Did you know: the Italian word for crossword is cruciverba, literally cross-word? I saw this on the back of the magazine of a guy in the same train compartment as us.

Right now, I’m on a train from Naples to Rome. Lacking a laptop to keep me entertained, I’m writing (as in with pencil and paper) a blog entry, which I’m hoping to actually type in the next 24 hours. But enough about the present.

We spent last night in a smaller town outside Naples called Sorrento, because it was supposed to be a little nicer. Didn’t do much—a quick walk around the piazza and some gelato before going to bed.

This morning, we woke up and had breakfast at a small pastry shop, and I got to see Dad murder the Italian language (”due cappuccino, por favor”). Then we took the Circumvesuviana, a regional commuter train, to Pompeii.

We left our suitcases at the train station, then decided we didn’t want to carry our backpacks, so we left those at the excavation site. If you ever go, the latter is free. Then we picked up one of the electronic guides. If you ever go, try to get in on a guided tour—we had trouble sometimes telling what the recording was talking about.

Here is a very brief description of what we saw, to be highlighted by photos when I get home.

After going through the grand entrance, we checked out the basilica, a courthouse and business area. I also got a nice shot of the top of a Corinthian column. They liked taking those and putting them on the ground.

Next was the forum. Apparently large white columns once ran around the whole thing. This isn’t too surprising, because there were columns around just about everything. At the end of the forum was a temple to Jupiter.

Next we wandered until we came to a row of houses. You could see the atrium and the remains of an impluvium (life people, correct me if that’s not the hole in the ground), and there were also lots of mosaics in the floor.

As we walked along the road, we caught a glimpse through the ruins of a large mural, remarkable well preserved. The camera didn’t cut through the protective plastic very well, unfortunately.

Next was a small town square and, more importantly, two amphitheaters. In the first photo that will eventually show up here, there is a large athletic field on the right and the larger amphitheater on the left. The entrance was grandiose, but blocked off—you had to take some stairs on the side and enter from the ground level. The photo from the stage is actually the smaller of the two amphitheaters.

There were several tunnels going down below ground, which we assumed were cellars. This, however, just looked like a Roman hobbit hole.

A random mural from a random shop goes here—I picked out Hermes on the left, but I didn’t really try to interpret any of the others. Also, some machine that looked like a waterwheel, which was sitting on another field near…

..the really big amphitheater. Bigger than the others, it had large arches around it.

One of the few places where we were able to pick out the individual areas described by the audio guide was the baths. This is a photo of the changing room, whose exact Latin name I can’t quite remember. You could see the frigidarium (cold room) and tempidarium (warm room) from in here.

Dad was artistically inspired to take a photo of one of the roads. I will have to take the time to edit it, so you better take the time to enjoy it.

I got a photo of a random column, because you just can’t go see ancient Roman ruins without taking photos of columns.

Next, my personal favorite, the Casa del Poeta Tragico, so named for a painting now on display in Naples. It is famous, however, for a very well known mosaic at the entrance. This mosaic has a picture of a chained up dog and reads “Cave canem,” or “Beware of the dog.” This house was also interesting because you could walk through a lot of it. There was a small temple like structure which I believe would have been for the penates, and two large murals in the living room. The first was of Ariadne after Theseus forgot her on Naxos. The second, according to the audio guide, was of a bunch of Cupids, whatever that was supposed to mean.

On the west side of the forum was a large collection of archeological artifacts. About a fourth of them are in this photo.

Next, I took a photo from the office of weights and measures. I took it purely for the Latin, because I wanted to have a sample to look at later, as I couldn’t make any sense of it while I was there.

Almost done, I promise. In the temple of Apollo, there was a nifty looking sundial. This temple was the oldest place of worship in Pompeii. It is also near the tourist entrance, but we missed it on the way in.

Finally, I snapped a panorama type shot on the way out.

Ooh! One more thing. Just now we passed the ruins of an aqueduct on the train. Its photo will eventually go here. Do any of my Roman geography buffs know of an aqueduct that would be running north into Rome? In any case, this means that we’re almost in Rome, so I better wrap things up. Until next time…

Editor’s note: This was typed on an Italian keyboard, which has a really, really screwy layout. Typos are the fault of the keyboard, not of me.

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