Ercolano (Herculaneum)

Ercolano, the Italian name for the town of Herculaneum (named after Hercules) is a archeological site on the western slope of Vesuvius that was covered in mud and lava when Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. On this day, we went to Ercolano, Vesuvius and ended the day with Pompeii. By the time we got to Pompeii, I was done. I had finally gotten my fill of classical ruins. BASTA, as they say in Italian. Someday, I'll go back to Pompeii, but on this day, I took a kids iPod and watched Glee. There I was in Pompeii, hiding in the ancient ruins watching an American television show. I'm not proud, but, I had to embrace what I wanted in that moment, and it wasn't looking at more Roman Empire era ruins. But, the following are pictures from Ercolano.

From the Circumvesuviana train, it's a nice six block walk to the entrance of the Ercolano excavation site.

You can see that the modern city of Ercolano is built right to the edge of the site and is directly in the shadow of a dormant Vesuvius.

Here I am standing at what was water's edge. Look how deep in mud and debris the city was buried. In the some of the excavations done at this point, bodies were found.

Like at Pompeii, some frescos survive. Here is one that is in the colonnade of what appears to have been a multistory home.

This is the courtyard of "The House of the Deer". It is right at waters edge. Herculaneum, as were many towns in this area around Vesuvius, were resort towns.

This villa is called "The House of the Deer" because of the statues found where deer are being attacked by dogs.

Throughout Ercolano, there are these bars with jugs. These were tabernas where citizens could get food and drink. In essence, ancient restaurants and fast food joints.

Here I am pretending to be an ancient purveyor of food and drink. I don't look the part do I?

No, it's not little feces, which is what I originally thought. But it's pumice.

The Romans had public water sources like this one. This tradition carries on into modern times as you find public sources of free flowing water throughout Italy.

One of the most stunning and famous locations at Ercolano is the "Sede degli Augustali", a building in which freed slaves worshiped the Emperor Augustus.

This fresco in the "Sede degli Augustali" shows Juno, Minerva and Hercules.

This is near the corner of where the Cardo Superior and Decumanus Superior meet, which is at the NE corner of the archeological site. I think it means that only one-quarter of what was the town of Ercolano has been unearthed. The rest sits under the modern town.

Shops on the ground floor, homes above. Building plans remain constant throughout time.

I believe this is what was essentially an industrial sized iron.

The impluvium (water catchment system) of a grand home.

I guess the Romans also had "McMansions" as well!

Mount Vesuvius

It's continental Europe's ONLY active volcano, having last erupted in 1944. It sits just to the south of Italy's third largest city, Naples. There are currently 600,000 residents in the "red zone" which is most likely to hit by a pyroclastic flow, like the one that buried the city of Ercolano (Herculaneum). And, you can hike to the top of Vesuvius!

From the rim of the Vesuvius crater looking north to Naples and the Bay of Naples.

The hike to the top is pretty easy from the parking lot. It's a nice graded footpath. These pictures don't provide the scale of the crater.

If it starts to smoke, get off the mountain!

Looking west to the Sorrento Peninsula and either Capri or Ischia.

The young rock, without any vegetation, makes the top of the mountain seem almost lunar in quality.

Study Raphael, See Raphael

In Art History, we are currently in the midst of studying the Renaissance, especially the "holy trinity" of the High Renaissance, da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael. Raphael was a prodigious painter, with a workshop that produced a great many pieces. In the last decade of his short 37 year life, he lived in Rome and was commissioned by the Chigi family to decorate a part of their new palace in Rome's Trastevere district, south of the Vatican. Raphael produced, "Galatea" which we studied in class and then I went to go see. Today, the palace is called, Palazzo Farnesina.

Note the iconography (not Christian) but of mythology in which Galatea is fleeing (successfully) from her captor. It's the amazing realistic anatomical precision that has returned to art, which was lost for many centuries. There is whimsy too, note the dolphins (one of them is eating an octopus) pulling Galatea on a shell. The cupids (with on peeking out from behind the cloud) arrows frame Galatea.

In one of the grand ballrooms, the students and I played "find the most phallic fruit the artist painted." Here was our winner.

