I'm sitting on my balcony overlooking the pool at the Villa of the Mysteries Hotel in Pompeii. There's a full moon rising in the sky. The mountains that loom all around the city on the landward side are barely visible in the night. Somewhere hidden behind me is Mt. Vesuvius. When it was still daylight I could just make out the ancient ruins of the old city of Pompeii.

We left Rome this morning at 7am heading south for the region of Campania. We made three stops along the way. The first was a small museum in Cassinno. The ruins excavated there are those which a wealthy widow, Quadratilla, had built and gave to the city as a benefaction. There's a large tomb structure with a vaulted ceiling. A rather large amphitheatre has much of its structure still intact. There's also a theater she had built into the side of the hill. Not much is left of the ancient theatre, but they have rebuilt it and still use it. Apparently she enjoyed pantomime shows.

Our next stop was another one of these castles turned into a museum. It overlooked the Bay of Naples, which was quite beautiful. The museum has pieces that have to do with the freed slaves of the imperial court, a group known as augustales. There are a number of bases there on which would have stood statues, benefactions from these freedman who had become wealthy. Inside the museum is a large structure that would have been the front of the tomb of an augustale. There were a number of other interesting artifacts there.

The third stop was a museum that contains objects uncovered from a villa there which also had been destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79. They have worked at reconstructing the villa there.

We checked into our hotel at about 6pm. Some people went for a swim before dinner. Dinner was at 7:30 and was tasty.

I have a roommate for these days in Pompeii. He's a terrific guy, but it's always a different experience living with someone new. I made a mistake but not insisting that we have air conditioning. It was very unclear about A/C. It seemed like there was a limited number of rooms with A/C. But it's in our room. Yet the amount for the rooms has already been settled. It's probably too much of a problem to change it now. So that's why I'm sitting on my balcony writing this, so I can try to catch a little bit of a breeze. A number of people complain about mosquitoes. I don't think I've been bitten or even seen one. There are bats flying around over the pool, so I think they are probably right about the mosquitoes.

Time to get to bed and see if I can be cool. Tomorrow will be a long day of walking around the ancient ruins of Pompeii.

We got an early morning start, walking from our motel, just down the street, to the site of the ancient ruins of Pompeii. This was no normal visit to the site. As a matter of fact, we didn't even see some of the main attractions most people see when they come to Pompeii. What we spent the day looking at were the sites normally prohibited to visitors. These were the most intact houses with some of the largest and best preserved wall paintings. We didn't just look and leave, we spent an hour or two in a building with expert commentary by Eleanor Leach.

I wish I could relate the day's itinerary, but I don't know if it would have much meaning to you. Pompeii is a large complex with row after row of houses and other private and public buildings. The walls were generally plastered and then painted with decorative art. There are a number of types or periods of style. Many of the scenes painted on the wall come from Greek mythology. There are also garden scenes and scenes meant to extend the depth of the room by its ornamentation or depiction of scenes outside the walls of the home.

It was a long and hot day. We walk and stood and walked and stood. Once in awhile we would find some place to sit, preferably in the shade. But it was a beautiful, sunny, day with a nice breeze and low humidity. There was a nice cafeteria on site with clean bathrooms. Because we saw just the special stuff, some people are planning to go back on Saturday morning and walk through the site again just to see the usual things.

After such a hot and tiring day, I actually put on my swimming suit and got into the hotel pool. Not something I normally do. It worked out fine. The pool was very refreshing. We had a great time. Dinner was very light. There was a pasta dish followed by tomatoes and mozzarella with some sautéed mushrooms. It was finished off by a little slice of ice cream with thin layers of chocolate. When I first started my time in Rome at the American Academy, I privately referred to the time as "Classical Studies Urban Boot Camp." Because of the relative scarcity of food in recent weeks, I've begun thinking of it as Classical Studies Fat Camp." My clothes are fitting much looser than they did when I started. That's a good thing; I was hoping that would happen, so I can't really complain about that.

Tomorrow I give my presentation in the Naples Museum. I'm a bit nervous about that, since most everyone I'm talking to are Classical Studies professors. I am eager to hear their comments and how they might help me make my case stronger. In the afternoon we are going to stop at the site of Herculaneum. I'm looking forward to that. We might be done earlier in the afternoon - more time in the pool.

I got up bright and early this morning to go over my notes and refresh my memory about sources I would be referring to in my presentation today. Breakfast was exactly like the day before: corn flakes, juice, ham, salami, cheese, croissant, buns, yogurt, coffee, packaged cold toast, etc.

We gathered together and hiked the short way down to the train station. We bought our tickets, validated, boarded the train, and off we went to Napoli and the National Museum. After a quick potty break, we gathered in the room with artifacts from Herculaneum, including a series of busts of philosophers. I think my presentation went over well with good encouragement. I'm sure it was difficult to hear me in that room, but I did my best to speak loudly in a public room.

