Naples...
Today's mission was to visit Pompeii and Herculaneum. I am happy to say, Mission Accomplished.
Pompeii...
Another trip by the undaunted quartet. Determined to stay away from Ship tours, we planned to take the commuter train to Pompeii. After a not too pleasant walk through a seedy port area we made it to the train station. Presto, 40 minutes later we are at the gates of Pompeii. Guess what folks FREE ADMISSION this week. Of course that means that every Italian school within 100 miles sends all the kids on a field trip to Pompeii.
Pompeii was buried under six or seven meters of ash, small stones and other eruptive materials when Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. The city was virtually lost until about 1784 when some treasures were dug up and taken away. Excavation continues to this day. I was here in 1960, my how Pompeii has grown since then. We walked about for just under three hours with our trusty guide book. It is difficult to comprehend life in those days, let alone the eruption and how it affected them. Back to the station just in time to get the train heading to Naples but stopping off in Herculaneum. Pompeii is a massive site, maybe a mile by half a mile? We had a few sit-downs throughout the day!!!
While in Pompeii, a young Korean boy, [13] came up to me and said, in perfect English, "Excuse me sir, could you please tell me where you are from?" " Vancouver, Canada", I said. He had spent five months in Vancouver as an exchange student. Do you think he recognized our Vancouver accent? We chatted a bit and parted......I think he will go far in life.
Herculaneum...
A short 15 minute train ride and we are at the station for Herculaneum, which a present day city, Resina, was built on. The old city was buried under 20 meters of the same stuff as Pompeii, plus rain-swept mud. It was virtually wiped off the face of the earth until it was rediscovered in the early 1700s by somebody digging a well and discovering a tile floor at great depths. This site is more impressive than Pompeii to me because the buildings are more intact, and you can actually imagine it as a living town or city. Even two and three levels of terraces and gardens are exposed and restored. Also the sheer walls surrounding it graphically illustrate the depth of ash and mud that covered the city. Herculaneum is like a hole dug in your garden, where you have to go down 60 feet to get to the ground level of an ancient city.
The excavated site is less than five acres, but the new city, which virtually surrounds it, is sitting on top of this 60 feet of dried mud covering old Herculaneum. To me, the best part was while all alone, looking into somebody's sitting area, or bedroom with the hand-painted pictures and decorative walls. To think that people were actually living there and looking at the same thing as we see today is awesome. Pride of work went into some of the tile work on the floors as well.
We were leaving as the school buses from Pompeii arrived with all those teen-aged Italian High School students, cell phones and digital cameras at the ready.
To bed early again tonight. I thank Gail for getting us pointed in the direction of the ship when she did. Jim, as the youngest in the group was ready to keep going like the Energiser Bunny while we other three were fading fast.
Rome tomorrow, the last of the L-O-N-G days, I think.
posted by Doug and Fellette @ 9:15 PM
2 Comments:
I am in awe -- this is way more than I would have imagined -- to see the frescos (they retained their colour so they are, in fact, frescos - not surface paintings) - and the buildings - and to tread those old paths - and the people - hard to comprehend - oh, to be a archeologist - I am fascinated!! Great pictures - thank you !
an
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