So for one of the school organized field trips we visited the ruins of Pompeii and Paestum. Pompeii is well known because is was covered by the ash from the volcano Mount Vesuvius. Because of this, the city is very well preserved including some of its people. It has a variety of buildings including the Roman domus (house), amphitheaters, shops, temples, and garden spaces.
One of the famous houses is called the house of the fawn because of the tiny statue found in its center courtyard. The plan is based on the concept that you are re-centered as you walk through the house, always returning to the center axis. Honestly you really can’t tell this in person I only know about it because I have studied the building in class, but it was really interesting to finally see this building in person after having learned about it in multiple architectural history classes.
The entire city takes about 30 minutes to walk across if you’re going quickly. Kyle and I decided at the last minute that we wanted to see both the House of Mysteries (famous for its frecos, see picture) and the amphitheater when we only had about 30 minutes left so we had to run all the way across Pompeii to see both.
The amphitheater is interesting because it was constructed using a cut and fill process. This means that the land that was excavated for the theater part was flipped and used for the stands.
That night we ate dinner in a restaurant that is famous because the owner makes sure that all of his ingredients are truly organic and grown without preservatives. All of the food was really delicious and you can honestly tell a difference between Italian food and American because of the fact that it is more natural.
The next day we visited Paestum which is famous because of its 3 Greek temples. These temples are the only ones in the world that have never been destroyed by an earthquake.
Paestum is also well known for its obsession with water. In the center of the city they had a large swimming pool which was used for both leisure and special ceremonies. Apparently newly weds would swim underneath the pillars shown at the left of the picture and meet in the middle? This is all information coming from my professor who gave us a tour.
They are also well known as divers because of a fresco found on an old coffin (shown in the picture below).
The region is well known for its production of buffala mozzarella, which comes from specific cows. The cows have to be milked everyday to produce the mozzarella or else they will stop producing milk. It was the most delicious and flavorful tasting mozzarella I have ever had! Overall a really culturally interesting weekend!
Location: Pompeii, Italy
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