Unlike Pompeii, this city was covered by flows of pyroclastic rock that solidified to a height of approximately 16 meters which led to more preservation of the original elements.
It has not been as well excavated as Pompeii and over the years many valuables have been looted and a lot of the materials lost to exposure.
The ancient city is also surrounded by the modern town in fact much of it is still under the new town and will probably never be excuvated.
Some of the streets, very similar to Pompeii.
From above looking down on the town...
Apparently the residents didn't eat lunch at home so this is a large taberna or pub. There is a marble covered counter with holes to contain large jars of food and shelves in the back to store the wine .
Here the wood is even preserved after all these centuries which is quite remarkable...
Unlike Pompeii there were many buildings that still had the second story intact...
Another well preserved feature are the mosaics which are quite intricate...
Here was the house of the baker...
And kids being kids...
Then there was the House of the Black Rooms where many of the rooms had black murals unlike most houses of this period,
Many of the other houses had brightly coloured walls
This is the Hall of the Augustals where the freed slaves were admitted into a new class of upward mobility. It is quite a large hall and fairly well preserved...
Part of a large sporting complex...
In another dwelling on the back wall there was a large glass paste mural of Neptune and Amphitrite...
This is the entrance to what was a large house...
Some other pictures from the site...
In the shop of a fabric merchant a wooden press used to iron clothes is still preserved...
Herculaneum was located next to the Bay of Naples in 79AD when the eruption took place so it is believed a lot of its residents escaped by the sea route. However in more recent years there was a discovery of many skeletons in the boat houses near the ancient sea...
Some of the skeletons, scientists believe they died of extreme heat ..
We didn't have much time slotted for Naples so decided to take the quicker way there from Sorrento by ferry which only took 40 minutes and a nice ride across the bay. We were greeted by a lighthouse and a Pope!
We had heard mixed reviews about Naples being dirty and unsafe so we weren't sure what to expect, but after getting off the ferry and walking through the historic Center to get to our accommodation we could feel the energy of the city.
We stayed two nights with a young man named Enzo whose family had a business on the same street. It was in a very old building with five stories up and no elevator. Here is the street which is called Via San Gregorio Armeno and is very famous for making nativity scenes of all shapes and sizes.
Some nativity cribs...
The shops also make figurines of famous people to add to their Nativity scenes...
Naples is the 3rd largest municipality in Italy, after Rome and Milan. It has approximately 1 million people in the city and over 4 million in the urban area. It is also one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world with evidence showing civilization there since the Bronze Age in the second millennium BC. As a result it has very narrow streets and really old buildings...
And of course it is famous for it's pizza which we ate on our first night there, it was three Euros and delicious and a bonus is that we each get our own!
The next day we were up bright and early to explore the city from our neighbourhood, we didn't have a plan or list of things to see so we just followed the streets and stopped when we saw something interesting. Right around the corner from us we discovered the Sanservo Chapel Museum with a line up outside so we decided to go check it out and it was magnificent.
It is a family mausoleum which was built by a Prince in the 1700s with the most prominent artists of the time contributing their work. The main sculpture is the Veiled Christ, no pictures allowed so this one comes from a postcard
Other sculptures were just as beautiful...
One of the weirdest displays were two “anatomical machines” showing a man and a pregnant woman. (There was once an anatomical fetus displayed as well, but it was stolen from the museum.) Built on real human skeletons, these fleshless bodies represent the veins, arteries and musculature in amazing detail. Long thought to be made by an early form of plastination, they were recently discovered to be made – with the exception of the human skeletons – of beeswax, iron wire, and silk.Quite an achievement for the time!
Spaccanapoli is the straight and narrow main street that traverses the old, historic center of the city of Naples. The name is a popular usage and means, literally, "Naples splitter". The name is derived from the fact that it is very long and from above it seems to divide that part of the city.
We walked part of it that led up to the castle on the hill which gave a great view of the city and the street...Naples' historic city centre is the largest in Europe, covering 1,700 hectares (4,200 acres) and enclosing 27 centuries of history and is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
View to the Bay of Naples from the top with the ever present volcano looming...
Some sights along the way...
The streets got grittier as we kept walking but the neighbourhoods were really interesting...
You can't walk a street in Naples without passing a church so we went in to visit this one and found the Cloister Garden of the Santa Chiara Monastery in the back.
One of the highlights of visiting Santa Chiara is spending time in the peaceful cloister dating from the 1320s. Walking around this monumental cloister, you can see the elaborate and well-preserved fresco paintings dating from the first half of the 1600s. However, it’s difficult to ignore the allure of the colorful majolica tiles in the center of the cloister. This masterpiece of ceramic work was created by Vaccaro from 1739-42, and is one of Naples’ most impressive artistic sights. I could imagine the nuns enjoying their time in this beautiful space.
During WWII Naples was one of the most bombed cities in Italy and the church attached to this Monastery was almost totally destroyed. The fires burned for days and the people of Naples were determined to rebuild which they did and restored the church to its original style when it was built in the 1300s. It is a very plain church but quite beautiful
The stain glass windows were brilliant...
Of course, there were lots of piazzazs to stop for a drink...
And talented musicians to entertain you...
Time to walk back down the hill, one thing we have seen in Italy is if you climb the hill then it is a long way down...
We passed Castle Nuevo which was built in 1292 by Charles I
And ended up on a long promenade just past the port which looked like quite a popular walk with lots of people around on that sunny day.
There were young lovers on the rocks
People enjoying the seaside...
There was no laundry hanging out of the apartments in this part of town!
By the time we got back to our room that day we had walked over 14kms so saw a little of Naples. We thought it was a great city and would love to come back to explore it even more. And did we mention pizza?
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