48. Pompeii Ruins

A fellow at the train station called a cab over from across the street,

Little did I know that this man would become a friend to meet.

He was going to take me to the hotel and back to the ruins

We talked the entire time, I checked in, dropped my bags in my room.

He took me to the entrance of ancient Pompei, said to call, and oh by the way..

Would you like to meet me for dinner tonight

At a restaurant not too far from your hotel, just to the right.

Call me at 6:30 and we will make plans

To meet for dinner & make it if you can.

I enter the ruins and I am beyond belief

How can something from catastrophe of 79 AD

Be preserved and intact  from building dating 200 BC.

People were leading their normal lives on August 24^th

About 11:00, lunch was cooking and about to be served.

On the streets soups & stews were brewing in terra cotta pots

Women were drawing water from the local well spot.

In a few moments, hell is about to be unleashed,

And the lives they knew were never again to be seen.

It was an instant explosion with boulders being thrown,

The gods are angry again, is what the community has known.

People begin to panic, some hide in their homes for shelter,

Other try to gather their possession and run helter skelter.

The streets fill with lapilli ash and suffocate lungs

Death came instantly and froze people as they were stung.

Who could know that a thousand years and this would all be discovered,

And archeologist would begin to uncover,

The best preserved example of ancient culture

Enter Porta Marina or Main Gate

Follow to the Basilica where politicians debated.

The Temple of Apollo has paintings of the Trojan War,

The Forum is where the festivities exist no more.

The Temples of Vespasian and Jupiter are near the Forum

The largest dwelling is the House of the Faun.

Mosaics floors and fresco paintings throughout the City are still preserved,

As well as the plumbing and sewer system of the well-deserved.
The grooves in the stone are still worn from the wheels

Pots were filled with fruit and vegetable peels

The street are large boulders so the garbage could drain

Down the sewers whenever it rained.

Sex on the street was normal as well as in gladiator training  barricks.

Most street signs were a penis pointing which way to turn

To the entertainment  of the places to learn

A group of students were racing at the gymnasium sight

Recreating the activities of teens their age to learn to fight.

I stayed all day and probably did not see it all

But it was getting late, it soon closes and I must make a call.

I go to Pasta Pizza and meet Franco the owner

And Enzo comes in a few moments.

Franco orders a full course meal for us

So much wine and food, I want to bust.

We have a nice conversation and laugh a lot without hesitation

An American girl, Sarah, from Thomasville Georgia is working on her dissertation.

Time to close up the restaurant and we make plans for the morning,

Pick me up at 10 and we go to the Amalfi coast exploring.

Websites:  Pompei Resort- www.pompeiresort.it
 Viale Unita d'Italia, 16A
Pompei Italy
39 081 8639049