Pompei in a Day

This past weekend's travel consisted of a day trip to Pompei[i]. Interesting story behind that spelling, actually. In English, the ancient city of Pompeii has two I's. The modern town, not the ruins, but the restaurant and hotel-filled town just south of Napoli/Naples, is spelled Pompei in English. In Italian I've gathered that it's spelled Pompei no matter what, for I have not seen a differentiation of spelling between modern town and ancient city. In Latin, the town's name is spelled Pompeii. This can be a bit confusing, since I prefer to call (and of course spell) the places I go according to how the locals do. For example, I went to Firenze, not Florence, and I'm headed for München, not Munich. So what do I for a city that no longer has a population? Technically, the ancient "locals" would have spelled it Pompeii. Yet now, the only signs I saw all read "Pompei." I've decided that one i is just fine.
So, we all know the story of Pompei. Ancient Roman city destroyed and buried by a volcano eruption in 79 CE. Although a lot of the information I learned that day was oozing back out of my brain by evening, I still found the trip interesting. The town was founded by the Oscans, but was conquered through the ages by groups like the Etruscans, Greeks, and finally Romans. In 62 CE, a major earthquake destroyed most of the buildings and infrastructure in the area, so Pompei was still in an ongoing rebuilding process when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE.
The city was taken by surprise and as we all know, many perished. I was surprised and almost upset that I didn't see as many bodies as I expected to be there. The same goes for frescoes, mosaics, just paintings in general. That's because a great deal of stuff is in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli. Which is great, I'm all for the preservation of such important artifacts, but in my opinion it leaves Pompei a little.. bare. Anyways, it was still a neat place, and I'm glad not only that I can say that I've been there, but that I had a professor from school telling me what I was looking at.
For example, Pompei is home to the world's oldest amphitheatre, 150 years older than the Colosseum. I can't even comprehend yet that I stood inside it. That's how a lot of things go over here. The night I found the Trevi Fountain. The morning I saw the David. Needless to say, I am so incredibly fortunate.