Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
22nd June
This morning we visited the Paestum Archaeological site. Founded in 6th century BC by the Greeks Paestum, first called Posiedonia after the Greek God Posiedon, was one of the most flourishing cities of the Mediterranean. It met it’s demise at the fall of the Roman Empire and was stripped and the ruins forgotten until the 18th century.
It was incredible to see the well-laid out streets with specific housing areas and areas for temples and public sporting areas - bathing, amphitheatres etc.
The temples were incredibly well preserved and very impressive. Liam found the Museum boring as it just housed artefacts but the kids really enjoyed the site. Great to see their interest in ancient history.
As a break from history we took a drive out the Cirento towards Acciaroli which is said to be the inspiration for Hemingways “The Old Man and the Sea”. It is a lovely fishing village - still with a relaxed feel to it although the fishing boats are interspersed with flash yachts. An alternative route home found us winding through the narrow streets of a cliff top village only to get ourselves a bit lost and more or less ending back where we started an hour later but it was still fun.
The next day after an unscheduled tour of Naples back streets (quite a challenging experience!) we finally found Herculaneum (or Ercolana as the Italians call it) It is about 2.5ha excavated out of the estimated 20ha city buried on the 24th August 79 AD under about 16m of mud and lava. The mud preserving everything including a papyrus library. This was a city where wealthy Romans came for seaside holidays and the houses were suitably lavish. We walked around the original streets and went in houses - some of them with beautifully painted walls, mosaic floors, huge antriums. There were public baths for men and women, restaurants (as everyone ate out in those days) shops and sporting gymnasiums. We all thoroughly enjoyed and were pretty much overwhelmed by the lavishness and high degree of preservation . Mind boggling how you go about digging a city out of solid rock and they are still doing it!
In the afternoon we drove up to see the culprit in the disaster Mt Vesuvius. You could drive nearly to the top but then they stuck a car park and charged you for that and also to walk to the top. Bit of a rip off I thought.
Next day we drove to our camp we had booked near Rome ( although not as close to Rome as we would have hoped ) and met up with our very good friends from home Ju and Ali McLeod. As you can imagine their was a big night catching up on stories so we were a bit late heading off to Rome on the train next morning.
On arrival in Rome the first place we visited was Basilica di Santa Maggiore which had a very impressive and elaborate interior. d*** dressed himself up in scraps of material to get in and ended up looking like a ragged Buddhist Monk. Next was the Colosseum, it was very hot and the middle of the day but luckily the queues weren’t too big. Vanessa acted as our tour guide .
The Colosseum was 6 levels high, and the poor people were on the timber at the top. The Senators names were enscribed on blocks around the ring, and wild animals and their hapless victims were delivered to the ring by a series of lifts and trapdoors, for everyones entertainment.
Unlike today the shows were free for everyone( The NZ Rugby Union has a lot to learn about keeping the masses happy), and this massive structure held up to 50000 people and was completed in 80AD.
We wandered through the Roman Forum, past Caesars Funeral Pyre, and it was amazing to imagine how grand this area would have been back then.
The 2000 yr old Pantheon was incredible, ancient looking from the outside, and beautifully preserved on the inside. Experts still wonder how the massive dome of poured concrete was erected without support.
Raphael the artist who contributed most to the works of the Vatican is buried here.
We also took in the very touristy Spanish steps and the amazing Trevi Fountain, and then made or way slowly back to the main station , having a lovely authentic italian meal at a back street restaurant on the way, and got back to camp after midnight.
We had covered most of central Romes sights on foot and the next day we planned to take in St Peters and the Vatican.
We spent all the next day in St Peters and the Vatican Museums , taking in the mind boggling array of treasures and art works. The Sisteen chapel was empty compared with 20 yrs ago.
Our favourite was Raphaels most famous painting called the ‘school of Athens”, depicting all the most famous scholars of the times, Plato, Pythagoras Gallileo, Aristotle etc etc.
We found Rome clean and easy to get round, and the unlimited artesian water spouting out of drinking fountains everywhere was a real bonus in the 30 degree heat.
Tourist numbers seemed well down although we are early in the season.
Next morning we were off to our next base, Umbertide, after watching the ABs play Italy on the Camp TV.
- comments