Pompeii ... just wow!

Today is my son Evan's birthday !  32, where has the time gone   I will facetime him later tonight and hopefully he'll be around to take the call.

Well, the day has come !  I'm off to Pompeii !  When I was in grade 5 (which I guess meant I would have been 10 or 11 yrs old), my Australian teacher went to Pompeii during the March break holidays.  When she returned, she showed the class a slide show of what she seen as since that day I have vowed that I would see it for myself one day.
I took the local train to Pompeii Scavi station and walked to the first of the main entrances to meet the small group that I was going with.  Our guide, Paola, is a registered archeologist and she would be giving us background for the next 2 hours.
The place is huge !  only 70% has been excavated to date and they are uncovering new things everyday.  Just recently, they uncovered a horse and chariot with full tack on the horse ... unfortunately, it's not on display as yet.  It's extremely busy and you need every ounce of patience you can find but in the end you can see everything you want to even if you have to wait in a short line.  After the 2 hour tour, I stayed on for another 4 1/2 hours to explore the rest on my own.  In the colosseum at Pompeii they had an exhibit of when Pink Floyd and others actually played in the colosseum for a benefit concert ... that must had been something awesome to attend!
The colours on the fresco's are vivid the bread in the oven is fossilized but remains in tact. The mosiac floors are stunning as are the decorations from the middle class and upper class housing.  The infrastructure of the city wasn't far off what a city provided today ... Store fronts, restaurants, thermal baths, churches, etc.  They even had pipework made from clay tubes that is still visible in the thermal baths along with fresh water fountains and pedestrian only streets.
Pompeii is an experience that I will hold dear ... every minute of it  was enspiring to me ... to walk where this city's civilization was frozen in time on Aug 24, 79AD. 
I was quite exhausted by the time I returned to Sorrento so I broke down and had a burger at a cheesy tourist restaurant.  Then a great video chat with my son and off to bed.