Would You Like to Taste Some Fish Sauce?

Day 4 Pompeii: Venerdi, Febbraio 12:
Day's Mileage: 6




















Our professor for our History of Science and Technology class, Giovanni D'Pasquale, took us behind the scenes into the laboratories at Pompeii. He also got us into Pompeii for free! Here he was showing us samples of marble from buildings. We also saw human bones and skulls (which made me think of one of my favorite TV shows 'Bones'. I know Dr. Brennan, aka Bones, and the other Squints could have solved the lives of these people!), a bread loaf that looked like burnt dark chocolate, a vine woven basket, textiles, assorted fruits (dates, pomegranate), seashells (the flatter ones were used for paints), and ingredients for 'Garum', a fish sauce. The archaeologists remade the fish sauce and ever so kindly offered to give us a taste (no thank you, but have you remade that bread yet!?)....no one took them up on the offer, however, we did smell it and it smelled like a pungeant soy sauce. Whew!















A Pompeii kitchen, the 'sinks' were separated for hot and cold coals. You can tell this home belonged to a wealthier family because the counter was made from marble. The average person had counters made with brick.




















A look at Mount Vesuvius down a Pompeii street















A cool paving pattern in the palace.















A tiled floor in the palace. It took 1 million tiles to make it. Each tile was about the size of a fingernail.




















One of the Pompeii dogs in the baths. Professor D'Pasquale told us that there are about 60 dogs who permanently live on the ruins of Pompeii.














In the baths. These men have been holding up this structure for thousands of years now...





















Another Pompeii dog, they are all so friendly and used to humans coming around. This one posed patiently while I took my picture.














A petrified Pompeiian body














The city's sundial




















An interesting array of brick styles





















Some ruins with Mount Vesuvius looming in the background...















The arena where gladiators trained




















The loggia surrounding the training arena. The sun came out just for a few minutes that day, enough time for me to take this photo.















A garden owned by a wealthy Eqyptian, here he would recreate the River Nile Flood every year




















Another Pompeii dog. Funny, his fur coloring matches the architectural materials in the background...
















Heidi, Laura, and I doing a K-S-U across one of Pompeii's sidewalks