Cameos, Missed Sights and Roman Reflections (14 of 14)

Cameos go way back in Italian culture and tradition.

Cameo is a method of carving an object. Roman cameos are carved on shells which started during the Renaissance period. Cameo subjects were either scenes of Greek or Roman mythology or portraits of rulers or important dignitaries. Many Italians treasure and cherish their cameos. They are given to wives at their wedding and at 10 and 20 year anniversaries. They are handed down from generation to generation.

We visited two cameo factories in Pompeii: Cellini and Giovanni Apa.

An artist diligently carving a piece.

There is a shortage of coral and master artists, as with many traditional arts.

A beautiful conch shell masterpiece.

Emily liked this one!

Gorgeous!

Naples has so much to see depending on your tastes: ruins, food and drink, islands. Nearby cities Sorrento and the island of Capri are also wonderful opportunities to explore in Italy. We were not able to check them out but the rest of my family did.

Lots of lemons in Pompeii

Check out their size!

Lemon is the key ingredient for the making of limoncello, a drink made from lemon rinds, alcohol, water and sugar.

About one hour from Naples is Sorrento, a small town in southern Italy which is famous for their  limoncello! The town overlooks the Bay of Naples.

Mandy and Kyle and their limoncello selections.

Cheryl, Don and their kids visited a wine cantina and farmhouse where they learned about olive oil production and handmade mozzarella cheese!

Mozzarella cheese sampler plate... looks delicious!

An even better looking seafood pasta! Yum!!

My brother, Hilda and my parents checked out the island of Capri.

Capri is in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrentine Peninsula on the south side of the Gulf of Naples. It has been a resort town since the time of the Roman Republic.

There are no cars on the main port of Capri. Ferry or hydrofoils are the main transports.You can also take a tram up the mountain to see the sights.

Hilda riding the tram up the mountain!

Oh Those Romans! My Last History Lesson for you...

Overall, we had a wonderful time seeing European history that we read in our textbooks come to life. You could see the Roman influence throughout all the places we had visited.  The Roman Republic (starting 509 BC) was the period of the ancient Roman civilization when the government operated as a republic. The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization and was characterized by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings around the Mediterranean in Europe, Africa and Asia. Because of it's vast extent and lone endurance, the institutions and culture of Rome had a huge and lasting influence on the language, religion, architecture, law and government in all the areas that they governed specifically in Europe.

Oh so powerful and influential.. How did they fall?
It has been said that the decline occurred over a period of four centuries culminating in the dissolution of the Western Roman Empire (WRE) in 476 AD when Roman Augustus, the last empire of the WRE was killed by Odoacer, a Germanic chieftain; along with many of its territories falling to barbarian invasions. There are many schools of thought on what supposedly attributed to their fall: loss of civic virtue among it's citizens; a weakened military; disease and plagues; lead poisoning; moral decay; and outside transformations and influences from other countries.

No matter the reason... their presence still remains and people from all over the world come to see what they built before Christ was born.

This vacation was definitely not a relaxing one! There was just so much to see in so little time. But it made me want to go back especially to France (Paris) and Italy (Venice) and visit other European countries such as England and Greece!!

Thank you, dear readers, for joining me on this long ride. I hope that as you read these posts you felt that you were right there with us and learned some European history along the way!

Now.. back to my 'regular programming'!

An Even Better Ruin (13 of 14)

Our last stop in Europe was Herculeaneum, another ancient Roman town that was destroyed in 79 AD. It was one of five cities along with Pompeii lost to the eruption of 79 AD.

This town was about 700 years old before it was buried under 75 feet of boiling mud.

It was famous as one of the few ancient cities that can be seen in almost its original splendor because unlike Pompeii, its burial was deep enough to ensure the upper stories of buildings remained intact and the boiling mud (vs. ash and molten rock) preserved wooden household objects such as beds and doors and even food.

