Pompeii

Pompeii was a resort town for the wealthy and in 79 AD a nearby volcano (Mt Vesuvius) erupted covering the town in 6m of volcanic ash. As this was heading into the period of Roman decline not much action was taken by the Emperor to restore the town to its former glory and the ash was allowed to settle, thereby (inadvertently) preserving the ruins for future generations.
As Jez and I had by now seen heaps of "ancient ruins" I were prepared to be underwhelmed by the experience but to my surprise I left the site suitably impressed. The ruins (plus the help of an audio guide) really brought to life the ancient city of Pompeii, we saw brothels - the ancient Romans required diagrams to help them work out what they were suppose to do with prostitute's, temples, an amphitheatre (with impressive acoustics), a forum and a shopping district. We also got to visit the local cemetery where we saw some impressive tombstones. It seems like the ancient Romans enjoyed settling old scores and would use their tombstones to let the living know exactly what they actually thought of them!
Intending to spend half a day in Pompeii we were surprised to find that the sun was setting and it was time to high tail it out of there and catch a train back to our hostel. Once back in Naples we stumbled upon a great pizzeria and enjoyed a couple of beers and a Margarita before making our way back to our hostel.