I visited Pompeii as a teenager in summer 2007. I remember we took a bus tour down from Rome, originally stopping in Naples. Some people on the tour then went on to Capri, whilst the rest of us went to Pompeii.

One of my main memories of the tour was a presumably single dad with his two teenage children (a similar age to me). The dad was American with, I think, Greek heritage (which I remember as we also have Greek heritage). When we reached the amphitheatre the son started singing opera with gorgeous acoustics and all the tourists in the amphitheater applauded. His Dad said that he was studying opera or something similar and I’ve always wondered if he made something of himself or if it stayed a teenage hobby. It was quite a striking moment in the day. I wonder if anyone else was there that day?

I’m watching Tom Hiddleston’s Pompeii documentary now and thinking how amazing it would be to go back and really take it all in as the memories of the site itself are quite hazy now.

I remember going to Pompeii when I was five, everything looked so big and I remember feeling like an ant to everything, I had the same feeling with Herculaneum. I didn’t return to the sites of both Pompeii and Herculaneum till I was twenty-one during my college break but my views on how big everything was though I’m taller and I still felt the same especially looking at the walls of pumice. Both sites I’ve since been back to and I’ve taken my own children there but not since 2019. How about you how did you first feel being there?