When we chose Italy as the destination for our honeymoon, I KNEW I wanted to visit Pompeii. This was the ONE thing I insisted upon doing on this trip, and we are SO glad we did! This was our favorite part of the whole vacation!
I first learned about the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD when I took Latin classes in middle school. I was (morbidly) fascinated by how terrifying that experience must have been; the casts made of the bodies that remained in the ash really showed the humanity at that scary moment. More than 1,500 lives were lost that day. The eruption is said to have had the power of 33 atomic bombs, and people would have died from the heat of the ash, breathing in the ash, or being weighted down by the ash on top of them. When archeologists found coal in stoves and the seeds of fall fruit, as well as some writing listing dates (and letters from Pliny the Younger, who witnessed the eruption from afar), we can rather confidently say that the eruption happened on October 24. It is incredible how we can pin-point even the exact day!
This is a cast of someone covering their face so they wouldn't breathe in the ash or get it in their eyes.
But other than seeing the casts in person, I wasn't really sure what else to expect from Pompeii. But after a long bus ride in the rain, the skies cleared for our tour of the ancient city. Pompeii is the second largest archeological site, made up of more than 160 acres (and a third of the city still has yet to be excavated!). The ruins were first discovered in the late 1700's (after Herculaneum, another city destroyed by the eruption, was found); throughout the years of excavations, some things were lost (for example, the bones left of people were mostly removed as trash), but there is still A LOT left that remains, and in amazing condition at that!
The main square area
The city was first built in the seventh century BC by Greeks, Etruscans, and native peoples in the area. It only became a Roman city in the third century BC. In the main square, or forum, there was a temple of Jupiter, as well as a large marketplace and administrative offices. The entire area had a travertine floor before the eruption; now we were walking on the ash that is still there today.
This would have been a fish market.
My favorite part of Pompeii were the bath houses. They are in AMAZING condition! The mosaic floor is still intact, and you can still see decorations along the walls, mostly sea-inspired. There were four rooms in total, and it sounds like the Korean baths I've been to (I miss Spa World!). There was the entry room or waiting room where guests could leave their clothes, a warm room where there was oil for washing and massaging, a hot room which was heated by the steam of the hot water for the spa, and a cold room to finish the experience (they believed in cryotherapy even back then!).
There were many little statues along the walls in the bathhouse, and all of them were in great condition!
It was awesome to be standing in a spa that is thousands of years old and survived a volcanic eruption!
After going to the baths, the people may have stopped by a bar for a drink or snacks. We saw countertops like these throughout the tour, so the people of Pompeii liked eating out as much as we do now!
And we all know that even back then there was great engineering (as I said in an earlier post, we were drinking water from the ancient aqueducts!). In Pompeii, that same water flowed freely in the streets to wash away debris, horse waste, etc. So the sidewalks were elevated, and instead of flat crosswalks, there were three large stepping stones that people would use to walk across the road. I was so excited to walk on the same steps from so long ago. And why were there three stones? So the wheels are carts could still go through! And along the sidewalks at the thresholds of doors, if there is a groove at the threshold, that means it was a public place, like a store, which would have used sliding doors.
These were the fountains from which the water would flow into the street. The streets didn't have names, so you would use the decorations of the fountains as your markers ("cow head" fountain, etc.).
This was a mill stone in a bakery; a rod would go through the square hole, and two animals attached to the rod would walk in circles to spin the top rock and grind the grain in between the two stones. Thirty-four bakeries have been found in Pompeii!
The technology for pizza ovens has not changed much!
We also walked inside a very wealthy person's home. Of course the size showed how rich the person was, but so did details like the mosaic floors and frescos on the walls. In the atrium, rain would fall through the skylight into a basin, and that water would then go into a well. That would be the household's main source of water before the aqueduct was built. There would also be a garden at the center of the home which would help cool everything down.
