Jan and Bo's Tales From The Mediterranean: November 2017

We are nearing the end of our journey and will be flying out of Rome’s Fiumicino Airport to London. On our drive from Sorrento to Fiumicino, we visited the impressive Herculaneum ruins in Ercolano. (Ercolano, like much of Napoli, is not a particularly inviting place). Herculaneum was a village, while Pompeii was a large city. In comparison, it was much more relatable than the overwhelming size of Pompeii. The excavated ruins are better preserved here. While Pompeii was covered in heavy ash, causing roofs to collapse, Herculaneum was hit by pyroclastic flows that preserved some of the organic material. Apparently 75% of Herculaneum is still buried.

Rather than flying out of Fiumicino the same day as our arrival, our plans included a two night stay so that we could visit Ostia Antica (Ancient Ostia), the ruins of the ancient harbor city of Rome. Ostia was a working seaport city. Chiefly it was Rome’s largest port, but it, also, had salt flats. The city did a tremendous business in salt which was the only preservative for meats. It was a military fort, as well. As Rome gained control of the entire Mediterranean, Ostia’s importance wained. Unlike Pompeii and Herculaneum, Ostia Antica’s decline was heightened when Rome fell and the Tiber river changed course. Silting, by the river, caused the city to be two miles from the sea. Ostia was literally abandoned and a new port dug out further down the river. This place is huge! Amazing!! We just managed to walk the length of it and get back to the car before a violent thunderstorm started.

So if the volcanoes don’t get you, the rivers just might. Or a lightning strike. Or rising sea levels or whatever. All good things must end-even this blog! We think that we are done with ruins for awhile! Now we are going to enjoy a quiet evening in our hotel room with a nice bottle of Brunello di Montalcino.

Alla vita Italia! To Italian life! La dolce vita!!

Herculaneum With Vesuvius In The Background

Herculaneum Frescoes

Herculaneum Mosaic

More Herculaneum

Ostia Antica

Well we made the drive down from Civitavecchia and are comfortably settled into our latest agriturismo, Torre Cangiani. We had wonderful views of Corsica as well as the blue, blue Mare Tirreno (Tyrrhenian Sea) and Bay of Napoli. The drive was uneventful other than dealing with asphyxiation through the nearly 10 kilometers of Sorrentine Peninsula tunnels and dealing with the crazy death-defying scooterists in Sorrento. Give me the autostrada any day. I think that I am ready to drive most anywhere now.

Our agriturismo is located four kilometers west of Sorrento and has absolutely outstanding views of Capri, Ischia, Vesuvius, and all of the rest of the Bay of Napoli. The tower (Torre) was built in the 16th century to ward off Turkish pirates. The family has been here for hundreds of years. There are lovely ancient buildings all around the tower and on the property. This farm produces olive oil made from the ancient trees that surround the agriturismo, on the terraced hillsides, lemons-from which they make limoncello for personal consumption-and also raises bees for honey production. Each day for breakfast, we’ve had the most delicious yogurt, topped with their own honey. Simply scrumptious!

Wednesday we made a trip to see Pompeii. Probably not the best choice of days since November 1st is All Saints Day. It seems that everyone was on holiday making for insanely crowded roads getting there. (After all, how could we forget that this is a Roman Catholic country and consequently All Saints Day is very important in Italy?)

What an incredible place the Pompeii ruins are! I’ve been wanting to see this first hand since our first visit to Italy and we’ve finally made it! It is obvious that it was once a vibrant, beautiful city. You can’t walk through the ruins without feeling the fragility of life and civilization. That feeling of impermanence persists through much of our travels in Italy. After all, where is the Roman Empire?

We spent all of Thursday exploring and overspending in Sorrento. The day started with us on one of those goofy looking city street tourist train rides to get an overview of the city. Afterwords we took an ascensore (aka lift or elevator) down to the port to better see the old town walls and the ferries to Capri. Then the real spending began. Since Jan decided that she couldn’t go home without the beautiful Milano scarf that had her name on it, I decided that I couldn’t go home without the Firenze leather jacket that had my name on it. After realizing that we hadn’t yet reached our credit limit, we then had dinner at Il Buco, a Michelin starred

restaurant. Found in the wine cellar of a Benedictine Monastery, it was a feast for all the senses! As you would expect, the food was incredible, the wine selection overwhelming, the service impeccable!! Reading the reviews, I saw mention of a perfect “dirty” martini. Ordered one and yes, it was perfetto! A marvelous way to end the day!

Friday was our day to explore the Amalfi Coast. We first set out for Positano, passing through numerous small villages on the peninsula. The views from the top of the peninsula were tremendous! We could see into the Bay of Salerno at the same time that we could see into the Bay of Naples! It always amazes to look up at the tiny towns built clinging to the nearly shear bluffs. How did they do that? I read that there has not been a building permit issued in Positano for 25 years. That is certainly believable! Rick Steves cautions about driving the Amalfi Coast and being stuck in heavy traffic, finding no parking, and being terrified of the dangerous road. Perhaps since our drive was in November, there really were not any delays. The lack of parking was an issue, however. We found a few areas to stop for photo opportunities. We, also, found a restaurant- with attached parking lot-where we had lunch. The lunch was incredible! I ordered grilled squid, expecting something similar to the Calamari from home, but I got a whole grilled squid instead. Tasted so smokey! The road did not seem that terrifying to us, perhaps since we had already survived Sorrento, Napoli and other Italian roads. Actually it was more like Big Sur-wish we had the MG

View of Capri from our agriturismo