"Is that steam coming from Vesuvius?"

It is pouring buckets outside our hotel room. Thunder accompanies the ever present honking of hours (you can't get a hotel room for 55 euro a night and not expect one tiny, but loud flaw), but I don't care-- as I saw Pompeii today, and couldn't be more exhilirated.

My imagination went wild the entire time. What was the person in this house doing when they heard the volcano ominously preparing to erupt? Is this counter with a hole a storage space, or a toilet? Where in town would I have lived if I happened to be a resident of the doomed city thousands of years ago? Would I have been one of these poor souls forever immortalized in plaster casts that the tourist public now gawks at?

These thoughts were often interrupted by Haley quietly asking, "Is that a cloud, or steam over there?" and "Did you know that the volcano is still active? Yikes!". She was funny, and I always reassured her that I was sure it was a meandering cloud, not the sign of another cataclysmic eruption.

The excavated village of Pompeii is huge. We walked from 11:00 when the site opened to 4:00 when we left, and we still didn't see everything, and probably couldn't have in one day. The ruins are amazingly intact-- from tiled mosaic floors to frescoed walls. The city boasts two amphitheatres, a large forum, baths, many temples dedicated to various gods, and countless dwellings.

I think my pictures will say more (and Haley, Karinne, and I might have taken some goofy ones as well). I'll have the link up as soon as I can.

Now, we are drying off before hitting the crowded city streets to find some dinner, which will surely blow my taste buds away, as this is what I am coming to expect of all Italian cuisine. Tomorrow is Capri for Haley and I, and Karinne is off to Paris to meet her mom. I'll pray to the gods that it doesn't continue to rain, and that Vesuvius keeps it cap.