One of the most entertaining parts of the tour was visiting a "lupanare," or brothel (coming from the word "lupa," meaning "she-wolf"). It was built along a curve in the road so it would be harder to see clients coming in and out. This is the only brothel that they have found in Pompeii, but sometimes prostitutes would work in the upstairs of snack bars. And while most people slept on wooden beds, the beds in the brothel were made of stone (with a mattress on top, of course); the stone was much stronger to withstand, erm...use. You can still see frescos painted on the walls that feature sex acts; the prostitutes and their clients (many of whom were sailors coming into port) may not have spoken the same language, so the clients could simply point to what they wanted, like a sexy Denny's menu. On the outside of the building, there was a phallic-looking stone pointing out of the wall, which was supposed to protect the building and those in it. That is why all over Sorrento you can find souvenirs of chili peppers or horns, like necklaces and ornaments, that are the modern-day interpretation (Note that the protective powers will not work if you buy the item for yourself! You can only give it as a gift, and then you can receive one as a present, too.).
Which position is your favorite? haha
Our tour only lasted two hours, but we were told that it would take two weeks of exploring to see everything. In the late 1800's, excavators divided the city into neighborhoods and labeled the areas by name as well as block number so they could create a map of the city. The streets were like a maze; I certainly would have gotten lost if I had not been with a tour guide. But I feel like we could have been there all day and never get bored. There is so much to see, and it's still unbelievable that this entire city was covered in ten meters of ash for nearly two thousand years, preserved in such an amazing way.
Next post: Hiking Mt. Vesuvius, the same volcano that destroyed Pompeii!
I must interrupt my Italian honeymoon posts to tell you about the Cyndi Lauper concert I went to last night at Amalie Arena! I love 80's pop music, and she's right up there with Madonna in my mind. I missed out on seeing Janet Jackson this summer, so I was NOT going to make the same mistake twice!
I ended up going to the show by myself, but I still had a fun time. I didn't dress up, but if I had gone with a friend, you can bet I would have worn fishnet and leg warmers!
The first opener was Emily Estefan, Gloria Estefan's daughter. I didn't even know she had a famous daughter (or at least famous enough to perform before Cyndi!). I thought it was pretty cool that she played the drums while standing and singing. And she plays the guitar, too! She had about ten other people on stage with her, like more drummers and horn players, so there was a jazzy vibe for sure. She only performed a few songs, so here are some of them:
Girl Power Medley (Not the best medley I've heard; not sure how you mess that up! I especially don't like that she is imitating Billie Holiday rather than reimagining her.)
Once she was done, there was a good half hour between sets, so I actually started writing this post while I waited. And then it was time for the main act!
The first thing I noticed about Cyndi is that she seems like such a real, down-to-earth person. She's like the wild, feminist great aunt we all wished we had. I enjoyed hearing her tell stories and talk about supporting women's rights. I liked that part as much as I did actually listening to the music! She talked about working on Broadway; she has written the music and lyrics for the new Working Girl musical that is coming out soon, so she said she had to fit in her farewell tour now before she was too busy with that. I didn't know she wrote a lot of her own songs, too; such talent. She played the guitar (and the recorder?) during the show, mentioned working with Elvis' piano player, Tony Brown, and undressed down to her slip and took off her wig! We saw and heard it all!
Who Let in the Rain? (She said she wrote this song when she was cleaning a house and the skylight was open. This was a time in her life around a break-up, so the song is about that.)
During one of her costume changes, the band came to center stage and played instruments like the bongos, maracas, the tambourine, etc. It was a fun music break, and Cyndi used it to introduce the band members. Her bass player has been with her since the 80's! They all sang Iko Iko together:
She still wore the metal bib, but this time she was dressed up as... Big Bird?
During one of the songs, there was a large sheet flying over a platform that had air coming out of it, so it was like the sheet was floating and dancing to the music. Very unique!
Santa was in the sound booth!
I left before the encore (it was getting late and I was so tired), but I assume she performed these two songs, her biggest hits without a doubt!
