Pompeii uncovered

On Saturday, we took a bus to Pompeii, about 3hrs south of Rome.  Recall Pompeii was covered by ash...up to 25 feet of the stuff with the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, which is about a mile upwind.  A very small volcano compared what you find in Hawaii for example.  Pompeii is about 3/4 excavated and it is amazing to behold.  Imagine a whole city about the size of 1/2 of our Coventry neighborhood.  It gives one a sense of what life was like in Italy at the time of Paul.  The streets are laid out as if by a civil engineer. There was water that flowed through a complex plumbing design. Public drinking fountains showed the wear of hands leaning left or right into them (see picture below with our 87-year old guide explaining the fountain to us).  The central gathering plaza had markets, a couple of temples, and two ampitheaters. A brothel complete with pictures on the walls left little to one's imagination! We found no evidence of Judaism or Christianity. Though there was a basilica...which our guide said became the model for later churches.  All of the homes had an entrance from the street called a vestibule, which then entered into a courtyard, around which then were bedrooms, a kitchen, dining room, ang gathering room...almost exactly like our home in Henderson (last picture in the sequence from the perspective of the living room looking back into the courtyard and the entrance). One of the homes had a "beware of dog" mosaic design on the floor of its entryway (see third picture below). We realized that we live in a home built in 2001 that is a Mediterranean model of a home dating back to the first century.  Each home also had a little shrine in the courtyard where Roman gods were venerated and worshipped.  It's also fascinating to note that the destruction of Pompeii happened the same time as the Romans destroyed Jerusalem...probably a coincidence, but it does make one wonder.  Just finished breakfast and now we are to experience Sunday mass at St. Peter's.