Visit to Herculaneum…

My last post kind of ended suddenly, and what actually happened is that I walked to the little cafe that was just before the exit gates. Outdoor place, set up with a tiny kitchen and several quaint tables. Just the place to relax in the dappled sunshine of late afternoon in old Pompeii. Had some of their soup and a cappuccino to go with it. There’s free WiFi here but I didn’t bring my tablet. Ahh, relaxing. Then I walked to the east exit that I had a picture of in my last post, here. After leaving ancient Pompeii, and crossing the street right after all the strip malls and such, I noticed a RV park! Huh. I’ve gotta see that. So I walked in and checked it out. The prices per night were pretty much what I expected right outside an internationally known ruin, but what surprised me were the small parking spaces. They require a small RV. I couldn’t get my 37 footer in here, nowhere to park! This is a new RV park too. So my side dream of renting a big RV and touring Europe is out the window. This was just one of the two RV parks I passed on this street and they were both designed for small RVs. Nothing bigger then about a 24 footer. Most of them were without slides too.

After visiting the RV parks, I headed back to my B&B. Along the way there’s a casino and at least here there’s a bar. Practically every restaurant sells wine, some sell beer, but this was the first bar I found. Too early in the day to imbibe but I did play the slots for an hour or so. After that stop, I’m walking along the road that leads to my motel and a car passed me on the road (I’m on the sidewalk), screeches to a halt, backs up, and asks me, in Italian, where did I get the hat, at least that’s what his gesturing tells me. It’s my cow hat and it gets noticed everywhere. Anyway, I let the guy and his family know that I don’t speak Italian so they switch to pigeon English and he lets me know how much they admire the hat. It’s the only hat I had with me on the trip, and it does rain over here. I would have sold it to them if they’d asked I suppose, but they didn’t and he was parked in the middle of the street so he had to move on. Funny.

Next day, I walk up to the Pompeii entrance again and then keep going 100 feet or so beyond to the train station. Inside the little building there is the ticket office, with real people inside. I buy a ticket for Herculaneum, a place I didn’t even know about before this trip. I’d found a brochure here in the station the day I arrived. While waiting for the train, it starts raining and I mentally kick myself for wearing my sandals (with socks!) instead of shoes. I had my hat and light jacket with hood since I knew the weather would be dicey but, really, sandals? I’d been on this commuter train before so I grabbed a spot where I could watch for my stop out the windows. Twenty minutes later, I debark at the Ercolano Scavi stop. If you visit that link, you’ll find a suggestion you avoid the shuttle and because of that pre-warning, I proceeded to just walk to the ruins rather than taking a shuttle. More fun anyway because walking gives you a sense of where you are now, how people live, what they do, etc.

You just go straight down this street that’s just outside the train station, and when you reach the end, you’re there at the ruins. You can see the ocean off in the distance. Those trees there at the bottom of the street are on either side of the entrance gate, which when I passed was empty and the gate was open. Hmm. Seemed a little strange. But, it’s early in tourist season I guess. After going through the gate, you are on this high bridge and this is the first view you have of Herculaneum. The new city is behind and on the north side but there is a big open space to the south.

Just beyond the area above, there’s some new buildings and such and you go in and get your ticket there. Then you walk up to the gate, which happened to be unmanned and unlocked when I got there, and I just walked in. There was someone there to collect your ticket on the way out though. So no cheating. In the below picture, you can see how deep the ash flow was. Where that bridge is down in the bottom of the ravine is where the old ground level use to be.  The path I took starts over at those trees, path goes to the building, through some turnstiles, then comes on around to here. There’s another new building behind me and the ocean, off in the distance, is to the right. The city was built on steep cliffs below Vesuvius and what you’re looking at in the above and below pictures are seawalls, a harbor, and boat houses. The town was never really very big, only hosting 4,000 inhabitants at it’s demise but it was right on the sea so it was likely thriving as a shipping and fishing hamlet. It was near here in 1982 they found 300 bodies of people that attempted to flee the city during the eruption of 79 CE. With all the valuables they could carry. They were overcome by superheated, noxious, and poisonous gases. My guide book doesn’t mention which museum they or their belongings are in though. Pity.Following the path, which goes down 16 meters from the current land surface, you cross the new bridge into the old town, climbing a gently sloping ancient rock pathway into the town.
This is an ongoing archaeological dig and there was much evidence of that. Some areas were blocked off and others, like above, were in the process of restoration or hazard abatement.