Upstairs in one of the bedrooms, a painting that caught my attention. If I were to make a list of 10 tasks NOT to do while naked, I think blacksmithing/ironworking would be on that list.

After lunch, we wandered to Piazza del Popolo to check out the festivities to promote Rome's bid for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games.

A big stage was set up for bands to play, there were demonstrations of many sports and here I am taking target practice. My highest scoring shot, a 9.8 where 10 was a bullseye. I will reveal that my first two scores were 3.7 and 3.8.

Free hats and T-shirts, that's the real reason we went.

Another Afternoon in Tivoli

VILLA D'ESTE
Villa d'Este is a classic Italian Renaissance garden. Beautiful flowers (you'll see that Spring time has arrived here in Italy) and amazing fountains which must have been amazing feats of hydraulic engineering at the time.

I loved this photo, it's a church door which kids are kicking soccer balls against.

VILLA GREGORIANA
The Aniene river runs right through Tivoli (it's where all the water for the Villa d'Este fountains come from) and often times flooded and wiped out the town. In the 19th century, Pope Gregory XVI had the river diverted through some tunnels and a beautiful waterfall was formed. The area was turned into a beautiful cliff side park which has nice, short hikes.

My Host Mom

Since I'm going to be here a second year, I asked to live with a family to improve my Italian. It's Anna F. with her host kid from this year on the right Drew C. and her host "kid" for next year on the left.

Spring Break 2010 Wrap Up

After Ravenna was Padua to visit the Scrovegni Chapel. From the outside, again nothing much. The story is that Enrico Scrovegni's family were money lenders and therefore, not allowed into heaven. Enrico wanted to get his father into heaven so asked Giotto to paint him the most beautiful chapel in the world. Inside, it is. Painted between 1303 and 1305 it was a major break from Byzantine art and can be claimed as the first major work of the Renaissance. (Art History CHECK)

I LOVED Padua, for some reason it captured my imagination. I didn't get a picture of the huge elliptical park, but here is a war memorial to those Paduans who perished in a battle with modern day Ethiopian, a former Italian colony.

Padua is home to the huge University of Padua. It was founded in the 1200's as an alternative, more free-thinking institution than those more religiously based. A famous former faculty member? Galileo. These posters are posted around by the friends of graduates and are kind of "this is your life combined" combined with a roasting of the graduate.

St. Anthony, the great orator, was from Padua. Here's a totally Romanesque church in his honor. I do have to inform you all that his TONGUE and VOCAL CHORDS are preserved and on display. I saw them.

Next stop, Lyon

My former student and friend, Yalie K. met me there and we spent a BEAUTIFUL spring day walking around the city and having lunch at an outside cafe.

Yalie has been teaching English in a town called, Clermont-Ferrand, which is located in the Massif Central of France. This part of France is formerly volcanic and very mountainous. Pictured is "Puy de Dome", an extinct volcano right outside of town.

Yalie's cute house, in the small town of Royat in the hills outside of C-F.

The gothic church of C-F isn't dirty, it's just made out of the dark volcanic stone that is in great supply locally.

Jambs, archivolts, post, lintel, typinum (sp?), it's a gothic portal.

Yalie and I spent an afternoon watching the ASM Clermont rugby team play against Stade Francis of Paris. ASM has been to the Superbowl of French Rugby 10 times and lost all 10 times. Clermont lost this day, but I'm now an ASM supporter.

C-F is the home of Guided Light Rail. Notice it's a tram with only one rail. The advantage is that it can be on the track and THEN go off track and be driven like a bus.

Because it is like a bus, one can enter and exit on street level. But, there have been problems with snow and erratic movements when the driver has to steer off the rail when someone jaywalks across the rail line. Other small issues have arisen so Bombardier, the maker of GLT, has disbanded the project.

Clermont-Ferrand's biggest claim to fame? It's the home of Michelin tires.

The Michelin Man's official name is Bibendum, Latin for "let's drink".

Yalie and I took a trip to the Michelin museum.

I am a huge fan of Bibendum and now have his key chain!