Pompeii, Italy

Our trip to Pompeii first had us take the train to Naples, then connect to the Circumvesuviana railway. The scheduling was not exactly clear, but we got on the right train, and soon enough we were at the entrance to the ruins.

Ever since I'd first heard of Pompeii I had wanted to visit, and when I finally got there, it was even better than I expected. The ruined city still seems intact and accessible. There's no difficulty in identifying with the long-absent owners of the houses and businesses we visited. We spent hours walking up and down streets, entering extensive villas, opulent homes, shops, taverns, the baths and the city's amphitheater.

The structures were more intact than I thought they would be. Some still had their roofs, at least in places, and the floor mosaics and frescoes were magnificent. Just that so much had survived was amazing to us. (As an extra bonus, Hannah spotted a hoopoe, one of the birds she most wanted to see on our trip.) We could easily have spent another day or two here, but the time came to catch our train back to Gaeta.