Next we went to the room with the artifacts from the temple of Isis from Pompeii. Another participant gave her report. It was fascinating to think of this form of worship from the east and how it would have been practiced.

For the rest of the time there we were on our own. I spent some more time taking pictures of the stuff from Herculaneum. I especially liked the room of mosaics including a mosaic of the Academy of Plato. This is also where the huge mosaic of Alexander the Great is. There are a series of frescoes from Pompeii that are beautifully done. They remind me of later Byzantine art.

One room was particularly interesting. It contained what would nicely be called erotica. There were numerous frescoes of sexual activity of various forms. There was quite a collection of phalluses - big phalluses. We were talking about this form of art with our director who now has her husband and young daughter with her. Of course, she turns to her mother and says, "Mom, what are phalluses?" I sort of walked away in case mom needed to have a little chat with her daughter.

Some of us gathered at the museum entrance around lunch time and set off together to find a Neapolitan pizza place. After walking several blocks we came to one that was recommended to us and we all sat down together. The pizza was tremendous. I would like to learn how to make pizza the way they do.

After lunch we made our way to Ercolano, the ancient ruins of Herculaneum. We looked at one house as a group and then split up. As it turns out, I also split my pants up the crotch. The rest of the day I had to walk around with the inside of my right leg rubbing against the left leg. But I persevered. After a few minutes I hooked up with a couple of the guys. They took me on a thorough exploration of Herculaneum. It is amazing to see the depth of the pyrocastic blast that buried the city when Vesuvius erupted. It seemed like Herculaneum had larger buildings, ones that actually still had a second floor. It's a nice contrast with the much larger Pompeii site.

I came close to reaching my breaking point by the time we returned to the hotel. I'm hoping that my inner thigh heals up sufficiently overnight. I imagine I'm going to have a difficult day tomorrow.

We will start with a half hour march to a different train station. We will be heading further south in Italy to a site and a museum in which we will see more Greek culture. I'm sure it's going to be a terrific adventure, but it might be a painful one. I've taken a pain reliever and think I have a couple more with me. So I'll take a pain reliever in the morning and hope that takes the edge off a bit.

I felt much better this morning than I did last night. Walking over to breakfast felt okay. I did take a pain reliever in the morning, so maybe that helped. I did not get a good night sleep. I felt hot during the night; I could not cool off. It was quite dreadful. Then some time during the night I heard the sound of fireworks. I don't know if it was fireworks or firecrackers. They went off very consistently. I couldn't quite tell if it was fireworks or someone shooting off a weapon. In fact, I wondered for a few seconds if this was the sound of Vesuvius exploding and rocks hitting the city.

We began our daytrip with a half hour walk across town to a different train station. This train would take us to our destination, the ancient Greek and Roman ruins of Paesum. It was a Greek settlement from the 4 century B.C. or even earlier. For instance, there were several excellent examples of Greek temples.  There was evidence, however, of the change in the city when it became a Roman colony. Let me add that it was nice little hike from the train station to the town. After looking through the ruins for a few hours, we were to have lunch and then meet up at the museum. While some of us were sitting down to lunch, others decided not to break for a long lunch but go ahead and look at the museum. After we had lunch, we still caught up to the rest of the group still in the museum. Then after about ten minutes, some of them went off for lunch. The museum has a nice collection of Greek pottery from the site. There are also some excellent wall paintings showing Greek culture and myth.

We ended the afternoon by retracing our steps. I wore sandals today and develop some blisters and wore some skin off. It was a good day of exercising my mind and as well as exercising my body.

Back at the motel I had a good, long swim in the pool. Then I sat with some of our group poolside, and we had a great conversation about people's religious experiences and attitudes toward spirituality and organized religion.

Tomorrow morning groups of people are going off in different directions. I probably should stay with the group that wants to go look at the most popular structures in the Pompeii site for a few hours. Then we'll be heading to Naples and on back to Rome.

Today has been an incredibly long day. I can hardly believe that we started this morning by arriving at the gates of the ruins of Pompeii just before opening time. We then spent two hours going from site to site, hitting the most important structures we had not seen during the visit a few days ago. Our fellow-participants gave on the spot explanations about each place.

We arrived back at the hotel with just enough time to clean up a bit, check out, and head to the train station. We had a nice trip from Pompeii to Naples. We waited about an hour in Naples before leaving on the train to Rome. From there it was a quick bus ride back to the American Academy. It was good to be back "home." I have a greater appreciation for my private room with a ceiling fan and internet connection, not to mention a bathroom with a shower.

Several of us went for pizza this evening. The locals in Trastavere were having a celebration and at some point must have had a parade. We had some excellent pizza while enjoying the night life of Rome.