Day 8 - Napoli (Naples)

Welcome to Naples - 3rd largest city in Italy! Naples is different in that it is much less of a tourist location, and more of a big city. Crossing the street here is like being Frogger! We got off the ship right at 8 am and grabbed the train to the Ercolano (Herculaneum). We opted to do the Ercolano instead of Pompeii, as several sources say it is better preserved (thanks to a geothermal bubble that formed during the eruption of Vesuvius), and it is also much smaller than Pompeii so easier to do in one day.

We found our way to the train station, without incident, and were on our way...

Andrew on the train.

We arrived at Ercolano and were immediately impressed by the sight of it. Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, and the city was actually established in the 6th century BC. The ruins were then discovered under the current city of Naples in about 1700. The excavation began shortly afterwards. Photos will do more justice than my words...

The original sea side. The arches are where boats would dock. They found hundreds of skeletons in this area - likely people thought they could escape the ash in the tunnels.

One of the streets.

An early "Cantina". The vessels would have held wine.

Many of the homes still have visible paintings and murals on the walls.


The entrance to a home.

One of the fountains which provided drinking water.

We're not sure what this area was but there were beautiful mosaic tiles on the floor and what looked like a small swimming pool on the opposite end. Maybe one of the bath areas?


The town grinder for grains.


The town store.

Tile mosaics - amazing colors still!

Us

After Ercolano, we were hungry so stopped for pizza...

Naples is the birth place of pizza - here's our buffalo mozzarella pizza cooking! Yum!

Last stop was the National Archeological Museum, where all the artifacts from Pompeii are housed. Again, amazing. Surviving items included pottery, glass, statues, and mosaics.

Mosaic on columns

Paintings from the walls of a home.

A casket

And now we're back at the port using the high-speed wi-fi (at a cost of 3 euro for the day - bargain!) to post. We'll board the ship shortly and will sail away in about 2 hours. Tomorrow morning we'll wake up in Roma!