Friday, 28 June, 2019
We bid a sad farewell to the beautiful island of Ischia early in the morning and boarded the hydrofoil for the 50 minute ride back to Napoli.
Once there, we walked to the nearby port office of Hertz to pick up our rental car for the weekend.
Once we got it, we would head to the Parco Archeologico di Ercolano or Herculaneum as it is called in English.
After seeing this amazing site, we would head farther down the Italian boot to the city of Catanzaro in Calabria to root on our Skorpion Women's Flag team that was playing in this weekend's two-day, five game Italian National Championship Tournament.
It all sounded so easy.
But, then again, we were in Italy.
Waiting in the Napoli Harbor Station
that houses the Hertz Office
We arrived at 11:00 a.m. and were told that we were too early to pick up our car which I had indeed reserved for 1:00 p.m..
We would have to wait an hour.
At Noon, we were told that it would be another ten minutes.
At 12:10 p.m., we were told it would be another 20 minutes.
At 12:45 p.m., we finally had our car.
At least there was a nice Norwegian
Cruise Line ship in port to ogle
The drive south of Napoli to the site in Ercolano to see the ancient Herculaneum was only a 20 minute excursion, so even with all of the delay at Hertz, we still had a lot of daylight left to burn.
Who stole the E?
Before we enter this fascinating spot, let's talk a little history.
This city was the brainchild of Dyonisus of Halicarnassus in about the. 6th-century B.C. It was a built on a volcanic plateau, on a shear cliff over the sea at the foot of Mt. Vesuvius.
Ancient Herculaneum in the foreground
with the modern city of Ercolano
in the background
Where I am standing taking this picture today would have placed me about 50 yards off shore and a hundred feet in the air 2,000 years ago. Where we are standing and the new coastline several hundred meters behind us are all a result of Mt. Vesuvius' famous eruption.
Severe earthquakes in the area in 62 A.D. should have been a warning to the area's inhabitants but, it was prime seaside real estate after all.
These arches were at the water's edge
on that fateful day in 79 A.D.
So were these
In 79 A.D., Mt. Vesuvius quite literally blew its top.
The more famous site of Pompei was smothered in ash instantly but Herculaneum was spared at first due to the direction of the winds.
About 12 hours after Pompei's demolition, the winds did change towards Herculaneum. The resulting superheated avalanche of ash and hot gasses killed the city's 4,000 inhabitants and buried the site under 60 feet of ash.
Herculaneum remained buried until initial excavations began in 1748 A.D.
Even today after nearly 300 years of excavation, only about 25% of this site has been unearthed.
Let's descend into this ancient and amazingly preserved city.
The long look up Cardo III
A column that didn't make it . . .
. . . and some that did
This entryway into a home
had arrows to help citizens
figure out how to get into the home
Strange.
Fast Food Ristorante
Each of these pots that survived Mt. Vesuvius' rudeness were used to serve hot food to patrons two millennia ago.
These dining places were called thermopoliums.
Many homes had interesting
fountains in their courtyards
Rock solid construction
Beautiful mini-altar to a
god in some one's home
How did these murals
even begin to survive?
Amazing
Someone had a nice garden
back in the day
A public bath's changing room
Laurie and a honeycombed wall
Laurie liked this dolphin
Frescoes in the College of the Augustali
These frescoes depict Hercules, for whom the city was named. This College belonged to an association of freed slaves who were working together to improve their lot in Roman society.
We really need to renovate our
kitchen floor in Camarillo
I just liked the way the light
played on this fountain
More frescoes of Hercules . . .
. . . and a close up of another
The College's nameplate survived!
It was a big city
More art that survived the blast
The Bottega ad Cucumas'
drink list, now under glass,
is another survivor
Frescoes heavily in black
There were Goths in Herculaneum?
Who knew?
In front of the garden
of a random house
WOW!
I like this tile work but I . . .
. . . LOVE these three heads above the
tile work more
Let's take a closer look at the detailed
work of some long lost artisan
In Roman times, mosaics were
THE in thing!
A women's public bath
Where the women would sit
waiting for their turn in the baths
I have no clue what this large stone's
purpose was in the women's bath
How dis this one survive when we
need to repaint our walls every
ten years or so depending?
More mosaic floor art
Beautiful art above the arch
Neatness counts, even in
ancient Herculaneum
Just another brilliant piece of
floor art
A good looking entryway
A nice capital on this brick column
Water for human and/or
animal consumption was a MUST!
The entrance to Herculaneum's
Palestra or sports complex
"Marble" columns in Herculaneum
were made of rounded bricks
and then plastered over to
look more like marble . . .
. . . like the ones you see here
The Seven Headed Hydra of Lena
defeated by Hercules in one of his
Twelve Labors
Laurie on a HOT, HOT
day in Herculaneum!
It was well into the 90°F range as all of Europe is suffering from a heat spell this week.
Note the men in the background
hauling materials down a ladder
to continue with the never
ending preservation projects
Sure, why not?
MEN AT WORK!
Dante's Tavern
Seattle, Washington
ca., 1968 A.D.
Hunting dogs doing their thing
to a frightened deer
Across that moat was the seashore,
a great view of how much
of Mt. Vesuvius was deposited
creating today's shoreline far away
I like red columns
The guy on the left is being charming
while the guy on the right is being deadly
Bones of some of inhabitants of
Herculaneum who were on the docks
waiting to get on boats
to take them to safety
Often time in life, timing is EVERYTHING!
The excavations found gorgeous
jewelry like this golden bracelet
Laurie was NOT happy when she was told that it was not for sale.
Another surviving fresco
Loving that beard
Amphoras and . . .
. . . this boat make sense in
a seaside village like Herculaneum
Mt. Vesuvius in the distance
Remember, 2,000 years ago all of what you see back there was just one massive, volcanic peak. What is missing is what proved fatal to both Herculaneum and Pompei.
It is just amazing that anything at all survived much less all that we saw today and years ago when we visited Pompei.
Our archeological curiosity satisfied, we drove on to Catanzaro and our Skorpions Women's flag team.
This traffic jam in one of about 50
tunnels along the way slowed
us down a bit
We finally made it none the worse for wear and met up with the Skorpions who flew down from Varese earlier in the day for some pizza, wine and fellowship.
What a Day!
Bright and early on Saturday morning our ladies will take the field for their final five games of the 2019 season.
Go Skorpions GO!
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