Herculaneum and Pompeii

We visited Herculaneum and then Pompeii both in one day. There was plenty of time for lunch and a visit to the local wine coop too. But when we got back to the hotel I got a massage.

Heraculaneum was better than Pompeii in many ways. It was better preserved because when Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D. there were clouds of toxic gas interspersed with torrents of volcanic mud. The city was buried and preserved in a tufa-like rock which formed from the mud, and was only rediscovered in 1711. 

Heraculaneum was also a wealthier place than Pompeii, and the buildings are more grand and better decorated.  This is a picture of one of the mansions there. An amazing discovery made there were120 papyrus scrolls. We saw two of them in the Anthropology Museum in Napoi, and they look so charred it is incredible they can be read. Our guide at Heraculaneum just said “easy with a laser” when we asked. Heraculaneum is also much smaller than Pompeii, making it easy to see everything. Part of the reason it is smaller is because there is the modern and pretty crummy city of Ercolano on top of the unexcavated part.

Here  you can see the modern city on top of the excavated ancient city

This was a fast food place. The clay containers kept the food hot or cold, and people could grab something to go.