erupted in the first century. Look it up, it’s pretty amazing.

It was about noon when we left Capua. Pompeii is supposedly about ½ and hour away. Well, we took a wrong turn somewhere and got lost. No big surprise really when you stop and remember that we have no map or navigation system. I honestly don’t mind being lost.  In fact, when I have no place to be and I am just exploring, I think it is fun. I know me and I know that as long as maps exits and people exist, I will eventually find my way. Tim on the other hand does NOT like to be lost. He hates it. It totally and completely stresses him out, makes him ornery and discombobulates him.  So the more stressed he gets, the calmer I got. It’s a weird phenomenon.

The first place we got lost was Napoli or Naples, as we would call it.  This city has the reputation of being one of the worst places to drive a car.  It is extremely busy, extremely dirty, with piles of garbage along side the roads AND it was pouring rain.  All conditions for a stressful situation, when you add in how much Tim hates to be lost, you can sort of understand his frustration.  He feels “out of control” of his world when he is lost. Tim had me pull over at a little bar for directions.  He was extremely cautious of making sure anywhere we stopped had people milling about outside.

Tim drinking the two sips of "coffee" the store owner gave us. I am sorry but that stuff was not coffee. Whatever it was, we both choked it down so we didn't offend the store owner.

At this bar, he motioned for me to come in as well.  Napoli may be reputed to be dangerous, but everyone we talked to was extremely friendly and helpful. When the store-owner found out we are Americana, his eyes lit up and he whipped out a couple of American coins that were really old.  

There was another Italian guy in there as well that we talked to. Well, Tim talked to him. I just stared in fascination. As ugly as the British were, these Italians are something else to look at. Holy Moly he was a hottie…in the face. He was only about 5’2 and maybe 80 pounds dripping wet but his face was beautiful. 

They gave us fairly easy directions and off we went, taking  a wrong turn immediately. LMAO. The roads are very confusing and once you go the wrong way, it is impossible to just turn around and go back.

We were literally driving thru all these little tiny towns with tiny little streets in the pouring rain. All afternoon. LOL For FOUR hours we drove around, stopping to ask people. I was actually REALLY enjoying the experience. Tim was getting madder and madder by the minute.  It wasn’t that we got incorrect instructions. We were even told that we were really close but that it was kind of hard to explain the roads. They are so small and winding and confusing, that it is easy to get lost even with directions.   Even the Italians told us that.  At one of the places we stopped, literally everyone in the place giving us directions, asking each other what the best way to go was and one lady even scampered off to Google it for us and printed a map.  SUCH a contrast to England!

By 4:30pm (4 hours after we left Capua), we were getting weird looks and were told that we might not be able to get in since it was getting late.  I really thought Tim was going to have a melt down. At one point he said, “If we get there and it is closed, I am going to go Wally World on them.” This had me cracking up laughing.

We finally arrived around 5pm. LOL Yes it took us 4 ½ hours to find Pompeii and the Scavi (digs).

An entire civilization

One of the Temples where the worshipped.

This area was a type of market but now it is used to house all of the relics that have been uncovered.

This is a dog that was found. If you look closely, you can see his head on the bottom with his mouth open. He is lying on his side with his legs curled up and in the air.

See the PERSON in the middle?

A man crouched in his final position as the volcano erupted.

They preserved these bodies so well, you can see their teeth and the actual expressions caught ontheir faces in their final moments of life.

Everyone thinks that ancient people lived in rocks, but they actually plastered their walls and painted very elaborate scenes on them in vibrant colors.

My final moments.

The road of Pompeii

Lots of good idea for our house.

The floors of many of the homes have elaborate mosaics on them. We are getting some killer ideas for our house.

You can still the track from their wangons and carts grooved into the streets.

.

This was a brothel. One of 25, but apparently this one was the nicest. There were 5 rooms.

 I am laying on one of the beds, which they would put a straw mattress over.

Pictures on the walls of the brothel depicting lewd sex scenes, just in case the patrons needed ideas on what to do. LOL The audio device actaully said that.

There was one picture that showed the man pointing to one of the pictures. The tour guide we overheard said that this was so that the prostitues knew EXACTLY what was expected of them.

Graffitti on the walls from customers leaving complaints such as, "I received a VD from this one."

The prostitutes were all slaves and received no compensation for their work.

One of the community water spickets

 I don’t even know how to describe what it was like.  I was expecting a few ruins and a few dead bodies.

That is NOT what it was. It was LITERALLY a whole city that has been excavated! I will let the pics show for themselves. We were told that it would take 13 hours to see the entire city. They have bodies they have excavated that are still in the same position they were when the Volcano erupted. You can even see the expressions on their faces. It was incredible.  This is a place we will come back to. It needs more time. We were only able to spend about 2 ½ hours there. They were closing, it was raining nonstop and we were literally soaked to the skin and freezing. I guess that is actually a good thing since my feet were so cold, that my toes on my feet were actually completely numb.

After we were finished with the Pompeii ruins, we decided to keep driving towards Florence.  That is was our next destination. We knew we probably wouldn’t make it all the way to Florence but we could get pretty close to Rome before we pulled into a hotel. Hopefully. LOL


We did find a hotel somewhere between Rome and Florence and pulled in for the night sometime around 11pm on Saturday night. They were supposed to have Internet, but I couldn’t make it work and rather than throw the computer across the room, I opted to continue doing the blog in Word and wait until Sunday in Florence where we should have Internet. Tim got his work done and we fell asleep around 3am.

The bathroom of our hotel, a slight upgrade from our digs in Capua.

Next leg, Florence.