As we are now wrapping up the third week of our semester long adventure, we are finally starting to get into a routine. Weeks are divided by class days and field trip days, and the highlight of this week was the field trip on Tuesday to Pompeii.
Unfortunately, due to weather concerns, we were not able to hike Mount Vesuvius as was originally planned, but we did get the chance to see it from a distance on our tour of the ancient ruins of Pompeii. It shocked many of us to find out that Mount Vesuvius last erupted in 1944 and still has the possibility to go off today. In fact, many of us jumped at the sound of thunder, thinking that is actually came from the volcano itself. Luckily, we all survived and learned that if the volcano were about to erupt, there would be notice and time to evacuate, so our minds were eased. In fact, long ago when it erupted and destroyed the town of Pompeii, only 2,000 out of the population of 20,000 did not evacuate and perished. The lava of the volcano never actually reached Pompeii, but the ash covered up the entire town and was the demise to the remaining citizens. While the city was abandoned, archaeologists have done a great job of preserving the original structures and buildings and although there have been some renovations made to reconstruct, the majority of the original town and structures still stand today!
A group of us in front of Mount Vesuvius
It was so cool and intriguing to see and learn about another culture and imagine what life was like hundreds of years ago. Each and every week of lectures and field trips brings new opportunities and a plethora of knowledge and new experiences. I find that I have to pinch myself every day to stop and take a moment to soak in all of the information and realize that I am actually not dreaming, but seeing and experiencing with my own eyes all of these things that I have only before read about in history books.
Overall it was a great week, and this weekend, almost everyone in the group is making the first weekend trip of travel outside of Italy. I am going with a group of girls to Barcelona, Spain, while another group is heading to Paris. Can’t wait!
Ciao!
Ashley Weaver