I'm sorry I missed these two songs, but I was falling asleep in my seat, and I knew I had an hour-long drive ahead of me to get back home. When I lived in DC, I could easily take the metro home (and even sleep on the train for a little bit), and now I no longer have that luxury. I think I'm becoming one of those people who says, "I can't; that's a school night." What a bummer! While I enjoyed the show, I am not sure it was worth driving two hours in rush hour to get there and then take the slog back home late at night in the dark. Womp womp!
Unfortunately it rained when we were in Sorrento, so that really put a damper on things (plus, the train ride there from Naples was terrible; more on that in another post). But of course when life gives you lemons, make limoncello!
Limoncello was EVERYWHERE. We also enjoyed it in Rome, but Sorrento is all about lemon everything. Not only were there orchards everywhere and several shops downtown to try limoncello (which was first invented by the monks of Benedict in the 16th or 17th century), but there were lemon souvenirs anywhere you looked: tea towels, ornaments, ceramics, T-shirts, scarves (I bought one)... If you wanted something lemon, they had it.
This was a pretty mosaic near some of the lemon trees we saw.
Traditional limoncello is made with three kinds of lemons: Capri lemons are smaller and more acidic, while the lemons from Sorrento and Amalfi are much larger and taste sweeter. Since it's the rind that is used to make limoncello, not the juice, all the lemons are grown organically so there are no pesticides on the peel.
We mostly hunkered down inside due to the rain. We made sure to visit the Museo Correale, (which was celebrating its 100th anniversary), and to kill time we actually walked through most of it twice (you always notice something new the second time around!). There was a whole exhibit on still life paintings, and I enjoyed reading about how these pieces (also called "silent life") revolutionized art: artists no longer had to paint only people or religious figures, but instead could paint anything, even as banal as fruit, to show their artful skills.
One of my favorite pieces at the Museo Correale was an old board game which was used for gambling (similar to roulette). The game was eventually banned!
We did end up taking a walking tour when things had mostly cleared up. We learned a lot about Sorrento, and I'm always one for soaking up the knowledge! Sorrento was a Greek colony 2,500 years ago before becoming a Roman colony (the emperors would take their holidays on the coast). It used to be just two kilometers long, but now it's seven kilometers long. Geographically there are two valleys in the historical center of the town, which were created after a huge volcanic eruption 35,000 years ago; throughout Sorrento you can see that the walls, buildings, etc. are made of a particular gray stone that was created during that explosion.
We stopped inside a church to see some beautiful wood inlay artwork. Some of the pieces use 20 kinds of wood and can take months to create by hand. All of the pieces fit together like a jigsaw puzzle (a jig saw is used to cut the wood!).
This mill inside one of the valleys in Sorrento was built in the 15th century, but in the late 1800's, the main square and street were created, filling up some of the valley. This made the area by the mill too humid, so people no longer lived or worked there.
Down by the water we stood outside a 17th century church for Santa Anna (protector of women and the city's port), where they still hold services every day twice a day. The bells were loud!
We saw the Cloister of San Francisco, which is the oldest building in Sorrento. It is a cloister, church, and monastery all in one. Originally a Roman pagan temple had been in its place, and one of those original pillars still exists today.
While there were those museums and churches, I would say most of Sorrento is just shops and restaurants. And while it is fun to walk around and peek in at new shoes or buy some gelato, I didn't travel halfway across the world to go shopping and eat; I can do that at home! So I think one day in Sorrento is plenty of time to visit if you are planning to go to the Amalfi Coast. There are several cute towns along the water, so if we were to go back, I think we would try Positano instead.
We saw the gardens of the Palazzo Pitti from afar.
It rained our last full day in Florence, so we figured it was the perfect time to stay indoors and visit a museum. We had walked past the Palazzo Pitti when we walked across the Ponte Vecchio, so we bought tickets so we could explore what was inside. We didn't pay to get access to the gardens, but with the poor weather, we figured that was okay. This was a palace where the Medici family lived when they ruled Tuscany, and after that other powerful families stayed there, too. Now it is an art museum.
This is the inside atrium.
There is a grand ballroom that has been renovated to have carpet. Why?!
