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There is
much to see at Herculaneum. Below left is part of a Roman boat
recovered from the original shoreline and below right is one of many
'Fast Food Outlets' where workers would have gone to buy hot lunches
produced in the earthenware pots.
VESUVIUS
This has to
be a major highlight of the tour. To climb the only active volcano
in mainland Europe and peer into its steaming crater whilst
imagining the destruction caused over the years to the surrounding
countryside and its inhabitants.
Click
here for an excellent article on
the volcano and its history.
This
panorama shows the view as we climbed from the car-park up to the
crater. The Bay of Naples lies spread out beneath us. Click
here for a view of Vesuvius from space. Zoom in to see so much
detail that even individual walkers can be seen on the crater rim.
If you have Google Earth installed on your computer enable the
'Terrain' layer and zoom around and into the crater in an amazing
three-dimensional simulation flying around the volcano - awesome!
See a screen shot below.
Above is a collage of six
photographs showing the inside of
 the
crater. A small amount of wispy steam was emerging from a vent but
that was the only activity seen.
It
has historically produced life threatening events about every 13
years but has not done so since 1944 - click
here.
Subplinian eruptions have occurred about
every 60 years - see a typical one at left. The
last was 66 years ago which overwhelmed several villages.
There are plans in place to
evacuate 600,000 people from the area where we were holidaying -
some hopes! Imagine that number of Italian drivers all trying to
get through the autostrade toll gates at the same time and not
having the correct Euro coins to hand over.
At least the British
holidaymakers would be forming an orderly queue and waving each
other on saying "NO, NO - after YOU old chap!"
However, there is a shrine on
the crater rim imploring the Virgin Mary to intercede to prevent
another eruption - see picture below - so that's OK then!
(The picture at right was copied from the
Wikipedia Commons archive.)
Vesuvius by night seen from
Sorrento with the lights of the Naples Coastline.
May
31st
2010 We breakfasted early
and set off for the
Naples National Museum.
Maybe not the most exciting venue unless you are excited by hundreds
of ancient pots, statues and frescoes but still well worth a visit.
Above left
Sandy is overwhelmed by the prodigious size of this statue and,
above right, a truly remarkable model of Pompeii which we were to
visit later in the day.
Geoff
became emotional to see the magnificent statue of Atlas supporting
the globe of the Earth because he had, in 1983, reproduced this
dramatic pose as shown below right. It was now possible to compare
the glorious skill of the ancient sculpture with a (relatively)
modern glorious reproduction.
At the Naples Museum is a 'Secret Museum'
containing the most erotic sculptures, frescoes and imagery found in
Roman excavations. It was (unfortunately!) closed when we visited
but type the keywords Naples museum secret museum into Google Images
and relax and enjoy life the way the Roman did two millennia ago.
POMPEII
- What a dramatic visit! The story of the overwhelming of Pompeii by
Vesuvius is dramatically told by clicking
here.
We had not expected to be so emotionally entwined with the terror of
the inhabitants as they saw the pyroclastic flow roaring down from
Vesuvius to kill them.
The full horrifying eruption
of Vesuvius and its destruction of Pompeii is dramatically told by
clicking
here.
The plaster cast of the void left after a
Roman died in agony. After two millennia the body has decomposed
away leaving a void which could be filled with plaster. It is
believed that over one thousand bodies are still to be discovered.
A dog died in agony as the
burning carbon dioxide burned and suffocated it whilst it was
chained to a post.
A pregnant women laid face
down as the poisonous burning gases overwhelmed her.
A Roman vainly holds his nose to try to
avoid the suffocating gases.
What many tourists go
to Pompeii to see are the erotic frescoes in the brothels - anyone
who claims otherwise is suffering from the Pinocchio Syndrome!
These frescoes may be
offensive to some viewers of this website so a few random samples
from Pompeii have been put elsewhere and can be reached by clicking
here - it's your choice whether you
click or continue straight on with the rest of this illustrated
holiday narrative.
If you go to look at the frescoes you will be able to get straight
back to this spot.
Pressing on with our story we see below Sandy in a typical garden of
a large Roman Town House.
Geoff prepares to serve a large number of
MacRoman Fast Food lunches to busy passing artisans.
June
1st 2010
Off to CAPRI
- What a gorgeous island!
(The map above was copied from the
Wikipedia Commons archive.)
We
caught the
hydrofoil to the island and then transferred to a smaller
boat for a one-hour trip around the island. This was a bit
choppy but well worth the
experience. The coastline is rugged everywhere and the two main
towns (Capri and Anacapri) are on the top of the island and reached
only by funicular railway or a very winding steep road.
