Southern Italy Trip: Days 1 and 2

This past week (11/5-11/9) we went on our planned "Southern Italy Trip," where we spent five days in the region of Campania: home to Naples, many historical sites, and beautiful tourists destinations. Since we packed a lot into our five days, we thought we'd split them up into two blog posts. This post will cover Tuesday and Wednesday, when we investigated the ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii and traveled down the picturesque Amalfi coast. 

Tuesday began our adventure in Southern Italy. After an early three hour bus ride, we arrived in Herculaneum, the "little brother" of Pompeii in regards to actual size and amount of artifacts. Most of ancient Herculaneum is still under the modern city and not excavated; only a little cut-out portion of the city has been dug out of the lava rock. Here, the lava from the same eruption of Vesuvius (in 79AD) hardened differently, leaving it at the consistency of cement. In order to find this lost city, archaeologists had to drill underground tunnels. When we were there, we could see where the excavating had stopped and some entrances to the original tunnels. 

Herculaneum from above.

At Herculaneum we were able to see some impressive town houses to get an idea of how citizens of this ancient town lived and how they coveted the idea of status in their homes through decorations and peristyle (columned) gardens. 

The House of Neptune and Amphitrite (Katie gave a presentation about this house for her Archaeology class!)

Mosaic in the House of Neptune and Amphitrite. 

The College of the Augustales. 

Next was the ancient city of all ancient cities: Pompeii. As Mt. Vesuvius loomed in the background, we focused on touring more opulent houses and villas as well as public buildings. One of the most interesting artifacts we saw were lava casts of human bodies archeologists found while excavating the ancient baths. As we walked the streets of the city in the late afternoon, we found it to be the ultimate ghost town, once filled with the lives of thousands of people. At one point a loud siren went off, and of course our entire group's immediate thoughts were "That's the volcano warning, Mt Vesuvius is going to erupt!" Our professor didn't seemed phased by the siren so we continued our tour regardless of our apocalyptic thoughts (we later found out it was actually the closing siren). We unfortunately didn't get to spend as much time as we would've liked at Pompeii, but that just gives us an excuse to come back! Our hotel for the entire week was located in the modern city of Pompeii, right next door to the ancient city, and we were treated to wonderful five course meals each night! 

Pompeii!

The Large Theater of Pompeii.

The Roman Forum with Mt. Vesuvius in the background.

The first "Welcome" mat!

The House of the Faun.

Wednesday was one of our "fun days," or in other words, "not educational" days. We began our drive down the Amalfi coast at Sorrento and continued to the beautiful town of Amalfi. While the drive itself was full of gorgeous views of the coastline and the Bay of Naples, we didn't enjoy all of the windy roads on the edge of the cliffs as one of our professors repeatedly reminded us how dangerous this drive was because of the sharp turns and small roads. 

Enjoying a view of Sorrento. 

Driving along the Amalfi Coast. 

When we reached Amalfi we were free to explore the beach town by ourselves, and we spent the day going into numerous ceramic shops, of which the area is famous, and walking down streets full of boutiques. We also visited the cathedral of Amalfi dedicated to St. Andrew, where his body is buried. 

We of course spent some time on the pier as the sun set, eating some gelato flavored "Amalfi Sky" and gazing back up into the city that rests on the mountainside. It was a wonderful and relaxing day, and we could begin to sense the cultural differences between northern, central, and southern Italy, and the different atmospheres that come with each.