Blogging at you live from Pompei, Italy on October 14, 2019!
Bloggers: Margaret and Halle
Steps Taken: 16,200
Monday was an amazing day. Let us tell you about it.
We started off in Pompeii to see some of the monumental buildings we missed on the previous days. The first thing we saw really started our day off right. I’m talking about the Lupanar (brothel), of course. That put everyone (especially the women) in a brilliant mood. Not only did we walk through the Lupanar, but we found a convenient place to sit at the only exit of the Lupanar where we conducted a sociological experiment on the ages, number, and expressions of tourist groups upon leaving the brothel. Our results were unsettling, especially the proportion of tourists visiting the brothel relative to, I don’t know, the building of Eumachia (a wealthy WOMAN who paid for a building in the forum. money moves only) which to OUR GROUP was much more important.
Next were the two theaters, referred to appropriately as the Little Theatre and the Big theatre. One was little and one was big. Do you get it? Of course you do. Of course you do.
Mack paid special attention to the architecture of the theaters. Perhaps he did this to help prepare for his upcoming presentation on the colloseum. I like to think he did so out of pure passion for the architecture of public stadiums. Que Será, Será.
It is important to note that Halle carried bananas around with her in a plastic bag. Halle offered bananas to the group. When someone was hungry and asked for a banana, she gave them a banana. Halle was out of bananas soon after arriving on site, proving her banana system to be a great success.
From the theatre, we went on a private and very exclusive VIP tour of the Baths (the thing with Pompeii is, it’s all about who you know.) We spoke about men’s Locker Room Talk in the changing area, and the Art of the Deal in the differently-temperatured pool areas. Both all too familiar concepts for this group of Americans.
From the baths, we saw some other houses we hadn’t seen before then booked it to the “Down to Earth” train station where we hustled up a million stairs in record FSP time, only to wait on the platform for 15 minutes because the “Down to Earth” train is not “Down” with keeping its schedule. Allora.
We had a nice train ride with pleasant views and screaming middle schoolers. Also note that we had not yet eaten lunch. No one was in particularly high spirits but that all changed no less than 30 minutes after exiting the station. While walking to the site, we saw a pizza place. From the outside, this pizza place looked like nothing special. It had a menu on a large stand outside. There was a waiter greeting us on the street. Neither are good signs. But, we were all so hungry and the waiter promised to have our pizza our in under 30 minutes or he would cover the bill. Thank god we believed him because that was some of the best pizza I have ever had. Some ordered the four cheese which was dreamy, but the real star of the show was the ricotta-stuffed crust of the simple margarhita. When I took a bite of that pizza, I touched the stars. The ricotta was luxurious. The bread was freshly baked. The Sauce was robust. The arancini were piping hot and crafted by the gods and delivered by Hermes himself. Man, was that good.
Then we went to Herculaneum. Herculaneum is a lesser known Pompeii, located on the West side of Vesuvius, northwest of Pompeii. After giving us a brief overview of the site and some places to find, Professor Stewart turned us loose in groups. We took off to see all of the fabulous sites in the much-less-crowded Herculaneum. The houses in Herculaneum appear to be wealthier than the ones in Pompeii. Unfortunate that money didn’t stop a cloud of volcanic ash from crashing over your town.
In Herculaneum, houses tend to have greater dining halls, so we saw some fabulous statues and paintings. Herculaneans seemed to be much more up-to-date on their paintings, and most of the paintings we saw were fourth style, meaning they had been recently updated.
Then some of us headed down to the old beach area, which wasn’t as fun as it sounds. Herculaneum used to be right on the sea, but now is a couple hundred meters away from the shoreline. On the ancient coast tucked away in the arcades are the bodies of about 300 people who sought to escape the clouds of volcanic ash coming their way. Unfortunately, it didn’t work and the remains are haunting and terribly sad.
After we had seen most of what Herculaneum had to offer, we met back up with Professor Stewart and journeyed back to the bus. That’s right. You read that right. The bus. Arnoldo, our hero, was back to pick us up. No more screaming middle-schoolers, uncomfy seats, and un-air-conditioned cabins! We celebrated Arnoldo’s return and went back to the hotel for dinner with another friend, Terrence, who we had met earlier in Pompeii.