Wow, wow, wow! In early November, I had gone on an MSC European cruise and visited several countries and cities. One of those was Naples (which the locals call Napoli- Nap-o-lee) and was completely in love with it! Pompeii, an ancient Roman city that was later destroyed by Mount Vesuvius lies here and of course- as the history guru I am, I HAD to check it out.

When you book on MSC, you’ll have an option to register for several excursions at each of your ports. They do not give you a time, but typically, you can’t overlap anyways. I was looking at some of the excursions, and thinking “oh this one is only 3 hours and this is 4 hours- maybe I can do two in one day.” Firstly, you can’t because of the time they start, and secondly- this is for your own benefit because doing two in one day is EXHAUSTING! (Doing one in one day was tiring!)

Anyways, so I had booked the excursion to Pompeii, and like all the excursions I had gone on at MSC, it started on a bus, where we toured our way to Pompeii. The tour guide handed us small black boxes with earbuds when we got on. This is so she can speak and we can hear her without her having to yell. So for example, if you’re 30 feet behind her, you probably won’t be able to hear her voice, but if you put the earbuds in, you will! I thought it was really smart, actually!

The bus ride wasn’t too long, about 30 minutes- and again, the tour guide is talking the whole time, so you can learn about the history of Naples and all it has to offer. The mountains are especially interesting and Mount Vesuvius is the volcano that buried Pompeii and is actually active! The tour guides kept joking that it will go off when we were there- and while it was funny- it could’ve! No one knows. The exact years that Mount Vesuvius erupted are:

79 AD- which buried both Pompeii and Herculaneum

1631

Several within the 18th and 19th century, with significant eruptions being in 1779, 1794 and 1872

1906

1929

1944

We often only hear about Pompeii- but in reality, this Volcano has been active and erupted since 79 AD, yet crazy tourists (like me lol) will still go and visit it! Because how cool is that!? (Until we tour during an eruption of course! Joking.. kinda)

Once we arrived, we followed our tour guide through the rows and streets of the old Pompeii. I don’t want to take away from the experience, so I will share briefly some of the spaces we had explored and let your curiosity motivate you to book a tour on your own and to find out more!

Once entered the main city entrance, we were met by ancient rocks and architecture. There were ropes preventing people from stepping on the grass, but plenty to view otherwise. And YES- the weather was remarkable! I think one of the things I truly love about Europe are how old things are and how old they LOOK! It’s like stepping into a different era and it’s something that we really don’t get, here in the US.

There is one of the large theaters that the people of Pompeii had in their city. This theater is still being used today for concerts and operas, and continues to be a source of entertainment. The way the theater was build was meticulously planned and geometrically mapped, allowing for strong acoustics, not to mention the value of sitting in a theater created before 79AD.

One thing the tour guide pointed out is the intelligence and resourcefulness of these people. On the left is where they made food over hot coals. The fact it is still preserved is something else entirely! In the middle, are large pebble stones used for when there was a lot of rain, to have a place to walk without getting your feet wet. The water would seep on the lower parts of the road, often allowing for those higher stones to be above water level. On the right is supposedly a pizza oven. Again, we’re talking BEFORE 79 AD!?

This here was actually inside someone’s house. The structure was very different than you and I may be used to- it didn’t have windows with windowpane, but rather simply holes in the walls and the outdoor garden was placed in the middle, in somewhat of a courtyard style. The bed (third from the left, top) was- well… I hope they had a chiropractor.

Here are some more of the inside of different buildings that were preserved from Pompeii. Even the ceiling was so intricately done (2nd photo, top). And amazing how they were able to excavate them in the shape they’re in. I wonder, today- if there was a eruption on some of the buildings we had, how well it would be preserved. My guess is not like this…

When the eruption came, there was no time to escape and many of the people in Pompeii were encased on the spot. The way people died was dependent on several factors. Primarily, a combination of asphyxiation from ash and volcanic gases as well as pyroclastic flows, which is fast movement of gas, traveling at approximately 450mph with temperatures over 1,500F degrees. For context on the speed- most commercial airplanes travel at 500-600 mph, so 450 is FAST!

There is some hypothesis that this particular woman was pregnant when she passed due to the slight bulge, but it’s not confirmed and looking at her, I don’t know if I would say it was a pregnancy bump or simply belly fat, but I’m not the archaeologist, sooo…

Many of the streets were narrow and (to me) looked all the same. But if you look closely on the photo on the right, you can actually see numbers on the stones, which is largely how people knew were they were going or where they were!

“Content Warning: This next paragraph contains discussions of sexual topics. Reader discretion is strongly advised.”

Sadly, many of the children in the time were workers to support their family. Now it is sad, then it was the norm. Sometimes as young as 12 or so and they would work in brothels. This is supposedly a brothel, likely with a young child working here.

And finally, we had some free time to explore as we wished until we were to head back. We had left Pompeii around 3:45 or so and the site closes at 4pm, so we were able to use the restrooms if we wished, but the museum and gift shop were closing unfortunately.

After we left the gates, we waited a little longer until the bus arrived to drive us back to the port and while we did- IF YOU HAVEN’T HAD NAPLES PIZZA- CHANGE THAT! I can’t describe it, it looks yummy- sure. But typical, but boy! The minute I tasted it, it was something else. It’s not something I can describe because I haven’t had anything remotely similar. Tender, cheesy, stretchy, melts-in-your-mouth, flavorful, but whatever you’re thinking as you’re reading those words, multiply it by 10. Not just flavorful- whatever flavorful x10 is. It’s out of this world, truly!

I didn’t try the gelato, but the gelato looks extraordinary as well. Next time for sure, there was actually quite of bit of gelato in Italy and I do regret having some!

Do I recommend the MSC Pompeii Excursion?

This post didn’t necessarily go over Pompeii as a WHOLE but rather the specific MSC Pompeii excursion and I really do! I also think if you read my post and still aren’t sure… maybe go back and read again? Haha, but seriously, it was so neat to learn about the history of Pompeii- the culture, their life, the ways they did things and going into their homes was super neat! I think if I go to Naples again, I will likely go to Pompeii, but I may do it on my own or use a Viator tour. I loved the ability to learn about what I was looking at (such as with a tour; I would likely not know I’m looking at a brothel or someone’s bed if I didn’t have a guide) yet I also like the option to explore at my pace and see what I want to see.

For Viator Tours at Pompeii: https://www.viator.com/Pompeii/d24336-ttd

Cheers friends and travelers!
~ Backroad Butterflies ~

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