I’ve been shamed by certain family members for not updating this thing regularly so I promise to try and keep on top of it for the remainder of my time abroad!

My tribute to the Buckeyes

A lot has happened over the last two weeks, namely, a lot of school, some awesome site visits, Carnevale, midterms, and of course, break (la pausa).

To celebrate the end of Carnevale, the city set off fireworks above Piazza del Popolo, a really good show surprisingly. It certainly put Eureka’s Fourth of July festivities to shame!

It took me a few minutes to realize they were representing the Italian flag...

I got to visit Pompeii with my Ancient Roman Art class and it was amazing. Although getting up at 6 AM and climbing on a freezing bus was less than desirable, the day turned out to be extremely rewarding. First we toured the Archaeological Museum in Naples, which houses one of the largest collections of ancient Roman art and artifacts. There is even a room dedicated to ancient erotic art… very interesting.

The famous Alexander Mosaic from the House of the Faun in Pompeii

Roman wall painting

A marriage portrait

Mailale!

After the museum we traveled to Pompeii, stopping for some famous Neapolitan pizza before entering the site. Our professor had told us on the bus that the looming Mount Vesuvius was overdue for an eruption, not a very comforting piece of knowledge at the time. Upon entering the excavated city, the volcano’s presence is daunting and certainly ominous. 

The city had just about everything you could think of, hundreds of homes, places where you could buy food to go, even a brothel. The city was also inhabited by several dogs, which were tagged and could even be adopted. I took about a million pictures of the ruins, here are just a few:

A welcome "mat"

Ancient wall drawing!

The blue shutters would have provided an ocean view

It was actually quite sad seeing these plaster encasings of bodies- many of them show the exact position people were in at the moment of death. It's easy to forget the tragedy that occurred here along with the history.

Forum

Stone bed in the brothel

A private fountain

Best backyard ever

Food vendor

Check out her right leg...

My class in the stadium