This was another place that had SO much artwork that you didn't know where to look!
There were several marble tabletops that had the most beautiful colors!
There were many painted ceilings that told stories of the Roman gods. I loved learning about Roman mythology in middle school, and it was fun pointing out the gods, goddesses, and heroes I recognized. This is Mount Olympus, home of the gods.
Some of the columns, angles, and arches on the walls and ceilings were not real, just painted to look 3D.
Everything was just SO ornate and over-the-top beautiful!
I wonder if royalty ever used these plates or if they were always just for show.
Within the palace, there is also the Museum of Fashion and Costume. The exhibit takes you along women's fashion throughout the decades. I'd say the main thing that changes are hemlines and waistlines. I was mostly inspired by all the different fabrics. So pretty!
If only we had more opportunities today to get dressed up like that! At least I'm planning a gala this year for work; that will give me a chance to wear a long, fancy dress!
My next post will be about our time in Sorrento. Check it out soon!
We had a lot of fun food experiences in Florence. Our travel agent booked us a pasta making class with Towns of Italy Cooking School, a walking food tour with Eating Europe, and a wine tasting and dinner experience that was also with Towns of Italy. All of them were really fun, and I'd highly recommend them. And while we didn't take a pizza making class, I bet that would have been fun, too!
Pasta Making Class
While we had a little bit of a tricky time finding the place, once we saw the line of people waiting on the sidewalk, that was a hint we were getting close. There were probably about 20 people in our group, and we all sat at a long table wearing aprons to prepare for class.
The teacher, Tomas, was AWESOME. He was the best part of the experience! He was knowledgeable, happy to answer questions, and so funny. That evening he taught us how to make two kinds of pasta, two sauces, and chocolate gelato; he also taught us the difference between "pecorino" and "pecorina" (look it up).
The tagliatelle was the easier pasta to make, since we were just making long strips; for the ravioli, there were more steps, and it was hard to know how much ricotta to use to fill each one. And neither Steve nor I like pesto, but the way we made it in class, it was delicious! It was less oily, and maybe didn't have as many pine nuts. It just seemed so light and fresh. I doubt we will make our own actual pasta, but the sauce we might do. We later watched a video on how to pick the best pasta in the store; good tips!
And since we don't have an ice cream maker at home, we probably won't be making our own gelato, either (and there are so many ice cream and Italian ice places near us in Florida). But it was very yummy! We learned that the best gelato places cover the gelato (don't be fooled by the HUGE piles you see to entice you to come in; it's all air!), only offer maybe a dozen flavors, and make unique flavors, too.
Martina was our walking food tour guide, and she was so sweet. Loved her!
Walking Food Tour
The day unfortunately did not start off great because 1. it was raining and 2. we were given two different meeting locations for our outing and we didn't know which was right. Eventually we did find the right place, but we clearly were the last ones there and were a little late. But once the tour was underway, we had a great time! Note that this was a Tuscan food tour, so we did not eat pizza, risotto, cannoli, pasta carbonara, etc., all of which came from somewhere else in Italy.
The hanging meat looks gray because it is aged with salt and pepper to preserve it. Sometimes the meat will also be aged with fennel to cover the funky meat smell. And remember: it's salame, not salami!
We walked over to the Mercato Centrale to visit several of the food stands inside. The downstairs is the original market that is only open until about 3pm each day, while the upstairs is more like a food court with restaurants that stays open all night, so we stayed downstairs for this part (we had actually explored the upstairs on our own a previous day anyway). We tried some charcuterie, and since I don't eat meat, I got more cheese to taste, which I thought was a better deal anyway; we loved the pear pecorino cheese, and even though I don't normally like blue cheese, the one we tried was really good.
Steve was brave and tried tripe at Bambi while I had warm carrots on bread (it sounds weird, but it was yummy!); the seasoned tomatoes were also delicious. At another stand we tried several olive oils flavored with white and black truffle (and they had a truffle gin, too, but we couldn't try it). From the market we all got vegetarian cannelloni for lunch, and we took it over to the Zanobini, a wine shop that had a table in the back; we ate there and enjoyed some Chianti classico wine (look for the black rooster!). Chianti is made with san giovese grapes, which are everywhere in this area, and is aged for at least one year. Chianti is not only the name of the wine but also of the region, kind of like Napa Valley.
