Dec 6, 2013 Naples, Italy
Buongiorno la mia famiglia e gli amici
Good morning, my family and friends
Around 7:30 am we arrived in the port of Naples (Napoli) Italy,
of which the population is over 1 million.
Naples was discovered by the Greeks, 25 centuries ago.
There are miles of underground catacombs beneath Naples and these have a part in the Christian history of the city. In the latter years of the Roman Empire many people came to preach Christianity, including, it is said, Paul and Peter. The early Christian basilicas were built next to the catacomb entrances.
We were all waiting for everyone to arrive for today's tour.
Pompeii and a scenic tour to Sorrento village.
Saint Martin's Charterhouse (monestery)
The San Martino Charterhouse stands on top of the Vomero hill,
close to Saint Elmo Castle, a medieval fortress .
The monastery was built in 1325-1368 and includes
the monks cemetery, the staff cloister, the big cloister and the church.
Part of the old city wall by the port in Naples.
Driving through the old section of Naples
First glance at Mt. Vesuvius. Mt. Vesuvius’ last major eruption was in 1944, and another is much overdue. It’s most famous, of course, for its eruption of 79 AD, when it spewed ash for 18 hours and completely covered Pompeii.
Perugia is an ancient hilltop town that has preserved its wonderful medieval character The evergreens are umbrella pines.
The Cellini (Cameo) Factory in Pompei, Italy (red bldg)
Coral necklaces and cameos carved from sea shells
The church of St. Francis of Assini. white bldg)
Completed in 1253, the church is on three levels, called the Upper Church, the Lower Church and the crypt. St Francis is buried in the crypt. St. Francis of Assisi, was a Roman Catholic who took the gospel literally by following all Jesus said and did.
Mount Vesuvius as seen from the recently excavated ruins of Pompeii.
Today two million people live in the immediate vicinity of Mount Vesuvius. This mountain has erupted more than 50 times since the eruption in 79 A.D., when it buried Pompeii and its sister city, Herculaneum.
Original town gate of Pompeii
On August 24 of 79 A.D., the area around Mount Vesuvius shook with a huge earthquake. The mountain's top split open and a monstrous cloud raced upward. The inhabitants of Pompeii were showered with ash, stones, and pumice.
After Pompeii was buried and lost to history, the volcano continued to erupt every 100 years until about 1037 A.D., when it entered a 600-year period of rest. In 1631, the volcano killed an additional 4000 unsuspecting inhabitants. It was during the restoration after this eruption that workers discovered the ruins of Pompeii, buried and forgotten for nearly 1600 years. Another 300 years for the excavations to reveal the story of Pompeii.
Lava Rock and Cat's Eyes
Here we are, walking on a 2,000+ year old road, where white marble chips were inserted between the stone slabs to act as ‘cat’s eyes’ to guide Pompeii’s residents in the dark.
The Basilica
The Basilica was the most important building in Pompeii.
It served the administration of justice,
and for meetings of business men to discuss their affairs.
The Basilica was one of the busiest places in Pompeii.
The building was constructed in pre-Roman times (120 BC).
Underground Jail! Couldn't find anything written on this jail..perhaps part of the underground water system!
In the basilica
Semi-columns topped by an entablature: a superstructure of moldings and bands which lie horizontally above columns.
Temple of Jupiter and Arch of Augustus
The Temple of Love (temple of Jupiter)
The Forum was dominated by the Temple of Jupiter, at the far end (marked by a half-dozen ruined columns atop a stair step base). Jupiter was the supreme god of the Roman pantheon - — you might be able to make out his little white marble head at the center-rear of the temple
The temple held a statue of Jupiter but now only the head remains.
Eumachia Building
Eumachia was the public priestess of Venus in Pompeii during the middle of the 1st century AD as well as the matron of the Concordia Augustus.
The entrance to the Eumachia Building is decorated with acanthus leaves and birds
Mt. Vesuvius seen through the arch.
Arch in Honor of Nero Caesar; Arch of Caligola is in the Background.
Macellum Buildings was one of the focal points of the ancient city. (Four arches on right)
Market
The remains of the central structure of the Macellum Building
A macellum is an ancient Roman indoor market building that sold mostly provisions (especially fruits and vegetables). The building normally sat alongside the forum and basilica, providing a place in which a market could be held. Each macellum sold different kinds of produce, depending on local availability.
Mural paintings
Cases holding casts of Pompeiians, eerily captured in their last moments. When Mt. Vesuvius erupted, 2,000 Pompeii citizens suffocated under the ash, their bodies buried in volcanic debris. While excavating, modern archaeologists detected hollow spaces underfoot, created when the victims' bodies decomposed. By gently filling the holes with plaster, the archaeologists were able to create molds of the Pompeiians who were caught in the disaster. You're looking at modern plaster mixed with ancient bones.