Herculaneum was a wealthier town than Pompeii. Herculaneum was known as a resort town and vacation place. Wealthy Romans who were known for lavish spending on their homes would be the typical resident. They came to enjoy the baths, spas and food.  It had more fine houses and far more lavish use of colored marble cladding. There were about 6,500 people in this city but most of them escaped except around 300.

These arches were part of the pier welcoming guests traveling to Herculaneum by boat. This was the previous coastline so the green grass you see used to be the ocean. The hill in the background shows how deep the city was buried.

Boats were available for residents to board and escape once the volcano started erupting. They were so focused on collecting their belongings that they didn't make it through the doors.

During excavation, their belongings were found on board their ships.

Herculaneum was a very developed city. Compared to Pompeii they had a more advanced water and sewage system. 

Water flowed along the narrow trench into the fountains.

Water fountain depicting Poseidon with dolphins around his face

Homes and shops that have benches in front.. unlike Pompeii

Benches were located in front for frequent socializing.. no sewage running in these streets!

  A restaurant/tavern to patronize..

Large vats to keep food and sauces hot (coals on the bottom)

A 'toilet' behind the tavern: apparently you just squat and go; toilet paper did not exist then. Instead they used a sponge mounted on a stick. The sponge could be dipped into a running water channel or a bucket of salt or vinegar water will be used.

Just one sponge though.. just one... it was a community sponge!!

 Interiors...

The deep red paint still evident after 1,900+ years

People were short back then I guess!

The House of Neptune and Amphitrite had beautiful mosaics.

Mosaics of Poseidon and his wife Amphitrite the sea goddes

Marble frescos

Detailed mosaics of the floors

white tiles were included on the floors to help illuminate the interiors at night with the moonlight

The Baths (both male and female) were located next to each other and were well preserved. The baths were fed by a large well which brought water from a depth of 8.25m heated by a large furnace and distributed around the baths by a network of pipes that also served to provide central heating.

This is the waiting room where your 'slave' or 'handmaid' puts all your belongings on the shelf and sits on the bench waiting to give you any assistance.

The bath

Our expert guide, Jose, showed us some skeletal remains of probably a watchman/ guard who was lying on his cot when the disaster happened. This is just one of many examples of how inadequate the conservation and excavation process has been at Herculaneum.

These bones were not easily accessible nor viewable. It was hidden behind a boarded up door which our guide had to crack open for us to see.

Unfortunately, due to minimal funding, many of Italy's historical ruins have not been properly preserved and conserved. (As you can see from the skeletal remains that are open and exposed.) Today tourism and vandalism have damaged many areas open to the public, along with water damage from the current city of Ercolano. Excavation have been temporarily discontinued and all funding is to be directed to help conserve the current ruins.

Once a seaside resort, the former town became inland and is now surrounded by the modern city of Ercolano. Unfortunately what was excavated was only 1/2 of Herculaneum. It has been said that the other half of the city is still under those modern buildings in the background.

You see, excavation did not start until 1738 and stopped when Pompeii was discovered. It was only in 1981 that bones were found (the seafront arch doors skeletons) that excavation continued.

NEXT UP:  Cameos and Missed Sights

A Buried City (12 of 14)

Our last stop was Naples. Naples is the third largest city in Italy right after Rome and Milan. It's one of the oldest continuously-inhabited cities in the world. Bronze Age Greek settlements were established around the 2nd millennium BC. Naples was also the most bombed Italian city during WWII.

a medieval castle at the port of Naples

Naples' historic city center is the largest in Europe. Naples is synonymous with pizza which originated in the city and houses historically significant sites such as Roman ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Of which we checked out both!

Pompeii... the buried city.. how did it happen?

Mt. Vesuvius (background) is considered to be one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world.

