Pompeii and Napoli

In the 16th century, workers in Pompeii who were digging a canal accidentally encountered ruins buried in the soft volcanic soil of the area. It wasn't until the 18th century that people realized that what had been found were the ruins of an ancient Roman town. However, systematic scientific excavation of the site did not really begin until the late 19th century. Archaeologists and historians now explain that the ancient city of Pompeii was founded by the Etruscans over 2,000 years ago and then colonized by the Romans in 80 B.C. In 79 A.D., Mt. Vesuvius erupted unexpectedly burying the town (as well as its people) under 20 feet of volcanic ash and pumice, erasing all traces of this town of 35,000 for two millennia. Its discovery has changed our understanding of how those ancient people lived and it is the most important historical site in Italy. Pompeii was our objective for the day.

Morning started with a light breakfast at the hotel: coffee, bread, and salami. We boarded our buses and got onto the only highway out of Sorrento and into epic traffic. As our exasperated tour guide Gino explained, the Italian government waits until tourist season begins to start roadwork, usually in the middle of the week, just as the morning rush hour is beginning. But, the weather was beautiful and the vistas breathtaking. The traffic eventually lightened up and we made our way along the edge of the Bay of Naples with Mt. Vesuvius  dominating the vista across the water. All around its base the area is densely built up, with no break between the municipalities. As we neared Vesuvius we entered the denser and more modest residential areas. For the most part they were multi-story apartment buildings, usually 4 stories high, with gray, pink or yellow walls, but all with red tiled roofs. Every balcony was full of hanging laundry and plants in terracotta pots. They are set back from the highway, often with modest gardens between the buildings and the road. The commercial center of modern Pompei is unremarkable and even somewhat shabby (reminiscent of small Mexican cities in Baja).

  

Pompeii is an extensive archaeological site - about a square mile in area. Approximately 75% of it has been uncovered. This was clearly a dense and wealthy urban center - wide streets of black basalt flagstones, block upon block of buildings with shared walls made up of multi-colored tufa rock, thin red bricks, cement, thick plaster, and marble columns. Most of the buildings had lost their roofs, except for the public baths and a brothel (one of the few places with intact frescoes depicting available services). Interestingly, those few roofs that were intact were covered in familiar red terracotta tiles. Some of the buildings still have colorfully plastered or tiled floors and walls, particularly the public baths, although the vast majority of the detachable antiquities have either been stolen or moved to the museum in Napoli. The temple of Apollo still has bronze statues of Apollo and his sister Diana. The ruins are a  photographer's dream. Abundant arches and long straight roads provide constant depth of field. The site was filled with tour groups speaking a dozen different languages. Lots of school groups too. It was a fast paced tour. Gino did a great job explaining various sites, but it was hard to keep up with him and still take the time to take careful photographs. In total, we only spent about two hours at the site. I could have spent another five.   For lunch a subset of our group had paid ahead for a meal at a local restaurant. It was mediocre: bruschetta, lasagna, beer, and a pastry. Sharon and I were dying for a coffee, but it wasn't part of the deal (Note: My experience thus far is that Italy is not really a coffee culture, despite the image of sophisticated espresso sippers.  For the most part it's instant or boiled, and believe me, I've been looking).

After lunch our entire group boarded the bus and we continued north to Naples to visit the museum where most of the Roman antiquities are housed. The trip from Pompeii to Naples is an interesting one because the highway skirts around the base of Mt. Vesuvius and two things become very apparent: 1) Vesuvius is not only tall (1281 meters) but truly massive; and 2) its slopes are densely (some might say suicidally) settled. Vulcanologists define regions around the still active volcano in terms of their exposure or level of risk. The "red" region encompasses an area occupied by over 3 million people and, as Gino delightfully pointed out, encompasses the highway we were traveling on. It last erupted in 1941, and is due to do so again.

Napoli (Naples) is the third largest city in Italy and the second largest port. It is a large, sprawling and gritty city. It is full of beautiful architecture ranging from the Middle Ages (massive stone battlements and remnant castle walls), to elegant 19th century apartment buildings, to modern steel and glass skyscrapers, but most of it seemed to be suffering under a layer of sooty grunge. The streets are barely controlled chaos, filled with tiny cars going in every direction with no visible lanes or even street signals. Pedestrians cross randomly through 8 lanes of chaotic traffic because there are no crosswalks. Everyone on the bus was gasping at the site of it all and laughing nervously. Somehow our bus navigated through this mess without incident.

We went to the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli (Archaeological Museum of Naples) where the vast majority of the classical antiquities recovered from Pompeii and other Greek and Roman sites have been preserved and put on display. This is an impressive museum. Gino, whose professional background is archaeology, led our group through the museum, focusing his lecture on the most important Roman artifacts. We started with the massive marble statues of mythological figures on the first and second floors. I was really taken with the statue of Hercules. This marble giant towers at least 20 feet high. It is a curly-haired and massively muscular Hercules, looking somewhat exhausted after completing the 12 labors to become immortal. He leans to his left against a short column with a lion skin under his left arm, while he holds the three golden apples behind his back with his right hand. When this statue was discovered in the 1500s, his head was missing. Michelangelo sketched the design for a head to be added and then handed the design over to another artist to execute the work. According to Gino, this other guy botched the job because Hercules's head is not proportional to his body - it's too small. I dunno ... giant muscular body and small head ... doesn't look odd to me.

From the statues we moved on to another floor to view the tile mosaics that had been recovered from Roman villas and public areas of Pompeii and other sites. These mosaics are complex and brilliantly colored and they depict a vast array of subject matter, from historical events to everyday scenes of life. A number were mythological and kind of creepy. However, the highlight of the museum tour, at least for me, was our arrival at the Gabinetto Segreto (Secret Cabinet) - a display of erotic Roman art. Lots of phalluses and sexual jokes. Very explicit depictions, both in painting and sculpture, of a lot of different kinds of sexual behavior. Homosexual behavior among men (but not women) was a common theme, as was beastiality. Interestingly, Gino commented earlier in the tour that pedophilia was openly practiced, or at least referenced, by both the Greeks and the Romans. He mentioned this (somewhat quietly) to explain a number of mythological marble sculptures on the lower floors. However, as far as I could tell, there was no such depiction or reference in the Gabinetto Segreto exhibit. In any case, the great tragedy was that my camera batteries died just as I got to this exhibit (grrrrr). BUT, thank the gods for cell phone cameras! As they say, blurry sex is better than no sex. The last exhibit was of frescoes that had been rescued. These are very colorful, but we had little time to really look. Back to the bus and to Sorrento.

For dinner Larry, Sharon, and I and another couple went out in search of a pasta-free dinner.