Our ferry landed in Bari, Italy late this morning. Everyone expected it to be quite cold, but heavy duty jackets were not needed on this sunny, cloud-free Saturday. We toured the Italian country side on our way to Naples. The journey took over three hours to complete but was colored with scenes of ripe olive trees and thousands of leaves turning from summer green to fall yellow. This morning we started out on the east side of Italy, and by early afternoon we were viewing the west shore of Italy. We stopped for a brief lunch and started our tour of the famous city of Pompeii. An ancient Roman city covered by volcanic ash in 79 AD, the city was very well preserved and revealed that it had many technologies we ourselves still use. Fast food restaurants? Crosswalks? Drains? Sliding doors? Pompeii had it all. The richest house was once 33,000 square feet. The streets even had pieces of marble in them so that people could see the roads at night, as the marble would reflect the moonlight. Political graffiti was even found on the walls of buildings; one wall in particular was 15 signs deep, just one on top of the other. We visited the public baths and were shown how the Romans would heat the water and even create steam-- an ancient day sauna. Afterwards we visited the amphitheater of Pompeii. Our tour guide demonstrated that standing in the exact middle of the stage would yield the loudest sound. He then said that the teachers of the group had to sing on the stage of the amphitheater. In the end, Mrs. Cook and Mr. Edmonds, joined by Dakota and Taisha, sang the Doxology. The simple song vibrated through the stands. They were then joined by the rest of the senior class to sing the Doxology in Hawaiian. The Latin class orated a speech from Cicero briefly in Latin. After all, when in Rome-- or, well, Pompeii. We exited Pompeii as the sun went down, and are currently driving once more across Italy to get to Rome, another three hour's journey. Though it's only 5:45, the sky outside is already dark. Tomorrow we will see some of Rome's greatest sites, such as the Vatican and the Coliseum.
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