When you visited somewhere you'd always dreamed of where you disappointed?

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For years I had been interested in the story and history of Pompeii and when my son began to show an interest in Pompeii we decided to have a holiday at the Bay of Naples to incorporate the hoistoric site. We looked into the possibilities and eventually booked a ten day holiday to the Bay of Naples that had various trips included - including one to Pompeii, and I certainly wasn't disappointed!! Our hoiliday was in May, so temperatures had not reached their highest, but the day of our excursion to Pompeii was very hot - and I must advise you to wear a hat, take suncream/lotion and take plenty of water ( as much as you can carry) with you if you visit as there is not many places to find shelter from the blistering heat; I would also add that if you are not too good on your feet this may not be the visit for you, the ground is uneven and it is a long and tiring visit, you certainly need decent comfortable walking shoes. As I'm sure most of you will already know, Pompeii is a ruined and partially buried Roman city close to Naples in the region of Campania in Italy. When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79AD it covered the whole city in ash, stone, pumice and mud. Pompeii and all its secrets lay lost and undiscovered for nearly 1700 years before its accidental rediscovery in 1748. All this time later parts of the buildings are still standing as the ash from the eruption acted as the perfect preservative to to leave us the evidence of the life that there was once in that important and busy Roman city. On reaching Pompeii I was amazed at the amount of people around the site, you had to virtually fight your way through the inevitable stalls and vendors who were selling - what looked like - overpriced rubbish. Luckily, being with an organised group we did not need to purchase tickets and our guide arranged all our tickets and maps and got us our hand-held audio guides which gave us details in good English. We did have an Italian guide who led us to each place of interest and then we got the information about each site from our audio guides - a grand idea. My first feeling on entering the site was complete awe at the beauty and weight of history that was all around me and actually making it to somewhere that had always been my dream to visit. We entered through the Porta Marina entrance and straight away I noticed the roads. The center of the road is raised so that any water could run into the gutters. There were also small white stones randomly fitted between the large stones, this was so people and animals to see the road after dark. We passed the site of the Temple of Venus, the patron goddess of Pompeii. The temple had been badly damaged in the earlier earthquake of 62 A.D. and had still not been restored before the eruption of 79. I must say that I was really surprised at how well-preserved the ruins were. In places whole walls and buildings were intact, the artwork throughout the city was amazing, there were still paintings on the walls and mosaic tiles on the floor. The whole site was larger than I had expected, we spent four hours there but still didn't feel that I had spent enough time there I think that if you wanted to visit I would recommend staying nearer to the excavation and visiting the ruins over a period of a few days. What stood out to me was how advanced the people of Pompeii had been. They had plumbing with a drainage system, which took the water out into the street. Drinking water was always close by as fountains and troughs were at the end of streets. Even then they were saving water as they had a hole in the roof of the kitchen so that they could collect the rainwater to wash their dishes. The roads even were remarkable, with their own variety of speed bumps and pedestrian crossings, I found it incredible to see the ruts in the road that the wagons had made so long ago.The building materials that the ancient pople had used included a mixture of brick, stucco, cement and marble. It was amazing to imagine that this city was so old as there was so many similarities between their town and our modern towns.It was easy to pick out the houses of different classes with the decor that was still in evidence, there had been cafes, pubs, shops and even a swimming baths see. Oh yes, they did have a brothel too - still in evidence are the rather rude pictures demonstrating just what was on offer to the customers. I paticularly liked the Basilica, the most important public building in Pompeii. It was both courthouse and chamber of commerce. I thought that there was very much a Greek influence to what remained of the building. What amazes me is that, immense as the site is, there is still much of the site half buried in ash so who knows what else there is lying beneath it - fascinating When the town was discovered it was as if history had frozen and the town and it's inhabitants had just stood still on that fateful day- 24th August 79 AD. They even found petrified bread still in the ovens that had been baking that day. There are reminders of death everywhere you look in the ruins. It is obvious that the eruption caught caught the inhabitants totally by surprise. It was in 1863 that the technique of making plaster casts of the remains of people, animals, and plants was invented. The outlines of clothing, sandals, hair, and facial expressions are captured on the plaster casts now scattered Pompeii , portrayed as they died - this is both distressing and fascinating. The most distressing I found was in the "Garden of the Fugitives." In 1961 when excavations were being made in an oldorchard, casts were obtained by pouring plaster into the spaces left by decomposed bodies of the thirteen adults and children that were found huddled together, as they attempted to shield themselves from the volcanic dust, stone, and ash. I personally think that the price of 11 euros is very cheap considering what you are seeing. It would be truly tragic for us to lose more and more of this fantastic site, which is thought that the constant tourism is doing to the site, so maybe it would be better to charge more and to do more to protect this international heritage site. When you have visited somewhere you've always dreamed of did you love it or where you disappointed?