Three ruins

South of Rome is a place called Napoli. That's Naples to any of you still clinging vainly to the anglicised version of the name.

As soon as we arrived in Napoli I wondered if it was a mistake. It seems that the further south you go in Italy, the worse the unemployment rate becomes, and the more like a third world country it seems. On every corner there were people selling things – phone covers mostly for some reason, but also pirated designer handbags, cigarette lighters, and other things I can't remember. Everyone crosses the road by just stepping out into traffic – not that the traffic stops for them at all. There are zebra crossings, so we used those when available, but when in Napoli... It felt more like Jakarta than anywhere else on our trip.

The whole point for going there though was to visit Herculaneum, and Pompeii, both of which are just a short train trip away from Napoli. We went to Herculaneum the day we arrived, and spent the afternoon wandering around the ruins.

I'll assume some knowledge of history here, but broadly speaking, both Pompeii and Herculaneum were buried by Mount Vesuvius in an eruption in 79 A.D. Herculaneum was buried in a different way to Pompeii, and so was preserved better. Pompeii is much larger, and was a much more important place than Herculaneum.

When I use the term ruins I use it rather broadly.

Check out the paintwork in this house. It's 2000 odd years old, and looks like it's from the '70s.

Just like Napoli, minus traffic.

This reminded us of Christchurch. It's in the baths. They had a raised floor, with underfloor heating. The floor partially collapsed in the earthquake associated with the eruption, but the mosaic stayed together.

... speaking of mosaics

Pompeii is the more famous ruin, and is so much larger. It's also the place where casts of people were made by the falling ash, so we can see the shapes of the people who died, mostly from the deadly gasses that the volcano spewed forth.

Plasterwork in the baths. Pompeii had a bunch of baths. This reminded me of Versailles or Schonbrunn.

Mosaic copy of a famous painting. This is Alexander the Great, as far as we can tell.

Mount Vesuvius

Many of the houses in the city were blocked off for restoration/preservation, so we could only look at some from the door.

These are wheel ruts worn into the stone.

Some of the houses had their gardens restored to what they would have looked like. I'm not sure how they know. Presumably by looking at the plant remains.

Of course like any self-respecting Roman city they had a theatre,

and an amphitheatre for gladiatorial fights.

Both Pompeii and Herculaneum are well worth the visit. Both are easily accessible via the train. The audio guide is good value at both places, although we did get a little tired of the audio-guide-man telling us we could learn more about the fourth style by pressing 108. 

In case you're wondering, yes, Napoli is the third ruin. Neither of us liked it at first, but it was beginning to grow on me by the time we left. You could say it's hectic and crowded and seedy, although dynamic, bustling and restless could also be applied.