In the Shadow of Mount Vesuvius

I have been slowly making my way through all the stops on the Viking Cruise we took this past Christmas. We started out in Athens. Then we made our way to Turkey, where we visited the ancient city of Ephesus. Following our departure from Turkey, we spent 2 days at sea, one of which was Christmas! Our next stop was Sicily.

But the highlight of the trip was our final stop: the ruins of Pompeii.

We talked about a lot of places to visit on this family holiday. But it was the ruins of Pompeii that initially drew us to this particular cruise. My husband is a history major and I’m a huge fan of ancient mythology. So Pompeii has always been on our bucket list.

I think our only regret is that we weren’t able to see both Pompeii and Herculaneum. (Pompeii’s slightly upper-class sister city.) It was unfortunately a choice of either or. But I do feel we made the right choice. In many ways, the ruins of Pompeii defy description – but I will do my best.

We put in at the port of Naples and took a short bus ride to the ruins. Our guide was a delightful older Italian gentleman who clearly knew quite a lot about the subject matter. On the way to our destination, he described the eruption of Vesuvius, preparing us for what we were about to see.

120 seconds was the first thing he said. On the day Pompeii disappeared in smoke and ash, it took only 120 seconds – a mere 2 minutes – for half of the city’s population to vaporize. The heat generated by the initial pyroclastic blast also incinerated the marble façades of the city’s buildings.

The Pompeii of the Past

We stepped onto the deck of our ship at the port of our final location to one of the most spectacular mornings I have ever seen. Rays of sunlight cut through the clouds above mountain peaks that lightly kissed the sky. We couldn’t tell if any of them was the infamous Vesuvius. But that didn’t make the view any less majestic.

One of the first things that struck me on our way to the ruins of Pompeii was how close the port of Naples is to the volcano that devoured the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum (among others). It seemed so strange that Naples should happen to be safe while so many other cities were buried by the volcano’s wrath. But that’s sometimes how the forces of nature work.

Our guide stressed as we approached the gates of the modern ruin that the entire parking lot area was under water at the time that Pompeii was buried in volcanic ash. In fact, every part of the city that has been uncovered was buried beneath a mile or more of earth when archeologists re-discovered the city.

The name “Pompeii” comes from a sound made by the tribes that lived in the area prior to the arrival of the Greeks. “Pomp” means 5, and the area was called “meeting place of the five tribes” as they gathered to stand against the coming of the Greeks.

The eruption which wiped out the city took place at 1:00 in the afternoon. There was little warning proceeding the violence of the eruption.

In the Shadow of Vesuvius

Before passing into the ruins of the ancient city, we visited the site’s antiquarium. Our guide explained that it isn’t a museum. It is the place where new finds are displayed before being sent to the museums that will showcase them.

Anyone familiar with the tragedy of Pompeii knows the people who lived there suffered sudden and violent deaths. Those who didn’t die to the initial heat blast were buried in mud. Eventually, the organic remains broke down, leaving only body-shaped cavities in the earth. Archeologists recover these remains by pouring plaster into the holes, which form grim molds. Every one of these cavities contains enough bone to be identified via DNA tests. Several were on display in the antiquarium.

What we know of Pompeii’s final day comes largely from information recorded by survivors who witnessed the volcanic eruption from other nearby cities. Pliny the younger recorded a detailed observation in a letter written to a friend. He observed it from Naples. Incidentally, the type of explosion elicited by Vesuvius was later named after Pliny.

Pliny the younger was visiting his uncle, Pliny the Elder, a member of the navy at the time of the explosion. The two of them later departed on a rescue mission to Herculaneum where they attempted to evacuate several important figures. Their ships were stranded by strong winds which prevented them from fleeing back to safety. Pliny the elder was injured and died from inhaling the toxic gas pumped into the air by the eruption.

Pompeii was in a state of deterioration at the time Vesuvius erupted. Earthquakes and other common symptoms of inevitable volcanic activity had caused many of the richest members of the city to depart. But there were still many rich villas in the city at the time it was destroyed.

The Pompeii of Today

What makes Pompeii significant is not so much the status of the city in its heyday. Instead, it’s the fact that the city was buried in an instant, preserving a perfect glimpse of life at the time for modern archeologists to study. Like Ephesus, the city has been in a state of excavation for most of a century, and there is still a great deal to discover.

The city is remarkably preserved. Walking through it is like walking a modern city. You can imagine the shops open and people traversing the forum. The volcano looms in the distance, beautiful and silent, and across the bay are more mountains and mist.

Perhaps the most mind-blowing sight is the house of some rich wine merchants that allows you to observe the proper layout of a villa and still has much of the original paint on the walls. (Some of it is erotic because they allowed their slaves to run a brothel.) The house includes a garden with fountain, a dining area and other entertainment space, plus sleeping areas for men and women.

We also saw the much larger house of Emperor Nero’s second wife, who was from Pompeii. This featured a much larger private garden and truly epic mosaic which is now displayed as a replica after the original was removed for preservation. It depicts a famous victory of Alexander the great in battle.

By far the most preserved area of the city is the baths. Their location and structure allowed much of the internal decoration to survive both the eruption and intervening years. The details of the ceiling decorations is impressive, to say the least, and there’s something magical about walking on a floor you know to be several thousand years old.

After the Tour

I feel like I could write an entire novel about the brief time we spent wandering the ancient ruins of Pompeii. My meager descriptions hardly do justice to the impressions the construction and destruction leave on visitors. It is a somber site to be sure. And it’s impossible to ignore the tragedy that took place there. But it’s also a remarkable and impressive display of our history. A chance to step backward in time and glimpse what life would have been like in a long forgotten age. It was well worth all the travel that was required to get there.

Our trip to Pompeii took place early in the morning. As the chill of the morning and the mist that permeated it receded, we headed back toward the port in Naples. Our guide regaled us with happier details on our way back to the boat, including where to sample some of his favorite food. We even sang a few rounds of a famous local ditty!

Though you may not recognize it by name, you’ve probably heard “Funiculì, Funiculà.” The song was composed in 1880 to commemorate the opening of the first funicular railway on Mount Vesuvius!

Because our tour happened fairly early we still had some time to return, so our adventure doesn’t quite end there. I have a few more things to say about Naples, but I’ll save them for my final travel post!