Visit to a Really Old Town…

Next morning, I get up early, and head into the hotel kitchen. They’ve already told me that I can use the main kitchen to cook, and they show me around and give some quick instructions on how the appliances work. The rental room is called a B&B, where I’m also allowed to use the kitchen. This is not typical in the USA in my experience with B&Bs. I knew from most of the ads on the Roomorama web site that often I could use the kitchens so I had always looked for that when I was making reservations before and during my trip. The proprietor also prepares a little morning repast for me and the other quests as they arrive. Bagels, rolls, jams, coffee, toast, cereal or oatmeal, the regular crappy b’fast. During the week I stayed here, I always had the cereal, toast, and coffee. Saving money, lots of money. Imagine the cost of eating breakfast out every morning for the 2 months I’d planned on staying in Europe. In fact, cooking my own meals, and staying at B&Bs saved me enough that I could afford to stay in Europe the entire 2 months. Right at this point in my trip though, I didn’t know that so I was being conservative with my money.

After b’fast, I walk over to the Pompeii site. It was a little confusing finding the site but I’d gotten some directions at the hotel, and after some stumbling around and gazing curiously at a sign or two, which are in Italian but you can kinda figure out, I quickly found a road that headed up a hill and into the site. Just across the street from the entrance are these many kiosks selling trinkets and foods. Even a small cafe’ or two. Interesting. One advertised WiFi.

At the Pompeii site entrance.

The ticket line was longer than I like, but it moved fast and soon, I was on the walkway heading into the fabled, and quite real city of ancient Pompeii!

This was all buried with ash for nearly 2,000 years.

You can see that the weather was a little overcast…which suited me fine. I’d picked April to visit Europe simply to escape the hordes of tourists that come during the summer. With kids no less. Gah. But you can see from the pictures I’ll be posting, that Pompeii isn’t exactly empty of tourists, or children, but it’s not packed either. Quite comfy for me, actually. Wasn’t suppose to rain, so I had on a short sleeved shirt, long pants, comfy shoes, and my hat.

The picture above of the western wall of the city I took while waiting in line for my ticket. Already it’s interesting. That path over on the right with all the people on it is how I’ll eventually head into the site. We’re standing on the ash mountain that was left by Vesuvius in this area. The buildings you are looking at were buried after the eruption and stayed that way until the 1600’s. Since then, they’ve been slowly excavated.

Now in this shot (below), you can see the main tunnel-like entrance of Pompeii. This causeway and arched tunnel is the main entrance to the city and where the thousands of visitor yearly would have gotten their first view of Pompeii two thousand years ago. For most of eight hundred years before that, it was a ‘City-State’ and had it’s own king and such so this restrictive entrance was for protection, but those days were long gone by the time Pompeii had it’s heyday as a bedroom community populated by Romans on holiday. But even so, the old entrance was used out of tradition, often with pomp and circumstance if the visitor was important. And down below the entrance was a moat. The walls extended 3,200 mts in the old times, until Pompeii got uppity in 80 BCE and rebelled against Rome. The subsequent siege and defeat by Rome ironically guaranteed it’s safety so the walls protecting the city were somewhat dismantled for new buildings. This is the Western entrance, which faces the sea a couple kilometers away, and there are 12 defensive towers (along with a wall) on the Northern side of the city as that area is flat and difficult to defend. And other walls on the south and eastern sides. All with gates and watchtowers. This area originally was rich farmland as it bordered a large river. The vulcano kind of changed it’s course but before then there was a river right next to Pompeii.

The building in the below pic is modern I believe. Can’t remember much about it, other than I did wander around and inside I think. I can’t find it on the site map. But below that building the picture shows the ancient walls and wharf plus some other building that was at one time, after construction, under water. Part of the moat. You can make out the different stages of building styles in different eras. 

I saw this view over the wall, it’s the area across from the front entrance but looking mostly northerly. Toward Naples, sorta. Yes, it is idyllic now, but remember there are several meters of ash right there; 2,000 years ago, it wouldn’t have looked anything like that. And that mountain right there in the center of the picture? Vesuvius. I was up on top of that just the day before.

Off in the distance is more of the old city. Before entering the main city, I took a walk to the south of Pompeii along the walkway which is actually the return of a self-guided tour, with booklet and recordings. Which I didn’t bother with as I wanted to take an unguided tour first, then come back another day and discover more specifics.

This area of the city is the southern edge of the old walled city. Kinda cool. After getting a sense of the layout of the city, I returned to the tunnel and entered the city the proper way. Just inside the arch are these ruins. We’re also here to check out the building methods and materials, so I like it. Doesn’t look like much so far, but imagine it all with a coat of paint. Or covered with plaster and frescas.

And here we have one of the really cool rock paved streets. Neat! They aren’t that comfortable to walk on however. But in olden times, all the surface irregularities would have been smoothed out with ground lufa here or sand near the coast or pebbles in other areas. Whatever the engineers could find nearby to use.

Most of these several pictures are from the House of Geometric Mosaics. A very large home with more than 60 rooms, finely appointed. Much evidence of rebuilding after the earthquake of 62 CE. It’s scenically well positioned too so someone very rich owned it. There are several guided tours wandering around and I kind of find them annoying because they’re like 25 people strong filing past me in single file on the street or at the entrance of some building, and they all crowd into the sites, all up in my way, then flutter off to the next site…usually in the same direction I’m going. Damnit. But, sometimes, I get to overhear a story about one of the ruins by an English speaking guide. Later I discover if I hold back and quietly follow them, I can insinuate myself into the group, for free. The guard guy, the guy who blocks other tourists from entering a site, starts thinking I’m with them. Hehehe. But, I tired of that game quickly because they move too slowly. And off I go on my own again. It’s a big assed town, lots to see. I’m glad I got here fairly early in the morning to miss lots of the dumb asses that sleep in and go to restaurants to have a leisurely b’fast, arriving here late.

It did rain last night or very early but it’s been holding off so far this morning.

And here is one of the 89 fast food bars. The prepared food and drinks, (wine mostly), would be in pots inserted into those holes and the patrons would come by, at lunch time when EVERYONE ate out, either have a seat, or buy and fly, or be ushered into the back rooms to lie on a couch with your friends…some of these cafes had fire boxes under those holes where pots full of food were to heat the food or wine. Kinda cool.

And then we get to the town square. Here is a large open courtyard surrounded by buildings suggestive of a city government with riches and the kind of civic pride that induced public works building. It didn’t hurt that two Caesars in a row took a special interest in Pompeii. This area is called the Forum and the square is surrounded by public and governmental buildings. No shops of any kind. And, there wasn’t any cart traffic allowed in the square. This portion of the city wasn’t completely buried by the volcano so many of the statues that once surrounded this square were removed, likely by the citizens of Pompeii who returned when they could to try and find their own property. This is the Building of Eumachia, a priestess of the fullers (people who treated & dyed fabrics). Erected in 37 CE around 42 years before the volcano erupted. Yes, that is marble. Some of the finest remaining in Pompeii. To the right of the entrance was that square walled jar, huge, where people could urinate after climbing a short staircase. The urine was used in the processing of fabrics as a bleach and degreaser.

And here, in an ancient produce market, flanked by a large latrine, are thousands of items found by archeologists over the last 100 years.  Here are also stored some of the casts of victims of the eruption. Likely slaves forced to stay to guard their masters riches.

And then a couple statues still left after the site was picked over by looters. One of the nearby baths…I believe this is a tepidarium. The soot would have been from fires to warm the room. And then down one of the side streets just to have a look around.Well, I’m tired, so I’m going to cut this off here and come back to it, hopefully tomorrow. Thanks for reading!