When I first saw Pompeii, I was somewhat surprised at just how intact it really was. Yes, there are a lot of ruins. But there are also several buildings that are very recognizable as to just what their original function was supposed to be. There were a couple of villas that looked very close to having people currently living there.
Back in 79 AD when Vesuvius erupted, there were roughly thought to have been 11,000 to 11,500 people in Pompeii. There was very little warning, and so a large number of people were caught unawares. Numerous earthquakes struck Pompeii in the days before the eruption. Some of the damage to the buildings found during the excavations is from the earthquakes rather than the eruption of Vesuvius. Since earthquakes were relatively common there, not too many people took them as a sign of something worse to come.
Then there were the bodies. Apparently the archeologists found voids in the ash where the bodies of the people and some animals had been. The archeologists poured plaster into the voids, creating some very detailed and poignant casts of the people and animals who had perished when all of that ash and pumice descended upon them. Back when Pompeii was initially being excavated, it was thought that the people and animals had been suffocated by the ash. But now it is thought that it was the heat that killed them and that most were likely to have been killed pretty instantly.
One thing that I found interesting was a place in one of the streets where there were stepping stones to cross the street (as it would have been somewhat of an open sewer). There were spaces between the stepping stones for the wheels of the chariots and wagons.
There is a bakery where you can see the ovens and the prep spaces and where the baked goods would have been sold. Some of the bread had been found still there. A brew house was also found in pretty good shape along with some remains of the grains used in brewing.
In a bordello and in some of the villas, plenty of erotic wall art was found. Since the first excavations were in the 1700s, much of this was covered up or hidden. In later years, some of the more portable items were removed and placed in a secret collection in Naples. Now much of it can be readily viewed either in Pompeii itself or in a museum in Naples.
After several hours spent walking around Pompeii, we headed for Sorrento for the night. Sorrento was built on the cliffs on a ledge between the mountains and the Mediterranean beginning in about 600 BC. Views of the Mediterranean and of the island of Capri from Sorrento are quite beautiful. The next morning, we took at boat to Capri.
Once we arrived in Capri, we were essentially on our own. So Mom and I and a couple from Pittsburgh who were on our same tour decided to go in on a cab together to take us around to see the sights. We agreed on where we would go and the price ahead of getting into the cab. It was well worth it. We went all over the island — to the Blue Grotto, the Marina Piccola, the town of Anacapri, the Villa San Michele, the Church of San Michele, the garden of Augustus, the town of Capri — we covered it all. We also had time for a nice, leisurely lunch before returning to the Marina Grande to get the boat back to Sorrento.
We could only see the Blue Grotto from the outside as it was a rather rocky sea at the time. But that was fine. By the time we got to the Marina Piccola on the opposite side of the island, there were still waves, but the sea was a startling shade of blue that photographed well.
The Villa Jovis, built by Tiberius in 27 AD, was a ruin and rather inaccessible at the time, but we could see it clearly from the plaza where we had lunch. I went for a walk around the area a bit after we ate. An American couple commented on the “fact” that “we” Italians loved to dress in all black. I was dressed in all black — black top and trousers, long black all-weather coat (with the lining taken out), black cap, black shoes and socks, sunglasses on my face, my hair pulled back into a black scrunchi, a black purse across my body and a black bag (containing my camera, a map, and other items) slung over my shoulder. How someone as fair and blonde as me could be mistaken for Italian was beyond me. But they were quite startled when I spoke to them, saying “I’m an American,” in perfect English.
The Villa San Michele had amazing views from every side. It was built on one of the highest points of the island in the early 1900s, using bits and pieces of ancient palaces and such found on the land by the owner. It was a favorite of ours as was the Church of San Michele Arcangelo in the town of Anacapri. The church was built in 1719 and contains a beautiful floor painted with a scene of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden on ceramic tile. They have a raised walkway around the outside edge of the floor against the walls of the octagonal church so you can see the floor without damaging it. The colors are vivid (my photo doesn’t do it justice) and the images fanciful.
Back at the Marina Grande, while waiting for transportation back to Sorrento, Mom was dive-bombed by one of the sea gulls. I can’t say that I often heard my mom swear, but that was one of those times. Fortunately, it hit her coat, which was much better than her head or the outfit she had on under her coat. Cleaning off the coat was still unpleasant. We had the time to do it before the boat arrived, so we paid the fee to enter the ladies restroom and scrubbed it all off fairly well at the sink. We laughed about it later once the evidence was gone.
The next day, we left Sorrento heading back to Rome all set to have a free afternoon in Rome before our farewell dinner that night. Along the way, we we suddenly found ourselves in the middle of a snowstorm! It was supposed to be spring. It had been quite warm for much of the trip. We had been without coats most of the time, except when we were in high altitudes and had some cool breezes. The day before in Pompeii it had been quite warm. That day we had worn our coats (without the linings) because Capri was quite mountainous and it could be very breezy.
Our coach driver said that he was thirty and had never seen snow anywhere other than up in the mountains. So he was pretty well surprised. The traffic was down to a crawl. They had no equipment to deal with it, so there were actually people out on the road tossing salt around by hand.
In an attempt to keep us entertained, the driver put a video on of the film “Cliffhanger” with Sylvester Stallone. It was dubbed in Italian, so it was pretty funny. I have never seen it in English. I had thought at the time that “Rocky” might have been fun dubbed in Italian.
Our return to Rome was delayed by a couple of hours, essentially ruining our plans for the rest of our final day in Italy. We did still go out for a final dinner. The restaurant had a large Mouth of Truth, like the one in the film “Roman Holiday” that Gregory Peck used to frighten Audrey Hepburn by pretending to lose his hand. Although I’m a pretty truthful person, I wasn’t interested in sticking my hand in its mouth. I didn’t think it would be bitten off, but I wasn’t too sure about any possible snakes, rodents or large and aggressive insects that might be lurking inside.
Next time: a trip to the East Coast of the US from NYC down to Orlando, Florida.
