Pompei

And so I turned away and went through shop after shop and

store after store, far down the long street of the merchants,

and called for the wares of Rome and the East,

but the tradesmen were gone, the marts were silent,

 and nothing was left but the broken jars all set in cement of cinders and ashes:

the wine and the oil that once had filled them were gone with their owners.

Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad, Chapter XXXI

Visiting Pompei is a unique experience, in many ways it is as though the residents just stepped out, even though no one has lived there in nearly two thousand years.

There are many good history and guide books on Pompei that you may want to check out before our trip.  There are also great on-line sources, including the Sprintendenza Archeological di Pompei.  You can see and download a detailed map of the excavations area here.