We caught the train to Ercolano and, once again, had difficulty in following the journey or finding our stop because the train windows were completely covered in graffiti. Even if we’d been able to see out of the windows, all of the station names had also been obliterated by graffiti so we had to rely on asking people which station we were at. This, and the walk through the dirty and rubbish strewn town of Ercolano, did not put us in the best frame of mind for this trip at the outset.
Once at the site, already having entry tickets, we went to the information desk for a map of the excavation site. The desk was unmanned, with a sign saying ‘NO MORE MAPS’. The sign wasn’t new so they’d obviously run out of maps some while ago. There were plenty of staff around (one was standing at the visitor ticket punching machine, taking tickets, punching them and giving them back. A task which, unsurprisingly, she looked extremely bored with.) Perhaps one these could have photocopied a few maps? This was a very different experience to Pompeii where we had such good reference material. Without any information signage at Herculaneum, it was really difficult to get much out of the site without the map for reference.
Further into the site we saw that it was possible to get (photocopied) maps from the kiosk selling audio guides, but they would only part with the maps if you bought the audio guide. We would probably have bought an audio guide anyway, but on principle we didn’t. We may have been cutting off our noses to spite our face, but we did not want to perpetuate what seemed to be a scam or sharp practice at best.
What we saw was incredible considering that, unlike Pompeii which was buried in ash, Herculaneum had to be painstakingly recovered from Larva. Luckily for us the city was better preserved because of this. However, it seems that exposing the ruins to an era/country with little regard for preservation meant that some of the recovered structure was subsequently lost or damaged.
Our first view of the ruins Sadly it is a little difficult to distinguish between the
modern habitation (top) and the ancient ruins (below)
Some splendid and well preserved frescos in the College of The Augustales
Neptune and Amphitrite mosaic, amazingly complete
Casa dell’Atrio a mosaico
Columns in their original colours Concrete upper floor shows advanced construction
Excavated streets
Note: Double-Click on photos for an enlarged view. Feel free to post a comment on the blog.
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