Pompeii, Or Bust...

[endlessrarities]

We did Pompeii the hard way.

We opted out of the guided tour, and decided to do it ourselves.  "You'll need at least a day," my colleague The Classicist had warned.  "Probably more."

Ah, what it is to be graced with the gift of prophecy...

I bought a map of the excavations and the Site Guide.  Unfortunately, when I ripped off the cellophane, I discovered I'd bought the site guide rather than the site guide (read the first with a french accent), which made life a bit difficult.

Pompeii is rather helpfully labelled with on-site locational details which allow visitors to navigate with relative ease.  Here's an example:-

 

Despite the helpful street signs, it's difficult to find your way around.  This is partly why we quartered the site so methodically.  I wanted to know exactly where I was, and how everything fitted together.  Which was quite difficult, when the houses looked so similar, and every street tended to look the same:-
 

We started our initial navigation by finding one of the Most Obvious buildings, the Basilica.  But, since my french is not very accomplished, all the site guide succeeded in telling me was that the building was dated to somewhere in the 2nd century BC, and that it formed the adminsitrative core of the city.  Which is better than nothing, I suppose. 

I of course was already going into overdrive because of the very elegant pillars:-

 

Though I must admit that I was already feeling a little cheated by the fact that this important building was all show and no substance - the pillars are brick, rather than costly marble, with painted plaster or perhaps even concrete over the top to give the fluted Doric/Ionian/Corinthian look. 

Ah, well.  It reminds me of the 19th century Glasgow warehouses - robust carved sandstone facades tacked onto cheap brick structures.  I'm not the only one who's noticed this -  check out kheimtran's recent LJ entry (sorry, can't get LJ to recognise the user info - humph!) for their observations on this detail.  I'd have expected it on the houses, but it hadn't occurred to me that the public municipal buildings (which you'd expect to be very grand and high-brow) would employ exactly the same technique.

But then that's Romans for you, isn't it?  All style and no substance...

Anyway.  My colleague The Classicist was quite right.  We were there six hours, and in that time we managed to cover most of the site.  Except the brothel.  And I think we missed out one of the bath-houses, too.  So we decided to come back again to finish everything of, because of course you don't visit Pompeii everyday, and we ended up spending another third of a day topping and tailing the site.

Verdict:  unless you're a nutter  for the Romans or an archaological obsessive (like me), just go for the guided tour.  It's easier that way.  And it does help you cherrypick the best bits without keeling over from exhaustion at the end of it.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, the awfully nice lady in the bookshop exchanged my site guide for a site guide without hesitation.  So all's well that ends well.  And tomorrow I'm going to go all religious and give you some nice pictures of some temples. 
 

Comments

[bellakara.livejournal.com]

I've been reading your entries - the one on Rome was extremely well written. I could almost see it published somewhere. The photographs are all lovely. I don't really have an opinion about the Romans either way. I don't particularly like the Ancient Greeks, and never have. But I did love the series, Rome. Obviously I'm most positive towards the Celts. Incidentally, the portrait photos you posted yesterday were very poignant, I thought.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

I shouldn't really like the Ancient Greeks, either. They weren't very nice to their women. Apart from the Spartans, who just weren't very nice to anyone...

[xjenavivex.livejournal.com]

But then that's Romans for you, isn't it? All style and no substance...


lol

[clairehawthorn.livejournal.com]

Indeed that is a very helpful street sign in the first photo.
Which is all that matters of course.
Forget aesthetics and preservation....someone might get lost.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

And then there are the cafeterias... But that's another story.

[technophobe1975.livejournal.com]

It seems a lot larger than I had imagined.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

I'd assumed it was huge, but... It's only when you actually tramp through the thing that you realise what 'huge' actually means.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Ah, I've just realised why the "free" guide book at Pompeii was so much better than the free map at Herculaneum - it must have come "free" with the audio guide I bought.

And, six hours! You must have been exhausted!

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

My husband was at the stage where he never wanted to see another mosaic or fresco in his life again. But he did recover in time to repeat the experience at Herculaneum a couple of days later!

[changeling72.livejournal.com]

I liked Pompeii, although I think Herculaneum is better - and more manageable. Doing it in July wasn't such a good idea, though.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Doing anything in southern Italy in July sounds like a really bad idea. I felt the climate was just right - and that was late April!

[aulus-poliutos.livejournal.com]

Heh, considering the fact I managed to spend an entire day in the Archaeological Park Xanten and positively HATE guided tours, I'd better plan 2-3 days for Pompeii should I ever get there.

And get me a good map.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

I think two or three days would be realistic, if you were able to access more of the buildings and examine the mosaics in detail. Whatever you do, don't timetable Pompeii & Herculaneum into your itinerary without making sure you visit Naples Museum! It adds the disembowelled guts to the dried out cadavers that are these cities. Sorry about the lurid metaphor - the Romans just have this effect on me.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Ah the Facsist era labelling is still in place then!

One always needs to remember that Il Duce's people reconstructed Pompeii very much in the way Il Duce liked to imagine classical Rome. He was a Romagnol, for goodness sake! What did he know?

Okay, so my own Italian ancestry is Umbrian, so you can maybe hear the sound of axes being ground.....:op.

Half the issues with Pompeii now are due to bad rebuilding during the Fascist era.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Why am I not surprised?