I always had the dream of visiting Pompeii. I also believe that life is to make your dreams come true, so I recently visited this magnificent archaeological site, near Naples, in Italy.
As a little child, I studied at school about the ancient roman city that was covered by pyroclastic material, a kind of very light, tiny pieces of solidified rock full of even tinier air bubbles, which came out of volcano. It always fascinated me how this city was discovered in the XI Century by looters looking for ancient and valuable objects to sell to the royal families of today’s Italy, Austria and Hungary. I watched several documentary movies about how the city was properly excavated only in the XX Century, and how recently it became the most important archaeological touristic attraction in the whole world, at the same time it is still an object of study for archaeologists, who believe that there is much more to discover under the ashes.
While preparing my trip and reading more about Pompeii, I discovered a jewel, usually forgotten by tourist: The city of Herculaneum. It is located between Naples and Pompeii, it is smaller but better preserved as Pompeii, and its buildings are almost intact even after so many centuries.
To visit Pompei, the best way is to fly to Napoli, in Italy. From the very airport it is possible to get a bus to the main train station, which costs 5 Euro and it is called Alibus. It is very easy to find, at the end of the parking place at the airport. The ticket is to be purchased by the driver, and the train station is the first stop after the airport, so one cannot get lost.
At the main train station in Napoli, you must go to the underground level, to the line called Circumvesuviana. It is a kind of underground-like train that goes all across the Napoli coast, in front of the Vesuvius mountain. I bought a ticket to Herculaneum, because it is closer to Napoli than Pompeii, and I wanted to see it first. The ticket to Herculaneum Scavi costs less than 3 Euro.
It is very important to have in mind that the stations for the archaeological site are called Scavi, excavation in Italian. If you go out in Herculaneum instead of Herculaneum Scavi, you will be in the station at the modern town.
After a 25-minute ride, one is in Herculaneum. A long street just in front of the station will take you to the excavations, crossing a part of the charming modern town. The entrance costs 11 Euro, but the first Sunday of the month it is for free. Also, here and in Pompeii, there are lockers that you can use for free to leave your backpack and even a big suitcase, to enjoy the archeological visit weightless.
Herculaneum is really a wonder, a well preserved roman city. A group of bodies protecting themselves from Vesuvius eruption was also found here. This finding helped archaeologist to better understand how the eruption happened, how slow or fast it was, and how people reacted to it. Among the bodies, they found a child holding his pet dog, which was the image that moved me the most in the entire visit.
Archaeologist went mad about Herculaneum and Pompeii because they are the only places where they can study a whole picture of a normal day in a roman town, which was frozen on time thanks to the pyroclastic material: Like a kind of hot snow, it covered all without damaging structures and bodies, preserving them for posterity. Very differently, if the Vesuvius would have erupted with lava, Pompeii and Herculaneum would have been completely destroyed and lost.
After visiting Herculaneum, it is possible to go directly to Pompeii, visiting the two archaeological sites in one day, or to climb up to the Vesuvius mountain and visit Pompeii at the next day, which was the option I took.
In front of Herculaneum Scavi station, there is a bus company which drives all the way up to the Vesuvius. The ticket costs about 20 Euro, includes the entrance to the national park at the site, and it allows you to ride down with any bus of the company, at any time. So no worries if you would like to enjoy more time at the park. After about 20 minutes driving up to the parking place in front of the entrance, you have to walk up to the crater. It is quite steep, and I recommend wearing really comfortable shoes for that. It took me half an hour to get up, but the view is magnificent, and it is really amazing to look directly to the Vesuvius’ crater, where all the story of Herculaneum and Pompeii started with an eruption in 79 BC.
After I was back in Herculaneum Scavi, I took the Cirumvesuviana line to Pompeii again, and I paid about 3 Euro. I got a simple accommodation close to Pompeii Scavi, because my idea was to be the first in line to visit at the next day. Also, after so much walking and climbing in one day, I was completely tired.
On the next day I used the lockers for my backpack again, and I paid 15 Euro for the ticket (it is also free the first Sunday of every month). When entering the city, I was out of my breath: Pompeii is stunning, huge, a real city frozen in time where you can see how romans lived, ate, loved, and organized their daily life. I had to sit down a bit to recover from the overwhelming feeling. After 20 minutes or so, I was ready again to explore the city.
It took me 6 hours to walk every street, to see all houses and to really enjoy Pompeii as I always wanted. But I am sure in 3 hours one can get a pretty good impression. At the entrance, make sure you grab a map with the location of the important buildings, so you don´t miss them.
Everyone´s favourite is the brothel, a really small building with only 3 rooms and erotic frescoes all around. A friend of mine who visited Pompeii during the 80´, told me that at that time only men were allowed to go into the brothel and see the erotic paintings.
My personal favourites were the House of Vettii, with amazing, incredibly well preserved frescoes all over the place. A very important restauration work has been done, and the image of such vivid colours and wonderful forms, painted about 3 millennials ago is simply breath-taking.
I also loved the Villa of Mysteries, a house located a bit far away of the city, crossing one of Pompeii´s cemeteries. Archaeologists are still not sure what this house was for, but according to the frescoes, representing bulls and humans in a kind of initiation ritual, they believe it has something to do with a cult. It is still a mystery.
My other favourite thing was the theatre, where the acoustics are so good, that I could hear a tour guide with a group of Chinese people standing close to the stage, when I was sitting in the far most row up to the back. Here I also learn that a theatre was only a half circle structure, and an amphitheatre is round, putting together the two halves in what today would be a stadium.
Walking to Pompeii allows you to learn so much about ancient roman life, and how incredibly similar it was to ours. I loved the restaurants, located everywhere in the city. One can recognize them because of this smart structure: A marble table with big vases, where food was stored and kept warm, thanks to the fire burning behind. Customers could look at the food and it was easy for the restaurant owners to serve it and to keep it at a good temperature. Simply amazing!
I really loved Pompeii and Herculaneum, and the feeling of have been in a place where humans from centuries ago lived their lives just so similarly to us, to you and me, will be always in my heart.
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