One easy day-trip form Naples and undoubtedly the most common is to Pompeii, the 2000 year old Roman city so perfectly preserved by the 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The city was buried under some 50 feet of ash and pumice until the 18th century when it was rediscovered and excavating (still not completed today) began.

A plaza in Pompeii:

Some of the more interesting artwork at the Pompeii site are the frescoes and the mosaics of the villas. These are also the most difficult to preserve.

Here is a typical side street in Pompeii:

The largest Ampitheater of Pompeii:

Another plaza, behind the ampitheater:

One of the main streets through Pompeii, Vesuvius looming in the background:

The experience was very eerie, a city so preserved and so dead, almost brought back to life again by the millions of visitors it receives every year. Modern Pompei (Minus the second i) and its inhabitants sit just near the historical city, in the same dangerous path of the slumbering Vesuvius.