Time Travel: National Archaeological Museum, Pompeii, and Mt. Vesuvius

For many of us (as long as you were born before about 2005) the best day of the school week was when the Weekly Reader was given out. From 1928 to 2012 Weekly Reader was a way for elementary kids to learn about the world and recent events. For me, our current adventure has provided in-person experiences with two things I remember most from that publication. The building of the Chunnel between England and France, and the story of research being done at Pompeii. A month or so ago I posted on our journey through the Chunnel. And now, living in Naples Italy, we have spent a good deal of time focusing on Pompeii.

As dorky teacher-researchers we began by reading about what order to do things in order to best experience this. We finally decided to do the museum first, followed by Pompeii, and end with Vesuvius. And now that we have visited all three I believe we made the right decision.

We began with a cab ride up to the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli (National Archaeological Museum of Naples). It was supposed to be a day of thunderstorms so we splurged for a cab. After waiting in line for tickets we entered and began our journey back in time to between 200 BC to 100 AD.

It is hard for me to put our experience into words. As someone who has studied art history I could talk about the mosaics, paintings, and sculptures in technical terms, but really I want to share how powerful it was to be surrounded by items created by people living in a city that would be destroyed in one day. In fact, it was not the “high art” that was as moving as it was the day-to-day items. The museum is filled with silver food service items, cookware, and other basic items we still use today. Sarah and Tommy were especially taken by the silver. It was of course beautiful, but it was also timeless. It looked startlingly similar to our own silver tea set back home in Plymouth. We all loved the mosaics and the wall art that had been preserved and yet that too was more utilitarian than art.

For those of you wondering (read my UMaine peeps), YES I did enter the secret room! And yes, in a fairly empty museum in the middle of winter, it was the one place with a line (and hilariously they all appeared to be in there 70’s or older! And they all were taking a LOT of pictures). Now in case you don’t know, the Romans were not all holy good and true and during the excavation of Pompeii a number of items were found that were not considered appropriate for the general public. As a result, they were housed in a “special collection” room that for hundreds of years was opened, closed, re-opened, closed, re-opened again and then closed again for nearly 100 years. Only in 2000 did it become fully public. And even during those years when it was open, it was accessible only to “people of mature age and respected morals”, basically that translate to educated men. And without a doubt No Women Allowed!

We spent half a day at the museum before our brains were overwhelmed, and thanks to the predicted thunderstorms holding off, we elected to walk home the mile or so to our apartment. That evening we watched a full documentary on the current research going on at Pompeii (my own UMass was represented with one of the major scholars on site being a UMass professor). Unfortunately that same documentary talked a lot about the current man-made threats to the future of Pompeii.

A day or so later we headed to Pompeii. I was giddy with excitement. Again, the experience was overwhelming. First, the city is much larger than I imagined (despite the readings, documentary, and even scale model at the museum). We spent hours there and realized we still left so much unseen. I think we were able to see as much as we did because we were there in the winter when it was not crowded. And we were also blessed with a warm and sunny winter day in the low 60s and barely a cloud in the sky.

There was so much to move us while visiting, but yet again it was the “normal” elements that touched us most. We toured the actual home where the silver we had seen at the museum was found. We saw bars, stores, bathrooms, gardens, and other functional structures. It was almost eerie how much it felt like a normal city. Having spent a lot of time in both rural and urban Greece we are used to seeing historical sites but this was different. It may seem counterintuitive, but standing in the relative relatable simplicity of Pompeii was in many ways more powerful to me than when I stood surrounded by the grandeur of the Acropolis in Athens. Again, I think the fact that we did the museum first and later the actual city enhanced our experience.

And YES we did visit the famous Lupanar (the public brothel of pompeii). And yet again, in this mostly empty day in Pompeii there was a line at this house. And it was also filled with an older crowd who took pictures of every piece of wall art.

Of course no attempt to understand this story is complete without getting up close and personal with the “bad guy” of the story. And so it was that we took a bus part-way up Mt. Vesuvius and then spent the afternoon climbing the last part of the way up. To say that it was steep is an understatement. Tommy and were proud that we passed a lot of whining teenagers going up. It felt a lot like when we do 5Ks up the big hill in Plymouth by Rising Tide School!

Once we made it up the views were breathtaking. But looking inside the crater itself was truly awe-inspiring. I sat there trying to imagine the amount of energy it took to blow out the center of a mountain. I have never climbed a volcano before so I can’t compare, but it made me feel so small and helpless. And while I knew it is covered in monitors and a group of scientist check the readings about every 60 seconds, I could not help but watch the smoke rising up from the crater and wonder if I would not be a future exhibit at a Pompeii museum!

But instead of being vaporized or turned into ash-covered skeleton, we became customers at the little wine stand at the end of the hiking trail! There is nothing like an exhausting hike that ends with a perfect view and someone handing you a glass of local red wine (I love the Italians)! Sadly, we then had to say goodbye and start our leisurely hike back down the mountain and the hour-long ride back to our apartment.

Below you can see a few pictures and video. We will post lots more at some point, but we took far too many pics to post them all here.