I am blogging about my trip to Italy little by little. Today as I was looking at the pictures I took in Pompeii and something struck me. It was the feeling of being lost. Let me explain. The ruins of Pomepii are like a giant maze. I am not exactly sure how large the site is but let's just say it is massive. I was slated to take a guided tour of Pompeii with other tourists, but unfortunately only 7 of us wanted to take the guided English tour and we needed 10 people for the tour guide to bother to take us around. Being adventure girl, I decided to take a map, a bottle of water which cost 3 euros (damn near $6 dollars!) and the audio guide thingy and set off by myself. The day was sunny, warm and breezy enough to be comfortable. When I approached the imposing entry to Pompeii I could barely contain my excitement. As a child of the 80's I remember the cheesy movie The Last Days of Pomepii and I damn near skipped up the hill into the ruins. Pomepii is one of Italy's biggest tourist attractions and I was surrounded by people speaking every language under the sun who just like me were enthralled with this ancient city. I spent about an hour strolling the stone streets smiling at Japanese tourists who were trying to take my picture on the slip. All in all I was having an enjoyable time. I felt like I had gotten the gist of Pompeii and was ready to go have some of that lovely Italian wine I have become so fond of. This is when the story takes a DRASTIC turn for the WORST. All the streets look the same. I was wandering and wandering around Pompeii surrounded by people looking for the exit. About 30 minutes of this and the theme of the day morphed into the Busch Gardens ride Escape from Pompeii. I wanted OUT. It was getting hot, I was getting sweaty, my overpriced water had run out, and I was sick of looking at decrepit buildings. For me hot equals cranky. Panic started to set in. First of all, I couldn't ask people how the hell to get out of this place because it seemed everyone around me was speaking another language AND they were just as frustrated as I was. Body language is international and you can tell when someone is hot, pissed off, and tired of the people they are with. So I continued on my quest. Another hour passed and now I am really really really over it. I actually sat on a log and started to cry. What a sad sad sight I must have been. All J Crew clad covered in dust, sitting on a log crying. I know people thought I was crazy but I did not care. I was LOST. I wanted to go home. Life is like Pompeii. You wander around, surrounded by people, but you can be so completely lost. Plus the people around you are not able to help you because they are lost too. I don't want to get all spiritual in this post but I KNOW something very special got me out of Pompeii that day and it was NOT that jankey map they gave me which was impossible to read. I am thankful that no matter how lost or hopeless a situation becomes, all I have to do is let go. Once I do that, the map appears and I always find my way again. I eventually found my way out of Pompeii with some seriously dusty Chucks looking like a sweathog. Being lost is only as temporary as you let it.