A Lifetime Of Dreaming - We Made It To Pompey (Pompeya, Pompeii)

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Update:  Chatting with a friend, we had a discussion of how to spell the city name.  It's all over the map so I will leave the title as is and change the name throughout the post.

A comment before getting into Pompeii.  We have had a couple of Airbnb disappointments on this trip compared to all the other places we have used the service, Mexico, United States and Spain.  There are no written instructions in any of the places we've stayed.  It requires constant communication with the host and some take hours (according to their stated response time) to answer.

In Barrea, the wifi stickers are everywhere but the host said, "sorry" no wifi, have to use your android hotspot.  We have plenty of GBs so that isn't an issue but you paid for it.  

Here in Naples, it was specifically stated that there is a parking spot on site.  The day of arrival the host asked if we wanted him to reserve a paid parking spot.  Why?  Well the one available has no security and it may not be safe.  The day wears on and now, "you're on your own".  We went back in forth in Italian and Spanish to no avail.  Very few people outside a tourist venue speak English or Spanish.  He then asked to switch to WhatsApp.  Against my better judgement we did.  I did backup the conversation should I need it for proof.  By the end of the afternoon he would send messages asking if we liked the place and if all was fine.  I blew him off.  I cut the cord.  I won't give him an evaluation.  If I do, he will give me a negative one as well.  Never message with the Airbnb host via Whatsapp no matter how convenient it may be.  We've never had these issues before.  Anyway, on to Pompeii.

We took the 20 minute drive to Pompeii. The city opens at 9:00 a.m. and we arrived at 8:30.  As we were filling up with gas we asked the attendant a few questions on where to park, etc.  He has a paid parking behind his station which was less than half of what the others were.  His is offical and it is marked as such.  We walked the two blocks to the entrance and lined up. Less than 30 people were in line and all but four of us didn't have online tickets.  Many people paid online and many others bought a guided tour.  We do pretty well with reading the signs that are in English and Italian at each stop.  We also have a very good map which they give you at the entrance.  

My interest started in Pompeii when I was a sophomore in high school taking two years of Latin.  Stories ranged from Romulus and Remos, Dido founding Carthage, the Caesars, and Pompeii with famous people such as Mamia.  

We lost the tour groups in the first ten minutes.  We wanted the nitty gritty and we found it right away.  After all these years, we were finally walking the streets where Pompeians had once walked.  It gives  you a sense of how, in some ways, most of us are in significant and a few go down in history only to find out later they may not have been who they were reported to be.  

Monument to Apollo

Off of the main plaza (the Forum) was the Tribune.  Judges sat on the stage and listed the lawyers defending their clients.

One of the many streets lined with homes that people had lived in.

The first villa we walked into had an elaborately painted bedroom.  

This painting on the wall in the bedroom sends a message to people who misuse the internet and post risque pictures of themselves!  Some things will be there forever.  I don't know if the owners intended to share this with us almost 2000 years ago.  😅

Columns alongside the forum.  Very interesting to note that Pompeii wasn't the richest city at the time.  You see all the buildings public and private including columns in this picture.  They really weren't made of marble.  Even then, marble was hard to come by in this region.  Instead, they created a plaster made from ground marble dust and covered the brick with the plaster.

Here you can see an example of the use of the marble plaster.  Some pieces were made from a mold.

We enjoyed the first few hours on pretty much desolate streets winding in and out of the houses and public spaces.  By noon, the tour buses arrived and hoards of people began to flood the park.  We were very happy we chose to go early.  Many Asian and English speaking groups.  We were presenters for many years and we realize that each person adds their own personal touch.  In other words, quite a bit of exaggeration in some of the stories or I should say, ad lib.  

Streets, sidewalks, someone's kitchen, public bathhouses with painted frescos and statues.  All of this was buried under ash from the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius.  It wasn't the first time or the last but this was did in the Pompeians.   The ash that covered the city was up to seven meters deep, that's roughly 22 feet.  Excavations began over three hundred years ago slowly revealing life in that time.  Unfortunately, after the earthquakes, human beings did what they do today.  The city was ransacked of many valuable pieces, tombs were robbed and housed gutted.  

What you see of the bodies today are actually plaster casts.  After the ash had settle, decomposition began and left pretty much empty shells that were filled with plaster.  There are a few examples in the city but it is not what you find of the online pictures, many which were taken in museums.  However,positions of the bodies are original.  I can't imagine the suffering and I'm sure it was fast.

After all these centuries or actually 1946 years, one third of the city is still buried and excavations continue.  We saw afew places where archaeologists were quietly and obscurely working to restore a couple  homes.  There is another city, Herculaneum, nearby.  Those bodies were preserved by a lave flow versus the ash layers in Pompeii leaving skeletal remains.   

22,000 people live in Pompeii today.  It is a thriving small town on the perimeter of the city.  Many people who live there have excellent views of ruins and the cemetaries.  

