August 24, A.D. 79

This is the infamous date when Mount Vesuvius erupted and covered the surrounding area with volcanic ash.  That ash preserved things amazingly well and by looking at the ancient sites of Herculaneum and Pompeii, we can get a good idea of what Roman life was like all those years ago.  When we left Rome and traveled south toward the Naples area, for some reason, we were expecting even better weather....however it was exactly the opposite....cold and rainy, which cut our exploration of Pompeii short, but I was grateful for every minute we had.  I had done quite a bit of reading about Pompeii before we left and seeing it really tied it all together for me.

Our first stop was Herculaneum.  The ancient area is much smaller than Pompeii and not as grand, but it has a more personal feel ~ maybe because it was not hit quite as hard as Pompeii ~ there seem to be more details of life.  In Italian, this town is called Ercolano.  Strangely, in my mind, I pictured both Herculaneum and Pompeii apart from modern life ~ separated by time AND place....that you would just drive up through open country and then suddenly it would be all you see.  Never had I pictured the modern cities that had grown up around these areas, though I probably should have.  This photo shows "Modern Ercolano" as it is called, in the background.  There were people living right on the edges of the ruins.  We talked about how strange it would be to have THIS as the view out our kitchen window.
There was a lot of construction on the roads between Naples and these cities.  Our driver, Giovanni, told us they were working on widening the roads because Mt. Vesuvius is expected to erupt again in the next 20 years and they need to be able to evacuate people.  If you live there, I wonder if Vesuvius erupting is something that you think about every day or something you just put out of your mind......

This ancient marble walkway looked completely intact.

Yes, another mosaic floor ~ the preservation was amazing!

While we saw some frescoes later in the day in Pompeii, they were not preserved nearly as well as the ones here in Herculaneum.

I loved the detail of the marble in the curve of this arch.  The guide book kept saying to picture the entire place covered in marble as it was back then.  The marble here helped me try to do that.

This is a sign that remains outside of a wine shop.

This was a gorgeous mosaic on the wall of a home.  I zoomed in to try to show the shells that remain from a shell "frame" it once had.

Apparently this is the Roman version of a fast food restaurant.  The holes in the counter held pots for the food.   Most Romans did not cook for themselves so there were a lot of these joints, especially in Pompeii.

The boys jumped right in....a future in fast food perhaps?????

Our original plan was to see Herculaneum, then do a hike to see the crater at the top of Vesuvius before heading to Pompeii.  Unfortunately, the weather did not permit the hike, so we headed straight to Pompeii.  It, also, is situated in a "modern" city and the entrance is surrounded by food stands and shops.  While convenient (we ate at one of said food stands, as well as got protection from the rain as we awaited our driver), it makes the area seem so touristy.....but that feeling goes away once you get inside. 

This is near the entrance to the city.  The boys are standing on a stepping stone which allowed Pompeiians to cross the road and keep their feet dry after the daily flush of rushing water they used to clean the streets.

This is just a cute picture of Chris with his hat.....I miss that hat!

This is a plaster cast of a victim captured in the last moments of life.  When the people were covered with the superheated ash from the eruption, they suffocated.  Their bodies decomposed and left spaces which archaeologists filled in with plaster, resulting in these casts.  It felt kind of invasive to take the picture, and now to post it, but I think it really gives you a feel for what happened there that day.

This famous statue, Dancing Faun, was in Pompeii's largest home ~ Casa del Founo (aka "House of the Faun").  It is a copy, but we had seen and liked the original in the Archeological Museum in Naples.  It was really interesting to see the statues at the museum, but then to see them as they were situated in real life.

Yet another cool mosaic floor.

These are the ovens in a bakery.

Another fast food restaurant

Here is Chris in front of the oven at the bakery.  It really looked very much like the wood-fired ovens we were seeing in the pizza places throughout Italy.   We did get a laugh out of the umbrellas we had bought for the boys before entering the site ~ NOT our shrewdest purchase.  

They were fine for the light drizzle that started but as soon as the wind picked up, THIS is what happened.

Chris took his frustrations out on what remained of his umbrella once we had decided we were too wet to continue.

Just wanted to include a picture of these gigantic lemons they were selling outside of Pompeii....they are a good seque into my next post about Sorrento ~ the lemon capital of Italy.