When we finally arrived at the place, a little shaken, though unscathed, only to find that the booking.com description was in error. After much waiting and telephoning, we moved, then got settled into our cozy shiny new home. After that it was smooth sailing, except for the rain, though the rain did hold off on the marathon day of Herculaneum and Pompeii.
Day One: A walk through historic Naples. Here is the Royal Palace.
Some very nice Fascist architecture.
San Francesco di Paola.
Waterfront.
Galeria.
Evening stroll with the locals.
Day Two: First, the excavations of Herculaneum, which was buried along with Pompeii in the 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
Marble mosaic floor.
Wine shop.
The streets of Herculaneum.
Changing room at the baths.
Bath mosaic.
Bones of people who did not escape the eruption and died on the beach.
More Day Two. The excavations at Pompeii. We start our "tour" at the Forum. Mount Vesuvius can be seen at left.
Looking the other way in the Forum - that is NOT Vesuvius in the distance. ;-)
Several of the houses at Pompeii have Beware of Dog mosaics at the entrance.
Street scene.
Sun-Ling and Ian cross the street.
Looking back towards the Forum.
Bakery with oven (left) and milling stones (right).
Baths.
Theatre.
Corner shop and cafe.
The Anfiteatro. The Palestra next door was "restored" since our 2001 visit but sadly there was no access to the swimming pool in the center.
Day Three: The National Archaeological Museum. All the good art and artifacts from Herculaneum and Pompeii is here; and more. It's a great museum!
We spot some electric "car shares" on the way to the museum.
Ian and I in front of the Farnese Toro.
With the bronze runners from Herculaneum.
Same runners from the front with their ivory inlay eyes.
A bronze bust of a "philosopher".
Portrait of a baker and his wife.
The Egyptian Section was very well curated - wonderful.
After the museum we headed straight to Gino Sorbillo's for some pizza. Perfect!
Small shop in our neighborhood...
...and a vintage scooter parked across the street.
Our apartment was in this old palazzo.
It was raining like crazy but we visited a few more churches before calling it quits.
Walking home.
Yo! A bit behind your itinerary but trying to catch up with you. We had a good visit To CA, but glad to be home. John with the mega-head sculpture, I see a resemblance.
ReplyDeleteI saw a map of Italy’s current unemployment. the south is at an astonishing 20%-25%. 15 years ago we witnessed a robbery on the commuting train from Naples to Pompeii. Things haven’t changed for the better.
ReplyDeletethe forum at Pompeii looks already very crowded. But despite the freeze the rain and the others, you’re having a good time. I like Ian’s furry hat.
@Crash. Happy that you are traveling with us once again!
ReplyDelete@WQ, Ian was not the only one sporting such hats. it came out later that he thought Rome was what he imagined what Russia was like, arriving in the middle of snow from LA, haha!
ReplyDeleteI remembered your experience of the circumvesuviana. We were super vigilant, sat in the first car for two of the legs. John thinks he noticed some shady characters. Naples may be the capital of southern Italy. It really stands by itself. The rest of southern Italy we know is more like other parts of Italy.
Pity about the bad start, sorry to hear booking.com messed up.
ReplyDeleteI actually preferred Herculaneum to Pompeii, but I did visit Pompeii on a hot day. Liked the stepping stones!
Great pix.
Rome & Russia, umm, makes me wonder. they were both authoritarian, each built an empire, and were on the same team in WWII... and now the snow and the hat:)
ReplyDelete@WQZ - the USSR was only on the Axis side in WWII until the German invasion in June 1941. After that it was on rhe Allied side.
ReplyDelete