Home » Italy » A Roman Christmas

Rome is great. Loud, lively and invigorating. In fact its so invigorating I might go somewhere quieter for the New Year’s to have a bit of a rest.

A Roman Christmas

Nickjenkins
2003-11-20 11:12:08

Displayed times (last time: )

are fond of fireworks and not necessarily the ones with pretty displays of light and sparks. Anything that goes bang is just fine with them.

Hence, on New Year's Eve, while standing in a crowd you will be suddenly surrounded by an expanding ring of emptiness. Looking down you will discover that some local smart arse has just lobbed something extremely combustable at your feet and it is just about to go bang. Leaping to one side you will avoid actual burns but will more than likely be without your hearing for an hour or two. So after getting properly inebriated we celebrated the New Year with the locals and two burst ear drums.

I left Rome on the 28th heading south for Naples and Pompeii. We caught a 6.30am train from Rome's Statzione Central. The train to Naples took a little over two hours and we stopped briefly for breakfast before jumping the local Circum Vesuvianii train to Pompeii, Villa dei Misteri.

Pompeii itself is very impressive, very moving. The city of 10,000 people was buried under the ash of Vesuvius in 79AD and frozen in time. The buildings, shops and even brothel of the town are all preserved at the precise moment the cloud of ash descended upon the hapless townsfolk and smothered the city. The preservation of the city is as astounding as history acclaims it to be, to the point where petrified loaves of bread have been found in some houses.

The feeling you get from Pompeii is one of a dignified and civilised people. Some of their houses had hot and cold running water, their public baths had an etched ceiling that drew the condensing steam away into gutters and one local merchant had an elaborate mosaic in his foyer that reads "Cave Canem", or "beware of the dog". It is the complete preservation of the city coupled with these small human touches that makes Pompeii such a special place. Strolling down one of the rutted cobble-stone roads and coming across ...