Day 26 - Naples and Pompeii
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Wendell On Naples, Pompeii, Herculaneum
So, we arrive in Naples on May 7th around 9am, after a night train from Venice, and we decide to walk the mile to our hostel. Once we got off the train, we were surrounded by train station touts offering us rooms, taxis and several other items, the names of which we did not understand. I suspect that, given a large wad of Euros and a better command of the Italian language, we could have had a very good time.
We exited the train station and were faced with the problem of crossing the street. The Neapolitans have not yet been introduced to the concept of the street light, or else they regard it merely as a decoration to amuse the tourists. Following the one of the locals (we
hoped) we stepped off the curb into the fray. We arrived on the other side of the street, to our amazement, then began picking our way through a sidewalk flea market rife with beggars and gentlemen who had nothing to do at 10am on Sunday morning except hang out on the local street corner.
The flea market was entertaining - almost everything is available for sale on the street in Naples for half-off, slightly damaged when it, "fell off the back of a truck." Naples is very "mobbed up" and uneployment runs aroudn 30%.
We make it to our hostel, got checked in, dropped our bags and
(wisely) decided to take the bus back to the train station, where we caught the CircumVesuviano train to Herculaneum.
Take note here: if you've got only one day, do Herculaneum and skip Pompeii. Herculaneum is like Medina and Pompeii is like Ballard.
Herculaneum is also 1/20th the size of Pompeii. Both of them are only
1/2 excavated and 1/10th restored, so they both merit a return trip every decade.
We had a great time touring Herculaneum - they had to chase us out of the park when it closed at 7pm. We had two different guide books, plus the map dn aguidebook that came free with the ticket. We had a great time interpolating between the 3 data points, plus making up our own theories about how the town worked. One of the baths was closed and Hobbit threw a faux-temper-tantrum at the exit (to the amusement of the onlookers.)
I had fun explaining the architecture, function of various places and making analogies to modern buildings. For example, we visited the ruins of a small bar and I explained it in terms of one of our local bars. We also toured the Herculaneum equivalent of the Playboy Mansion (it was *obviously* a bachelor pad) and a house belonging to a very wealthy trophy hunter - a proto Safari Club member.
After a few hours of this, Hobbit got a burst of energy and began charging around the site, coming up with her own ideas about how things would have worked and figuring out the "missing pieces."
We arrived back at our hostel, took shower and collapsed. The next morning we checked out, shouldered our backpacks and headed off for the bus to the train station.
The bus was VERY crowded and Hobbit, in touch with her Gen-X Seattle roots did a stage-dive into the mosh-pit of the bus interior. I almost expected her to be hoisted on top of the crowd of commuters and crowd-surf her way to the front of the bus. The doors began to close, so I mashed myself in behind her, only to find that 3 other people mashed in behind me.
That's when the fun started...
I was mashed in by a trio of pickpockets, who proceeded to chat me up and search the pockets of my trousers for two stops. I had everything in my moneybelt, so there wasn't anything that they could get from my pockets.
I was amused at the whole thing - I had nothing of value in my pockets.
After the pickpockets left, a local guy in a suit said (in broken
english) "Did you lose anything? They were pickpockets."
I explained that I had all my valuables hidden and that I hadn't lost anything. Several other locals chimed in, explaining that "it would be bad for us if we said anything to you while they were there" and thanking me for being the target of the pickpockets so that they would leave them alone. They also thanked me for being a smart tourist and not giving the pickpockets anything ("Thank you for not feeding the
animals.")
We arrived at Pompeii around 11am and spent the day touring the site.
We had a great time using the Herculaneum experience as a base of knowledge to interpret what we were seeing. We were also amazed to see that about 1/3 of Pompeii is still buried - it's going to be really amazing to see what they discover in the next 10 years.
Unfortunately we didn't get to go visit the other 3, smaller, sites.
The ruins of Vesuvius are definitely on our list for next time, however I think that we'll skip Naples.
Naples Police on Segway
Comparing Pompeii And Herculaneum
Pompeii is 20 times larger than Herculaneum, and both are only about one third to one half excavated. When we toured Pompeii, there were huge areas waiting to be excavated. It's obvious that there is a lot of Herculaneum to be excavated, however much of the ancient city is 20-30 feet underneath modern buildings.
Hobbit On A Crosswalk
The streets were used as open sewers and chariots generated a lot of horse poop (which washed down the streets in the rain.) Crosswalks were stones about 2 feet tall and the width of a set of chariot wheels. You can see Hobbit using the crosswalk in Pompeii.
Hobbit Touring The Ruins Of Pompeii
Hobbit Impersonates A Statue
This is the ruins of the lobby area to one of the ampitheaters of Pompeii - on the other side of the columns was where the Roman equivalent of popcorn vendors would have set up their carts.
The square holes are made by Pileated Woodpeckers, the round holes by Standard Woodpeckers ...
Not really, the column is made of marble.
The Ampitheater - If you look closely, you can see a tired Hobbit in her red shirt in the upper row.
A tired Hobbit in her red shirt in the upper row.
Hobbit In The Pompeii Colliseum
Warehouse of Archaeological Finds
This is a photo taken in one of the warehouses of archaeological finds. Note the dozens of amphorae, the marble trim and on the right, a plaster cast of one of the victims of Pompeii.
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