My Amazing Summer Vacation

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Recommended: Shot of tourism in italy

“What did you do this summer?” our teacher grinned, as he announced the topic of our first essay this year. Everyone around me groaned in disappointment, but I raised my head, smirked, and realized, for the first time, my summer was extraordinary.

As part of a deal my dad made, with my mom, for forgetting her birthday, we spent our summer in Rome. Every emotion was heightened, from getting off the plane to stepping into the taxi; this was the first time our family had stepped on European soil. After we were dropped off at our hotel, we unpacked, freshened up, and looked over our itinerary. We were to visit every major site and monument that could be fitted into 3 weeks. As I was reading through the list, I realized Pompeii was not part of the tour. So, for the last 3 days, we booked another tour, and visited Pompeii, and that is where the fun began.

The tour company was called ‘Dark Rome Tours’ the name itself sent chills down my spine as we entered Pompeii, a bustling Roman city, destroyed by a still active volcano. Our tour guide walked us through the streets, cut out by carriage wheels 2,000 years ago. He showed us the ruins of various houses, both for the elite and the poor and the public bath. After a late breakfast, we visited the exhibit I was most anxious to see, the people, frozen in plaster death casts for thousands of years. As we entered the exhibit, my little sister got scared, seeing the faceless people in glass boxes, so my parents waited outside with her, as I looked around at the people who were frozen in the position they were in when the volcano erupted. I approached a figure, whose face was upturned, like in prayer and its hands holding what looked to be a stick of some sort. I touched the glass and thought,...

... middle of paper ...

...architecture and politics of an amazing Roman city.

Works Cited

Cooley, Alison, and M. G. L. Cooley. Pompeii a Sourcebook. London: Routledge, 2004. Print.

2. Cornell, Tim, and Kathryn Lomas. Urban Society in Roman Italy. London: Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. Print.

3. Laurence, Ray. Roman Pompeii Space and Society. London: Routledge, 1996. Print.

4. Morton, Marguerite W. Scene from the Last Days of Pompeii. Cambridge [eng.]: Proquest LLC, 2005. Print.

5. "AD79 Eruption." AD79 Eruption. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2013. .

6. "Ancient Pompeii's Society." Architecture of Ancient Pompeii. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2013. .

7. "Pompeii Interactive." Pompeii Interactive. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2013 .

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