POMPEII

“Vedi Napoli e poi muori”; “See Naples and die!” is a saying one often hears, a saying which means that after seeing Naples in all her beauty one has nothing on earth left to admire.
And in a certain sense this is true enough: there are but few places which in beauty of scenery can compare with the Bay of Naples. Yet a visit to Naples is not all; equally with the City of the Living, so attractive to the stranger for its life ever freshly throbbing early and late, the City of the Dead, Pompeii, deserves also thorough investigation and careful study. Whoever goes to Naples must not fail to turn his attention also to its near neighbour Pompeii. This nowadays is so easy a matter, whether one drives along the beautiful roads between smiling gardens that adorn the slopes of Vesuvius, or takes train across the lavabeds close to the sea, whose waves break on the embankment. The goal is quickly reached: there is music and refreshment in one of the hotels which are in front of the ruins; then quickly to the entrance; where we settle as to tickets and guides, and through the Porta Marina or Sea Gate we enter the ancient city.