Naples & Pompeii

We arrived Naples a couple of days ago and have mostly been eating and seeing ancient Roman stuff. Great pasta! Fantastic pizza! And oh my gosh, the mozzerella....yuuuummmmmm. I didn't know it was a specialty of Campania (the region in which Naples is located). So I try to have it every day, it tastes much much better than the mozzarella di bufala that we get in the states. Probably because it's not actually made from water buffalo milk in the states. I keep forgetting to take photos of food. Will try harder. And of course, one of the main reasons we are in Naples is to see artefacts from Pompeii and Herculaneum (Eroclano), ancient Roman towns that were destroyed/preserved by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 (AD). And to visit the sites as they are just a bit outside of Naples.

This is the view from our hotel room. That's the Castel D'Ovo. (Yes, the Castle of the Egg. Legend has it that Virgil buried an egg in the wall/foundation of the castle and said that when the egg breaks the castle will fall. So far, so stinky egg good!)


A couple of photos from Pompeii, where we went today (c. 40 min. train ride).

The forum. That's Mt. Vesuvius there in the background.


Eric in the peristylum, House of Pansa, a very Roman house (wealthy-ish person).


Wall painting in the Villa dei Misteri, a suburban villa (just outside walls of Pompeii). The wall paintings may (or may not) depict secret Dionysian rite. But beautiful nonetheless!


This is a mosaic of Cerberus, the dog in the Latin textbook Eric used to teach from, in which the students learn all about the family that lived in its house, the House of Caecilius Iocundus. Outside of the house we met a woman who as a student had used that textbook and she was very excited to see the house. She and her dad thought it was very funny that they should meet a Latin teacher right there.



Some mosaics from Pompeii/Ercolano that were removed at some point and now in the Museo Nazionale Archelogico. Amazingly beautiful!!!




Unfortunately, we were unable to see the wall paintings that had been removed from Pompeii/Eroclano because they were re-doing the floors. Erghhh. Anyway, sometimes its quite frustrating while at the sites because there is a big square missing in the wall and you just know they ripped out the painting so you can't see it in situ. Same goes for the mosaics, there aren't that many left in situ.