When the "Big One" Hit Pompeii!

My Happy Journey to Montecassino, Pompeii and Vesuvius!

Diario di Roma II: Rome Diary 2

Cooler- Partly Cloudy 84°F/29°C in Roma

Buongiorno,

Pompeii Victim

To me, that white plaster figure of the boy praying is the perfect metaphor of the tragedy of Pompeii! The statue is an actual casting of the the young man who was vaporized in the heat and deadly gases released by Monte Vesuvio in 79 A.D. To an old newsman like me who has seen his fair share of death and destruction first hand, even a 2,000 year old tragedy still gets to me. Pompeii is not a place to visit if you are a person suffering with PTSD. Especially if you are an animal lover like me.

Poor Fido!

Funny thing about tourists!  They’ll travel the world over in their never-ending

search for interesting ways to be entertained. My own travel horizons have broadened considerably since my mom and dad piled my kid brother Packy and I into the family’s pre-World War 2 Plymouth and chugged merrily along from New York to Pittsburgh along the Pennsy Turnpike. Dang! I loved those stops at Howard Johnsons’- 28 flavors of ice cream and those heavenly fried clams!

   Now, a lot of vacationers travel to places to see where disaster struck on a grand scale – like the great battlefields, or the sites of major natural disasters. And so it was on this, my fourth visit to Italy that I returned to Pompeii last Friday, along with about 25,000 new friends from all over the world. If your tourist delights are motivated even slightly by tragedy and disaster, Pompeii is a dandy spot to add to your bucket list! Just imagine an 8,500 hundred foot mountain blowing it’s top and totally snuffing out two bustling cities under tons of volcanic ash, and killing thousands of their inhabitants, and then making those cities disappear for 1,500 years. That’s what happened to Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Pompeii Courtyard

  According to the accounts by Pliny the Younger, in A.D. 79 there was a devastating volcanic eruption by the formerly 8,500 foot high Monte Vesuvio, which completely covered the bustling port city of Pompeii along with its sister city Herculaneum. Even today mere words fail to describe the explosive force of the eruption. Superlatives like Plinian and pyroclastic are used along with 100,000 times the force of the Hiroshima Atom Bomb. Today, Vesuvius is but a shell of its former self, at 3,500 feet high. But, if it were to explode again, more than three million people would be threatened: the entire city of Naples and its environs, not just the estimated 16,000 who died in ancient times. Buried under volcanic ash for centuries, the city is a prehistoric insect in amber, caught in in a time capsule made of volcanic ash and lava. The victims, for the most part died quickly, asphyxiated by the volcano’s noxious fumes and encased in super-heated ash, which left an empty space that archaeologists wisely filled with plaster to recreate the human forms within.

   In its time, Pompeii was a bustling port city, and for the sailors who visited, it enjoyed a reputation as a world class Liberty Port, with numerous public baths, wine purveyors, restaurants, and of course bordellos. Our local guide, Giorgio, explained to us that the bordellos are among the most popular

Giorgio at Work

attractions in the city. One reason for that is the erotic art that is displayed in Pompeii’s red light district.  As Giorgio explained to us liberty port neophytes, the sailors who visited here centuries ago hailed from many countries, and as he said with tongue planted firmly in cheek, they couldn’t always read the establishment’s “menu of delights.” So, just like a modern fast food joint, the menus were mainly pictures. I wasn’t

One From Column "B"

thinking so much about the menu as I was wondering what a romantic encounter on a masonry bed was like. Yikes! Did Roman bordellos have chiropractors on staff for the girls and their clients? Or was a hot soak at the baths next door enough to get rid of the kinks? Much of Pompeii’s erotica has been moved to the National Archaeological Museum in Naples. In fact, if it’s prurient interest that’s prompted your visit, you always have the option of passing on the tour and just going straight to the museum.

Oh, My Aching Back!

    My Michael the Younger, had me set my alarm for 5 a.m., so we could catch the City Wonders Pompeii tour bus by 7:30 a.m. at Il Piazza del Popolo. Mike was herding a group of 15 of us. Our other guide, Amanda, had another group of 15 or on our tour bus. Now, I’ve already described how Italians behave behind the wheel of their cars. But, an Italian at the wheel of a 65-passenger autobus is a true craftsman of the sublime art of driving, and our Antonio was a true Michelangelo behind the wheel. Off we sailed along the Via Salaria, headed south toward Naples and Pompeii, with a coffee break at the foot of the Abbey of Montecassino. The mountain top Benedictine abbey was the scene of the notorious Allied bombing in 1944, which completely destroyed the 12^th century original. Fortunately, the German forces who occupied the surrounding territory had moved the abbeys priceless art and antiquities to the Vatican for safekeeping. The abbey itself was rebuilt stone by stone after the war, and its priceless artifacts returned to the abbey. More than 100,000 casualties from both sides resulted from the Battle of Montecassino.

  At Pompeii, our City Wonders tour leaders, Michael and Amanda turned us over to Giorgio, a third generation Pompeiian for the honor of showing us around his home town. That’s the way things work around Pompeii. Guiding tourists is a family business in these parts. But, Giorgio spoke excellent English and he was obviously enthused about showing people around his home town. After the tour – lunch before heading up Vesuvius and a chance to hike to the top to check out the mountain’s huge crater and speculate on future eruptions. After a morning of hobbling along Pompeii’s cobblestone streets and clambering up and down endless stairs, I opted for a cool drink and a chair overlooking the Bay of Naples. On the bus ride back, we made another stop at Montecassino where Mike and Amanda promised us more time for souvenir shopping. Then, back on the bus with our final destination, the Piazza del Popolo, where we had started out 13 hours before. Later this week, another ancient city trapped in a time warp, Ostia Antica, Rome’s ancient seaport. More on that and other adventures in a few days.

Ciao,  

MikeBo

©Mike Botula 2015