Victims of Vesuvius

Last week I was able to scope out the famous cities buried by the 79 AD eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. Ercolano and Pompei are both located near the volcano and the explosion quickly ended the life in the towns.

Ercolano is a smaller site, which is better preserved in most cases. You can read more about it here. The town was so quickly buried in ash that it allowed more of the structures to remain intact. Ercolano is pretty easy to get to via the Circumvesuviana train that runs through Naples.

Ercolano, from above

in a courtyard of one of the homes

a restaurant of sorts- those large ceramic pots were buried
into the stone counter and filled with food

wall frescoes

a room in the town's bath- amazing mosaic floors with benches for seating
and sectioned spaces above for your stuff

Some of the rooms really give you an idea of how life would have been.

Since we were in Naples, it was a good opportunity to go back to Da Michele for Napolitano pizza. This is the same place we stopped last year on the way back from Capri. One of Kate's sorority sisters from college was with us and hadn't experienced it before so it was a good place to go. We waited for an hour, but I'm still convinced that it's worth it!

pizza margherita- napolitano style

The following day we headed off to Pompei. Thank goodness we had plans outside of Naples. It is my least favorite European city to date. Naples is dirty, dangerous, and downright sketchy. We saw people snorting drugs and selling stolen iPads on the street. There's trash everywhere. It's like the cousin you don't want anyone to know you're related to.

Naples

The second day we were off to Pompei. Pompei is a huge area and full of tourists and annoying tour groups. We used the audio guide that was included and attempted to navigate our way around the site. Much of the ruins are closed to the public for restoration and it made it a little challenging to find our way from place to place since the map didn't reflect what was open and closed.

Pompei, with Vesuvius in the background

doin' the tourist thing, audioguide and all

Pompei bakery

outer edge of ruins

After our two nights in Naples, we were off to the Amalfi- so more to come soon!