In the shadow of Vesuvius

Over my October holiday (which ended yesterday) I spent a week in Italy. The first three nights were spend in Sant'Agnello, which is just outside of Sorrento. I spent an evening in Sorrento the first day (Wednesday), then two days exploring the sights of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Vesuvius. Pompeii has been top on my list of places to visit since I got here, and it was amazing! I took a bus tour of Vesuvius and Pompeii on Thursday and then Friday I went to Herculaneum and back to Pompeii on my own. Friday I had an early afternoon train to Rome, so spent the morning in Naples.

Here are just a few of the 300 photos I took, to give you an idea of the things I got to see.

This was on my first walk from Sant'Agnello along the coast to Sorrento. I had already seen three German tour buses and one French. None Italian at this point...

Watching the sun set right on the coast in Sorrento

I then walked down the little path to the harbour, but was hurried back by the quickly darkening sky as the path goes through a small, and very dark, cave along the way. 

Day 2 - tour of Vesuvius. This was taken almost right by the crater, looking down towards Naples.

The circular crater of Vesuvius

It is now plugged, after the eruption in 1944. It is currently dormant, but this actually makes it more dangerous. There are a few places you can still see steam coming out of the rock, but it isn't visible from below because of the plug (the bottom of this crater). 

POMPEII!!!!!!!

One of my favourite parts of walking around the city: the cobble streets. In this picture you can see all three cool things: (1) The grooves left from the passage of many chariots (2) The very high curbs to keep pedestrians out of the muck in the street, and (3) You can just make out three bigger stepping stones farther along the road. These were so pedestrians could cross the street without stepping down into the muck. What confuses me is how did the chariots make it over/around them?

The market, only thing for sale today - a stray dog?

A millstone

One of the few buildings with anything still inside was the mill. They put the grain in the top, attached a donkey to turn it and the flour would have fallen down onto the ring counter below. There were many bakeries, still with two, three, or four of these in the room. The other sign of a bakery is the oven, looking like a modern pizza oven. 

A new friend on my walk back to the hostel. This one-eyed cat was very sure it needed attention and petting. It followed me along about a 20 m stretch of fencing. I, of course, did stop to pet it :)

A food bar in Herculaneum

The next morning I took myself on the Circumvesuviana train to Herculaneum (modern Ercolano, which was actually named something else until they discovered the ancient Herculaneum). Because the average ancient Roman would have eaten most meals out, there were many many little food bars. These, along with bakeries, were the only buildings that still have anything in them at Pompeii, Herculaneum and Ostia. They all have very similar counters, and sometimes also a back area where people could sit to eat. The counters have built in ceramic jars to keep the food to serve. These things are huge, they are the same height as the counter and very round. In some you can also see where they could heat up the food. I really liked the different counters, and how they were decorated. 

Courtyard of a Herculaneum house

This was one of my favourite houses, because of how much has survived. This is the ground floor of an apartment block, attached to the houses next to it on the block. You enter the main door and come into the atrium, with an impluvium: a little pool in the middle to collect the rain water from the centre hole in the roof. Opposite the main entrance is the tablinium (where our word table comes from). It is the receiving room for guests. This picture is behind that, in the private area of the house. The centre is a garden, surrounded by a peristyle. The rooms around were sitting rooms, dining rooms, bedrooms, etc. In this house you could really imagine what it would have looked like and felt like. Some rooms are fully intact - walls, roof, floor mosaic, and even some frescoes. 

Women's change room

As nice as the house was, this is my favourite building in Herculaneum - the women's baths! Much better preserved than the men's baths, but smaller. They consist of three rooms, this being the change room, then the tepidarium and finally the caldarium. No frigidarium like on the men's side. 

Here is the caldarium with the pool at the end. This is one of the few buildings that still has a roof.

And the amazing wooden sliding doors!!! As seem on Mary Beard's Meet the Romans.

Me ... back in Pompeii on my own

The Villa of Mysteries - dining room. I would love to dine in a room with frescoes like that.

In the shadow of Vesuvius

Statue of a Fawn

This little statue gave its name to the House of the Fawn. This house also has an amazing mosaic of a full battle, with horses and warriors. I saw the originals, of the statue and mosaic, in the archaeology museum in Naples. 

Another food bar. This time with a nice fresco on the wall.

The large theatre in Pompeii

The sun beginning to set. I don't know what happened to this picture when I uploaded it, it looks a lot nicer on my computer.

Leaving Pompeii as the sun set

Next morning, back on the Circumvesuviana. This time all the way round to Naples.

One nice street in Naples

That afternoon I took the train to Rome, where I met my friend Teresa. More Roman ruins, lots of good food, lots of walking, five days and another 450 photos later I headed back to Frankfurt. When I have got Teresa's photos (because 450 isn't enough) I will post about those adventures.