Advertisement
Published: June 16th 2018
Our Main Goal In Naples Was To Visit
the Archaeological Museum - well worth a visitI know we just completed an overland trip to Siena, but with the end of our contract time in Gaeta we decided to do another trip, a shorter one to Naples and to visit the ancient city of Pompeii. We left the marina Sunday morning in order to get to Naples early enough to have time to visit the Archeology Museum. It came highly recommended to us by a few others as it contains many of the original artifacts from the various archeological sites near here as well as from Rome. Our plan was to go to visit the ancient city of Pompeii the next day so thought that by seeing the actual artifacts and learning more about the site before going to Pompeii would be useful.
The museum contains a unique collection of archeological items which started back in 1734 with Charles III of the Bourbon dynasty who ascended the throne in Naples. He promoted the excavations of the Roman towns that had been buried by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD as well as the establishment of a museum to house the artifacts that were found. The King had inherited a very rich collection through his
mother Elizabeth Farnese and these were displayed here.
The building the museum is housed in had been a palace that had housed the royal Calvary barracks and later was the seat of the University of Naples from 1616 to 1777. The museum was started as an Institute with numerous laboratories, but became the National Museum in 1860.
The museum is well laid out and the artifacts are displayed in logical groupings. The two major sites in the area that were destroyed in 79 AD are the more famous Pompeii and Herculaneum which is a smaller site nearby which you can also visit. We decided to only visit one and chose Pompeii.
We went through all of the areas of the museum, but paid special attention to the items from Pompeii in order to hopefully enjoy the visit the next day with a different view.
With the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius rising up 12 miles it engulfed the town of Pompeii with a thick 30 foot layer of hot ash and filled the area with deadly gases. The town at the time had a population of 20,000 and in the end they found
that 2,000 perished as the rest had fled. The location of this buried port was discovered in 1599, but actual excavations of it didn't start until 1748. With the quickness of the eruption and destruction of the town, it has allowed archeologists an excellent glimpse into what life was like in 79 AD. Pompeii actually was founded in 600 BC and was a very busy Roman trading city. It was a middle class town with a mixture of rich and poor with plenty of shops. They have determined that there were more than 40 bakeries, 30 brothels and 130 bars, restaurants and hotels.
Having been to the ruins in Rome we expected to see some columns and stone sculptures, but we were thoroughly amazed at the completeness of many of the artifacts of everyday life. We saw numerous displays of cooking pots, measuring tools, medical tools (many which we are happy are not in use today!) as well as musical instruments, silver, gems and exquisite and very detailed glassware.
There were numerous mosaics with amazing details of everything from animals such as birds, fish, and larger mammals including those in the wild and their dogs to details
of famous battles of Alexander the Great. What really surprised us were the numerous frescoes and the excellent condition of them. As we were told with the ash covering everything so quickly it was well preserved and allows us to see the details today.
We finished at the museum earlier than we thought so we continued the day by following the self guided city tour that we had downloaded on our phone from Rick Steves. He started the tour from the museum so it was a no-brainer to at least start the tour. It worked out well as it took us to neighborhoods that we probably wouldn't have found on our own and he provided history of the areas and the buildings we were seeing.
The only thing that was missing was that as it was late afternoon on a Sunday many of the shops were closed that took away from the described vibrancy of the areas. Good thing was that we weren't tempted to buy anything! We were able to make it through all of the tour except for heading up the hill to St. Marco area. Due to the fact that it was late
in the day, but more importantly very hazy we wouldn't have gotten to see much of a view of Naples bay or see Mt. Vesuvius. It was definitely a bonus to be able to fit in this lovely walking tour of Naples.
The next morning we got up early to catch the small local train out to Pompeii. If you come here, be sure to note that if Pompeii is spelled with two i's it is the ancient city that was destroyed and if it is spelled with one i as in Pompei it is the town of today.
Fortunately we got to the site just before the opening time of 9AM so we were able to see some of the site before the large tour groups started to show up. It was clear in the morning so we were able to get clear views of Mt. Vesuvius and a feel for the distance that the ash spread. We found that it erupted approximately 18-20 hours with Pompeii first getting cover in ash and then later the pyrotechnic flow came. As mentioned Pompeii was not the only city destroyed. It is also interesting to
The Number of Artifacts Showing Everyday Life
reminded you of how quickly the ash buried Pompeii note that in 62 AD there had been another eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and that Pompeii had not completely recovered from the damage from that one.
During the archeological dig bodies were found of humans as well as their dogs which have been preserved by filling the voids left by their decayed bodies with plaster. Some of these were on display which brought home how quickly the destruction occurred.
We were glad that we had gone to the museum before coming here as we could better visualize what these homes and places of businesses must have looked with their beautiful mosaics and frescoes in place. We had to chuckle that at some the entrances to the homes there would be a beautiful mosaic of dog with the words "beware of dog" - at least that is what our audio guide said the words meant!
One of the homes we went in to was described as a "bachelor pad" owned by two brothers. The home had a beautiful inner garden that was unfortunately closed, but it also had numerous rooms covered in frescoes (with some of them X-rated).
There
Mosaics & Freizes - A Variety of Subjects Covered
portraits, decorative pieces, & still life's were a few were numerous eating establishments with marble topped counters and holes that would have held the food over the fire. There was one we establishment we didn't see as the line was so long to see inside, but we heard the description of the brothel with its stone beds and pillows!
It sometimes is hard to think of the advancements that have taken place before our current times, but when you walk through Pompeii and see that they had sidewalks, paved roads with stepping stones for crossing, street signs, and numerous gardens, water taps as well as a water reservoir within one of the arches over the road, it makes you appreciate what has come before. One interesting tidbit about the stepping stones: sometimes you would see one stepping stone and that was for a one way street, two way streets got 2 stepping stones and the major “highways” had 3! They even had some streets that were for pedestrians only and they were closed off by large vertical stones at the end so no chariots or carts could pass through.
We wandered in and out of many of the homes, baths, restaurants and other places of business all
Animals Were Another Subject Captured
in the intricate mosaics found in Pompeii day long. As mentioned earlier we were very happy we started our explorations at 9AM as there weren’t too many people at that time so it was easy to get around. By 11 – 11:30 it was a completely different picture as the tour groups arrived and there were lots of them! It got to the point that some roads we didn’t travel down due to the pedestrian traffic that blocked the way! Fortunately Pompeii is a very large site and there was no shortage of things to see and learn about.
One thing we did see on this train trip was a couple of water buffalo farms. We have definitely been enjoying eating buffalo mozzarella while here in Gaeta - now we know where some of the water buffaloes are raised.
It was a quick trip with staying two nights in Naples, but we are glad we made the effort to see Pompeii and learn much more about the people that lived there.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.09s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 12; qc: 29; dbt: 0.0479s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