We saw a couple of well-preserved citizens of Pompeii
whose lives were cut short by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius.
Arch of Caligola
Baths of the Forum's entrance.
Here we are, touring the Roman baths, a focal point of social life in every such Roman town. Water for bathing came from the hills 60 miles away in aquaducts whereas water for washing was collected from the rains. Skylights made sure that the baths were lit no matter what time of the day or position of the sun.
Pompeii had six public baths, each with a men's and a women's section. You're in the men's zone. The leafy courtyard at the entrance was the gymnasium. After working out, clients could relax with a hot bath I (caldarium), warm bath H(tepidarium)
or cold plunge (J frigidarium).
The palaestra (G) was used as a general exercise area and as the first stage in the bathing process, where the bather could start to work up a sweat with a view to flushing out his pores.
The men's baths had three entrances, (A) (B)and (C), while the women's had a single entrance (D). The courtyard (O) adjoining, but not connected to,
The women's baths had a separate entrance off the Via del Foro.
Men's dressing room (F)
The men's baths are still in remarkably good condition. Entrance (A) leads directly to the apodyterium (F) or dressing room
The room has a pavement of white mosaic framed with a black band and a vaulted ceiling decorated with stuccoes, of which, sadly, little remains. No niches were found in which clothing could be kept, but nail holes in the wall seem to indicate that wooden lockers were used instead.
The final room involved in the Roman bathing process was the frigidarium (J), which is a domed circular room with four semicircular niches . In its centre is a stepped tub used for cold baths.
The frigidarium (J) walls are decorated with frescoes of garden scenes and above the niches there is a richly decorated stucco band of sculpted horses.
Niches along the middle part of the walls are framed with Atlantes figures in clay covered with stucco. The purpose of these niches, which are part of the original decoration, is uncertain, but perhaps they held bathing goods such as oils and unctions. The tepidarium (H) was heated simply by braziers which would have made the room warm, but not overly hot.
the caldarium (I) is a large bath (pictured above), raised on two steps, which, in use, was filled with hot water. Along its length, the bath has a bench seat which would have allowed a dozen or so bathers to sit in the heated water
The caldarium (I), however, was heated from the furnaces, with the floor raised up on suspensurae (brick piers) and the walls lined with air spaces to allow the circulation of hot air. The caldarium has a vaulted ceiling decorated with a strigil design in stucco. Strigil is a scraper made of horn or metal used by bathers to remove dirt from the skin
Other end contains a labrum or marble basin.
There were no posh neighborhoods in Pompeii. Rich and poor mixed it up as elegant houses existed side by side with simple homes. While nearby Herculaneum would have been a classier place to live (traffic-free streets, fancier houses, far better drainage), Pompeii was the place for action and shopping. It served an estimated 20,000 residents with more than 40 bakeries, 30 brothels, and 130 bars, restaurants, and hotels. With most of its buildings covered by brilliant, white, ground-marble stucco, Pompeii in A.D. 79 was an impressive town.
Layout of "The House of the Tragic Poet"
It is a typical middle class 2nd century BC Roman house in Pompeii, Italy
A floor, like that of an entrance, was decorated with an elaborate mosaic image. The centerpiece of the room and therefore seemingly important, modern archaeologists came up with the name "House of the Tragic Poet" to describe the entire villa.
In the center of the courtyard is a small garden and against the rear wall on the right a temple style crevice (k) in which was found a small marble statue of a satyr bearing fruit.
House of the Tragic Poet. Rich man's house.
In Pompeii, before the construction of the city's aqueduct at the end of the 1st century B.C., individual water tanks often located in the central court of a house, under the roof opening, provided the modest water needs of the household Larger houses or villas, often depended on extensive cisterns.
This entrance leads directly to the cistern (water tank). (C)
"House of the small fountain"
At the entrance of the house is a black and white mosaic depicting a guard dog on a chain bearing the famous words "cave canem" ("Beware of the Dog")
Picture taken through a gate.
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| Pic off a website. |
Kitchen
From the excavations we know there were butchers and bakers, restaurateurs and innkeepers, glassblowers and potters, bankers and millers, weavers and fullers or tailors. The last profession was one of the most important in a town where it was needed to keep everyone looking spiffy.
kitchen and latrine in the same room
The large, single roomed shops which lie on either side of the entrance were presumably managed by the owner of the house as each has a narrow door opening onto the entrance corridor or passage.
The remnants of a kitchen possibly a food stall or restaurant and wine bar.
We heard about garum on the TV show: The naked archaeologist. Thought I would share it with you. Pompeii's garum was considered the best in the empire.
