When I was what is now called a “tween” my pop-pop got me a
subscription to the junior version of National Geographic magazine. Between those pages I learned lots of things
that got me interested in History and the world around me. One article that particularly inspired me was
one on the excavations of Pompeii and of the plaster casts of people who died
in the eruption of Vesuvius in the middle part of the First Century. Finally, my 50 year old self gets to visit Pompeii!
I took an independent day trip both to save money and to
explore at my own pace. There was a
bigger group on this bus as we had two tours, the independents and the guided
bunches. We took much the same route as
we had to Capri the day before as both are near Naples…so off to Naples we went. We did stop for coffee and bathrooms. I also did get to snap photos of some things
I had not had the opportunity to the day before.
This is Monte Cassino which is the site of the first
Benedictine monastery, which you can barely see at the top (St. Benedict is entombed there). It was destroyed and rebuilt several times
over the centuries, most recently by us in WWII as there was a rumor that
Hitler was holed up there. However,
after the war, we did pay for the rebuilding.
This is a quick drive-by photo of a section of the Appian
Way, the great road between Rome and points south. This is the first superhighway. Note that it is shaded from the Hot
Mediterranean sun by lovely umbrella pines (remember, no roofs on chariots).
We made it to Pompeii and our first stop was a cameo factory
where we saw a short film on how cameos are made, then we used the free toilets
(the toilets inside Pompeii cost 50 cents).
Although I know you can buy cheap cameos on the street in Pompeii, I
fell in love with a pair of earrings and bought them for myself as my 50th
birthday present (a day late). Lucky for
me I already knew our end of day meeting place and time as I had lingered past
when most of the independent group had already left for the ruins.
I got in the line, which seemed long (and contained a loud bunch of American
teenagers) but moved remarkably quickly and entered through a side
entrance. I was a little thrown off as I
had a tour from a Rick Steves guide and it starts out at the main entrance
where the train station is. I actually
went backwards for a bit because that guide ended where I had come in. He also said something about free maps, which
I did not get, so I was a little lost for a bit (the map in his book was a bit
sketchy). Luckily, someone dropped their
map and I was able to find one, unclaimed, on the ground.
The side entrance had you circle the ruins for a bit, so we
got to see a side view of Pompeii.
We entered through what is a smaller forum (there is a large
forum at the main entrance) where there was housing for gladiators.
Next to the smaller forum, there are two amphitheaters. This is the larger of the two and it’s where
larger plays and events occurred. The
smaller was for things like poetry readings.
Through these, I got to a street.
I found the streets of Pompeii
both fascinating and difficult to walk.
They’re made of basalt stones and they show the signs of
hundreds of years of use. Those are
ridges caused by chariot wheels. Some of
the stones are also loose or buckling, which makes for rough walking. There are also sidewalks along most of the
roads, and they are elevated. Every day,
the roads were flooded to clean them and the refuse washed out to the sea.
There were stepping stones at crosswalks so that pedestrians
wouldn’t get their feet wet. They are
spaced so chariot wheels can get between.
1 stone was a one way street, 2 stones were for two way, and 3 stones,
like this, were for a major thoroughfare.
They even put reflective bits of marble in the streets and
sidewalks to reflect the moon or a lantern so that nighttime navigation was
easier.
The first thing I found that I wanted to see was the temple
of Isis
Now Donna, you are saying, isn’t Isis an Egyptian
goddess? Indeed she was, but she had a
large following in Pompeii as it was a very multi-cultural city at the
time. She was the worshipped as the
ideal wife and mother as well as being the patroness of nature and magic. There is still a cult of Isis to this
day (not to be confused with the
Islamist Jihadists who hijacked her name via an acronym).
This is the detail of a fish on the shrine that held the
sacred waters of the Nile at her temple.
I had to work around a group of German tourists to get my photos. Pompeii is a crowded hot tourist destination
and the biggest crowd draw is the infamous brothel.
I made it a point to locate this infamous building early as
there are generally lines to get in. I
found not a line, but a seething crowd of humanity. I got caught in the middle of an enormous
Spanish tour group and understood enough of the tour guide’s spiel to find it
highly entertaining. I finally fought my
way past that group and got into the brothel.
For some reason, they stopped at the door for a bit and I had most of
the (tiny) place to myself for a few minutes.
WARNING naughty ancient paintings up next , avert your eyes
if you are easily offended.
This place is famous, or infamous, for the frescos on the
wall. Basically, they’re a menu of the
services offered by the prostitutes there (most of whom were not locals, but
slaves brought in from foreign lands and could not speak Latin) so that you could just point to your
order and pay up.
