After a good breakfast and lots of coffee, we departed Rome for Sorrento via Pompeii. Our driver, Gerardo, told us to expect a two-and-a-half-hour drive. Naturally, we'd get a restroom break about halfway there. Of all the places and sights we've seen, Pompeii was one of my most anticipated stops. For many years, decades even, I have wanted to visit Pompeii and one of the reasons we picked this specific itinerary was because it included this very stop. Several years ago, I read a historical fiction called Pompeii by Robert Harris that was a fantastic story. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good fictional story, especially if you are thinking of touring the ruins. While it was fiction, the author kept the story accurate to the historical events of that fateful eruption in 79 AD.
Pompeii
As a reminder, clicking on any photo will display a large format of it in a new window. Clicking on a link (in blue) will also open in a new window. You won't lose your place here.
I've mentioned our seat rotation policy in previous installments, and today, we got our new seats. The timing couldn't have been better. After today's drive to Pompeii and Sorrento, we won't have use for the bus again. Cindy and I had the best seats in the house, the equivalent of riding "shotgun" in a car on a road trip.
Prime seats!
Today would be another moderately full day with touring Pompeii and the optional dinner excursion in the evening. Along the way, Simonetta gave us a running commentary of notable landmarks and towns as we passed them. So much history packed into a relatively small country!
As with Pisa, the bus would park in a common parking area, and we'd make a short walk to the entrance. We would split into two groups, each led by a local guide. Our guide for today would be Paola. Rather than rehash the history of the eruption in 79 AD that destroyed Pompeii and surrounding towns, I thought it would be more efficient to just include the link to the Wikipedia article, which you can find here. Following are some of my favorite photos that Cindy and I took on the tour. What I found amazing, more than anything else, was the original colors and decorations that still remained.
Our local guide described this location as the equivalent of today's fast-food restaurant. The round holes are where pots of hot foods like soups, stews and the like were placed. Customers would sit around the marble "counter" near the pots to enjoy their meals.
photo by Cindy Newman
Decorated ceiling
The above photo is a "body cast" of one of the Pompeii victims. Please find a good description of how these were made by clicking here. Yes, these were real people, not props. Only one cast was on display here, at least in this section. The Archaeology Museum in Naples has a more extensive collection of body casts and other artifacts.
The next three photos show a prostitute's room with a visual "menu" of sorts. These paintings depict what services a customer could expect from his "provider." While today's standards are much different, these activities were commonplace and accepted back in the day.
While not particularly graphic, these photos depict acts that some may find objectionable. Please use discretion when viewing the following three photos.
The responsible adult in me will just leave them at that. The irresponsible, immature adult who coexists with the responsible adult is screaming to make a juvenile, albeit funny, comment on these photos. Oh, the woes of adulthood. If you really want to know what's on my mind, just ask me personally the next time you see me or send me an e-mail, and I'll tell you.
Allora
City street
Original marble tiles
The white squares are the original marble tiles that paved the public square. It's still hard for me to wrap my mind around this. They've stood the test of time since at least AD 79.
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Pompeii was everything I thought it would be and more. Could I have actually walked in the footsteps of Pliny the Elder? I'd love to come back and spend three days exploring the rest of the ruins, as we barely scratched the surface on our tour today. It was more of an appetizer than a main course and gives us a good excuse to come back.
We boarded our bus for the short trip to Sorrento and our lodging for the next two nights, Hotel Zi Teresa. As a crow flies, our hotel wasn't that far from the parking area at Pompeii. We weren't riding on a crow, though, or any bird. The narrow, winding roads precluded a high-speed run. That's OK, though; we all could use a brief break from all the walking we did in Pompeii. These narrow streets required that the bus drop us off on a side street close to the hotel. We had a nice surprise when we made it to our room: we had a balcony! Oh, yes!
Time for pre-dinner libations?
Both Cindy and I were looking forward to our dinner excursion planned for today. We booked this a few months before we even left. Globus described it as a family-owned farm that sourced all of its food either from its own farm or locally. Perfect! Given these narrow roads, those of us going would board two mini-vans for the half-hour trip to the restaurant. Of all the meals we had, this one would earn top honors, with the dinner in Venezia at Km0 a close second.
Here we are!
The restaurant was La Cantina del Fattore, an "agriturismo." Our guide, who was one of the owners, met us at the gate and led us through a beautiful arbor into the animal area, where their dairy cows are housed.
Please pet me
photo by Cindy Newman
From here, we walked through a covered lemon tree grove containing 100 trees. Yes, one.hundred.lemon.trees! I love lemons! They are one of my favorite citrus fruits to use in cooking and in drinks. Remember my alleged "faux pas" in Rome?
Lemons galore
OK, maybe I'm a hypocrite. I'm always saying how I want to do different things with my photos and writing, and the first thing I do when seeing this is throw out an easy line that a LOT of people would use in this situation. In my defense, it is a fantastic movie.
The restaurant/farm owners not only talk the talk but obviously walk the walk. When we were seated in the restaurant's dining room, our guide explained to us that he would demonstrate making mozzarella the traditional way. They milk their cows by hand, never using any mechanical aids. He held up a bowl of milk curds, explaining that this was from cows milked that very morning and pasteurized. He then went step by step through the process of making mozzarella by hand.
Watch closely
Now for the really cool part: After making several mozzarella balls, he informed us that these would be used in our antipasto course! How cool is that? This dinner keeps getting better and better!
Homemade bread
The salad, chips, and steak/sausage were served family-style, while the rest of the courses were served individually. All of it was delicious, as expected, and made me appreciate their meticulous, hands-on approach. We were served Limoncello shots after dinner, and since Barbara didn't want hers, I volunteered to finish it for her. Even the Limoncello was produced and bottled on-site. And yes, they happily sold us both the Limoncello and vino rosso they served. We bought a bottle of each, and I'm actually looking at them as I write this.
If the ride up to the restaurant provided a wonderful view, the ride back was even better. It was dark, naturally, but all the lights made for a beautiful scene. We were descending the winding roads and the lights below us reminded me of overflying a city at night. Sort of...
Plan for Sorrento
Tomorrow would be our last full day in Sorrento and the last full day of our tour. Already?? Yes, already. Wow! We were gonna make the most of it, though.
I hope you enjoyed this tour of Pompeii. Coming up next, our day in Amalfi and my final thoughts on this wonderful trip. You can find the final installment here.
Here are the links to the previous installments in this series:
Until next time...
carpe cerevisi
Love this. And the disappointment would have been huge had you not mentioned Chianti with fava beans. Pompeii has always fascinated me. Well done. Sissie
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you're enjoying the series! I'll post the last installment today. What did you think of the family farm dinner?
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