The Amalfi Coast round up X Pompeii

top - Primark, shorts - H&M, trainers - Nike 

(me and the mother... cheesy photo opportunity? check)

Can you guess where we visited today? Yes, the infamous city of ruins - Pompeii. Known for its devastating demise by the almighty Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, Pompeii is now mostly destroyed and only ruins remain. Although I'm not all that interested in history, this place did fascinate me and I can see why so many tourists flock to see the remains. The city, or what is left of it, is really big so if you want to see it all, I would recommend dedicating the majority of the day to exploring it. Piece of advice: take some food... We arrived very early in the morning and stupidly didn't bring any kind of food with us and since my mum gets super cranky (it runs in the Mellor family) when she's hungry, we left around 2 o'clock to get some food so we didn't get to see the whole of the city. Another piece of advice, make sure under 25's take ID! It cost us €44 to see Pompeii when it should have cost us half because under 25, european union members get in free and unfortunately, to start the day off  even worse, the lady who worked there was very rude. As soon as you're in though, you're free to roam as you please but I really would advise you to buy a guide, either in book form or audio guide in order to differentiate all the various ruins and give them a little bit of meaning and the history behind them. There are multiple people selling these things, with deals, along the street directly before the entrance and we got 2 audio guides and they gave us a book for half the price. As I mentioned, tourists can be seen everywhere but I don't think the experience is ruined by them and I went in peak season, August on a lovely hot day. The city is so large that even though there are lots of tourists, they're reasonably dispersed. In fact, I can't believe we're allowed to be so close to all the history, with the ability to touch it and yet it's in such great condition. It has been preserved so well and there is a specific area where you can see a lot of the artefacts (from a distance). Some of the key things to remember when you're visiting Pompeii is: a pair of grippy shoes that you're comfortable walking in for a number of hours (the marble paving stones are quite slippy, especially when wet, and you'll be walking for hours on end so this really is essential) so no high heels, flimsy sandals etc. Walking boots or trainers will do the trick, a packed lunch and take a bottle of water (empty or full) to keeo hydrated as theres no cover from the sun and there are water fountains every so often where you can fill up your bottle. 

It really was amazing to imagine the way they lived and how developed the city was as a whole for the time period. My favourite parts of the city were the main forum (seen above), which is quite amazing with all it's different columns, the brothels and the auditoriums (although they were nothing compared to the Colosseum) so make sure you visit those!! 

Has anyone else been to Pompeii and would like to tell me about their experience? I'd love to hear it. 

G xxx