Pompeii's Forum Square, the center of this ancient city, was a large open space. Around it stood the main public buildings, both civil and religious, which was also adorned with numerous monuments and games. The Forum of Pompeii still retains its ancient appearance of a rectangular piazza.

an illustration of what the Forum Square looked like

Mt Vesuvius was and is the only active volcano on mainland Europe. It is best known because of the eruption in 79 AD that destroyed the city of Pompeii. Mt. Vesuvius is a complex statovolcano (tall cone-shaped made up by many layers of lava and volcanic ash) because its eruptions typically involve explosive eruptions as well as pyroclastic (hot gas and rock) flows. These flows can move up to 450 mph and the gas can reach temperatures of 1,830 degrees F.

A map of Pompeii

Mt. Vesuvius buried the city of Pompeii on August 24, 79 AD. The volcano was only 5 miles away from the city at the time. It spouted a deadly cloud of volcanic gas, stones, ash and fumes to the height of 20.5 miles. (It ultimately released a hundred thousand times the thermal energy released by the Hiroshima bombing.) The eruption lasted for two days! Eventually the city was buried under 13 to 20 feet of ash and pumice.

The rain of ash and pumice stones wasn't lethal so many stayed behind, huddled inside buildings. As the shower of debris intensified many sought escape from their hiding place but encountered clogged narrow streets. Unlike what some textbooks say, some did escape the disaster. An estimated 16,000 died from the eruption out of a population of 20,000. There were some eye witness accounts of what had happened thus they were able to document the disaster.

The Main theater: the white stones were originals

Sitting on it's original steps where many many Romans had sat almost 2000 years ago.

An illustration of what the theater looked like 'before' it's destruction

Pompeii was a thriving provincial center located a few miles from the Bay of Naples. Its narrow streets were made narrower by street vendors, numerous shops and even a brothel or two. A new aqueduct supplied running water from the mountains which gushed from fountains throughout the city, even in private homes. Pompeii had is own amphitheater, gymnasium and a port. But the key to the city's prosperity was it's region's rich black earth. One of the pluses of living near a volcano is that they tend to produce fertile soils to grow olives, grapes etc..

The amazing precision of plastering what was left behind.

In this picture you can see the detailing of what they were even wearing (a toga) at the time of death.

Because the city was buried so quickly by volcanic ash, the site became a well preserved snapshot of life in a Roman city. The objects that lay beneath the city were so well preserved for thousands of years because of the lack of air and moisture. During the excavation, plaster was used to fill the voids between the ash layers that once held human bodies. This allowed one to see the exact position the person was in when s(he) died.

Here are more glimpses of what IS and WAS of Pompeii...

The Theaters Quadriporticus was built in the 1st century BC. The portico, the structure consisting of a roof supported by columns, was well preserved. This theater was converted into a large barrack for gladiators in 62 AD.

The theater quadriporticus after..

... and before.

The Romans worshiped many gods. The Temple of Apollo was erected since the emperor Augustus had a particular devotion to this god whom he thinks helped him win the battle of Actium against Antony and Cleopatra in 31 BC.

the temple

Is..

... and WAS

The Basilica was the place to meet for government and business purposes and was considered the most busy place in the ancient city.

The bottom of the columns still exist

the illustration of what it WAS like

A local tavern which were frequented by local customers. They consisted of an area opening onto the street and equipped with a stone counter, often cased in slabs of marble, of which food was stored in.

Hungry anyone?

The streets were very narrow and considered 'paved'. The large blocks in the road were considered to be the 'crosswalk' of their time and allowed pedestrians cross the street. Why can't they walk on the other parts of the street (you mean jay walk you ask?). Well, the paved street doubled as the city's drainage and sewage disposal system. Get the picture? I can't imagine the smell!!

 The spaces between the bricks allowed the chariots to pass along the road.

See the deep groves of the wheel tracks?

An interior of a private home. The homes were furnished with a bath in the entry way along with the kitchen in front of the house. It was important for the kitchen to be located there since water and sewage was to be gathered and dumped out into the streets.

Many of the original paintings were still evident

detailed interior in a private home

 Medieval Graffiti...

Looks like the Colosseum

a unicorn?

NEXT UP: An Even Better Ruin