Pompeii

Today I took a train from Rome to Pompeii, which is 20 minutes south of Naples, on a day trip

Pompeii was a city that was suddenly buried by a volcanic eruption 2000 years ago. Everyone died with no warning to escape. The town was buried and forgotten about until the 1960's when it was discovered while digging metro lines. It is 3/4 excavated and open to the public.

It was like going back in time. The city is huge, you could walk for days and not see it all. I was shocked at how open it is, you can walk through almost everything with little to no ropes or blockades. The volcanic ash acted to preserve things remarkably...you can walk through what used to be peoples homes, churches, businesses and brothels; there are still paint frescoes on the walls, clay pots, marble counterparts, statues etc. There is a huge amphitheater and the brothels still have their pornographic frescoes on the walls. The whole place is just fascinating.

They even found a way, when excavating, to form plaster cast of dead bodies. Because the lava hardened around the people when they died, the body decomposed leaving a hollow spaces in the exact shape of the body. The archaeologists can then tunnel down into the hollow spaces and fill them with plaster creating a cast of the person.
The are all over, these plaster casts of bodies laying on the ground covering their heads with their hands...there's one of someone on his hands and knees with his head turned around and mouth open in a scream.