Category: Writing

Today I went to Pompeii on what is my second and last day in Naples.  (For the curious, the ruins of the ancient city are spelled “Pompeii” and the living city surrounding it is spelled “Pompei”.)  While I started the morning early, the Italian train system decided to thwart my endeavors, making me wait for 80 minutes for the train to Salerno to finally depart.  Granted, it has been overcast and raining most of the day today so waiting always means there is a small chance that it will clear up so waiting seemed more like an opportunity than other.  On the ride to Pompeii I had a pleasant talk with a resident of Salerno who explained to me a bit of the history of Napoli, which means “New City”, in reference to the Romans destroying the Greek city originally there and then building over top of it.  He also mentioned that it takes at least five days to see all of Napoli; next time!

I took a quick five-minute walk from Pompei’s train station to the southern most entry of Pompeii itself.  I found out that this is not the gate most people recommend starting from; however, the positive of this is that most of the early-morning tourists like myself were on the other end of the forty-five hectares of renovated ancient ruins.  To which I was glad since less people allows me to focus on getting shots without the odd balding head in the shot.  The ruins are quite extensive, providing an opportunity to immerse myself in what life might have been around 79 BC in what was then a colony of Rome.  You can visit numerous pubic areas, some seating up to five-thousand people to smaller, more acoustically-tuned centers for sharing music and poetry.  There are a number of bakeries and stores and even a bath-house available for direct viewing.  What is more, there is even a large house of prostitution replete with visual guidance for patrons needing a clue on how to get the most out of their money; a lot like Ikea assembly instructions if you think about it.  Pompeii is, like so much of a good thing, a lot of information and visual stimulation to process in a single day.   My only regret is the rain obscured my view of Mount Vesuvius which I would have dearly like to have seen.

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On my way from Trani to Naples I had a change-over in trains at Caserta.  It was only happenstance that I even know about Reggia di Caserta let alone stopped to visit it today.  This morning my friend Dave and I took the train up from Trani to Foggia on Dave’s commute to work.  Along with us was his Italian colleague who inquired where I was headed.  I said Naples.  He mentioned I would be going through Caserta.  It was then that Dave and the gentleman both encouraged me to see the palace (reggia) situated right outside the train station.  At first I was hesitant to delay getting to Naples where I wanted to get a start on visiting Pompeii; but, the weather proved to be cooperative today as it is the first time since I have been in Italy that is rained. Which is to say I felt a bit of a stroll indoors was warranted.

I was also hesitant due to the fact that Dave compared Reggia di Caserta to Châteu de Versailles of France.  Dave did not know, but I was not overly impressed with Versailles when I visited it three years ago in late December.  It was very crowded.  The quality of the renovation seemed haphazard.  And overall, while one can certainly appreciate the opulence it once held, it seemed very much its glory days were well behind it.  A fact that is a bit saddening when one considers it to be a national treasure.  I am sure a second visit will remedy this; but for now, whereas Versailles disappoints, Caserta enthralls.  The quality of the architecture is breath-taking and the care to which the portion of the palace open to the public is mind-numbingly beautiful.  Room and room after room produces one intake of breath after the next.  And once you are done with the interior, the exterior garden that extends some two kilometers back to a natural spring is a marvel of engineering and craftsmanship.  I walked the entire thing with my pack from VeloTransit, which is to say I got my exercise for today.

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Today included a very busy morning planning the remainder of my six days in Italy.  We now have firm plans to see Naples, Pompeii, Florence, Siena and Bologna before I get a flight out of Rome to Athens next Saturday, November 13th.  Once that was all settled, me and the Piper family headed out to Castel del Monte to see the rather impressive 13th-century octagon castle that sits atop a hill above the tilled fields near to Corata.  While the castle contains little in terms of interior decorations, the architectural execution of the building is impressive.  It takes little imagination to remove the few modern embellishments of electric lights to step back and stand next to its creator, Frederick II, and envision one atop a rolling, lush greenery of bounty to serve as base for your gathering and hunting.

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Today Dave, his son Jay and I travelled a bit south to the town of Matera.  The area has been settled since Paleolithic times with peoples digging caves into the calcareous rock characteristic of the region.   The Romans allegedly founded what is now considered the city in third century BC.  Inhabitants to the area can lay claim to living in the same houses occupied over nine-thousand years ago. To say there is a few thousand years of history here is an understatement.  Over the many thousands of years the inhabitants of the area have dug and quarried and built upon the previous generations’ construction until now you discover a town of rock that seems more grown out of than built upon the hillside.  And for those who love trivia, many movies including maybe most famously Mel Gibson’s Passion of Christ was filmed here due to its resemblance to ancient Jerusalem.

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