Here we see the lighthouse on
the extreme south-western approaches to the island.
(The picture above was copied from the
Wikipedia Commons archive.)
The above picture
shows the vertiginous cliffs on top of which lie the two main towns.
The harbour and some scattered houses lie on the ancient scree
slopes and coastline below.
(The picture above was copied from the
Wikipedia Commons archive.)
On the boat trip we went to the
mouth of the Blue Grotto but the boat was to large to get into the
grotto. Smaller boats do take tourists inside and this is what they
see - click
here for more information.
(The picture above was copied from the
Wikipedia Commons archive.)
A magnificent pair of rock
pinnacles. Our boat, which was of considerable size, passed through
the arch. Very impressive!
Below we see the harbour from
where we caught our boat.
(The picture above was copied from the
Wikipedia Commons archive.)
After our boat ride
around the island we took the funicular railway
to the town of Capri and looked back to see a strange sight - a
cruise liner fitted with sails! This is the Wind Surf - click
here for details. Geoff has read
that the sails probably don't save much fuel as the ship generally
travels faster than the wind - but if the punters think it's an 'Eco
Cruise Liner' why disillusion them?
Capri Town is attractive and has
some very pretty piazzas and alleyways. It also has a remarkable
number of expensive 'Designer' shops all lined up to lure in the
wealthier visitors. Sandy and Geoff walked straight past - we know our
limitations!
In the afternoon Meg
led us on a circular walk from Capri Town to a natural arch, a grotto and along some
spectacular coastline views.
The view from inside a large cave.
An unusual house on a rock
promontory believed to have been featured in a James Bond film.
A cooling paddle with Meg before
catching the hydrofoil back to Sorrento.
On the boat from Capri
- an exhausting day and
below - a thirsty evening!
That will do for a starter - "Same
Again!"
The weak currency is
making Continental holidays rather expensive at present. The above
beers were 9 Euros (£8) each and a typical evening meal with a
bottle of local cheap wine was between £60 and £90.
We
ate in a restaurant dedicated to Totò whose pictures were all over
the walls. There was a recent picture of the owner and his staff
posing with Totò's
niece - clearly the highlight of that year.
When we admitted our ignorance of Totò the restaurant owner laughed and
didn't believe that we had never heard of the most famous film star
after John Wayne and Shrek.
(The above pictures were copied from the
Wikipedia Commons archive.)
Do you know the difference?
So, who was this extraordinarily famous
Totò?
It took Geoff a great deal of 'Googling' to eventually track down the
elusive Totò.
Please click
here
and
here for his
career summary. He made over one hundred films and was born
locally in Naples.
His full real name originally was
"Antonio Griffo Focas Flavio Ducas
Komnenos Purpure-Born Gagliardi de Curtis of Byzantium, His Imperial
Highness, Palatine Count, Knight of the Holy Roman Empire, Exarch of
Ravenna, Duke of Macedonia and Illyria, Prince of Constantinople,
Cilicia, Thessaly, Ponthus, Moldavia, Dardania, Peloponnesus, Count
of Cyprus and Epirus, Count and Duke of Drivasto and Durazzo".
So
you can see why he went under a shorter name!
And so to bed...
June
2nd 2010
Off to
PAESTUM
- What an amazing site! Established by the Greeks as Poseidonia in
about the 7th century BC it became the Roman Paestum in 273 BC -
click
here for more information. The area
became swampy and malarial so that nobody ventured there for nearly
two thousand years and the huge city became overgrown and lost.
It was not until the
mid-1700s that it was rediscovered and excavated. Only one-fifth of
the city has been excavated.
In the amphitheatre
Geoff is waiting for
the lions to eat the Christians.
A small section of the huge
fortified walls over two thousand years old.
(The picture above was copied from the
Wikipedia Commons archive.)
A large number of tombs have been
excavated and these are decorated by paintings; some rather crude
and childlike but others of great artistry. The burial monument was
named Tomb of the Diver after the enigmatic scene, depicted on the
covering slab, of a lonely young man diving into a stream of water.
It was dated to the first half of the fifth century BC (about 470
BC), the Golden Age of the Greek town.
The tomb's importance lies in
being the only example of Greek painting with figured scenes dating
from the Classical periods to survive in its entirety. Among the
thousands of Greek tombs known from this time (roughly 700–400 BC),
this is the only one to have been decorated with frescoes of human
subjects.
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our
luggage and were taken in coaches to a Naples hotel (pictured at
right - our room is marked by the arrow) arriving about 8.30 pm. 
