The overwhelming feeling of walking around both sites is awe...its so hard to believe that this was once the homes of people who worked, lived, loved and laughed. They had their own lives, their own stories, beliefs, dramas and woes. All that was obliterated. All that's left is the skeleton of their houses, the streets they walked. If you ever thought you had forever, this will change that.
Ercolano was amazing. Being able to walk into someones home, step on their mosaic floors and see the same fresco walls they would have seen everyday is staggering. The other difficult thing to take is that this town (like Pompeii) was by the sea. The eruption moved the coastline away from it, you can still glimpse it off in the distance from the site, between the buildings that now occupy space. The sheer scale Pompeii is impressive, after all, it was a city. Its boasts two theatres, a gladiator coliseum which is well preserved and a gymnasium where they found ancient graffiti in the change rooms. The most amusing feature is the raised stones used to cross the road when it was flooded every day to clean it.
The eerie side of the coin is that in both Pompeii and Ercolano, you can see some of the "statues" taken of people who had died and been petrified in a recognisable state.
My top 4 tips for visiting Ercolano and Pompeii are:
- Visit Ercolano first then go to Pompeii. Seeing Ercolano will allow you to imagine Pompeii better
- Give yourself plenty of time for each. I spent a good few hours at both though i could have easily spent more. If you are squeezed for time, you can do both in a day, but be smart and choose what you really want to see.
- Take the local train - its cheap, easy to follow and gives you a feel for typical travel in the region
- Get an audio guide - if there are two of you, take a set of earphones that way you can share and save a little.
Ercolano
The streets of Ercolano
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| Ercolano colonnaded street |
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| Ercolano - two level home |
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| An Ercolano lunch restaurant with fresco |
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| View of the site of Ercolano - how weird would it be to live in the newer houses that overlook this site? |
The homes of Ercolano
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| Two story Ercolano school for freed slaves. |
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| Fresco walls of an Ercolano home |
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| A courtyard and mosaic floor of an Ercolano home |
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| Fresco walls of an Ercolano home |
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| Stunning bathroom mosaic |
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| Beautiful mosaic floors of communal bath area |
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| Cast of petrified Ercolano resident - it is not the actual body, when found there was a process to make this cast |
Views of Pompeii
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| Pompeii archway near the temple of Jupiter |
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| Pompeii theatre |
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| Pompeii forum |
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| Pompeii artifacts, you can see another cast of a petrified resident |
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| Pompeii forum |
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| Pompeii coliseum / amphitheatre |
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| Inside the Pompeii coliseum / amphitheatre |
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| Gladiator barracks |
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| A doorway from the forum |
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