October 21, 2015

We See Dead People

We want to get a relatively early start this morning because we have several things on our list for today.  First is breakfast with Angela.  It is cloudy but not raining as we make our way to the restaurant for breakfast.  “Our” table is set overlooking the fields and village with pastries, mango juice, yogurt, tomatoes, prosciutto and cheeses.  Angela brings out a basket of hot croissants as we sit down.  She apologizes for the bread being a little late—it is still baking but she does bring a big plate of scrambled eggs (courtesy of the chickens outside).  There is plenty of coffee “Americano.”  There is nothing we can say this morning beyond what we said yesterday.  This is amazing.  We threaten to stay which Angela welcomes because she needs help bringing in the olives.  It is really tempting.  Brother comes in a little later for check out and it is handshakes with him and hugs with Angela.  A memory for a lifetime.

We’re in the car by 9:30, a little later than anticipated but earlier than we would like, for the 2 hour drive to our mid-day destination, Pompeii.  We’ve read the book and saw the movie so here it is live and in person.  The original Pompeii was a prosperous port on the Med under Greek rule and then Rome.  It was an active trading site from around 200 BC but there have been folks living here for 6,000 years.  They keep digging deeper and deeper finding earlier and earlier signs of civilization.

The big deal of course is the event of August 24^th AD 79 when Vesuvius blew its top and buried this progressive Roman town of 20,000+ people under super-heated ash 20 feet deep.  For the last few hundred years archaeologists have been carefully wiping away centuries of accumulation to recreate life in this perfectly preserved window into life 2000 years ago.  As you walk through this city of significant size it is easy to visualize the scenes in the forum, basilica, amphitheater, baths, brothel, taverns, theater and homes.  You stroll the streets as if you were there then on the same rocks looking into the same doorways.  The big guy in Rome those days was Jupiter and he watches over his flock from a perch on the wall of the forum.  The sea, which is now about a mile away, reached the city walls and there are walkways up from a docking area for traders and visitors to come to the city by ship. 

It is raining of course for about an hour of our 3-1/2 hour visit which is getting to be a serious distraction from out activities.  We have umbrellas but it is windy so our pants are soaked through.  We are trying to read our guide, also soaked, and when we find cover for a second to set down the umbrella the wind kicks up and blows the umbrella into the first century.  Really, we’re getting sick of the rain.

We get a good hour of no-rain before we leave which allows us to find some of the last areas of real interest to us.  Inside the amphitheater (lions and gladiators) they have erected a pyramid that houses many of the human forms they were able to recreate from the eruption.  Many of the Pompeii residents were trapped in their homes when the ash cloud first hit and they were literally gassed and buried in place.  The ash that surrounded their bodies was eventually dampened with ensuing rains forming a sort of crust around them.  Their soft tissue deteriorated over time but the form of their bodies remained in the hardened ash and were used to make plaster casts.  That way the archaeologists were able to recreate the victims in their death poses.  Pretty moving for something that happened thousands of years ago.  We don’t think Ben Carson would have gotten out.

Now it is return-the-car time in Salerno, about 30 miles back down the road.  After we drop the car off at 4:15 we will wait for our driver from our B&B in Amalfi to pick us up at 5:00.  At 5:10 our host, Vincenzo, calls us wanting to know where we are.  We eventually decide that we are at Auto Europa and the driver is at Europe Car.  Two different companies a block apart. (We have evidence in writing that we gave them the right info for what it’s worth.)  Franco our driver does the death defying run through Salerno rush hour traffic and onto the more death defying Amalfi coast road.  This is a winding string of switch backs along the side of a cliff with spectacular views of the coast and little villages clinging to the hillsides.  He pulls into a little street strewn with tourists just as it is getting dark and we honk and nudge our way a couple blocks up to Residenza Luce. 

This will be our home for the next three nights.  We are greeted by Vincenzo our host and his son Marco (about 7 or 8) who help us carry our bags up a couple flights of stairs to a little reception area and our room.  The room is a two level affair with the bed up and living and bath down.  It is beautifully decorated with Mediterranean tiles and the latest technology (except no English TV channels).  We also have a nice balcony over the one Amalfi street that runs from the sea to the base of the cliffs about a mile away.

The family of the residenza also has a ristorante just down the steps and behind the B&B.  After Mary does a load of laundry in the bidet and we have a glass of wine on our balcony we venture down for dinner.  The hostess is Vincenzo’s sister,  Giovana, a very friendly lady who we enjoy throughout the evening.  We think she enjoyed us, but maybe that was the wine.  We have the bruschetta mista to start and then John gets the gnocchi with marinara while Mary orders spaghetti with anchovies and sun dried tomatoes.  After we each eat half of our pastas we swap plates and everyone is happy.  The liter of vini rossi della casa helping the cause.  This is the home of lemoncello so we each order one after dinner.  Our hostess says she will make Vincenzo pay for them so free to us.  The evening is molto bene.

It is a short walk before bed.  John catches up on computer stuff and Mary catches up on reading and sleep.  We have nothing planned for tomorrow so time to relax.

What did we learn today?  In spite of the obvious, the Romans of Pompeii really had la dolce vita figured out a couple thousand years ago.