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Pompeii, Italy
It's only smoke and ashes baby
Pompeii is one of the most amazing places I have ever visited, Pompeii is beautiful, tragic, creepy and intimate all at the same time. This is a surviving Roman mosaic on the floor at the entrance to a residence. It reads "Cave Canem", which in Latin means "Beware of Dog."
In 79 AD (or CE depending on your preference), this street would have been flooded with water, sewage, and various other potentially unpleasant liquids. Pedestrians would cross the streets over the stones and chariots would cross between the stones, creating ruts in the paving stones. In 80 AD all of this would have been under ash and mud and lava, thanks to Vesuvius, meekly hiding in the haze in the back of this picture.
Another Pompeii mosaic, although now in Naples at the Archeology Museum.
A surviving wall fresco, still in Pompeii, proving that the Romans weren't afraid of a little color.
Pompeii is incredibly preserved, especially if you look down. The tragedy that destroyed the city wasn’t especially good to most taller things,.
From Rome, travel south two hours by Eurostar train to Naples, then an hour and fifteen minutes south via the Circumvesuviana trains to Sorrento, then another half hour south by SITA bus along the raging cliffs of the Amalfi Coast until you reach the Positano stop. From there you only need to descend the remaining 150 feet or so along stairs, under flowering arbors, through stone alleys, and past the impossible cliff town to reach the reliable Mediterranean.
