Herculaneum Pictures and Naples

May 28

We came back to the base this afternoon to pick up a few things before we leave Caserta tomorrow, so I thought as long as we have a good internet connection, I’ll upload pics from yesterday and post today’s blog.

So, first here are some pictures from yesterday.

Overview of the excavation; you can see the modern town just beyond.
Tavern; there were several of these scattered through the town. The marble tiles on top are original.
The roof on the building on right is the original roof; it survived the blast.
Some of the frescos were in amazingly good shape.
These columns did pretty well, too.
The sun actually came out enough to need sunglasses. Didn’t stay out very long, though.

Okay, so that was yesterday. Today we headed back into Naples, this time on an express train that went straight to the Central Station. If we had waited 10 minutes longer yesterday, we could have taken this train and avoided the mess we had trying to find the ruins. But that’s why we call these trips adventures.

Today, though, we actually needed to be at the Garibaldi Station so we could catch the metro, so it was quite a walk from our suburban train to the line we needed. But it was early, and we had fresh feet, so it wasn’t too bad. Our destination today was the Palace of Naples, home of the Kings of Naples. Like the other palaces we’ve seen on all of our travels in Europe, it was beautiful but over the top ostentatious. Maybe it’s the Democrat in me but if rulers had spent half as much helping the people of their countries as they did on their palaces, they might have stayed in power and Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette may have kept their heads a little longer.

Anyway, here are some pictures of that.

Top of the grand staircase
Palace Theater
Throne Room
Ceiling in Anteroom; was absolutely gorgeous.
Don’t remember what this room was used for but it was filled with paintings and tapestries.
Main altar of the Royal Chapel
Nativity Crib
Peter at the Guardhouse
Scary looking dude on outside of Palace. Wouldn’t want to mess with him.

After the Palace we walked across the street to the Galleria for a bit of a snack and to get Peter his coffee.

Peter got his coffee; I got Prosecco.

Our last stop was the Castel Nuovo or New Castle, which is a hoot as it was built in the late 13th century. The castle is actually a museum, which we weren’t interested in, but Peter wanted to get some pictures.

It’s right on the sea so it would be rather imposing to an enemy.
Inside courtyard

After this we headed back to the Metro which was just across the street from the Castle. We actually only spent about 3 hours in town, but we had seen what we wanted to see so we headed home.

After a quick lunch at home, we came here to the base. It’s after 5pm so we’ll be heading back to the flat soon to have dinner. Then it’s pack up the house and get ready for tomorrow when we head to Paestrum, just south of Salerno. There is a Greek ruin that Peter wants to see. After that, who knows. It depends on the weather. We’ll let you know what we end up doing. Ciao for now.

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