May 27

Owen and me in the (restored) garden of a perfumer - who grew olives for oil and basil, lillies, and violets for scents. . . They also had rosemary and lavendar growing now. The lararium (shrine for the household gods) in the garden was dedicated to Hercules.
"Caveat Canem" mosaic at the doorway of a Pompeiian house
temple of Apollo in the forum of Pompeii
oven
ruins of Pompeii with Mt. Vesuvius in the background
Owen "chop, chopin' aspar'gus"
Pompeiian
Pyramus and Thisbe
Venus in a conch shell
gas station on the sidewalk of Naples


Yesterday we visited Pompeii, about a 1/2 hour train ride from here. We spent the entire day wandering through the large, ruined town and taking a bit of shade in the nineteenth century gardens interspersed throughout the ruins. We had a picnic in the garden of the house with the painting of Pyramus and Thisbe. Owen enjoyed several long breaks to pick up junk and pretend with it. He cooked asparagus and hamburgers at one rock using sticks, pebbles, and some broken palstic. Later on we overheard him pretending, "I have to go to my very old buildin'."
We learned that Pompeii had remained a greek colony until 80BC. (It was destroyed in 79AD.) We also learned that it was supposed to have been founded by Hercules on his way back with the cattle of Geryon, one of his 12 labors. The name is from Pompe, Greek for parade, because he paraded his cattle through the town.
After a long, tiring day, we really enjoyed dinner at a local diner - sauteed mussels (Owen loved these), grilled veggies, grilled meats (pork, sausage, and beef), grilled seafood (some sort of fish, octopus, and squid), green salad, and local red wine.