Sunday, 5/8/11, Mother's Day

Today is Mother's day and we could have ordered a champagne breakfast. We didn't, but we did order breakfast to be brought to the room. That way we can try to stay on our diets, somewhat. At least we'll stay away from the pancakes, waffles, and sticky buns. Room service provides a really good oatmeal and fruits.
Our port of call today is Sorrento, Italy. The Ancient Greeks and Romans called it "Surrentum". The name Sorrento' means "sirening mermaids" which are spoken of in their folk tales. The land mass is sheer rock cliffs full of scented lemon groves dropping down into the sparkling water. The whitewashed villas cling to the sides of the cliffs. Part of the Amalfi Coast, this is a top tourist destination for the jet setters. The Amalfi coast includes Sorrento, Isle of Capri, Ischia (rock and volcanoes), Positano (expensive), Amalfi Ravello (a town high on a hill), and Salerno( a lovely old medieval town). Amalfi was the first maritime village in Italy.
Pompeii is an hour and a half drive from Sorrento where the rich lived 2000 years ago when Mt. Vesuvius erupted. It is a little hazy outside now, so Vesuvius is not quite visible. Sorrento has lemon trees, oleander, cactus, aloe, bird of paradise, cypress and pine trees growing on the sides of the cliffs. In 1544 poet Tasso was born here and now the Piazzo is named for him. The streets are very narrow and winding with walls of stone. Regular sized buses will not fit onto these streets, so we were transported in large mini vans up to the top then transferred to regular buses for the drive to Pompeii. In 1752 a palace was built of the stones from Pompeii called molte la terra which means milk of the earth or limestone. A very delicious liquor called lemon cello is made here from the rind of huge lemons that look surprisingly like my Pondersosa lemons on my tree that Daddy killed. If I had known we could make this from those lemons, maybe it would still be living! Originally, this was only made on the island of Capri. The soil around Mt. Vesuvius produces sweet wine. They also grow artichokes, oranges, peaches, limes, figs, olives, apricots and prunes. They are known for their lemon and cream cake and the coral they harvest from the sea. The lime trees have thick trunks but their tops are trimmed off to sprout again and trained onto arbors like grape vines. On the terraced slopes are growing olive trees, fig trees and veggies. They use row covers over their crops to protect them from the birds and the intense sun. The flowers visible are roses, palms, sago palms, succulents, yucca, acanthus, poppies and morning glories. They can grow so many things because their soil is volcanic. In the 17th century the first pasta was dried here by the sun and wind. The first Napoli pizza came from here with tomato, garlic and olive oil. A popular Xmas treat here is a dried fig filled with nuts and covered with chocolate. In the town of Sorrento you can see the flat roofs and people on top hanging clothes to dry.
The word Pompeii means 5, but they don't know 5 what! It is Greek in it's heritage, not Etruscan like the rest of Italy.
Mount Vesuvius was 10,000 feet tall when it erupted on August 24, 79AD. Now it is only 3000 feet high. They estimate that 12,000 - 15,000 people died in Pompeii from the gases that escaped during the eruption and the 30 foot of ash that covered them. The area was left alone for 1600 years. The eruption lasted for 3 days and 2 nights. The people were preserved with their hands trying to cover their eyes and noses from the gases. Mount Vesuvius erupted again in 1962. The oldest amphitheater in Italy is here and could hold 20,000 people who could see Mt. Vesuvius. It is built into a natural hill and has perfect acoustics. The limestone colonnade was pre Roman. The town was built on a layer of lava that is from 6BC.
What the archeologists have learned about Pompeii is just amazing. They have been excavating for 250 years now and will continue. I remember being in elementary school, reading an article about Pompeii in My Weekly Reader and being in awe how well preserved those bodies were! It was a rich community with so many advancements: hot and cold running water piped into their homes, one-way and two-way marked streets, cement that doesn't deteriorate as fast as modern day cement, fountains throughout their city, spas, marble toilets, and wooden sliding doors. When they unearthed a marble plaque with Latin inscriptions, they assumed their language was Latin.
Pompeii had 37 public fountains with a face shape drawn around the water pipe (as if the pipe was the nose) with running water. Each fountain had an additional drawing to signify what street it was. At the public baths they had a vestibule, changing rooms, massage rooms with pottery to hold oils, a hot rock massage room and hot and cold running water all with marble floors. The Roman aqueduct supplied the water when the rain didn't. The lead pipes leading into the houses you see every once in a while on the edge of the sidewalk are plumbed into the houses. the public baths were popular because it was the place to hear the news.
The town of Pompeii's streets always sloped up to Mount Vesuvius. The streets were marked by the fountains and had stones placed in the street to signify if they were one- way or two-way. Three and four stones meant it was two-way because the chariot wheels straddled the stones with the center stone separating like a center line. One stone meant it was one-way. I 0 0 0 I or I 0 I. You can see some of the ruts carved into the limestone from the chariot wheels!
At the top of Pompeii is the Main Square with the town halls, the Basilica of Judgment, the first courthouse, a supermarket of fruit, veggies and fish. The top is open on the gallery. Part is covered with a canopy to protect the people from the sun and rain.There are columns, arches, open porticoes and marble floors. The frescoes drawn on the walls tells what was sold in that spot of the market. The markets have many pottery vessels that seem too heavy for 1 person to carry up from the bottom of the town. it is assumed they were carried by 2 slaves with a stick passing through the top of the vessel to enable the slaves to handle it. There are several temples here: the Temple of Jupiter, the Temple of Augustus with Corinthian capitals. The Temple of Apollo and Diana has 48 columns, a lava altar to sacrifice animals in the center. The Temple of Venus protected the merchants of the sea. It was covered in gold. The sundial was a white column that cast a shadow on the huge marble floor to tell the time. From the toppled columns you can see the red brick with the 2000 year old cement and then where the Romans came and added marble to the outside of the columns with a sort of cement that doesn't deteriorate like present day cement does.
They have excavated 25 private homes called Domuses. Each Domus has 3 steps up into it. All of the Domuses had slaves that slept on the bottom floor for protection of the owners. The largest Domus in Pompeii had a vestibule in front with an open roof to collect the rain water. They had a bathroom with a toilet that drained to the outside and away from the house. In their dining room was a mosaic floor and the walls had no windows; but there were frescoes painted there of fake windows with pretty scenes.They sat around a stone table with benches on 3 sides only that would hold 3 people each. Across the street from one Domus was a bakery with a huge oven. The houses have stoves with carbonite present. You can see where the people started to build with bricks to reinforce their framing after an earthquake. We saw an old factory because it was 3 stories and had windows on just the 2nd and 3rd floors. Pompeii had a red light district. the rooms were very narrow and the stone walls had frescoes of sexual positions drawn so foreigners could point to their preferences!!!! The price of a girl was the price of a bottle of wine. more comfort means more bottles of wine! Obviously, prostitution was legal! If a street had a phallic symbol drawn on it, that meant only men were allowed in that area. There was a hotel with a stable and small rooms with stone beds. The sign outside said "hospilivm". The serpent symbol for drugs was even used here too.