There have been a few minor quakes here.   No big deal. 

The water flow from the aqueducts has been a little sporadic too, and the water temp is curiously warm, but you’re more concerned with the red wine you just spilled on your toga than the warning signs of impending doom.  So you sit back and, like most of your friends, ignore these odd phenomena. 

Three days later you perish.

It’s 79 AD and the long dormant volcano that is Mt Vesuvius has awakened with the fury of 100,000 Hiroshimas, destroying much of the coastal area south of Naples. 

Where you lived at that time determined your manner of death.

Want to die being crushed by boulders shot from the mountain, or buried in a tidal wave of ash that stormed down the mountain at 500 mph?  Well then, Pompeii is your place.

Want to get run over by an 80+ foot wall of molten lava so hot that it literally boils your brain to the point it shoots out your eye sockets in a near instantaneous death?  Then your best bet is Herculaneum.

This was the fate of the roughly 25,000 people who lived in the path of the Vesuvian destruction, an estimated 60%+ of whom perished in the eruption. 

After hopping off our train from Venice, we briefly toured both Herculaneum and Pompeii, and the contrasts between them were stark.  Both cities were rediscovered in the first half of the 1700’s, but because Pompeii was covered in ash it was much easier to excavate.  Today about 75% of it has been uncovered, and it would be far more if archeologists hadn’t agreed to save additional excavations for future archeologists to explore.  In contrast, Herculaneum was entombed in solid lava rock making it extremely difficult to excavate.  So today only a small portion has been revealed.

To appreciate how much lava poured on the city of Herculaneum, check out the photo below.

At the time of the eruption, the seashore was at the bottom of the picture, where you see green algae and standing water.  The giant wall that takes up most of the picture is not man made.  The full height of it (nearly 100 feet) is the hardened lava from that single eruption.  It just blows the mind.

Here is a picture of the excavation site from atop that lava wall.

The Herculaneum of 79 AD was built by the Romans on an old city wall previously erected by the Greeks.  Everything you see in this picture was entombed in the lava – all the way up to the modern buildings in the background, which are actually sitting on more ruins that cannot be excavated until those property owners decide to sell. No wonder it’s taken so long to make so little progress!

Some residents took refuge from the tsunami if molten lava by sheltering in boat storage rooms near water’s edge.  While it saved them from incineration, they were entombed alive in those boat storage areas.  When excavated, their skeletons were found right where they perished – providing eerie reminders of the horrors of this epic natural disaster.   Replicas of the skeletons, in the exact place they were found, can be seen in the below picture – likewise taken from the atop the wall of lava.

It’s thought that Herculaneum had a population under 5,000 people, less than half of Pompeii.  It was most likely a resort city for the rich and famous; a refuge from Rome and other major “metros.”   The terraced construction gave most homes a view of the sea – well at least before a giant wall of lava blocked the view.

 

The above villa was front and center.  Prior to the eruption, you could sit at this original table under this lovely portico and have a magnificent view of the Mediterranean.  Now, you get to stare at a wall of hardened destruction. 

The city of Herculaneum was named for Hercules, the Roman god of strength and heroes.  Tributes to him are found in many places around the city.  Not sure the meaning behind it, but here is an original statue of Hercules found in the ruins. 

It also appears that in contrast to Pompeii, which was home to newly rich people who went out of their way to show off their wealth, the residents of Herculaneum were more “old money” and lived in less ostentatious luxury. Didn’t matter the age of your wealth however; the volcano didn’t care.

With apologies to those who care about history, I will skip discussing Pompeii – since much about it is common knowledge. I will say that if asked which city is better to visit I will answer, “Neither. They are completely different experiences and both are must-sees.” I will provide one picture of Pompeii, however.

It’s as if the people of Pompeii were just tempting the gods to humble them!

Upon leaving Pompeii, we headed to the Amalfi Coast, which is a series of towns built into soaring cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean. Let’s just say I hope they didn’t skimp on the engineering budgets when they were built. I don’t know what other places are on the list, but I find it hard to believe the Amalfi coast isn’t one of the 5 most beautiful places on Earth. Words cannot describe it, so I will just post pictures and a couple anecdotes.

Anecdote 1: Given the steepness of the slopes, all roads on this coast are winding and narrow. And by narrow, I’m saying about 12 feet across. It’s amazing how close local drivers get to scraping a wall or smashing side-view mirrors with oncoming vehicles. That said, it’s flat out frightening when the vehicle coming towards you is a bus! Not a mini-bus, but a real live city bus. Now, amp up that terror several-fold when you yourself are on a bus, on a sharp curve, trying not to collide with another bus coming at you from the opposite direction. This is especially true if out the right side of your bus there is only a 3-foot stone wall protecting you from a 500 foot plunge into a gorge or into the sea.

Pure terror!

Anecdote 2: The trip to Capri was my 3rd visit and I really wanted to take the chairlift to the tip top, something I’d failed to do my first two times there. Alas, I forgot about this and by the time I remembered it was less than an hour before our ferry departed for Amalfi. The round trip up and down the lift is about 30 minutes. Then there’s a 15-20 minute cab ride down to the port. When I bought the lift tickets, we had 54 minutes before the departure time, so piece of cake, right? Unfortunately, I failed to factor in we might have to wait for a cab. Which we did. For about 8 minutes. Also, on the way down we missed the one stop light on the whole dang island, costing us another 2-3 minutes.

At the port, we darted from the cab and took off in a full sprint to dock #4. Huffing and puffing, we arrived just as the mate was throwing off the lines. We literally could have taken a running jump and landed on the ferry, but after a highly discouraging look from the crew, we knew we were defeated.

No worries, we found a dockside restaurant, had a few limoncellos and caught the next ferry 90 minutes later. Doing the chairlift was TOTALLY worth it!!

See what I mean, TOTALLY worth it!

One last thing, we are going to be gone for 25 days and certainly didn’t bring 25 days worth of clothes so we needed do do a little laundry. the hotel was happy to wash my boxer shorts for €10 a piece, but we politely declined and instead went old school.

Ciao, Amalfi. Next stop: Rome!