Pompeii and Herculaneum

Have I mentioned that Pompeii was totally 100% Joe's idea.  I am ashamed to admit that I have no recollection whatsoever of ever learning anything about Pompeii in school.  I remember Marco Polo, but not Pompeii.  Never mind, my lovely husband has dreamed about coming here since he was a kid. 

the first glimpses as you enter the ruins

To say this place has not disappointed us is an understatement.  I don't think I have enough words in my vocabulary to describe how incredible it is.  For those of you living under the same unfortunate rock that I live under, Pompeii was a town of about 25,000 people, where, after several days of disturbing rumbling from Mt Vesuvius, a mere 5 miles away, was suddenly covered in 20 feet of ash and rock after the volcano erupted.  The eruption happened at noon on Aug 24, 79 AD.  Pompeii was a port town until that point but after Vesuvius erupted, it filled in the port so it is slightly inland now.

Most of the towns people escaped but 2000 people were buried alive in the ash.  Incredibly some of these bodies were found in perfect condition.  This is the creepy part of Pompeii. 

These are plaster casts of bodies found amongst the ruins...

The town remained buried until it was discovered in the 16th Century.  Exploration did not start until 1748.  The incredible part is they are still finding ruins!!!

This is a huge town.  We walked for 5 hours non stop and still missed things.  We were very lucky in that we came at such a slow time of year.  We were able to walk everywhere without too many people around.  We were constantly amazed that we could walk into homes, touch frescos, climb the forum and generally have free range of the place.  This would be all roped off in Canada with a specific route with guards everywhere to make sure nothing was disturbed or that idiots were not trying to break off a piece of the ancient wall.  I love Italy for that.  They trust that you will have the same respect as they do.  And amazingly, most people do.

There were so many highlights, I don't know where to start but I will try.  Oh, I should mention that we met a couple from Langley (Marty and Elaine) who we spent the day with.  It is so fun sharing such a cool experience with fellow Canadians!!!

Elaine had mentioned she wanted to see the inside of the brothel.  She said she had never been in one before and most likely never would, so she wanted to take advantage of having one to go through.  I was with her on all points so we ventured off to find it.  It was a small building with 5 rooms with nothing but a bed made of rock in each room. The Lupanare as it was called stands for She Wolf.

 Above the door of the rooms was a menu of sorts.  Frescos of what pleasure you would like.   There was also a toilet in the brothel.  This is a very modern society complete with indoor plumbing in most homes, including the famous Roman baths.  (The brothel didn't have a bath, sadly, just a toilet) 

Outside of the brothel, just on the corner, is a roadside cafeteria.  This is where people could stop and get some food and drink after doing, um, whatever they were doing.  (Please refer to menu fresco)  Or perhaps during their lunch break from a hard morning in the office!

This cafeteria is in unbelievable condition.  It looked like it was built in the last 100 years!  As you can see, I am thrilled to be behind the counter serving food to the "needy"!  There are several of these cafeteria's still intact throughout the town as town people rarely ate at home during the day.  The holes in the counter were for pots of soup, jugs of wine and various dishes.  They are all just as well preserved as this one. 

A few blocks away we came along the flour mill and bakery.  There were 34 bakeries found most as intact as this one.  The grain was poured into the top of the mill then either slaves or donkeys pushed on wooden bars that were placed in the holes in the middle then walked around until the flour came out of the bottom. Beside the mill was the oven made of, oddly enough, lava rock.  This oven looks exactly the same as the one we used at Bob and Elfride's.  I guess the old adage "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" really applies here.

The roads are made of huge boulders set perfectly in-line with one another.  You can easily see where the wheels on the carts made grooves in the stone.

Next we came upon the small theatre where poets and musicians would perform.  We thought that this was the main ampitheatre, because it looked big enough, but later on in the day we came upon the true forum. 

Joe in the little ("piccolo") theatre

Shirley in the large Forum

The one thing I will say about Pompeii that was a bit unnerving was all the stray dogs.  They were all over the place.  It was obvious they had no owner but that said, they were well fed looking with shiny coats and extremely friendly.  The tourists obviously love them, but it seemed sad to me that they would live there unattended. 

The other thing of noteable interest were the baths.  The ones in Pompeii were good but the ones in Herculanuem we outstanding.

 This town seemed to remain more intact for some reason so there were almost entire houses still standing.  Complete with frescos and mosaics.

On our way out of the ruins at Herculaneum, we realized a huge problem they have.  The town of Ercolano is built right on top of the ruins.  They have excavated into the town almost as far as they can go without starting to tear down the modern buildings of the town.  There is still places that they are digging out but from the pictures below you can see how close it is to town.

Excavation still in progress

The outside wall of the ruins with the modern city sitting on top of it.

These two towns took a day each to explore and I know we didn't see it all.  But, I guess that will have to wrap up my history lesson for now.   Besides, who wants to look at the other 200 pictures we took!

I am so thankful to Joe for making me come to such an amazing place.  And a very big thank you to Marty and Elaine who graciously gave us a ride back to Sorrento after our day in Pompeii!
I think Rome sounds nice, maybe we will go there next...