We took the train this morning to Herculaneum, another city that was destroyed by Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. Whereas Pompeii was destroyed by all the ash that spewed out of the volcano, Herculaneum was destroyed by the lava flow. It is mind-blowing to see how much lava covered the city - about 60 feet worth. Its also impressive to think about how archeologists were able to dig out the city from beneath all the volcanic rocks. In fact, they have only excavated one-fifth of what they believe exists underneath the current city. Some of the pictures we took depict the tunnels they are digging as part of a current excavation. Because of how the lava flowed over the city and into the buildings, things were much better preserved. We saw many two-story buildings, nearly complete frescos on the walls, and almost perfect mosiac tile floors. There were even store-front shops where we could still see the menu options (depicted in frescos on the store walls). What was frightening to think about was that archeologists recently found over 300 skeletons near the boat storage areas. Apparently, people were trying to flee the city after the eruption. But they died instantly due to thermal shock as ambient temperatures exceeded 400 degrees Celcius. It is pretty hard to imagine this happening...
After we finished touring the excavation site, we made the walk back through the current town of Herculaneum (Ercolano). The city was more what I expected from Napoli, in a way. Run-down, depressed, garbage in the streets...it wasn't the hightlight of the day, that is for sure. We grabbed a quick lunch and took the train to another stop nearby - Castellammare di Stabia.
As we got off the train, the first thing we saw was the sign for the Funivia (funicular). We knew nothing about this town, so we took a gamble and got tickets for the funivia. Eight minutes later, we were 3,000 feet up on top of Mount Faito. There were amazing views of the towns and cities below, the coastline, Mt. Vesuvius, and not surpringly, a castle in the water (hence the name Castellammare). There were numerous hiking trails, so we took a short hike for some different views. It was one of the strangest hikes we've been on - there were cigarette butts and garbage along the trail, and people even rode by on their motorino (scooter). And we also saw some goats hanging out. Don't get me wrong - it was a beautiful hike and the rock outcroppings were amazing, but there were just a few things that caught us by surprise.We took the funicular back to the bottom of the mountain and explored the downtown. There was a nice promenade along the coastline and a beautiful gazebo. Then we walked past a port area where there were about 20 small restaurants (chalets). They all looked identical, and none of them had a menu posted. We finally found a menu to look at and basically everything was made with seafood - clams, mussels, and octopus. We had our first seafood dinner and it was amazing - so delicious! The only challenging part was that I asked the waitress if they were open for dinner, and she responded in a way that she had never heard the word before (la cena). After she sat us, I asked her, and apparently since it was only 5:30 PM, it was still "afternoon" and therefore, lunchtime. Later in the "evening", they served la cena. I guess we just get hungry too early in the day.
After dinner we walked through the more residential part of town back to the train station. The interesting thing we saw was about 20 people at the local fountain, each with 10-20 large, empty plastic bottles. They were filling up all the bottles and then carrying them home! I asked one of the men why they didn't just use the water at their house and he said the water from the fountain was better. Seemed like a good answer to me!
Another great day!
Gelato Gusti per il Giorno (Gelato flavors of the day):
Mike - Caramella and Biscotti (Caramel and Biscotti)
Aviva - Banana and Pesca (Banana and Peach)
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