Amalfi Coast Part 1- Pompeii

I'm back from my amazing Amalfi Coast weekend! Instead of writing one long post, I'm going to break up the trip by day. I'm going to leave out the logistics as I'm going to be writing an actual review of the trip's itinerary for Angela Nickerson's travel blog Just Go later this week.

We left on Thursday night by bus and headed to our hostel in Sorrento. Our hostel was called Seven Hostel and it was amazing for a first hostel experience. We had a great time hanging out on the hostel's rooftop bar and terrace.

We woke up early on Friday and headed to Pompeii.

We had a choice of taking a guided tour of Pompeii, or just wandering around ourselves. I decided to take the guided tour, which was really beneficial. I learned so much.

Pompeii is the town that was utterly destroyed when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. Surprisingly, there was no lava or magma when the volcano erupted; our guide informed us that it just rained ash over the entire city and covered the city 100 feet deep. The city was left alone for hundreds of years until someone decided to uncover it. When it was uncovered, the city was surprisngly intact. Many artifacts and even dead bodies were found. Houses were left untouched with paintings still inside. We even saw a brothel with stone beds and erotic paintings that stayed intact for hundreds of years. It's quite eerie to walk around, but very cool.

Remains of a fresco inside a house

Dead body filled with plaster to preserve it

Building preserved

Later, we drove to Mount Vesuvius. Our bus was able to take us up to a landing point, but we had to walk up the steepest parts of the volcano from there. I didn't think I was going to make it, but I did!

It took about thirty minutes to get to the top of the volcano. Interestingly enough, it was easier to walk up the volcano, than down. I slipped several times going down as it was very dusty and dirty and I was stupidly wearing flip flops (no one told me I'd be hiking up a volcano this weekend!) Overall, it was an awesome experience to have made it to the top of a volcano. It's something I never would have pictured myself doing (especially since I thought I'd be relaxing on a beach all weekend!) but I'm so glad to have done it.

On the way up the volcano

Erica and I made it to the top!

Has anyone else ever been to Pompeii? Did you have a good experience there?