Definition: Garum was a very popular, but expensive and pungent Roman fish sauce used as a condiment and as a medicine. The Romans fermented a fatty fish in odor-reducing-salt brine and added other flavorings to make the garum. It sat in the sun from one to three months. Occasionally, the manufacturer stirred it. The clear liquid on top was the garum, and the residue, allec. It sounds smelly to us and did, as well, to the Romans. Naturalist Pliny the Elder (the one killed in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius) calls it "that secretion of putrefying matter," but he also calls it "a kind of exquisite liquor
Even for the entrails-loving Romans, the smell of garum during the process of fermentation was said to be so foul that the common folk were actually outlawed from making it in their own homes. Regardless, it was beloved by all from the loftiest courts to the lowliest hovels and they slathered it with wild abandon over everything from sea urchins to stuffed flamingos and dormice. Mad as it may sound given the above, garum was indeed king of the kitchen; as common among ancient Greek and Roman foodies as posh Maldon salt is today, and used liberally by the peasants much as modern-day teenagers use tomato ketchup – on anything and everything.
A little garum went a long way.
Some towns even banished garum makers to the outside the city limits. We know this was NOT the case in Pompeii since archaeologists excavating one of the city's insulae (ground floor) recently discovered a garum factory. Or rather they found a jar with a whole fish skeleton. As the fish wasn't too big (about the size of an anchovy ) and up that time all the fish bones uncovered at Pompeii had been pretty fragmentary, it is indeed likely this was a site where garum was manufactured. To the layman finding a tiny fish may seem like pretty small potatoes, but the archaeologists sure seemed happy with it. They even issued a press release.
Another tavern for some ancient McDonald's fast food.
There were places for both hot and cold foods.
One of the things that you cannot help noticing when wandering around the streets of Pompeii are the wine bars that were clearly very popular, since they appear on almost every street corner.
A wine bar with a counter that would have contained three clay pots filled with wine to be sold to thirsty passersby 2000 years ago. The bar is nicer than the house!
A street with 2 stepping stones meant it was a one-way street. Streets with 3 stepping stones meant it was wider and thus a 2-way street!
Every day, Pompeii-ans flooded the streets with gushing water to clean them. The four stones across were for pedestrians so they didn't need to step into the nastiness that ran in the streets (think lots of horses, dirty rain water, and sewage issues). The ruts were carved into the stone by the many chariots that passed along this roadway.
A peak in another courtyard with a well.
Many of Pompeii’s buildings did originally have second floors, but few of those areas survived the burial of the city in volcanic ash and debris.
A typical one way back street. Not easy to walk on!
The sidewalks were for people, and streets for animal and carts.
City of Pompeii is popularly cited as being home to more than thirty-five brothels.
A carved phallus at the top of the building as well as phallus carvings in the sidewalks point the way to the tiny brothels that populated the busiest areas of the ancient city.
Looks like a dog at the entrance of the arch.
Baking was a common industry in Pompeii. They made and sold bread on the premises for the citizens of Pompeii. There were about twenty bakeries in Pompeii.
This picture shows Modestus' bakery. The mills for the grinding of the flour can be seen in the center of the picture and the oven for the baking of the bread can be seen to the left. To the right of the picture are surfaces which could have been used for the kneading and preparing of the bread. The millstones would have had wooden handles sticking out from the square holes and would have been turned by slaves
or more frequently by donkeys
In the oven of the bakery, found closed with a door of iron, were 81 carbonized loaves of bread, put there to cook minutes before the catastrophe.
Store in front - home in back.
These vertical, usually terracotta pipes are concentrated in the oldest part of the city, where there were many workshops and small businesses crammed into close quarters. A total of 286 pipes run down the walls of these buildings, leading to the mostly lost second floors. In 23 cases, however, the second story remains, and the same types of pipes lead to latrines.
All streets sloped downwards. When the rains came, the fountains overflowed,
and the streets were cleaned. Pretty efficient!
Roman God "Mercury" water fountain.
This man, caught by the volcanic ash and hoping his scarf will protect him from the toxic sulfuric fumes. There are many such figures on display but many of the originals have been taken to the Naples historical museum to protect them from damage.
Cast of a dog.
Statue of Apollo
The Temple of Apollo is dedicated to the Greek and Roman god Apollo
The town's most important religious building.
Drawing of the Temple of Apollo before it's destruction.
Mt. Vesuvius in the back. Just under 10 k from Pompeii.
I couldn't believe how much I loved, loved, loved Pompeii!
Leaving Pompeii for a bus tour to Sorrento for shopping and lunch.
Practicing taking pictures behind me...almost got it.
Castellammare Di Stabia
Spectacular scenery of Castellammare Di Stabia from the bus.
