Herculaneum: The Buried City, Part I (March 6, 2012)

I've already detailed my reasons for wanting to visit Naples (see this post).  For me, the most compelling of the three was the opportunity to hike Mount Vesuvius.  We'd already climbed one active volcano on our trip (Mt. Ngauruhoe in New Zealand), and I was itching for another - and an excuse to spend a day outdoors.  Vesuvius & Co. are just a bit south/southeast of Naples proper, reachable in 30-60 minutes by train.

Vesuvius is the only active volcano in Europe.  Its most famous eruption (in AD 79) buried the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, which were preserved in ash and remained virtually untouched until the 1700s.  Today, both sites are partially excavated and open for visitors.  Herculaneum (present day Ercolano) is further north, along the coast.  Pompeii is a bit south of Vesuvius, and slightly more inland:

Pompeii is the more famous of the two sites, and approximately four times larger than Herculaneum.  However, Herculaneum is better preserved and less crowded, as well as very convenient to the bus that goes up to Vesuvius.  We chose Herculaneum.  How did we learn all that to inform our decision?  We try to do our homework before we go, of course!  See?

Three of us, hard at work at our hotel in Naples...

Several sources recommended that we prepare for our trip by checking out the Museo Archeologico in Naples (which we'd done the day before), then visiting the excavations, and ending with the hike up Vesuvius.  And that is precisely what we planned to do on this particular day: First tour the excavation of Herculaneum, then join a bus trip up to Vesuvius later the in afternoon, when clearer weather promised a better view. 

The trip to Herculaneum (Ercolano) was remarkably easy.  We had chosen our hotel in Naples for its proximity to the main train station in Naples (obviously we didn't chose it for its winning atmosphere), so we simply walked a block to the station, located the correct train, and bought our ticket.  For just a few Euros, we rode ~20-25 minutes to the Ercolano- Scavii stop, then walked about six blocks straight toward the water.  We found these gardens just outside the excavation site:

Gardens in Ercolano, with Vesuvius in the distance.

Turning around 180 degrees, we could look down into the Herculaneum excavation site. 

Unlike the gradual build-up of land and debris we discussed in our post on Underground Rome, in Herculaneum, the city was buried all at once under volcanic debris.  The new city of Ercolano was built on top of the debris many years later.  Herculaneum was actually discovered by someone digging a well in Ercolano...

The day was turning out to be absolutely gorgeous, warm and sunshiny, and it looked like we'd have the excavation site all to ourselves.  We bought our tickets, rented an audioguide, and headed down into the excavation.  From here on out, I think this trip will be best shared through photos.  So let's go!

This was Herculaneum's beachfront property.  The present-day beachfront is at least 500 meters away.  When Vesuvius erupted, many of the townspeople ran down here to try to save valuables from the storage areas under these arches.  Obviously, they died there from smoke/ashes/heat.  See that railing above?  There's a courtyard and bath houses up there.

We weren't allowed down, but this was one of the large bath areas.  You can see one of the baths to the right of that pillar in the back.

This is what remains from one of the temple alters in the city.  This is one of the least well-preserved areas.  But check out those steps in the back right hand corner...

...in a close-up.  These are originals, constructed from some kind of marble. Crazy!

Walking through the streets of this forgotten and buried city was a surreal experience - I felt immersed in a secret place, but a glance up revealed the modern day houses and apartments of Ercolano:

How long ago were these roads built?  Someone still thought to put sidewalks in, though!

Steered by our audioguide, we wandered down the street, stopping to peer into each building.  The floors and walls of the ground levels were largely intact, although most were missing ceilings and upper floors (there are a few photos later in this post, though).  This first street (also pictured above) was largely a commercial hub.  

This was the ancient Roman equivalent of your local bar.  People typically ate their mid-day meals at places like these.  Food was kept warm in large clay pots that were built into the counter (see the openings on the counter top).

This is the back room of the bar, where customers could sit and eat.  And do you see that little wall in the back right hand corner of the room?  Yep, that was the loo!

These ceramic containers (called 'amphoras') were used to transport tradeable liquids (alcohol, oil, etc.) by ship.  The large number here indicate that this was probably a shop of some kind.  Amphoras were cheap and easy to make, so instead of transporting them back empty, they were simply discarded.  Massive piles of broken amphoras can be found in and around ancient cities in the Mediterranean.

More amphora, held on one of the few upper levels that remained in the buildings.  The wood was somehow preserved by the heat and ash of the eruption.

There were a few other places where we found bits of this blackened wood. Kee-Min snapped a great close-up here:

 

 Obviously, this wood is not in stellar shape.  If the wood had survived better, we might see more upper levels on the buildings.  I believe this one has been rebuilt as an example:

See the wooden ceiling/floor, and the wood framing in the wall on the upper level?

Zooming in a bit might help:

I was really, REALLY trying to fit all of Herculaneum into one post.  But honestly - we spent, like, 5 hours there (no exaggeration).  I think we are the slowest tourists ever.  We listen to every part of the audioguide.  In fact, we ran out the batteries in our first audioguide and had to go back for a freshly charged one, about 2/3 of the way through our visit.  So, before I completely overwhelm you with photos, let me pause.  I'm going to have a snack, and perhaps you should, too:

Since the food-for-purchase options are limited in Ercolano (and that bar in the photo above wasn't open for business), we came prepared with some snacks.  Somehow, this little guy made it all the way from Los Angeles to Italy.  He didn't live to see Vesuvius, though. I made sure of that!

Now - once you get your snack and take a break, come on back for some photos of the residential areas of Herculaneum!

