To make it all even better, it was practically empty. Rhys kindly drove us there our last morning and even acted as tour guide (while willingly carrying Oliver's diaper bag for me - could I ask for anything better!?!?), since he had been this past summer - it was perfect.
The views of the empty town stretching in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius were simply breathtaking:
I could picture carts and people trudging down the narrow streets (complete with better sidewalks than Rome, I might add):
Oliver was a good sport, too:
And seemed to enjoy exploring with me:
We saw an old bakery (which we Parisians had to visit, of course), complete with flour mills:
And a pizza-style oven:
The Roman-style fast-food joints were all over town - counters complete with bowls to hold the prepared food:
Chris was especially thrilled to find the famous Cave Canem (Beware the Dog) mosaic (yes, he also took Latin in high school...):
The baths had some beautiful carvings on the ceiling:
And we finally came across a few other tourists when we made it to the area near the main forum:
Although the forum area was the most dilapidated, I also found it to be the most beautiful:
The Temple of Jupiter with the now-cratered top of Mount Vesuvius (apparently the same eruption that covered Pompei in ash blew off the top that used to connect the two peaks) in the background says it all:
A civilization that, in many ways, fathered our own now lies in ruins... but its effects live on. Our trip to Italy was both thrilling and sobering: beautiful history, architecture, and art, but much of it crumbling with time - a reminder of the temporal nature of even the greatest things.
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