Extremely high with steep cliffs..up to 4500 ft high.
Flying through little towns, it was not easy getting clear pictures.
We arrived in Sorrento for lunch and shopping. We were give 1.5 hours free time.
View from Piazza Tasso. (central place and square in Sorrento)
Sorrento lays on the Mediterranean and is built on cliffs overlooking the Sea.
It is a small town with some 16,500 inhabitants.
We found a restaurant that served pizza, but saw that practically the whole bus went in this posh restaurant. Immy stayed behind and thoroughly enjoyed her pricey pizza, while the three of us roamed the streets of Sorrento.
I ended up with 4 colorful scarves. Jennie found a lovely leather purse.
No crowds and no pushy salesmen, actually we were ignored in some stores.
We promised niece Carla we would get some "crazy expensive gelato".
And that is what we did. Boy was it hard to pick one. Delicious.
Marcel better not eat mine.
By the look on his face, he's thinking about it.
Hmmm. delizioso
Wood working Store, mostly Pinocchio puppets.
Those oranges sure looked good, but just out of reach.
Jennie waiting for a home made fruit crepe.
Continuing along the Amalfi coast, beautifully situated on limestone cliffs
Its name is derived from the nymph, Amalfi, loved by Hercules.
Our trip today: Naples-Pompeii A
Pompeii-Sorrento B
Sorrento-Positano C
and back to Naples
Sometimes the best adventures come upon you when you least expect them.
For the next couple of hours we had the most amazing bus ride.
Crazy bus passed us. On these narrow roads and curves.
Pontine Islands.
Ponza, with a surface area of 7.3 square kilometers, It has several small villages, Population 3000.
Palmarole 1 sq Km. It is inhabited only in the summer, primarily a nature reserve, but there are a handful of ports where boats can land and several restaurants that cater to tourists during the summer season. A few small beaches exist.
Zannone, is completely uninhabited, about 1 square kilometer.
Gavi a length of about 700 meters, it is the smallest of the Pontine Islands
We saw these island around every corner,
but was so hard to get a clear picture on a hazy day.
The Amalfi Drive (connecting Sorrento and Amalfi) is a narrow road
that threads along the high cliffs above the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Fruit and vegetable stand at the end of the tour.
This was the first view I got of the most amazing town I have ever seen. Positano, like many Italian seaside villages, is built on the cliffs right down to the water.
About 4000 inhabitants.
Love the sun rays on the little islands.
What an amazing place to live! Dome in the back is a resort/hotel.
How I would have loved a stroll through this town, or a boat ride along the coast.
It’s hard to describe the feeling you get looking at those cliffs and hearing the gulls as they circle near the tops. It's absolutely surreal!
Always time to get in a couple of flower pictures.
Prickly Cactus Pear The prickly pear plant has three different edible sections: the pad of the cactus (nopal), which can be treated like a vegetable, the petals of the flowers, which can be added to salads, and the pear (tuna), which can be treated like a fruit.
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards from The Rolling Stones wrote the song "Midnight Rambler" in the cafes of Positano while on vacation.
Gorgeous with the setting sun on the mountains behind Positana.
Marcel liked this little truck.
Picture through window as we were pulling out for the trek home.
Sitting on the other side of the bus, I was able to get some more pictures of the enormous cliffs and windy roads.
spectacular coast road which winds its way along the cliff-side.
Still not clear with the hazy day.
Never too many pictures of this beauty!
The dark tip is where we came from. The town of Sorrento.
Rolled up nets, ready for the olives. We saw them everywhere.
Open nets under the olive trees.
Huge nets to catch the olives as they are scraped from the branches either with gloved or bare hands, or special rakes. The olives are picked daily, they are taken to the olive press within 24 hours. Olives turn from green to black and are then at the perfect level of ripeness to press them for oil.
Sorry Jennie, I could not find the name of this church, or the town.
A stunning sunset on our bus ride back to the ship.
At 4:30 we were back at the ship to find this little critter.
Ready for a great supper...that is the cleanest I ever saw Marcel's hands. Gustare!(enjoy)
The staff in the Garden Cafe made a lot of different chocolate and sugar creations which the passengers had a chance to taste.
Leaving the Naples port.
What a day this had been! Once again, this trip didn't disappoint us
Suitcases packed, we went for another stroll.
Lots of walking to the point where we couldn't find the bow of the ship.
A porter told us the fishes on the rug point to the front.
On our last day, we discover this!
Marcel following the little fishes.
The two of us went to another show at 7:30, just to find the
4ever band just as loud as the first time.
That was a no-go.
buona notte miei amici
l'amore a tutti voi
good night my friends
love to you all
Tomorrow we leave for home.
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