Under threatening skies, we took the Circumvesuviana train
to Ercolano, on the Gulf of Naples east of the city. There, we spent most of the day visiting the
ruins of the ancient city of Herculaneum, which was buried under the same
eruption of Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii in 79 AD. During a wait at the ticket counter that
typified Italian (in)efficiency, we watched the downpour outside come and
go. During our visit, some rain came and
went, but we’d avoided the worst of it while watching the theater of the absurd
on the entry line.
While Herculaneum was much smaller than Pompeii, it is much
better preserved and attracts far fewer visitors. The rental audioguides helped
make life there very comprehensible, ad as we wandered among homes large and
small, shops, antiquity’s fast food joints, thermal bath complexes,
well-preserved mosaics and vibrant frescoes, we got a pretty good picture of
daily life in this beach front town.
As it was raining a bit when we returned to Naples, we
decided to take the late-afternoon tour of Napoli Sotterranea, Underground
Naples. Greek builders quarried tufa
rock about 100 feet underground to build their city, Neopolis, in the fourth
century BC, then Romans expanded the excavations to build a huge aqueduct, and
during World War II, thousands of Neapolitans used the tunnels as shelters from
bombardment. In the intervening
centuries, several layers of cities were built, each atop the others, so that
the present Centro Storico sits atop the remains of several preceding
cities. At current street level, we
visited a basso, a (very) small, (very)
dark, family home, typical of the inner city to this day. Beneath the home, archeologists first
discovered the remains of a Roman theater, which we were able to visit. Families continue to occupy apartments built
into the remains of the theater, whose curved shape can be seen in some of the
buildings. Our tour also included a cave
housing a display of presepi, the
fanciful and detailed Christmas scenes characteristic of Naples.
With that, it was time to pick up some wine, refresh at
home, and head out for pizza. After all,
when in Naples…
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