Day 2

the dawn of our first day in Italy.
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We woke up very early this morning, but I don't mind. I'm the first one

out of our room into the courtyard, and the sky is beautiful with the

sunrise. I just woke up in Italy, I'm so happy. We have a delicious

pastry and coffee as our hostel-provided breakfast, and then we're off

entering Pompeii
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to see old Pompeii. I'm so excited. I'm very interested in the ancient

world. I took Latin all throughout highschool, and even spent a year

studying Pompeii in depth. I can't believe I'm finally going to see it.

We start out passing the tombs outside the ancient city. We're all in a

ruins
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big group following Dr. Ault, but some of us fall behind taking

pictures, and it seems we've lost the group before we've even entered

the city. That's ok, exploring is easier in small groups. Megan, Josh,

and myself explore many ruins throughout the day including ancient

our favorite puppy. :)
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houses, Pompeii's ampitheater, and two small theaters, a few different

temples, and of course the forum. We don't see as many mosaics and

inscriptions as I expected to, but just walking down these streets

built over 2000 years ago is amazing enough. We also meet a number of

the current residents of old Pompeii: stray dogs. They're nothing at

all like stray dogs in America. They're very friendly, and by all

appearances clean and well fed. We saw some dogs in new Pompeii

yesterday who walked into restaurants and we're fed instead of chased

off. We meet a few puppies in the forum today that are particularly

cute. :) Around 4 in the afternoon, after many hours of exploring, we

get a gelato in new Pompeii and then get on the bus for our next

destination: Roma!!