Pumice in Pompeii

Salerno proved to be an ideal place to leave the boat for side trips, something we Pavlovians love to do to momentarily absent ourselves from our life on the sea. This trip was to Pompeii, like an obligatory trip to Mecca for Megan who has taught this story for years. We'd been bragging to our travelling cohorts, John and M2, that we were 'post-obligatory' and that we no longer felt that we 'had to see it all'. Well, in this case we were wrong, and I'm glad we were, as Pompeii was outstanding.

Porto Marino entrance to Pompeii

Basilica, centre for justice

Sculpture by Polish artist Mitoraj

The portico where the judges sat to hear claims.

We've seen a lot of ancient Greek and Roman sites by now. Ephesus and Pamucali gave wonderful impressions of ancient towns, but Pompeii was an entire city. It reflected a different scale of community life than the smaller sites. I came away with an impression of a complex and highly organised society, with much of today's amenities. We saw fast food shops with built in bain-marie's, laundromats, public lavatories, beautiful and finely made mosaics, streets with guttering and stepping stones to cross when the streets were awash. A sophisticated city not so unlike today's towns.

Torso by Mitoraj

Blue Ajax

Classicism writ large

An added plus for me were the incredible sculptures by the Polish artist, Mitoraj. These sculptures echoed classical forms, focussing mainly on torsos and busts. However, there are unusual post-modernist twists with juxtapositions and truncations that echoed powerfully in this most classical of settings.

Angelic face for genitalia

What a location for such iconic works

More angelic than one could say ...  

Something so organic about these decaying bronzes

There were 30 sculptures in all

Captures something of Grecian ideals

Megan soaking it all in .... 

The sense of a city frozen in time was powerfully captured by the plaster cast technique pioneered by the archeologist, Fiorelli. When workers reported strange abscesses in the excavated tuffa, he thought to fill the voids with plaster. These resulted in perfect moulds of the now-decomposed bodies that had occupied the space.

Fiorello's infant

A crouching man ....

Amazing capture of a 3D image from that age ...

... shielding her face from the burning ashes

Features of social life in Pompeii stood out, I loved the image of the fast food joints and the laundromat. The fresco's and painted decorations were fascinating, and of course, we couldn't go without the usual roman dick joke carved into stone.

Take away fast food joint, the holes are warming clay pots under the counter.

Stepping stones across the streets when flooding

Exceptionally fine mosaics, Alexander vs Darius from the Faun House

Portico looking through to internal garden 

Wall decoration

Fresco painted onto a wall

Room decoration

Collector for rainwater inside main foyer of house

Advertising signage?

The larger villa's, like the Faun House which housed the famous Alexander mosaic, were impressive in their size and grandeur.  It was interesting to see the original art work from these houses on a subsequent visit to the Archeological Museum in Napoli. The names of the houses came from a random feature in the house, the Faun house is so called because of the small statue of a faun satyr in the water feature.

The Faun, eponymous with the Faun House

A cute small amphitheatre

More of the amphitheatre

A little street phallus, crying out to be stepped on!

Bathing room 

Well engineered streets with side pavements and guttering

The admiral has finally had her fill.

Another great day out adventuring in the ancient world, we wearied our way back to Pavlov, patiently bobbing at anchor, awaiting our return. Always a welcome sight to see that she's where we left her!!

Pavlov at anchor in Salerno Bay