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Pastorano → Pompei → Fiumicino 203.8 mi (328.0 km) |
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Have amicis!
I had a rough night at the Queen Hotel in Pastorano. I don’t think anyone had stayed in my room for weeks, because it was buzzing with mayflies and smelled like the can of Axe body spray I found in the bathroom garbage can! Nevertheless, I had nothing to complain about because I was off to a place where much worse things had happened: Pompeii!
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After pulling into Zeus Parking, I stumbled onto a tour that was about to embark, in the drizzling rain, into the great scavi, or excavations, of what was once a thriving city! Settled by the Greeks in the 8th century BC, Pompeii started to attract Roman attention by the 2nd century and became a popular tourist destination close to the coast! That all changed in 79 AD when Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried Pompeii and neighboring Herculaneum under ash!
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Thanks to excavations started in 1748, most of the city is now open to explore! Our tour started with fifteen minutes to wander the Gran Teatro, which was built at the start of the Roman period to house 5,000 lovers of the arts! It was divided into three sections: the marble ima where the upper class could lounge, the center media where the middle class could sit, and the top summa, which were the equivalent of the nosebleeds!
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From there, we hit the streets of Pompeii and learned about their unique drainage system! All the streets sloped downward so sewage and rain would all flow out of the city! There were special stone steps across these channels so no one would have to soil their fineries!
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We briefly turned through the thermal baths, the most luxurious warning of things to come if ever there were one, but it was way too crowded to photograph and almost too crowded to appreciate the amazing heating and venting systems!
So, we headed to a slightly less crowded, but just as interesting spot, the Casa del Fauno, named for the faun-shaped statue at the edge of its rainwater collector. At its entrance is a remarkable mosaic welcome mat that says “Have,” or “Hello” in Latin!
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Though we don’t know exactly who owned the Casa del Fauno, some artifacts indicate that they may have been part of the Satria clan, and may have had the last name Cassius! What we do know for sure is that they were super rich, because this house was massive—3000 square meters—with its own private bath system and some really elaborate mosaics!
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It also had a magnificent rose garden that was actually reconstructed along the charred remains of the ancient root system, so it looks surprisingly like the one buried by Vesuvius!
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Our tour concluded at the end of three hours in the Forum, which was decorated with modern bronzes as part of an art display. Here, the tour groups really spread out, whether to check out the Temple of Apollo or view the bodies of some people and a dog, who had been buried suddenly by volcanic ash! As for me, I took the guide’s recommendation and headed north to visit the Villa Dei Misteri!
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It was a bit of a trek to get to the Villa dei Misteri, so I had plenty to see on the way, like this very famous mosaic of a dog that says “Cave Canem,” or “Beware of Dog!”
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There was also an old restaurant, or at least a food stall, where the holes that had once heated pots and bowls now sprouted dandelions!
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As the crowds thinned further from the Forum, it was easier to take a closer look at the grooves in the road, which had kept horse-drawn carts on the proper course! They’ve been amazingly well preserved over the centuries!
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At last, I arrived at the Villa dei Misteri, which deserves its name on so many levels! For starters, it survived the eruption of Mount Vesuvius almost completely intact! Perhaps this is because of its involvement in an equally mysterious cult!
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Inside the Villa dei Misteri, beyond the two preserved bodies that were found here, are some incredibly well preserved frescoes! They appear to depict a cult known as the Dionysian Mysteries, which used wine and other intoxicants to have spiritual experiences and kept their practices very secretive, which is why today, they’re still mostly a mystery!
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As I left Pompeii, pondering these long-buried mysteries, I encountered yet one more great mystery on my way to lunch: why anyone would drive in Napoli. I meant to have myself some pizza from the world’s oldest pizzeria, but no! Streets were jam-packed with cars, trucks, mopeds, and pedestrians! The turns were sudden, narrow, and one-directional! And parking? No way! So instead I pushed my way out of Napoli and had a gas station calzone instead. I guess I should be happy that the gas stations here serve calzones!
Ciao, Italia!
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Total Ground Covered: 907.5 mi (1,460.3 km) |
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