Italy, part five

I’m so glad this is the last one! Not that I haven’t enjoyed it thus far. It’s just that selecting the photos and writing the blurbs takes some time. I will hand it to Facebook — they make photo sharing easy. I’m sure there was some WordPress plugin I could have taken advantage of though. Maybe next time. During the last two days of our trip, we went back to Rome. And finally got a nice hotel. I was so tired of the cramped bathrooms, musty smells and hard-as-rock beds. Sure the old hotels were fine, but you’re on vacation and you want to feel splurged-on a bit, you know? There comes a point when you might as well be staying in a hostel. This final hotel was new and clean and soft.

We had a lovely patio and view.

We arrived there Saturday afternoon. Saturday night, we went to a goodbye dinner since the tour was breaking up. My brother and I ducked out early and saw those ruins we’d missed the first time around — Julius Caesar’s death spot, the Colosseum at night and a few other things. See part two for discussion of that — although as I said, I had camera fatigue and left the camera at the hotel. The last day, Sunday, was a disaster waiting to happen. I was super stressed going in because (1) we weren’t going to be with the tour group anymore so we’d be finding our own way and (2) we were all at our tiredest and very prone to fighting. (Did I mention there’d been fighting?) By a majority vote my mom was elected the tour guide as she had done the most research of the Italian train system, and we were on our way.

First stop, Naples. I wasn’t very impressed with Naples. It was like a 2nd world country. And there was construction everywhere. And we had a terrible time finding a taxi that could fit 5 people, although that wasn’t Naples’ fault.

The Naples Archeological museum. Surprisingly, there were no lines. After a week of traveling through Italy and seeing long lines at every place we visited, this was unexpected. This isn’t my picture — the actual museum was shrouded with metal scaffolding.

The museum was huge and mostly empty. We walked it quickly. I think we had 1 or 2 hours to spend.

Inside the museum were all the findings from Pompeii and Herculaneum. These statues were incredible and large, larger than they look here. And you can see here how the Romans painted their statues. If you aren’t aware, when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD all of this stuff was preserved in volcanic ash and pumice.

Here’s my grandmother, for perspective.

We were running through here so fast I can’t remember what they’re about. But I like the guy below.

This was the most famous huge HUGE statue. If you go up 3 pictures you can see it at the end of the hall. I can’t remember what it’s called. Something to do with the bull, and the woman was about to be dragged by her hair.

Upstairs, they had more statues and everything that wasn’t a statue. Like these paintings.

Eyes!

These everyday life scenes were fascinating.

I think this centaur was saved from an actual wall.

It’s so elaborate. I wonder if they actually used it or if it was just for decoration.

With Naples behind us, we took the train to Herculaneum. That’s right: we didn’t actually go to Pompeii. The ruins of Herculaneum are smaller, less crowded, and more easily toured in half a day. Look, it’s the volcano!

Present day Herculaneum. I think. Actually I’m not sure what this town/city is called, but it’s built right around ancient Herculaneum.

Since we didn’t stop for pizza in pizza’s birthplace, Naples, we stopped here. It was excellent. The best pizza of the trip. Also at this time I got massively yelled at by a family member. Score.

Sooooooo goooooooooooooooooooooooood.

Herculaneum! This was like, half of it. Small.

I love how the paint is still there.

And you can still see the murals.

Our electronic tour guide told us this was a fast food joint and they would sell whatever was cooking over the fires.

This is in a house, a bedroom. It’s like wallpaper.

I want to say this was a bakery?

Look how the clay tiles are still on the roof.

The main street. Or one of them. There were two streets through the middle of town.

Look how incredible the floor is.

And the ceiling…

An atrium of a house.

I told my brother to point so these pictures would have more movement, urgency.

The little tiles on the floors were just amazing.

Every surface of these houses was decorated.

When you walked into this house, the area for the house gods was straight ahead. I believe it’s the master bedroom to the right.

This was the name of the man who owned the house.

Those wooden bars in the window are original!

An outside shot of this guy’s house.

These were the baths. Places to sit, and niches above the seats to leave your clothes.

This room had the most stunning floor.

An original Roman bed. One of the cool things about these ruins is they weren’t so heavily monitored. There wasn’t a guard around every corner making sure you didn’t touch anything.

The laundry press where they would iron their clothes. This was a separate shop — they didn’t do this in-house.

Fancy tile!

This is where the beach of the town would have been. When they excavated this place, they found 80 or 180 skeletons here. I can’t remember which one.

Herculaneum and the volcano.

Laura requested a picture of the ocean. This is as close as I got. We saw better views from the bus, but I was camera fatigued.

View from the train.

We got back to Rome at around 7 or 8, rested up and flew home the next day. Seeing Herculaneum was one of my favorite parts of the trip. There weren’t a thousand people around, so you could really get into it. It’s amazing what the volcano has preserved, a chance to see first-hand how the Romans lived. If you go to Italy, I recommend seeing either Herculaneum or Pompeii. They’re far more transcendental than any of the ruins in Rome.