Pompeii and Herculaneum

We rose early to catch the SITA bus to Sorrento at bus stop 9.  Every bus trip here is an experience, the drivers are all characters and the vistas are fabulous.  We were early and had time to walk to the arranged pickup spot.  Our tour guide and driver were two young, attractive Neopolitan guys.  The Neopolitans don't speak Italian, it is a different dialect and they are very proud of this.  

The ruins of Pompeii are in the middle of a sprawling town.  Here we had a glimpse of the public life of the people in 79AD.  Roads, public baths, the forum, altars, brothels, statues.  Pompeii was a thriving commercial centre with every class of person from slaves to nobility.  It was covered by 5-6 metres of volcanic ash and   no organic material survived.  The poor people died slowly from gas and suffocation.  

In Herculaneum, a resort for the wealthy and powerful (read Romans), we saw more of the private and domestic lives of the people including the mosaic flooring, the sculptured reliefs on the walls and the public toilets.  Herculaneum was by the sea and was covered in 20-30 metres of volcanic ash.  The people died instantly from the shocking heat, but it also preserved the location more effectively, so that wooden doors and lintels are still observable.  

Our guide was very passionate about the conservation of the site.  He had harsh words to say about a group of people sitting down, eating at the entrance to a home.  Only a quarter of Herculaneum has been excavated, unfortunately in the 60's people built apartments on top of the unexcavated areas (our Guide suggested the mafia may have enabled this to occur) and so it is unlikely that any more of Herculaneum will be uncovered.  We feel very privileged to have seen these two sites, to walk on the roads that those poor people would have run on, in vain, to escape death.

Ciao