Easter Sunday at Herculaneum

We left Positano on Easter Sunday. We postponed festivities with the kids until the following day when we were at home. Instead, we spent our day visiting Herculaneum and traveling home. I will admit that when we talked about visiting a site like Pompeii or Herculaneum, I wasn't seeing the cultural value, I was just thinking about how challenging that would be with the kids. The group was in favor of it though and since Pete had already seen Pompeii years ago, we settled on Herculaneum and I am so glad we did! I will comment on my impressions and leave the story telling to Pete who was, after all, a Classics major at Bowdoin (and who also had the benefit of an audio guide, a luxury not afforded to those of us chasing kids all over antiquity). I loved seeing all of the magnificent tile work, on the floors and in mosaics.

Without further ado, here's Pete:

(*Disclaimer - Please forgive mistakes. College was a long time ago!) Herculaneum was a small Roman city/town (estimated population around 4,000-5,000) located right at the base of Vesuvius. When Vesuvius erupted, the town of Herculaneum was hit with a "pyroclastic flow." This was an extremely hot (500 degrees C/ 932 degrees F) and fast mixture of ash, rock and poisonous gas, which basically killed anyone in its path instantly. Wood and other organic material (loaves of bread) in the town was quickly carbonized by the high temperatures, which helped with its preservation. The town was more quickly buried than Pompeii with somewhere between 50-60 feet (15-18 meters) of volcanic material, which then basically solidified into a cement-like material. This made for excellent conditions for preservation. It also makes for a striking modern entrance to Herculaneum, as the current ground level is 50+ feet above the old town!

The arches at the bottom left are the entrances to small rooms
that used to be right at the water's edge on the Bay of Naples.

A stark and intense welcome to Herculaneum. Each of those harbor-side
room is filled with the skeletons (around 300 of them total) of inhabitants
who attempted, and failed, to flee by sea.

Statue of Senator Marcus Nonius Balbus. Revered here, at least in part,
because he promoted construction projects in the town.

Temple of the Four Gods
(Vulcan, Neptune, Mercury & Minerva)

Relief showing a story with Achilles (far left) from the myth of Telephus.

The town had a very orderly, grid layout. 

The path down to the former water.

An impluvium, a basin for catching rain water inside a house. (the roofs had holes in them allowing for rain water to collect, two stories below. 

Remaining mosaic floor tiles. 

The Roman roads were not kind to strollers!  

The floor of a room in someone's home.  

Many large houses had their second stories preserved. Very impressive!

I (Erin) haven't seen Pompeii, but Pete tells me that while the public site are more impressive there, here at Herculaneum, the individual villas were better preserved and more impressive. I imagine this to be a wealthy suburb.

Inside another home. Amazing how much of the paint survived on the walls! 

Amazing mosaic floors in the women's baths.

Caption this! 

Lockers, with shelf compartments for your belongings while you bathed. 

Neptune & Amphitrite Mosaic. WOW! 

In the same room as the above mosaic. This family was baller! 

Fresco with Hercules (left) in the College of Augustus. An organization
of Freemen associated with venerating the imperial family.

Under an archway

Local tavern/bar, with containers for storing food or drink. (Much more PC than the other watering hole we saw that had a giant phallic mosaic behind the bar!)

We had hired a private transfer to the Naples Airport, which picked us up in Positano and waited for us while in Herculaneum. They were conservative with time so we ended up arriving to the airport with a few hours to spare. Luckily the driver pointed to a restaurant in the airport with an outside playground. Then it was up, up and away and goodbye to a wonderful trip! 

Europe from the sky: 

Mount Vesuvius and Naples

Naples

The Alps

Dutch Tulip fields on our descent. 

Final Day in Positano Capped Off with a Spectacular Mother/Daughter Cooking Class

Our last day in Positano (tear). The guys were feeling better after their day of rest and we set out to explore the town. We could see that a lot of town was up on the hill across from our apartment. There is a local bus that runs the one-way road loop up to the top of town, which is where we began our walk. I had read that there was a playground up that way so we went in search. We visited the little church at the top where musicians were rehearsing for Easter service. There was a tiny square in front of the church and this seemed like a good opportunity to use the little soccer ball we'd bought in Ravello. We were happily playing monkey in the middle for a good 15 minutes before I saw the sign on the side of the church stating that playing soccer in the square was prohibited with a fine! Whoops!

Jude the photographer

We found the first small playground, which entertained the kids for a while while the adults took in the views.

There was another large playground connected with a secondary school, which wasn't in session so the kids ran wild there for a while before we pried them away to get some lunch. 

The restaurant Il Capitano had been recommended to us so we stopped in for lunch. They have an amazing terrace and we were put in the corner so we didn't worry about the kids bothering other diners. 

Even after nearly a week in Italy, Maeve was still demanding tostis for lunch, but thankfully this day she was glad when the pizza came instead. 

Pete and I took the kids for one more gelato and beach day after nap time. Jude was bummed that his friends from the day before weren't there. Nana and Pops joined us and we left the men in charge while Nana and I left to get ready for our big night.

I had asked Oma and Opa for a cooking class in Positano for Christmas based on the success of Pete and Oma's cooking class last April in Sicily. Oma did the research and presented a few options. I realized it would be a lot more fun to do it with someone so Pops and I went in on it for Nana's birthday. The event was scheduled with Positano Home Cooking, owned by an Italian-Brit named Peter. It was an all night activity at his family's home overlooking the beach of Positano. It was mother daughter night apparently as we were joined by a mother-daughter from Germany and a grandmother-mother-daughter trio from South Shore Boston. The night was as much about the wine as the food, with each course featuring a different wine from his cellar. And then 6 open bottles of red with the meat course to appeal to all palettes. It was a fun night!

