In 79AD, as the Romans were founding the port city of Chester in the UK, tragedy was about to befall another of its cities, Pompeii, resulting in its partial destruction and preservation.
Historians used to believe that the eruption from the nearby Mount Vesuvius volcano took place on 24th August, 79AD. Recent discoveries at Pompeii however have suggested that autumnal fruits from the harvest were present at the time of the city's destruction, placing the timeline of the eruption in the October of that year, not the August.
I visited Pompeii back in June of this year, but made the mistake of doing this tour from Rome, which simply is too far away from Pompeii to make it worthwhile. I had previously visited Pompeii back in 2002, as part of a port stop on a Mediterranean cruise via the port of Naples; but Naples to Pompeii is a mere 30 minutes by road. From Rome however, the journey is 3-4 hours by road and tour operators also then combine this with an afternoon stop at another location. I had booked this tour with Viatour, for their day trip to Pompeii and Positano . I was hoping to see the subsequent discoveries at Pompeii since 2002, such as the fresco depicting an early form of pizza. I was also keen to see more of the Amalfi coast, having previously visited Sorrento back in 2002 also.
Firstly the positives regarding the tour. Actually fulfilled via City Wonders the coaches were modern and first rate, equipped with air conditioning and a USB charging point at every seat as far as I could see. The tour guide for the coach, Antonio, was amicable and well informed.
What was less pleasing however, was around an hour or so into the trip we were told that we would not be visiting Positano after all due to a landslip over a road we were due to use. Chatting to Australians in front of me in the security queue at Rome's airport when leaving Italy revealed there were alternate road routes available to Postiano; and I can see online that this has happened on numerous tours for several weeks from this operator and it was therefore not a surprise on the day of the trip. Integrity for me is key from tour operators, so for the first time since writing this blog in two years now, I will not be recommending this tour or this way of seeing Pompeii to others. CityWonders did redeem themselves later in the week with another tour; so I wonder how much of this was down to the honesty of the reseller (Viatour in this case); because in the case of the second tour to Tuscany with CityWonders that was superb, albeit booked via a different tour reseller (the Roman Guy).
The journey from Rome is an early start, meeting at 7:30 am in the Piazza del Popolo and a late finish - just after 9:30pm , so that when you arrive back in Rome, you will find the city's metro closed, which finishes at 9:30pm. It is an arduous journey to Pompeii taking some 4-5 hours with a stop over at a service station in the morning. Once in Pompeii, orders are taken for lunch (not included in the price of the tour), which was ordered from a nearby pizzeria (Naples being the home of the pizza). You then collect your radio transistor headsets and meet your tour guide for the tour of Pompeii itself.
I was so disappointed with this tour as it was an endless worldwind tour, rushing at fast pace throughout this historic site, lasting little less than just over an hour. I was going to say that this was a tour for Instagram: but I can't even say that, as on this occassion there wasn't even time to stop to properly compose shots, with the tour guy getting irate at people stopping for any significant amount of time. It is a shame given how interesting and iconic Pompeii is.
The eruption from Mount Vesuvius in 79AD was preceeded by a major earthquake in the February of that year, followed by minor tremors closer to the eruption in October. Today, earthquake activity is closely monitored with evacuation plans for the nearby city of Naples. On the first day of the eruption , at around 1pm, Mount Vesuvius erupted violenty, with a column of ash and fine pumice beginning to blanket the area, affecting also the nearby city of Herculaneum. This allowed people a few hours to escape, which is evidenced by the fact only 1,500 bodies have been found on the site to date. The column of ash rose to a height of 100,000ft in the atmosphere (around three times the cruising altitude for planes today) and eventually collapsed under its own weight. When the plume returned to ground at speed, it destroyed any roof structures and buried the remaining buildings and people with ash and stones.
Pompeii remained undiscovered and untouched until around the 16th century; whilst archaeology did not really begin as we know it until the mid 18th century. Major excavations however, did not occur until the 20th century. The blanket of ash prevented looting and weathering and hence Pompeii today is a time capsule of a Roman city, frozen in time in 79AD.
Of the many things you can see in Pompeii are the original mosaic floors in the homes of wealthy merchants; frescos and water fountains; shop frontages and street paving and planning; there is even a brothel with frescos depicting the positions on offer. They have also uncovered graffiti depicting vulgar Latin demonstrating that in Roman times too there were regional variations in language.
One of the more macabre aspects on display in the museum (as we are approaching Halloween) are the plaster casts made of the victims who perished in the city's destruction. Such was the verocity of the explosion and the intensity of the heat in the subsequent hours of the eruption, those remaining in the city after the first few hours would have died instantly. This left their bodies entombed under 6 feet or more of ash. Over the centuries their tissues decayed away, leaving a void in the ash. In the 18th century, Italian archeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli came up with the idea of injecting plaster of Paris into these voids in the ash for reconstructing the bodies.
Also on display in the museum are numerous artefacts that have been recovered from the site, again remarkably preserved against damage from both vandals and the weather. Earthernware and frescos, as well as statues made for wealthy inhabitants are on display. In is interesting to see the statues made for people outside of the Roman elite, as you tend to see in Rome. Then, as today, the artists employed were consummate with the wealth of the commission.
After a quick lunch on the coach we did go onwards to Sorrento, but I won't insult the reader's intelligence by regurgitating the "limoncello tasting" experience offered which was merely a way of ushering the coach party through a tourist trap. I happen to like limoncello, but it is not like wine tasting: where the grape and the vintage of the wine affect the flavour. Liqueur, of any variety, is of a consistent flavour and quality with each and every bottle, and there was absolutely no demonstration to see either here. I felt very underwhelmed by the whole experience here.
Sorrento is gorgeous as a place (or which more another time), but again the 90 minute stop here did not really allow time to do anything constructive such as visit the beach or sample a meal in a restaurant (Italians rightly like to savour rather than wolf down their wonderful cuisine) so I decided to stop at a beachfront bar and sample the latest Italian local fashion: a Limoncello Spritze and watch the world go by. I definitely recommend Pompeii as a place to visit, but cannot recommend this tour from Rome via ViaTour.
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