21 September 2023

21 September 2023

Jim

TOM’S BIRTHDAY!

Another day fighting Sorrento traffic with Allessandro, our driver. First stop was Herculaneum – Ercolano to the locals. There we met our 83-year-old guide Carlo. What a hoot! The first thing he did was to apologize to us as we had the oldest guide. Then he added that he knew much more about the place than the younger guides, so in that respect we were lucky. Several times he added that if any of the younger guides knew the tidbit he just told us about, he would buy us a pizza. He explained that in his youth he worked on the archeological dig and enjoyed telling us how it was done in the old days, before compressed air and other innovations. Herculaneum was a resort/vacation town, frequented by the elite of the surrounding area. This they could tell by the jewelry and other artifacts uncovered during the dig, some of which is on display at the site. Only about quarter of the town has been excavated. The other three-quarters is covered by apartment buildings and is not likely to be excavated in the forseeable future. We saw some truly remarkable mosaics (some of which, on floors, you are permitted to walk upon–much to Diane’s horror).

Carlo in the ladies’ bath. The ribbed ceiling helped to direct the condensation to the sides rather than having it drop on the people. The floor was in great condition, even if Carlo is standing on it.
Another floor with Carlo’s feet. Guess who’s writing these captions.
Decorative wall mosaic at Herculaneum. There was quite a bit of decoration left in Herculaneum and almost none in Pompeii, perhaps because of the difference in the type destruction caused by the eruption.
These walls were painted.

After we finished our tour, it was on to a new winery for lunch and, unbeknownst to us, a tasting of four different wines. All were very good and we stumbled back out to our van for another ride, this time over to Pompeii.

As explained to us, when Vesuvius first erupted in 79 AD (it had erupted several times before that as well) it first ejected volcanic ash at the rate of 60,000 cubic meters per second! This is what buried Pompeii. Sometime later it exploded throwing up rocks and boulders in the direction of Herculaneum. The size of the excavation at Pompeii is truly impressive being miles wide. Our guide there, Gian Luca (sp?) was very well spoken and knowledgeable if not as entertaining as Carlo.

There was only one “body” to see in Pompeii. I (Diane) had thought the bodies were still there, just encased in rock. However, that’s not the case. The people were covered in ash and disappeared, either through decomposition or vaporization. We couldn’t quite tell from the guide’s description. A lot of the “bodies” were broken early in the excavations, but then someone had the idea to inject plaster, so that’s what you see in this picture. It’s a plaster cast of a teenage girl. You could see details of her body, hair, and clothes, all of which made her very “real.”
The bunch of us at Pompeii. Mt. Vesuvius is in the background. Gian Luca pointed out you can see both victim and murderer in the same photo.

Back through the Naples traffic to Sorrento where we had dinner at Dona Sofia again. We arrived at our reserve time of 8:30, but our table was not yet ready. The host apologized and offered to let us wait in the wine cellar and enjoy some prosecco and bread on the house. Completely uneccesary but welcomed just the same. For dinner Tom, Diane, and I shared an order of Chateaubriand for three. Yum! This time we passed on desert as we were all stuffed to the gills.

The six of us in the wine cellar. Too bad none of us had a corkscrew. We decided this was the best place to sing Happy Birthday to Tom.

2 comments on “21 September 2023”Add yours →

Comments are closed. You can not add new comments.

  1. Happy Birthday Tom! I imagine this one will be hard to forget. I remember thinking the same as you Diane, that more bodies were still in Pompeii. We were told those that had been discovered and preserved had been removed to an alternate location. I found Pompeii truly fascinating because enough of it has been recovered that you could truly imagine the people living there – I especially liked what our guide referred to as “the ancients MacDonald’s” where a countertop of sorts with holes in it held pots of various dishes that people could come and scoop out their selections. “Fast food” has been around forever!

  2. I’ll have to say, I am equally horrified that you were allowed to walk on the mosaic floors!
    I hate to say this out loud but it’s been 39 years since I was in Pompeii but at that time they were many more shapes of bodies there. It was an exhibit at the MFA probably about 10 years ago that had some there as well.. it sounds like you guys are doing lots of yummy eating!