First antipasti: wild boar bresaola wrapped around arugula, parmesan cheese, truffle oil and olive oil. Off to a great start!

Second antipasti- Bruschetta with prosciutto and parmesan

We learned a lot about biodynamic foods and the many purveyors around Europe where he sources his products (and wines). 

He filleted this bonito tuna for us for our fish course. 

The local pasta, Scialatielli was already made for us and we drowned it in cheese!

Pasta course 

Stirring the mushrooms for our meat course, wine in hand. We had a delicious prime rib from a free grazing cow.

Before the meat course, we headed to the cellar with a scrumptious baked brie, in which we dipped bread that had been soaked in olive oil and rosemary and baked to crispy.  There was also a dip which was simply a mashed, roasted red onion. 

Three desserts were presented at the end of the evening, creme brûlée, tiramisu and ??? (too many glasses of wine at that point to remember!). Then we rolled/stumbled our way home full of delicious food and happy memories.

Good Friday in Positano

Less pictures, but plenty of stories on Good Friday!

We intended to spend the last two days in Positano enjoying the warm weather at the beach and the Easter celebrations. Good thing as both Pete and Pops fell ill. Pete's ear pain intensified and his ear began leaking unmentionables (unwritables?). During the morning, he visited the pharmacist on our street who instructed him to go see the town doctor. He followed the vague directions up a side street and into a windowless, signless room where another patient was waiting. As he tells it, he sat waiting while two people yelled back and forth to each other behind the closed door for some time. Then the other patient went in for just a few minutes and then it was Pete's turn. Intuiting that the doctor may not speak English, he had typed out his symptoms and complaints into google translate and had the screen ready to show the old Italian doctor. This and hand gesticulations seemed to work pretty well and soon Pete was on his way to the pharmacy with an Rx for antibiotics, steroids and pain relief! No charge at all for the doctor and 30 euros for all of the meds. I was impressed! Talk to me sometime about socialized medicine. I have some things to say!

We had been trying to find out what types of celebrations would be taking place in the town for Easter, but couldn't quite figure it out. While we were lounging about eating donuts, we heard music up on the hill and watched as the Good Friday parade snaked its way down to the front our apartment. The town children led the way followed by people depicting the stations of the cross. This led to a lot of questions from Jude and was a good place to start his biblical education. It is always shocking to see people dressed in white hooded garb. While I feel a bit uncomfortable showing the photos below, the Catholic tradition in Spain and Italy of people accused of crimes against the church wearing these outfits far outdates the hate-filled connotations that we know today.

The grandparents bought donuts and the kids were happy!

Maeve's sleep was thrown off this trip and she was waking up far to early every morning. We were glad to have these two days where she could get good naps at the house instead of out and about. While she took an epic nap, Nana and Pops stayed home playing Uno with Jude while Pete and I went to lunch and the new archeology museum in town. 

Does he look like a guy hopped up on drugs?! Total trooper. 

The archaeology museum was so cool. Historians always suspected that there was an old Roman Villa beneath the current church based on found documents. But it wasn't until they raised money to begin the excavation that they could confirm their suspicions. The museum just opened this fall and currently only one room of the villa has been opened to the public, but they are working on more as they get more money. They believe that this Roman Villa belonged to a freeman (a freed slave). When Mount Vesuvius erupted, the accumulation of ash created a landslide in Positano, which covered the town in meters of mud. The archaeologists don't think that anyone was in the Villa at the time as people would have had a chance to leave Positano following the eruption. 

Villa is beneath the current church shown here. 

Positano, like other Roman towns at the time, was a few floors below current ground level. The room was hermetically sealed by the volcanic ash that solidified.  This allowed for the preservation of the painted walls in this dinning room. The bold colors were so vibrant (and an indication that the owner was very wealthy). 

Split wall shows the shift in the foundations.

As we were touring, one of the guests sat down on one of these hollowed out chairs. The archaeologist said to her, "you might not want to sit there." Then we learned why! Between the site of the villa and the church above was an extensive crypt where deceased monks were lowered through a hole in the monastery or church and seated upright on these chairs. The holes in the seats were to allow their bodily fluids to drain as they decomposed. Living monks visited the decaying corpses to pay their respects. This was all a lot to take in!

Pete headed back home to sleep and Nana and Pops were ready to take their tour of the museum so I headed with the kids the beach. Gelato first of course!

Jude wanted to play down by the water to collect sea glass and Maeve wanted to play on the play equipment so I stayed somewhere in the middle and was like a spectator at a ping pong match, looking frantically back and forth between each kid to make sure they were ok on the fairly busy beach!

At one point I looked down and saw Jude chatting it up with a group of college kids at the water's edge. They were deep in conversation and I was starting to worry what it was they were discussing. The beach was covered with spring breaking American kids drinking freely. Some time later, Jude comes running up to me telling me all about his new friends and telling me how nice they were and that I need to come meet them :) I let him return to his new friends and while I was playing with Maeve, one of the girls returned to her group on the beach and was telling them all about this awesome 5 year old named Jude that they just met. He is our social butterfly! Later, Jude would go on his own over to their area of the beach and at one point I heard one of the guys say, "Hey! Has anyone asked where this kid's parents are?"Just me, Dutch parenting over here!

Pete's napped helped and he rallied again to go out to dinner. Our hosts had recommended a restaurant out of town that offered a shuttle service. After our public transportation snafus the past week, the idea of a private transfer was very appealing, plus the restaurant (La Taverna del Leone) had amazing reviews. It was a wonderful experience start to finish. Delicious octopus, lobster ravioli, fried fish and cheesecake.

I was giddy from the views at sunset and Pete was giddy from drugs :) 

On our walk back to the apartment, we passed the parade again! 

Good Friday indeed.