Beautiful, Terrible, Ruined

March 10

First class train ride to Naples! Lori, Duncan, and I walked out of the train station and into the busy streets and immediately felt uncomfortable. Jodie had warned us to be extra careful of pickpockets, so I was already a little on edge. Naples is dirty, sketchy, and modern—there’s garbage everywhere, street venders piled on top of each other everywhere, and construction, yes, everywhere. Before taking the next train to Pompei (the modern-day city is spelled with one i, while the ancient ruins are spelled with two), we went off in search of some famous Napoli pizza. We ended up waiting in like a Da Michele, but this was all part of the experience. The restaurant only has two kinds of pizza—they sit you down, bring out the food, and you inhale it as quickly as possible, then you’re back out the door. We spent more time waiting than eating, but it was so good! Also, Julia Roberts ate at Da Michele while filming Eat Pray Love.

Back to the sketchy train station, crowded between a bunch of middle-schoolers, and about half an hour later, we were in Pompei. The sea on one side, the mountains on the other. Mount Vesuvius, to be exact (every time a train went by, I was convinced that it was the volcano about to erupt again). Lori and I could see the ruins of Pompeii from our balcony! The entrance was literally a five-minute walk from our hotel, which was awesome. The three of us got radio receivers, and then took off to explore the city. I knew that Pompeii was a city, but I didn’t quite comprehend just how big it was. We ended up getting lost several times and didn’t get to see everything, but the weather was overcast and dreary, so we didn’t have to fight with many tourists.

Facts that you should know about Pompeii: in 63 AD, an earthquake hit the city. It was still being rebuilt in 79 AD, when the infamous eruption happened. Mt. Vesuvius exploded, sending ash twelve miles into the air, twice the speed of sound, and hovered for twelve hours before hitting the earth again. The citizens of Pompeii thought that it was just a harmless cloud, so most of them didn’t bother to evacuate. When the volcanic material started raining down, the people didn’t even have time to move. Excavations found empty cavities in the hardened rock, which turned out to be where bodies had decomposed. They poured plaster into these holes and captured the last moments of the ancient Romans’ lives. One man is curled up into a ball, another is screaming in terror. It was so eerie.

After the park closed, we hunted down some gelato and went back to the hotel to rest. I brought homework (finals are coming up…bleh), but I ended up just relaxing. Lori and I watched the original Doctor Doolittle in Italian and I was asleep before eleven.

March 11

We headed out early the next morning in order to stop in Ercolano on the way back to Naples. Ercolano is home to Herculaneum, a seaside town that was also hit by the volcano. Herculaneum has been preserved a lot better over the years—some of the three story structures are still standing. The ruins have been carved out the rocks and the walls of volcanic rock remain. The shoreline was extended by quite a bit by the amount of volcanic material, so archaeologists assumed that the lack of bodies in the houses meant that these citizens had more time to escape. However, further excavations uncovered a mass of bodies all huddled down by the water’s edge, which is truly tragic.

Although I enjoyed the historic value of the ruins, I realized that my true identity is an art geek—I would perk up whenever we found an intact fresco or mosaic still preserved on the walls or floors. I was also determined to make it down to the seaside, but after wandering into the sketchiest part of Ercolano, I was ready to abandon all hope of making it to the shore and run back up the hill to the train station. After arriving back in Napoli, we decided that we needed some more pizza. Da Michele was closed, but we found a non-touristy place right next to the Porta Capuana, which was an ancient city gate. Afterwards, we trekked around the piles of garbage…erm, city in search of some churches (because you can never see enough of those in Italy).