When I was 17, I managed to track down a copy of “Pink Floyd in Pompeii” on VHS, a video I’d only read about on the Internet (which I got access to about 2 years prior) and had been aching to see. When I finally sat down to watch it, I was mesmerised. A combination of two of my passions; Pink Floyd and Ancient History! This was made before Dark Side of the Moon (around 1971/72), with Floyd playing their more instrumental and dark material in the Pompeii Amphitheatre to no audience, intercut with footage from around Pompeii and Vesuvius. This odd idea was Italian director Adrian Maben’s, and it worked wonderfully.*

I was hooked. I knew one day I had to visit Pompeii. And today I did!

Pompeii, frozen in time by ash from 79AD’s Mount Vesuvius explosion, is a huge ancient town that you can explore for hours. And we did. And it met every expectation I had. With the assistance of Rick Steve’s free audio guide (highly recommend for travelers with Androids or iPhones) we got an incredible glimpse into the lives of people 2000 years ago by strolling their streets, walking through their homes, bakeries, baths, theatres, gladiatorial training arenas and brothels. Incredible.

Sadly, the town around Pompeii is a real tourist trap. We had a pretty average lunch, but we were starving and the place we’d looked up was closed.

Next stop was Ercolano, another poorer town that we walked through to see an Italy quite different to the larger cities. High density apartment buildings, derelict streets, but a real liveliness. It was good to see this contrast to the very major cities and tourist destinations we’d been.

Of course our destination was certainly of the tourist variety – the ruins at Herculaneum. Preserved by the same 79AD Vesuvius eruption, Herculaneum is much smaller than Pompeii but much better preserved. Walking around, you get an even better sense of the streets and the homes, with many roofs remaining intact and wall mosaics and paintings being incredibly well preserved. Definitely a must-visit if you’re in the area.

Extra notes:

*You can see the Pink Floyd Live in Pompeii film on Youtube by CLICKING HERE. This is the original theatrical version without any of the interviews or Dark Side of the Moon behind the scenes stuff that was on the VHS. There is also a DVD Director’s Cut, but its the worst version. I personally like this version with just the music these days.

Another Pompeii related song which I’ve had stuck in my head all day is the Flaming Lips’ PompeiiAm Götterdämmerung. Its basically a fusion of Floyd’s One of the Days and the German national anthem, with lyrics about a couple running holding hands while a volcano explodes, preserving them forever. I didn’t tell Marthese I’d been thinking about this all day though, she’ll have to read it here.

Metro/train travel notes for the day:

Piazza Cavour Station → Napoli Centrale → Circumvesuviana to Pompeii Scavi → Ercolano Scavi → Napoli Centrale → Piazza Cavour.

THIS HAS BEEN THE BEST DAY EVER! Goodnight, folks.