Today I hope to finish my story about one of the longest and most memorable days of the last holiday in Italy. My husband and I went there in January 2018. And even now it seems to me that not less than a year has passed, but in any case this day was not so long ago as the one when Pompeii fell asleep with the ashes of an angry volcano.

By the way about time and concepts "for a long time" and "recently". Walking along the streets of this amazingly preserved city, I realized that people living in different periods of development of society and civilization do not differ so much in their daily feelings and aspirations. The majority then, as now, sought beauty and luxury, power and influence. Someone more respected authority, and someone their freedom. According to the hypotheses of scientists, about half the population of Pompeii were slaves.

The history that was taught to us at school was always boring and uninteresting. Quite different is the history when you seem to overcome time and get inside ... It was impossible to take your eyes off from the beauty and grace of the frescoes. Bright colors, many tones and halftones, it was impossible to believe in the age of this beauty...

One more surprise - a bas-relief. All that we saw by now was frescoes and mosaic. This hall looks very exquisite

The sun slowly fell to the horizon. Here and there we met more and more people who sat on the stones to rest and have a bite. We also were quite tired, since on the morning of the same day we were still climbing Vesuvius. In addition, I was dressed too warmly and forgot to take a change of clothes. Therefore, I was hot and uncomfortable. But there was not much time, it was necessary to have time to give the rental car before the appointed time. We did not expect that we would like Pompeii so much :)

We decided that Pompeii's main attraction - Forum - will be our last scene. It looked huge - 157 by 38 meters. Another noteworthy fact - at one of the entrances to the Forum were built public toilets! And this is in times of slavery!

In the far corner of the Forum you can see the collected and sorted finds of scientists, including the famous plaster statues. What are they famous for? During the eruption, Vesuvius erupted into the surrounding cities not lava, but volcanic ash, burning (up to 700 degrees Celsius) water and stones. This mixture stuck to everything around, including the bodies of people who could not escape. For 2,000 years the bodies turned to emptiness, but scientists thought of pouring voids with gypsum.

Some figures of people was so accurate that you can see the grimaces of horror on the face

With great regret we went to the exit. At the last moment, my eye stopped at a sign that promised around the corner a block with rare geometric mosaics. At that moment a mathematician apparently woke up in me, and I persuaded my husband to turn in there. Oh, we should not have done this.

The sidewalks of Pompeii are very high, sometimes to the knee. Walking here and there, all the time you had to go up and down these stones. And since I was very tired, then rising to the sidewalk, I stumbled and fell. I would not believe that these ancient stones are still so hard! When I fell, I hit my left arm and knee, and my right leg. The pain was so strong that I sobbed at the top of my voice

My husband got scared, it seems, no less than I did. He helped me sit down.It was too horreble to imagine how my legs look like under jeans. In my mind the scenes from Tv-series like "Grey's Anatomy" visualized... I was very frightened that I broke the tibia. Here we go, the tourists walked to the exit, and I was sitting on solid ancient stones, and tears streamed down my cheeks. A couple of days later it turned out that falling, I instinctively pressed the camera to my stomach so that it did not get hurt. On this place a huge multicolored bruise appeared.

But if you put emotions aside, the worst thing was that you had to go. The car was with a manual transmission, my husband does not drive it. And the road to the hotel in Salerno is serpentine, up and down. But it's just two of us, no one else.

In the end, the bone wasn't broken, we arrived safely, and the bruises and scars healed after a couple of months. It was a kind of happy end with bitter taste. The camera remained intact, so today I am able to share with you a small part of what I saw on that day.

Thank you for your time and attention. I hope you spent it with pleasure!

If you missed prev 2 parts, you can read them here and here.

❤

@zirochka

Unless stated otherwise all photos used in my posts are taken and owned by myself, if you wish to use any of my images please contact me

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