The Great Pizza Showdown!! (March 5, Cont'd)

In my last post, we got serious about museums.  In this post, it's time to get serious about food (it's tough, but somebody's gotta do it!).  In Japan the previous month, we had a bit of Foodie Fun by eating and blogging our way through The Great Ramen Showdown!!.  We decided to maintain that spirit of friendly competition in Italy with an informal "Pizza-Off" between two of the most famous pizzerias in Naples: Di Matteo and Sorbillo.  

This was a totally un-sponsored, anonymous competition - we appointed ourselves as judges, and walked into both places as your average American/Singaporean tourists (this was a tough act for us, you know).  We ordered, ate, and reviewed.  The staff had no idea what we were up to - and my mangled Spantalian (Spanish-Italian) probably wasn't up to the task of explaining it, even if I wanted to.

The two pizzerias are just a block or two apart on Via dei Tribunali, but our stomachs weren't big enough to try them in rapid succession.  So we started with lunch at Di Matteo, which looks just like every other restaurant/shop front along the street, except for the crowd of anxious pizza-eaters, waiting to be seated or to get their take-away orders:

 

We were quickly spied by one of the waiters, who was Asian - and began speaking to Kee-Min in rapid-fire Japanese.  We dredged up the few Japanese words we remembered from our trip in early February to get the ethnicities sorted out, and just like that, Kee-Min made a friend.  [Proving, once again, that a smile, good humor, mixed languages, and a few hand gestures will get you everywhere.]  Our new waiter friend made sure that we got seated promptly, despite the restaurant's obvious popularity.

The dining area was actually much larger than we'd expected, extending to the side and up onto the second floor.  The setup was simple - cheap tables and chairs, plastic tablecloths, and house wine served in plastic cups.

We didn't actually get any photos of the wine, since Stanley pictures must be alcohol-free.

 The food offerings were also straightforward, and we ordered a margarita pizza to share (just 3-4 euros!).  About 15 minutes later, this arrived at our table:

NOM!  See Stanley at the top there?  Even he's trying to sneak a bite!!

Having already drooled over the pizzas that were being delivered to the surrounding tables, we were ready.  We dove in the moment our waiter put it down on the table.  In short order, we turned that into this:

I would be lying if I claimed that we didn't enjoy this pizza.  But I also cannot tell you that this was no question the best pizza we've ever eaten oh my goooooodnesssss.  Definitely can't do that.  This is what we noted:

1. The crust was very thin, with a thicker, grabbable crust on the perimeter.

2. The bottom especially had a slightly charred taste.

3. There was a modest amount of cheese. 

4. The sauce was very mellow - not sweet, not salty, not acidic.

5. But there was a lot of it - which made the center of the pizza very wet.  In fact, if you cut a traditional triangular slice, you wouldn't be able to pick it up because the center parts would flop and splat back onto the plate.  The entire center of the pizza had to be eaten with a fork and knife.  A spoon probably would have worked, too.

Pizza preferences are individual; turns out Kee-Min's and mine are pretty well aligned with each other, although ours may not match yours - and ours don't particular match Naples', either.  Our opinions of the aforementioned properties:

1. Fine.

2. Ehhh....OK - could take or leave.

3. Perfect!

4. Pretty much perfect.

5. Waaay too much sauce!

Regardless, we were glad we went.  Our experience at Di Matteo was fun, we were thankful to have found/gotten a table at such a pizza institution, and our tummies were full.  We headed off to the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli to burn off some calories.

We spent the entire afternoon there, and when we stumbled back out into the (fading) light of day, it was about 6 PM.  Our second pizza stop, Sorbillo, opened for dinner at 6:30.  We were just a short walk away, so we headed over and joined a mixed group of locals and tourists to wait for the doors to open.  

Sorbillo is to the left of the Enoteca (see the "ENO..." sign). 
See me and my pink jacket sitting on a planter, waiting for the doors to open?
(Next to the kegs...)

This time, we opted to get one pie each.  I chose mushroom:

Kee-Min ordered some meat-y thing, and when that wasn't available, he chose a different meat-y thing.  But they also didn't have the second meat-y choice, so I think he eventually had to settle for a third meat-y thing, although we couldn't quite figure out why.  In retrospect, we think that they already had a batch of the most popular pies just finishing up in the oven (based on the short time between when we ordered and when we got the pizza).  This is practical, but only for the most popular pizzas.  Maybe only the real Italians get to order whatever pizzas they want, and the tourists (or at least, the tourists who are there early) have their choices limited to whatever is just coming out of the oven?  We're still not sure. 

Now, what is terribly anti-climactic about this post is that...we can't declare a winner.  To be honest, the Sorbillo pizza wasn't all that different (to our taste buds) from the Di Matteo pizza.  We liked and disliked the same things about each: the flavors and ingredient were fresh and tasty, but the thin crust and excess sauce made the pizza soggy in the center. And we just don't prefer soggy pizza.  But pizza preferences are individual, and we'd still urge you to give one - or both - a try if you ever happen to find yourself on Via dei Tribunali in Naples.  These pizzas are a great way to fill up on some genuine Italian fare for a great price (3-4 euros for plain, 4-7 for toppings).

Unable to declare one pizza shop victorious over the other, I am forced, instead, to cop out and declare us as the winners of the day's pizza challenge.  We were, after all, the ones who got to enjoy not one, but two of Naples' most famous pizzerias, in the same day.  And with that, we rolled ourselves back to the hotel, fought with the internet for a little while, then admitted defeat and went to bed.  We had plans for a trip to Herculaneum the following day.  And that, my friends, is a post you won't want to miss!