The Goths in Campania

An early morning start and two train rides took us to Salerno in the province of Campania.  The city was much larger than we expected and we discovered that our hotel room was directly over a bar where live music was scheduled that evening.  Michael and I were assured by the hotel manager that the music would not disturb us so after depositing our bags we set off for a walk around the city.  We took a lovely stroll along the Trieste Seafront Promenade and stopped for a drink at one of the bars along the way to watch the sunset. The region is famed for its seafood and Michael was eager to sample some of the local specialties.  We found a seafood restaurant and were assured by the waiter that the chef would make a non-seafood pasta dish especially for me.  A complementary appetiser arrived at our table, which was naturally fish.  I politely accepted it intending to discreetly pass it over to Michael.  Michael instead told the waiter that I don’t eat any seafood so the waiter apologised profusely and gave Michael my appetiser and told me that the chef would prepare something especially for me.  I was most embarrassed however the waiter was gone before I could protest.  Michael was happily eating both appetisers when the waiter returned and with a flourish presented me with salmon, saying “see – no seafood!”  Again I politely accepted the dish whereupon Michael told the waiter that I didn’t eat salmon.  Horrified the waiter offered his apologies again and told Michael that he could have the salmon and that the chef would prepare another dish for me.  I tried to protest but he rushed back to the kitchen.  Michael then proceeded to demolish his third appetiser.  I was then presented with a deep fried macaroni cheese ball, which whilst it sounds hideous, was quite possibly the most delicious dish I had had to that point.  The rest of the meal was lovely and we retired to our room to get a good night’s sleep.  Our sleep was somewhat delayed however, as the live entertainment that we were promised wouldn’t disturb us was so loud that the singer may as well have been in the room with us.  Actually, he was a very good singer so we weren’t too upset.

 

The next day we took a short train ride to the ancient ruins of Herculaneum.  The town was buried under 20 metres of ash when Mt Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD and the city is famous for being well preserved, as the ash which covered the town actually preserved its original splendour.  We were able to see preserved wooden lofts, wine racks furniture and household shrines as well as frescoes and mosaics.  There were arched vaults where as recently as the 1980s, archaeologists discovered three hundred skeletons.  

 


 Some of these skeletons have been left where they were found and it was touching to see them lying there.  We spent over three hours wandering the streets and peering into the various shops, bars and bakeries along with the ornate atriums and central pools.  Then there were the beautiful men’s and women’s baths with lovely nautical mosaics and marble benches.  We had a terrific day and we were both impressed with just how much of the city was still intact and standing.

Up Pompeii

I can’t tell you how excited I was to be finally visiting this ancient city.  It is somewhere that I have always wanted to see ever since studying Latin in high school.  The first thing that struck both Michael and myself was the sheer size of the city.  








 It covers 66 hectares, 44 of which have been excavated.  We did our utmost to see as much as we could and we spent 7 hours clambering up and down streets, entering magnificent villas, shops, and baths and still we didn’t see everything.  There were many highlights but for me, the most impressive structure was the amphitheatre. 



 The amphitheatre was built after 70 BC and is the earliest known permanent stone amphitheatre in the Roman world.  It is huge and could seat 20,000 people.  Whilst we were there we saw a special exhibition, Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii, which detailed how the band performed and recorded a documentary in the empty arena.  It was fascinating and there were testimonies from 10 boys (now men) who had sneaked unseen into the amphitheatre and watched the performance.  Now that is a story to tell the grandchildren!




There were also many, many beautiful mosaics, frescoes and statues.  The streets were wide and well laid out with huge boulders positioned so that pedestrians could use them like stepping stones to cross the streets when they were flooded for cleaning each day.  It was an enthralling glimpse into what life would have been like in those times.  There were also sophisticated aqueducts snaking around the city and there were many beautiful fountains. 






 The forum was vast and it must have been so impressive when it thronged with the populace going about their business.  

 
 The House of the Faun was a huge private residence with a copy of the statue of the Dancing Faun.  


 
It also contains the recreation of the famous Alexander Mosaic depicting the Battle of Issus.  I could go on and on about everything we saw however, what I will say, is that Pompeii lived up to my expectations and I certainly wasn’t disappointed with what I found.