Here is the part I was truly looking forward to.  This is a section of the city that will cost you 4 Euros more but well worth it.  It covers the necropolis where many of the upper-class and well-known Pompeians.   The tombs and the villas are very elaborate.  The homes and their painted walls and frescos survived the eruptions as they were in a lower area on the outskirts of the city.  They were buried deep in ash as well.  It may have been due to the quality of materials and paint. 

It is hard to believe that these walls have not been retouched in any way.

Here there is no imagining what people looked like, how they dressed or how they lived.

Complete with a full tiled floor undisturbed for 2000 years.

It's so surreal.  A true picture based on paintings and not statues of what we might think life was like.

We finished the day with over 17,000 steps.  A long day but we made our way through.  Too much to absorb but I would do it again.  I would like the three-day pass and go early during weekdays and do a couple of sections at a time.  We don't have a bucket list but this portion of our trip fullfilled a dream.  We have more pictures and several of all the cats that live in the city.  

Lost In The Mountains - Barrea, Italy D'Abruzzo National Park

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A couple of pics from our Airbnb in Pescara on the coast, $37 USD

We had a great time along the eastern coast of Italy.  Our apartment was one of the best Airbnbs to date.  It was as if we were actually living there.  I could see us going there to spend the late Spring early Summer months there.  The host lives upstairs and answers every text in less than a minute.  She also came down our first night and got us started with the radiant heat.  It has been cold the last week.

Here we are, almost lost in the mountains and driving around on zigzag roads.  GPS showed the car just spinning in circles and there was a farmhouse along the road every kilometer or so.  We found an elderly Italian woman on her porch and stopped to ask for help.  We understood a few words but in essence she said to turn around and go back down the mountain.  We did, sent the map to the host and she got us on course.

We are at 3400 feet and it is 3C this morning.  Still dripping rain but not enough to keep us inside.  We met the host and she showed us around our studio apartment on the first floor of her house.  Very nice and warm.  We have had new things come up with Airbnb that we had never encountered before.  Here, she wanted to charge us for towels and we have to pay our gas usage which is on a meter.  We settled for the blankets and sheets and we pay the gas.  

We walked into the town, about three blocks away.  It is advertised as a medieval town.  Its roots go back to 700 BCE but the town as it sits today began to form around 1000 CE.  The church was built in 1300.  Barrea sits on a lake that was created in the 1950s, I assume as a resevoir.  The mountains above are covered in snow and the views are incredible.  

During the latter period the first feudal lords, Di Sangro family, began to take control of the region focusing on cattle production.  Sheep herding followed and opened up the pastoral routes, access to water, pastures and markets.  

The national park was established in the 1920s and at the start of WWII the town was evacuated.  During that period, Barrea was looted and robbed of just about everything.  At the end of the war, people began to return.  Today the population is around 720 people.  In 1984, the town was destroyed by an earthquake.  Again, the town was temporariy abandoned until reconstruction and today it is a well-known tourist area.

True to the culture, men gathering at noon while their wives shop in front for fresh bread, cheeses and salamis. 

We've come to the conclusion that Italians appear to be grouchy, never acknowledging you on the street or sayin hello.  The reason being are their pillows.  They must have continued to follow the Roman style of construction and make their pillows out of stone.  

Tomorrow we head for Naples for three nights and we will take a day trip to Pompei.  We were decided to go to Herculaneum but we have been told by many that it is run by the mafia and there are a lot of pickpockets.  Pompei it is.  

Time To Slow Down - At The Beach Eastern Italy

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Off the coast of Pescara, Italy which is on the east side of the country!

Walking along the beach we saw a castle.  Heading there I read a sign that said "Torre il Cerrano".   Google says it's open seven days a week.  As we got closer we realized it was closed for remodeling but it looks like nothing has been done for quite a while.  The tower was actually a port built in the 1400s.  Ships would arrive with grains and merchandise.  Vessels of grain have been found off the coast proving so.  It looked like a very interesting place to visit.  

This area is similar to the southern California coast made up of many small towns that are connected.  There are good bus and public trans options.  The train is one of them and people use it to pass from town to town.  We are anxious to get back to Rome and take a day trip by train.

Here we were in the town of Pineta just 4 km from our apartment.  We waited for the train to pass to get a good shot.  

Trenitalia flies by at 400 kph.  They really move and you can barely hear them as they pass by.  

We had a much longer drive yesterday.  Time flies and we are getting closer to return to Rome for our last week.  We haven't pooped out but our eyes and minds are pretty full right now digesting all the places we have visited, sights we've seen and food we've eaten.  Well, the food could continue without issue.

A collage of all the naves or side altars in the Cathedral in Parma built in 1073.  Imagine people have been praying in this church for almost 1000 years.  Truly unbelievable how religion has managed the masses for centuries.  

