Our morning began with a visit to the police station, where we waited for a translator, and then were able to make a statement about the theft of Paul's wallet. We had by then heard from one of the banks about where an attempt had been made to use one of the cards, so we were able to provide these details too. Paul has lost a great many useful things from his wallet because, unlike me, he never takes things out that he won't need abroad; I've had the experience of being pick-pocketed before, so I am more careful. When we get back he'll have to spend time replacing things like his library card, free bus pass, National Trust card and so on. Fortunately, he didn't bring his driving license - it's being renewed at the minute, or he would have lost that too.
The visit to the police station didn't take as long as I had feared, and we were able to catch the 10.37 train which took us to Pompeii in about half an hour. The train was very full, so we had to stand, which was unfortunate as my back soon started to hurt. The entrance to the ruins is just outside the station, but almost the whole train gets off there, so there is quite a queue for tickets to get in. On this occasion, instead of the audio guide we took a walking tour, which was quite worthwhile.
You enter Pompeii through the Porta Marina, climbing up a steep slope, and are very soon in the ruins of the town's official buildings, the Forum and Basilica.
Dominating this area is the presence of Vesuvius. At the time, of course, it had not erupted for around 1000 years, so nobody knew it was a volcano.
Our tour guide told us that woollen material was also bleached in this area, and there were large tanks in the open space where it was soaked in urine to bleach it. The urine was collected in jars in public toilets, and apparently men were encouraged to use the toilets by being paid a small coin. She also told us that the emperor Vespasian decided to tax this business, so she said, for this reason, public toilets in Italy are still called Vespasiani!
At one side of the Forum you found the market, with different areas set aside for the goods to be sold.
I hadn't expected a market to be decorated with such fine frescos, though the main ones in my photograph don't seem to have a lot to do with market business. However, in the panels above there are some very faint illustrations of various foodstuffs. Apparently there was also, at one side, a tank for keeping live fish so you could choose your dinner while it was still swimming about.
Just at the bottom of my photo you may be able to see the top edges of two glass cases. These contain two of the plaster casts of the many bodies found in Pompeii. I couldn't quite bring myself to photograph them - one still had his teeth. The guide told us that more than 4000 bodies have been found, though only about 1000 plaster casts exist.
Outside the market we saw this helpful street sign.
The guide told us that Pompeii was a very cosmopolitan town, housing people of many different nationalities who might not speak or read Latin or Greek (for that matter, I imagine a lot of the indigenous population probably couldn't read either). So street signs had to be pictorial. This one was at a point in the road outside the market where carts were blocked by stones in the road. The sign was to let the cart drivers know that the cart had to be unloaded at that point and the produce carried inside - probably by slaves.
Our next visit was to the baths, where, once again I had to spent time sitting on one of the benches round the walls because my back was very painful. The shelves for the clothes in this one must have been wooden because they no longer existed, though you could see big holes in the plaster where they (or possibly wooden cupboards) had been fixed to the walls.
The next room was the cold bath - the frigidarium.
It was certainly big enough for quite a few people. It was so crowded I had to take a photo from close to, so I couldn't get all of it in the photo.
Next came the warm room, the tepidarium. There was a brazier here to keep the bathers warm.
This would have been in the centre of the room, surrounded by the benches that you can see; it is currently at one end of the room, behind bars, to keep it away from the tourists. The metal bars which surround it make it hard to see that along the walls are a series of recesses surrounded by figures of Atlas which support a frieze above. I didn't manage to include the frieze in this photograph, but at the top of it you can just see the lower parts of the Atlas figures.
The last room was the hot room, the calidarium. It has an apse at one end, at the centre of which is the labrum, for the water you used to wash yourself.
Apparently, at the other end was the hot water pool, but I couldn't see any sign of it!
Our next visit was to the House of the Tragic Poet, so called because of a mosaic of a theatrical rehearsal; we didn't see this - parts of the house were closed. We did see the really famous mosaic at the entrance, the one with the dog saying 'Cave Canem' but I couldn't take a photograph because the very bright sunlight and the very heavy shadows made photography impossible. I did manage to take a photo of the kitchen though. You have to imagine the frying pan I photographed yesterday being in use here.
What you can't see in this photograph, because it's behind me, is the lavatory.
Carrying on the food theme, we next visited the Bakery.
This was a large establishment. I managed to get one of the mills for grinding the corn into my photo, though there were four or five of them. The guide said the mills could be worked by slaves or animals, but I don't think there would have been room for animals in here. You can also see the large oven, as well as the counter for displaying the goods.
At that point, we had reached the end of the tour, and I was quite relieved because my back was agony by that time. There is a small snack bar on the site where I was able to rest for a while and have something to eat and drink before we set off again on our own.
Our first destination was the House of the Faun, where I hoped to get a better photo of the faun than the one I took yesterday in the museum. My luck was out however, the bright sun and dark shadows making good photos impossible. It was also impossible, for the same reason, to get a good photo of the huge mosaic of Alexander the Great defeating Darius. I had to be content with this pretty little mosaic, which was in the shade.
The House of the Faun is enormous, so we exited from the back and headed off to the Vettius House, another one I really wanted to see, as it is full of wall paintings. However, when we found it, it was unfortunately closed. We were able to look in at one of the doors and photograph one very famous painting just inside the entrance, showing (I quote a guide book) 'Priapus weighing his phallus'. This is, as you might imagine, a distinctly odd painting, Priapus being fully clothed, and the member in question which he is weighing with an old-fashioned balance, reaching his knees. Very peculiar, and not at all what I would choose to put in my entrance hall to welcome my guests!
My back was becoming painful again, and we had been wandering for more than three hours, so we decided to leave by way of the Villa of the Mysteries, so called from the frescos linked to the myth and worship of Dionysus. We set off down a very long road towards the Herculaneum gate.
This is typical of many of the streets in Pompeii; you can see the wheel ruts made by the carts over the years. The streets were often running with water, most likely waste water from houses, so the pavements were often very high as you can see, and there were stepping stones to help pedestrians stay dry shod as they crossed the street.
It was a long walk to the Herculaneum gate, and then a longer walk to the Villa, which was a major disappointment. Most of it was under renovation and we were not able to see the main frescos. We did get an impression of how huge the villa was though.
Once you leave, there's a walk of more than 600 metres back to the station, and my back did not appreciate the extra time spent on my feet. I was extremely glad to see the station, and fortunately the train appeared in a few minutes and I was lucky enough to get a seat.
I was disappointed not to see more of this huge site, but we have enough time to go back again in a day or two.
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