After our first two full days in Naples, Lenny has decided to condense two days into one. After initially arriving here in the mid-afternoon and wandering the streets well into the night, we started off fearing a little for our safety. After all, we were warned to be on guard for petty crime. I'm happy to report that the daytime life here is quite vibrant and family friendly, albeit crowded and crammed with vehicles (even on the sidewalks).
Yesterday (May 18th) was a day devoted to touring sites around the city. Naples has a wonderful art, culture and bus pass system, called Artecard, which integrates fares and admissions all into one card. We hit up the National Archeological Museum, spending our whole morning there. Within the museum are many artefacts primarily from 3rd Century BC to 2nd Century AD. There are three galleries of note: a historical account of monies and economic affairs; a wing of many famous marble sculptures mainly curations of Pompei and Herculaneum; and last but not least, the “secret room” housing all things erotic (mostly fertility idols and lewd art).
The afternoon was kicked off by pizza and a tour of the Naples Underground, quite literally the subterranean city. We started off by seeing an ancient Greek theatre, that went into ruin after the fall of the Ancient Greeks, was built back up by the Romans, fell into disrepair again, and was built on top of in medieval times. At modern street level, the anient theatre lay 10 metres below ground, and what would have been the original dressing rooms, became encased by newly constructed buildings and used as private family dwellings until as recently as 10 months ago. We continued to see a detailed tour of Roman and Greek aqueducts which were in use until after WWII, and were even able to squeeze along tight water tunnels to get to some of the existing aquifers and wells. During WWII, the tunnels were used to house approximately 1000 families, as Naples was one of the most frequently bombed cities in Italy (due to its harbour). The coolest thing I found was the pozzolana, or water impermeable covering, coating the waterways was still very much in tact.
Today was our second full day in Napoli. We headed out immediately to see the Ercolano (Herculaneum) archeological site. This site is the best preserved site compared to Pompeii, and I am told more detailed in the remaining architecture. The archeologists found remains of organic matter, including plants, bread loaves, and fabrics which are typically the first items to decay. The overall city was quit impressive, literally laying at the bottom of a crater within the town of Ercolano. Originally, the city was built on the coast, situated between two rivers and the shore. Today, it lays 60 meters below ground level and encased by volcanic rock on all sides. Only about 20% of the site has been excavated, and the remainder is largely under the existing town and will probably not be excavated.
The last stop of the day was really special. Since we've been getting around a lot via my GPS, I decided to look aruond for a geocache in the area of our B&B. I came across a site in the town of Pozzuoli, 10 km west of Napoli. This town is built around a sulfur volcano mesa, called Solfatara (Sulfur Mine). The mesa is approximately 600 meters by 700 meters in area, and is now a dormant volcano. It was once mined for sulfur, but today remains a site of geological study, still venting sulfur gas (H2S – the stuff that gives rotten eggs and natural gas their odour). There are natural ponds of boiling mud and water, rich in various rare earth minerals, that at one time were famous for their healing properties and used by spas. The age of Solfatara is not precisely known, but it is assumed that the crater was created during the activity phase from 36,000 to 38,000 years ago. The most recent large volcanic activity dating back to 4000 years ago. The 12th Century AD, phreatic eruptions are known. The volcanic activity of Campi Flegrei ends in 1538 with the outbreak and the formation of Monte Nuovo. The eruption was preceded by an elevation of the area by several meters during the previous decades. Since the 1970s there were several periods of seismic activity associated with uplift and subsidence of the area by up to 200 cm. During the activity period from 1982 to 1984 there was an elevation of two meters in the range of Solfatara, due to the formation of a small magma chamber and the associated heat input at the base of the aquifer. The greatest amount of uplift there was in the area of Pozzuoli.
Lastly, this volcano is famous for sex, or rather, the effect the sulfur gas has on impotency. In antiquity, this spring was said to cure infertility, and it took Italian researchers and now a Nobel prize winner to realize the connection between sulfur gas and impotence, and ultimately inventing Viagra. Isn't science fun?
On that note, it's late, and we're off to Pompei in the morning.
Ci vediamo!
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