Then you would retire with your chosen prostitute to this
comfy looking alcove, or one just like it.
Don’t know about you, but that doesn’t look like fun to me.
I wandered around for a bit, stumbling intermittently and
trying not to break my neck, camera, skull…
I eventually did find the Forum
With Vesuvius looming menacingly in the distance. You know…that thing is still an active
Volcano. The Forum was the social and
political center of Pompeii.
It’s still pretty social today as it’s the first place most
tourists happen upon from the train station entrance.
The government buildings were at the far end of the forum
And there were temples to gods and goddesses along the
sides.
Next to the Forum was the market area which is currently
being used for archeological storage.
There are a lot of statues, marble furnishings, pottery, etc…
Including some of the plaster casts of the victims. There were others here, but they were lying
down and it appears that they were overtaken by poison gas while trying to
flee, so the dropped to the ground and were buried. This one seemed more emotional to me
somehow…he was curled in on himself, perhaps sitting in a corner or niche
somewhere, trying to hide from what was happening.
Then there is this poor guy.
He’s all twisted like that as he was tied, much like we tie dogs today
to trees or posts to keep them safe and out of the road. He was trying frantically to escape his rope
and flee.
After the Forum, I headed to the Forum Baths, one of three
(or maybe four) bathhouses discovered.
Baths were segregated by gender and the men’s baths were more elaborate
than the women’s. Here, only the men’s
baths were open to explore.
One of the few intact ceilings are the ones here. Most roofs completely collapsed under the
weight of the volcanic ash.
These guys separate locker areas for the male bathers. This place was pretty well preserved, with
the tile floors, hot, warm, and cold bathing pools still intact.
After you were done with your bath, you could head across to
the snack bar…the first fast food joint.
The holes are for pots so that fires can burn beneath them and keep the
food hot. There were several similar
eateries all over Pompeii. Very few
citizens actually cooked in their homes and would eat out all of the time.
Now, Rick Steves identifies this as a bit of aqueduct, but I
think he’s wrong. I’m pretty sure this
is what remains of Caligula’s arch.
I then found the Villa of the Sad Poet.
This is the garden near the entrance to the villa. This villa is one of the more well known
because there are a few nicely preserved frescoes here.
The other villa I found that I could identify was the Villa
of the Faun.
It’s named for the statue in the pool that was in the
gardens. That particular faun is a
reproduction of the original, which is now in a museum in Naples (a lot of the
original stuff was carted off to Naples early in Pompeii’s archeological
history).
This is the entrance area to the villa, which has some
interesting painting going on, as well as the pillars near the ceiling.
But this villa is also famous for this mosaic floor which
may, or may not, also be a reproduction.
I’ve read reports that this is in the museum too, so I’m not sure if
it’s original.
WARNING another naughty fresco alert
This is Priapus, he’s a minor Greek fertility god (Pompeii
was Greek before it was Roman). This
fresco is meant to depict that both fertility and wealth should be in balance
to be fruitful. It’s from the entryway
to the House of the Vetti. This was an
upper class home of two wealthy bachelor brothers and is supposed to have many
lovely frescoes and gardens. Unfortunately,
it has been closed to the public for a while.
It appears it’s undergoing a restoration.
I had to explain to a British couple that this was not the
brothel and pointed them off in kind of the right direction (I hope) and
promptly got lost myself (mostly because a road I needed was closed) and ended
up in another home with some lovely frescoes.
Unfortunately, I never found out which house I had stumbled
into…oh well.
This is one of many public fountains where ordinary citizens
would get their water, I thought it was cool.
It was getting close to the meeting time, so I decided to
head out. I missed tons, but I saw a lot
too. I made my way out through the
entrance by the Forum, which got me all turned around. I did eventually find my way to the taxi
stand where we were to meet with 20 minutes to spare.
Since the square there was filled with souvenir stalls, I
rushed over to get some goodies. I got a
book about Pompeii, a small statue of the Faun, and a refrigerator magnet of
the one fresco I was kind of looking for as it’s a picture I have that used to
hang in my bathroom in Virginia. I think
it was in one of the other baths, and I didn't have time to hit them all.
I got back to the bus with time to spare and we were back to
Rome! We did stop again on the way back
for a restroom break and I got a couple more cheap souvenirs. Back in Rome, I, the master of the Rome
Metro, made it back with time to spare.
I stopped at a street food joint near my apartment and
picked up a pizza slice, then a cannoli from the bakery downstairs. It was a good dinner, and a good day. I did get a slight sunburn though.
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