Europe Travel Guide | Comprehensive Information Blog

The Roman Empire was born in the mist of legend and myth almost three thousand years ago. From a small village on the banks of the Tiber River, Rome grew to control one of the greatest and longest lasting empires in the history of the World. Roman law, art, language, and engineering became the standard for much of the culture of the Western World.
Although the Roman Empire has long been gone, it has left behind a fascinating legacy for the traveler to Italy. No site quite measures up to the ruins of the city of Pompeii. Here an entire city lies much as it did on a fateful day in 79 AD when a violent eruption of Mt. Vesuvious sent a large cloud of volcanic ash raining down on the city. The ash buried the town, killing over twenty thousand people instantly, and freezing a moment of time. As the years went by, the town as well as a nearby town called Herculaneum, were forgotten. Not only their names but even their locations disappeared from the memory of man.
Finally, in the year 1738, Herculaneum was rediscovered, and ten years later Pompeii was found. It was many years after that, however, that extensive excavations began, and the extent of the archeological treasure was realized. One of the first men placed in charge of the excavation project, Giuseppe Fiorelli, noticed a large number of voids in the ash as it was being cleared away from the ruins of the city. He developed a theory that the voids represented people trapped in the ash whose bodies had long since disappeared. He devised a method of pouring plaster into the voids, and the result was almost perfect plaster casts of the former inhabitants caught in the agony of their last moments.





Today the two towns can be visited by the traveler, and most that have visited have reported that a few hours is never enough to set aside for such a visit. They suggest that at least a full day, if not more, should be reserved. The sites lay on the other side of the bay from Naples. Naples, one of the ports of entry for the country, and one of the larger Italian cities makes the ideal headquarters for a visit to Pompeii.
Although the summer is the time when most visit, Naples swelters under a hot and humid sun during the summer months, and just about any other time of the year, including the mild winter months might be make for a more enjoyable visit. The popularity of the summer months for travel also means a lot of tourists crowding into the ruins to enjoy them with you, but a winter visit might allow you to walk almost alone into another era.
Italy has many sites related to Roman History, but the strange lost cities that died suddenly and were buried in ash, surely rank among the very best. When one visits sites like the Forum in Rome, they are viewing the glory of Rome. They visit places that speak of Emperors, men and events that are larger than life, but when they walk the streets of Pompeii, they get a glimpse of the life of the common person. They can hear the sound of children playing in the streets, and see how, perhaps, they themselves might have lived if they had been born two thousand years earlier. It is an experience they will never forget, and worth a trip to Naples.