With much sadness, we left our host families this morning and headed for Castellammare di Stabiae. We arrived at Hotel Montil and dropped off our bags. Ciro and Salvatore Iovenio brought us to a nearby city where we met up with another Rotarian who, along with Salvatore, brought us to Ercolano.
In Ercolano, we met up with Antonio (a gynecologist and president of the Ercolano club) and his daughter, Luisa, who is studying to be a judge. Martina joined Antonio on his scooter and Luisa brought the rest in her car. We all convened near the historical site of Ercolano and headed inside. Like Pompei, Ercolano was destroyed in 79 AD. Our tour guide, Salve, spoke perfect English and gave us an amazing tour. Ercolano was originally excavated in 1738. There is still a large portion of the city buried underneath the current city. Ercolano differs from Pompei in that Ercolano was buried in pyroclastic mud and Pompei was covered in lava. Much of Ercolano is better preserved because of this fact.
For many years, it was believed that most of the inhabitants had fled because they had only found 3 skeletons on the site. However, 300 more were recently unearthed at the port. Romans used to work from 6 am to noon and then spent their afternoons and evenings taking in the public baths, exercising at the palestra or just being their Roman selves. The word “siesta” actually comes from “sexta” which represents the 6 hours of work the Romans did daily.
In 62 AD, just seventeen years before the Vesuvius eruption, there was an earthquake which caused the city’s inhabitants to reinforce their structures brick and stone. The newer buildings show their advancement in architecture and building skills from the lessons of the earthquake.
While only 2 roads have been excavated, archaeologists believe there are 5 roads in total. Interestingly, these roads were built at right angles, were all one-way and provided space for pedestrians at crosswalks. Many of the villas have carbonized wood beams encased in glass to show the original structures. The wood survived because no air was able to reach it for so many years. Many of the villas still have original mosaic floors and iron grill windows. For apartment-type buildings where there was a second floor that was a separate family than the first, the higher floors were always the cheapest. For those searching for labor, they lined up outside the houses of the local businessmen and waited to be seen. The houses with the most people waiting outside were the richest. In ancient Ercolano, husbands and wives slept in separate rooms. Oh, how times have changed.
In 62 AD, just seventeen years before the Vesuvius eruption, there was an earthquake which caused the city’s inhabitants to reinforce their structures brick and stone. The newer buildings show their advancement in architecture and building skills from the lessons of the earthquake.
While only 2 roads have been excavated, archaeologists believe there are 5 roads in total. Interestingly, these roads were built at right angles, were all one-way and provided space for pedestrians at crosswalks. Many of the villas have carbonized wood beams encased in glass to show the original structures. The wood survived because no air was able to reach it for so many years. Many of the villas still have original mosaic floors and iron grill windows. For apartment-type buildings where there was a second floor that was a separate family than the first, the higher floors were always the cheapest. For those searching for labor, they lined up outside the houses of the local businessmen and waited to be seen. The houses with the most people waiting outside were the richest. In ancient Ercolano, husbands and wives slept in separate rooms. Oh, how times have changed.
In these villas, some walls were covered with beautifully preserved frescoes. These were created by placing 6 levels of plaster on the wall, then they painted the fresco, and finally polished it with wax to further preserve them. It was very time-consuming but, if you had these in your home, then it was obvious you were a wealthy household. In a particularly large villa, there was an original bed still there in the bedroom. Bedrooms were actually very small by today’s standards because they only used them to sleep – any entertainment or socializing was done in the atrium or other areas of the villa.
After Ercolano, we headed to Antonio’s house for lunch. There, we met his wife Maria, who prepared a great lunch of mussels and pasta for us. We chatted for a bit over lunch then headed to Antonio’s roof where we could get a good look at Mt. Vesuvius. We had planned to climb Vesuvius in the afternoon but, once again, the weather trumped our plans. The peak of Vesuvius was closely guarded by some very large, selfish grey clouds, keeping the sight to themselves. It was an easy decision for to hold off climbing to the top of a volcano amidst some of the most ominous clouds we’ve ever seen. Next, we were given an impromptu musical performance. Antonio played guitar while Maria sang the lyrics to a classic Neapolitan song. It was a beautiful song and gesture. When asked if we had a traditional Philadelphian song that we could sing for them. We were stumped.
After the song, we headed to back to our Hotel for a couple hours before Salvatore picked us at for dinner and a brief tour at a local pasta factory. We were joined for dinner by Salvatore’s wife, Angela, his daughter, Anna, and her husband and daughter, Guido and Vittoria. Since we were at a pasta factory for dinner, it’s fitting that we had 4 dishes of past for dinner. They were all quite tasty. Vittoria is 4 years old and was one of the cutest little girls in the world. She got great pleasure out of making faces at Nick, drinking water one-handed from an adult’s glass, and clinking glasses with her mother. We were given some nice ceramic cups as gifts and headed back to the hotel.
Thank you and good night.
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