These food storage pots were all over the place. Didn’t see many of those in Pompeii. Now here’s my kind of place…the Large Taberna. A pub with marble covered counter where dolia (jars of beer) are inserted. Then on the shelves were containers of food. On a partition in the back room is a painting of a ship, and some graffiti, including the Greek maxim, “Diogenes, the cynic, in seeing a woman swept away by a river, exclaimed: “Let one ill be carried away by another.”
The way this town was buried, kind of gentle like, saved much of the wood (below). There is evidence of scorching though, giving you an idea of how hot the gases from Vesuvius were. Then here, there are many frescos that really are in much better shape than the ones at Pompeii. Remember that I mentioned that I’d stupidly worn my sandals instead of shoes? Well, here the rain came. Buckets. For at least 15 minutes. Cold in my light jacket. Windy too. A couple minutes later I ran over to that bigger breezeway.There’s a lot of water everywhere, and quickly. I was in the causeway over there, but didn’t like the windblown rain caused by the tunneling effect so ran over to this area. Not much better, but some. I did miss getting drenched in the downpour that occurred just after I made the run.Everywhere you look though, you’d see the remnants of the old drainage system still working. These shots were taken in the house of the Tuscan Colonnade. There was a small treasure of 1,400 coins found upstairs here that didn’t make it away during the eruption.
From there you can go into the Women’s baths.  And the men’s baths, then the tepidarium, with the furnaces behind.
Some graffiti, and a wading pool.

And wherever you go in this town, great mosaics. One of the typical Roman style streets. Again, this would have been finished with sand, usually, if the city works department wasn’t sitting on it’s hands all the time wasting tax money.

And here we have a bronze bust of the homeowner. Seems nice enough.And another Taberna…a tavern or pub. Food was served from those jars but also warmed wine, and beer.Some of the surviving wood. The carpenters in the audience should notice right away the excellent workmanship here.A thermopolia where the public dined. Served hot food and drinks. It was more customary to have lunch here then at home.Need a drink for yourself or your horse? Or a bath for your kid? Here’s where you do that.More of a walkway then a street.
Another restaurant. This one in really good shape.

This was a mill. Those are grinding implements in the below picture.

The town square and one of the many statues to a Roman who helped the town out.Here you’re looking at the access tunnel as I’m leaving town. That grass there was where the ocean would have been 2,000 years ago. They got 16 meters of ash here.

And here I’m climbing up the access tunnel (modern) and turned around for this shot.

And a final look at the boat houses and buildings as I take the path to the exit.As I’m leaving, on my right is the land created by the vulcano. The ocean is 400 meters in that direction.
Inside the ticket building are some artifacts. Pretty cool.Then as I’m leaving, I walk on the other side of the causeway and bridge and this is on the other side. Not accessible where I was when touring the town below.You can see some archaeological goings on there.I don’t know what that walkway was about.

And after a final look goodbye, the trudge up the street to the train station. That’s Vesuvius off in the distance.
It was still early in the day, but I didn’t want to have to take the commuter train during rush hour so I headed home. Stopped at the casino and had a drink, then went home for some internet cruising while relaxing in bed.

I was tuckered out from all the walking I’d done over the last 3-4 days, so I just took the next day off and lounged around the hotel. Ahh. One of the benefits of paying for a weeks lodging.

Next time we head for Turin. That’s in Italy. Seems it’s famous. And it’s famous because it has the world’s largest Egyptian Museum outside of Egypt. Pretty cool, huh? I had no set schedule from here in Pompeii onward in my trip, so I had to scurry around on the internet trying to find a place to stay in Turin. Finally, I found a room right in the heart of the city! Online the pictures of the place looked good and the description of the hosts and surrounding area seemed nice, so I booked 3 nights.

See you all next time!