You can't leave Parma without the cheese!  It is super rich and in this case they were selling 20 month old parmesan.  Delicious.  It was 17.50 Euros a kilo.  Wheels of cheese were everywhere.

A chocolate exposition in the town square.  Lots of samples along with coffee.  Everyone drinks coffee.  Amazing how they do it.  They walk up to a coffee bar, ask for an expresso, gulp it down in three or four swallows and off they go.  The same with food.  In Rome, it's always pizza on the go or as they say "take away" in English.  Pizza is sold by the grams or kilo so a slice is about 1.70.  

Wrestling naked?  No comments here!

The Cathedral of San Vitalli di Parma.  We were walking along the street and heard organ music.  We stopped in and I took a short video of the rehearsal in session.  I enjoy this music, it brings back memories of my childhood.  

We headed out of Parma, home of the Italian cheeseheads.  What a place to eat and buy parmesan cheese.  Wheels of cheese are stock on shelves in small shops throughout the centro area.  

It was chilly and wet most of the time and the sun decided to shine brightly on our way out of town yesterday.  We stopped by an Aldi's market and picked up a few more things for the road.   We met an American woman with her Italian husband.  They are expecting their second child.  She said she loves living in Italy especially Parma.  

Parma was much more relaxing.  Milan was a mess and I will do a post later on that visit.  The Airbnb was a nice apartment but the logistics were a PIA.  To make it short, across the street from the building are four parking spots with a fence similar to a bicycle rack.  For some strange reason, the host has a lock box on that fence which is over 200 meters from the front door on the third floor of the building.  There was no mention of it other than the box was at the apartment.  

He later came by to pick up the city tax charged in Italy.  He told us that one of the guests stole the oven from the kitchen.  

Pisa And The Baron's Airbnb

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We decided to take the back roads from Tarquinia to Pisa.  It turned into a five hour journey versus a two hour and thirty minute toll highway drive.  That said, it was well worth the five hours.  It did get a bit tedious towards the end but I would do it again and we probably will.  It was windy curvy all the way and we saw some beautiful Tuscan farms and vineyards.  Switchbacks would describe the some of the turns, I think hairpin would be a better term. In Italy, roads are crappy even on the toll highways.  Some of you think I drive fast, man I'm going 110 and I can feel the push as an SUV wooshes by me at over 160.  You never seen any police patrolling or stopping anyone.  

Hilltops are covered with small 16th century towns and villages.

Everything I've seen in pictures about the Italian countryside proved to be true and even more!

A very bumpy ride crossing through the mountains.  You can hear Juan in the background politely reminding me to be quiet as he takes the video.

We rented an Airbnb in Vicopisano 30 kms from Pisa.  Supposedly it had been owned by a baron but we kind of laughed it off.  Well, it sits in the town square and is probably the most ominous house on the plaza.  It has since been turned into apartments.  We had the bottom floor, a two-bedroom.  The bathroom measures 6 x 6 meters.  It must have been a room at one time and later indoor plumbing was installed.  Some fancy furnishings and some paintings.  Day two we got a chance to hang out for a while and we realized the story of the baron was on the bookshelf.

The drive to Pisa was 30 minutes and we had an opportunity to pass through some small towns along the way.  I wasn't impressed with the Tower of Pisa and it's surrounding buildings.  It is as though they bleached the facades and with all the green grass, although very beautiful to look as if we were in Disneyland.  Thousands of tourists (yes, we are those tourists) all looking for that famous "hold up the tower with one hand".   Tourist packages were up to 50 Euros depending on what you wanted to see or crawl on.   We took the best route and walked the fortress wall that is 3 km long.  Once we reached the end at Rio Amo, we went down to street level and walked back through the city.  We passed the Normal Superior School for teachers.  They were planning a demonstration for the 20th of March.  I really wanted to stay another day to see how it panned out.

Romulus and Remus nursing on Lupa the wolf who found and raised them.  Later, a childless paesant couple took over as parents. Legend says they had trouble deciding where Rome should be built.  In the end, Romulus killed Remus.  A very good story I read in my high school Latin classes.

The man, holding up the tower!  It took over two hundred years to build.  Can you imagine.  In the initial announcement about the  construction, people were very excited.  As the years passed they would walk by and think, "they'll never finish, too much bureaucracy".   Some would never see it end and some that did see the end probably didn't understand what all the hoopla was about.

On our trip to Spain we had Neverita our friend who kept things cold.   After an exhaustive search we were unable to find a styrofoam cooler thinking they aren't available in Italy.  We were recommened to a chain store called Maury's.  It's similar to a Dollar Store but mega in size.  

That's where we found our new handy friend Maury.  It cost us 11 Euros but is collapsable and we can take it home in our suitcase.  We also purchased some ice bricks, four for 3 Euros.  He's doing a great job so far and even better than Neverita wherever she may be!

Nest stop is Milan.