CINCINNATI, Ohio – The final installment of Adventures in Ohio takes us to Cincinnati for a day in Pompeii.

Unless you have lived in Italy, you could only have dreamed of seeing the archeological treasures dating back to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. They were all unearthed from what was the thriving city of Pompeii before the volcano covered it in 20 feet of burning ash.

But what nature destroyed it also preserved. "We totally rediscovered this 2,000 year old ancient roman town and found all these artifacts that represented what was going on in that town the day it was destroyed," said Dave Duszynski from the Cincinnati Museum Center.

Now more than 250 artifacts from Pompeii are on temporary display at the Cincinnati Museum Center. You will find everything from gold jewelry and coins, to marble and bronze statues, to finely detailed artifacts like a gladiator helmet once used by gladiators in the Pompeii Coliseum.

There are also large frescos that were somehow perfectly preserved among the ruins.

"The Romans painted their walls with beautiful scenes to represent what was important to them in their life; the gods and goddesses. It was a very important wine community, so Bacchus the god of wine, is featured prominently," Duszynski said.

What might be most interesting to visitors though are the body casts. "As they were digging out the rubble they realized there were cavities in the rubble. They decided to fill in the cavities to see what they represented. They filled it with a plastic product, took the rubble away and they realized the cavities had represented where people had died, where people had gone to hide," Duszynski said.

Over time the bodies and bones disintegrated leaving behind snapshots of men, women and children in their final seconds of life.

In addition to the artifacts, there are also plenty of interactive displays including video recreations of the eruption and a timeline of the disaster that claimed thousands of lives.

The traveling Pompeii exhibit is only going to be in four different cities in North America and it's going to be in Cincinnati through August 12th.