College football has ticked me off and I'm getting up early tomorrow to go to Mass at the Vatican, so I'm saving Pompeii till later. On the Wednesday of Campania, we got up, left the villa and went to the Archaeological Museum of Naples, which houses most of the physical finds from Naples, Pompeii and Herculaneum. Looting has long been a problem at all the sites around Vesuvius, so this is a combination of the most well lit presentation space and the safest space to hold the artifacts. Afterwards, we headed to Herculaneum, a somewhat lesser sight that was also covered by the Vesuvius eruption. Here's some of what I saw:
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| In the backyard of our villa was an unexcavated Roman theater. How cool is that? |
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| If you saw Atlas, holding the world, what would you tell him to do? |
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| Pompeian red. Get used to this color |
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| Famous fresco of Sappho |
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| 1:1,000,000 model of Pompeii |
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| Kinda glad the statues lost their eyes. These would be pretty creepy in your house |
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| The statue on the right is called "The Drunk Dionysus" I can see him saying "I'll have another beer for me and this deer!" |
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| The Alexander Mosaic, largest in the world, google for a better image |
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| Farnese Hercules |
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| Herculaneum |
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| That white building is the modern level, look how low the ancient city was |
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| Only clouds, no smoke from Vesuvius |
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| Bones hanging out, waiting to be studied |
Glad you keep a sense of humor about you when looking at all of these ruins and artwork. Looks to me like the modern Herculaneum isn't that far off in appearance from the ancient. Love the "smoke" above Vesuvius photo.
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