Ancient history

 The last 2 days have been a blur of ruins and ancient history.

The first day in Rome... and I left it for the shadow of a volcano and  one of the unfortunate towns caught in the destruction that comes from a volcano errupting.

The train ride took a long time because I had caught the cheapest train but actually it was nice to watch the rolling countryside. A glimpse of an aqueduct stretching to the south of Rome was also fascinating.

Eventually the train rolled up to Ercolano and I got out... a 15 minute walk to the gates of the acient city of Herculaneum and I was sweating, because despite the thunderstorm thebtrain had passed through on the way... it was once again pretty hot. 

Ercolano itself is a bedraggled town by the sea, many of the buildings and the inhabitants loom worn and tired and old... It had an air of being forgotten and even in Covid times, there were strangely few people about. I slipped down sidestreets that made me think of the stories of the riots in ancient Rome as they had a bit of a menacing feel to them, hemmed in by tall walls and taller grey buildings. 

I reached the entrance safely and after the mandatory temp check was inside... ticket and audio guide in hand I proceeded down the tunnel that would take me to the ruined town. 

Herculaneum, unlike Pompeii was not encased in ash, but rather a mudslide, a hot one nonetheless. It had been on the edge of the sea, but now stood inalnd slightly, presumable as a result of the mud that came crashing down the mountain.

I was greeted by a host of skeletons, caught in the final agonies as they had tried to escape to the sea. It was not hard to imagine the agony as it was wrought in their faces and position of their bodies. Despite it being aeons ago, I felt for them, the desperste rush to the gates, so nearly reaching safety but being engulfed by the onslaught. 

It set the tone and as I wondered up to the courtyard, I looked up to see Vesuvius towering above, dispassionate to the destruction it had caused. 

At the top of the steps in the courtyard a funeral pyre and a statue to the govenor of the city, across from that a temple complex. Enough remained to feel what it would have been like here. Upwards i climbed to the town itself and here the real marvels were revealed. Shops and houses in states of preservation that were unbelievable in some cases. A rich mans house with the triclinium coloured in a rich red, the courtyard and pool area, some of the marble remaining from all those years ago.

Shops with containers for food and steps up to the next floor, the wood preserved. 

Best of all, the female bath house, with a mosaic floor that looked as if it had been laid yesterday. The seats and area to hang clothes still in the condition that could be used today and best of all a beautiful red marble bench. 

The thing that struck me the most was how the colours on the walls had remained so vibrant with years under feet of mud and rock. It didn't require much imagination to fill the streets with ancient people scurrying about their day or to see a nobleman greet his guests around the pool in the courtyard.

It was well worth seeing and given the heat of the day, it was good that it was smaller than Pompeii otherwise heat exhaustion would have set it. 

I raced back to the train station just in time to get the train, and then hopped on the slower cheap train in Napoli, back to Roma.

It was a long day bit for 6 hours on a train, I considered it very well spent! 

The following day was my full Rome day. One day to see all that I wanted to see. Challenge accepted!

I had booked a tour to see the forum and underground at the collosseum and that was where i headed first... the Forum was a place I had wanted to see for a long time, my previous visit being only half a day as part of a larger trip. 

It didn't disappoint. 

I could see the bustling centre of ancient Re bought to life as I stood there. The most amazing bit for me were the cobblestone streets that looked new but were in fact the same stones that Julius and Augustus and Cicero and Pompey and Marius and Sulla could well have walked on. The senate house that was there was not the one that Marius and Sulla argued in as that  had been destroyed in the riots but it gave a flavour of what it would have been. The temples, no longer layered in marble were still impressive and the colums still rising up to the sky gave an idea of the grandeur that must have been. 

The spot where, arguably, one of the greatest soldiers the world will ever know, was cremated. How would today have looked if not for the events of then. What if Julius had lived... what may he then have achieved or was his destiny set, if not for that day, then another. 

Onto the Collosseum, and underground where the gladiators stood and sweated and prisoners waited to face their death in the greatest arena known. The places where the snarling lions and tigers would have prowled in their cages and the once dark corridors hidden beneath the arena floo, now open to the sky. It made the hairs stand up on the back of the neck to imagine the gloom and the fear and the roaring of the crowd baying to see blood.

Once the tour was finished I scarpered to find the site of Pompey's theatre, the site of Julius Caesar's assasination by the senators and his friend Brutus. I gazed down on the spot where the course of the Roman Empire was altered inexorably and felt the weight of that place in history. 

A couple more stops on my little wander about Rome...

The Pantheon in all its splendour, bronze doors intact and the Trevi Fountain before going underground to a site where the water for the fountains of Rome collects aroumd buildings where the peasants stood. 

In all my wanderings and wonderings, Rome is a city where the modern sits next to the ancient with almost an indifference. Pieces of marble and once grand columns are strewn about parks and by roadsides whilst the Romans hurry by with seemingly no thought to the history they are walking past. 

Modern Roads bisect ancient ruins... how many of the people driving their cars past take a second to consider who walked that road before them. 

Many times as I walked I would get accosted by the usual street beggars... in Rome crowded at corners reminding me of the ancient Raptores, street gangs waiting to rob the passers by.  Here the pattern was to comment on your sunglasses or call out where are you from. England the reply. My father/brother/cousin lives there they say as they throw a bracelet on your wrist... a gift they say... my sister from another mother... to keep you safe they say...

You try to give it back... no no you keep it, I am happy today. My baby has been born back home... Thank you, you say as you turn and walk away... 

Can you spare some money for my baby... 1 coin to send back to him...

And there it was... the patter, pretty much the same every time. I gave in once and am now the owner of a couple of fairly nice bracelets.

Time to go home! 

😁