At Bambi I didn't try the meatballs (which were filled with potato), but the bread with carrots and tomatoes were good!
After lunch we went to a little coffee shop that had a whole room in the back; I'm not even sure how you would have known it was there! We enjoyed coffee with true almond milk from southern Italy (it's more syrupy and sweeter than what we have here in the States), and it was delicious! We also tried two kinds of ammazzacaffè, or "coffee killer," which is an alcoholic shot that acts as a digestive after you drink coffee. I liked it, but Steve not so much, so I finished his, too.
For dessert we had biscotti (which translates as "cookie" in Italian), but they call them cantucci there because that means "wedge." We dipped the cookies into sweet wine; the wine was sweet not because of added sugars, but because the grapes were harvested later in the season, which means sweeter grapes. And of course we had to have some gelato! We went to the only shop where I saw peanut gelato, and since I love peanut butter, I was in heaven. Gelato was actually invented in Florence during the Medici era, and it's been popular ever since!
Winery Tour and Tasting
The Diadema winery is beautiful!
Of course Tuscany (the area that Florence is in) is known for its wine, and we would have loved to explore more wineries and vineyards. But we didn't have a car, and most of those places are pretty far from the city. But the tasting we did at the Diadema winery was only about a half hour away, so that was perfect. We took a bus with three other couples; one pair were young newlyweds from Australia, and the other two couples were from Florida, and they were ready to PARTY. They even got beers to go from a nearby bar so they could take the drinks on the bus!
Gratzia was both our tour guide and bus driver, and she was awesome! I like to think she had fun with our wild group 😜
We took the winding, sometimes scarily narrow road out to the country town of Impruneta, driving past many olive orchards (there are four different kinds of olives in the area) and vineyards. The Diadema winery is a small family winery (you can also stay there overnight), and we had the chance to see the big tanks and barrels where the wines are aged (and saw the olive press for olive oil, too). They also had huge terracotta jugs that aged red wine made from san giovese grapes; the terracotta actually absorbs some of the liquid, so the jug has to keep getting topped off, and since there is no wood to change the flavor, this wine is very high in tannins (so it's very dry). That wine shouldn't be left in the bottle for more than 2-3 years (Italian wine is low in sulfites, which are a natural preservative, so it can't be aged as long anyway.). We had the chance to try some of that wine as well as a few others, including a rosé, and tried two of their olive oils, too (older, more mature olive oil has a stronger, spicier taste).
After the Diadema tasting, then we got to have another tasting experience. We tried three different red wines and had to guess what they were based on smell, taste, body, and finish. In the end, they were merlot, cabernet sauvignon, and san giovese; I only got the last one right because it has such a distinct taste. THEN we got to mix the three together in our chosen proportions to make our very own wine. Steve did our mixture, and it was really good! We called it "Stella di Magnifico"after his dog, and we drank it over the next two nights to enjoy with Italian bread and cheese. Yum!
Finally, when we were done tasting, we were served a lovely dinner. We were seated in the sunroom, but midway through the meal, the rain was coming down so hard that it actually started coming in through the window! So we quickly rushed to a different area of the restaurant and continued eating. Over the course of the meal we enjoyed: a salad with carrots; potato soup; eggplant with a floral cheese; seafood pasta with a white sauce (Steve's favorite); and a spiced gelato over chocolate soufflé (I couldn't put my finger on the spice, but it was very unique! And who doesn't like chocolate soufflé?). Our group was the last one in the restaurant, so we shut the place down. Then we took the short ride back to the city. Steve and I went straight to our hotel, but I am sure those two Florida couples went out to drink even more! What an adventure!
My next post will be all about the Palazzo Pitti, a Medici palace that is now an art museum!
