Submitted by Jessica Weber on the 2016 winter session program in Italy sponsored by the Department of Philosophy…
This was our third week in Italy, and for most of it, we spent our time in the coastal city of Sorrento. From there, we traveled to Naples, Mt. Vesuvius and the ruins of Pompeii, which is spelled Pompei by Italians. For three days straight, our excursions centered around the ancient city of Pompeii and its culture. We first visited the ruins with our local tour guide, Sabina. For a large portion of the day, we explored the ancient streets and walked through the partially intact homes of the wealthy, where mosaics and paintings still lined the floors and walls. I was amazed at how well-preserved the artwork was after hundreds of years covered in volcanic ash. We even saw the casts of some of the people caught in the natural disaster. We finished off the excursion taking pictures among the ruins of the city’s political center with Mt. Vesuvius looming off in the distance. The next day, we headed to the Naples National Archaeological Museum to look at artifacts from Pompeii. We saw even more mosaics, including one composed of over four million tiles. The museum also housed ancient medical supplies, pottery and makeup containers. Seeing Pompeii and the possessions of people living there really helped us picture what life was like. Because they had so many inventions and examples of high-level thinking, I wonder what they would have come up with had the city not been destroyed by Mt. Vesuvius. The best part of the trip to Sorrento, however, was the hike up Mt. Vesuvius. Although it was extremely cold and windy, the views of the city from the top were incredible. We could see out to the coast and beyond. On the walk up one of the deadliest volcanoes in the world, the magnitude of its power finally hit me. This is the same volcano that wiped out several cities, multiple times in history, and I was hiking up it.
