Herculaneum-Pompeii's Less Popular Little Sister

Gates to Ercolano

We got up and had some coffee and some fresh bread from the store for our breakfast at the Sea Cottage. To start off our time in the Naples area, we decided to uncover the ancient past before we discovered the modern Naples and the playground of the famous Amalfi Coast. So before we venture into the Roman ruins of Pompeii, we thought we would warm up by visiting the lesser-known ruins of Herculaneum.  We walked up through Sorrento to the train station and took the Circumvesuviana train to Herculaneum (or Ercolano). 

Ercolano Excavations From The Entry Bridge

Ercolano is a modern thriving city that is a suburb of Naples that has a key link to an ancient past.
To reach Herculaneum ruins, or Ercolano Scavi (scavi means excavation) travel past Pompeii train station towards Naples. Once at Ercolano, exit the train station and walk past all the restaurants that pester you with handing out their flyers and head downhill along the main drag for about 10 minutes.  At the very end of the road, you will see an arch saying "Herculaneum" in Latin; you are at the ruins.  TIP #1: BRING FOOD AND WATER WITH YOU.  Just as if you were hiking, you will be walking a lot so snacks are highly recommended.  More information here on   HERCULANEUM

Mosaics of Hercules

Ercolano was an ancient upper-middle-class port town of about 4,000 residents right on the ocean.  It was a smaller, more upscale neighbourhood than Pompeii.  Today the Bay of Naples is over a mile away so you can see how much the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius affected this area! To get to the ticket station you must walk over a bridge over the ruins from the entrance arch.  Here you can get a fantastic birds-eye view of the ancient city and see how it was laid out. We bought our tickets and learned that there is no charge for youths at archaeological sites.  We used the maps of the ruins provided to us at the ticket booth.  We also brought along a copy of Ricks Steves "SNAPSHOT" book series-Naples & the Amalfi Coast.  There is a great self-guided walking tour of Ercolano outlined here.

Courtyard Of A House

Beautiful Bright Colours!

If we had not been with a crusty teenager in tow, we would have purchased an audio guide or enlisted the services of a tour guide for this site, as it's not as big and overwhelming as Pompeii. Liam was more interested in the Italian soda vending machines and the cats running around in the ruins, than the history of Herculaneum.

Highlights of Herculaneum

Ercolano was slammed in 79 A.D by the same eruption of Mount Vesuvius as Pompeii.  It was buried under 60 feet of ash that turned into a tuffo or tuff stone that preserved the city beautifully.  Much better than Pompeii actually.  The excavations of Ercolano started back in 1748, and are ongoing today.  So many colourful frescoes are still intact; many featuring Hercules; Ercolano's poster boy.  I could imagine how grand this city was, and so beautiful.  One thing that amazed us was the bold use of colour in those times; everything was painted bright orange, red and blue.  You are free to wander around in some of the houses and admire the perfect mosaic tile floors.  Not to be missed is the House of Neptune and Amphitrite with its colourful mosaics and seashell frame.

House of Neptune And Amphitrite

Wandering Through Ancient Homes

Another highlight of Ercolano is the "Sports Complex" where folks went to keep fit.  There is a huge row of columns that mimic the marble columns of ancient Rome.  These columns are made of brick and covered with plaster to make it look like marble.  If you continue on into the sports complex to the side of the cliff, you will notice a simple doorway that looks like a hole.  This is part of the city that excavations have not yet completed.  Inside there is a mysterious bronze statue of the Hydra of Lerna.  The Hydra was a seven-headed monster that Hercules had to battle in His 12 Labours.  There should be a light switch to turn on the lights in the cave, but it was burnt out when we visited so we used our phone flashlights to take a good look at it.  This made it super creepy!
We then carried on down the to the baths complex. This is where you can start to see the destruction of the city.  The wood beams that are well preserved, are burnt and solidified ash still fills in many of the doorways here.  If you follow the stairs down from the baths you will reach what was once Herculaneum's beach.




We all got separated at this point of the visit. There is no cafeteria at the ruins site, but there are picnic tables and vending machines.   We were all starting to get "hangry"  which is what I call low blood sugar grumpy.  Picking up some food on the way down from the train station would have been a great idea.  Liam was getting bored and would wander off looking for cats.  So, figure 1-1 1/2 hours for visiting unless you bring a lunch along with you.

C.S.I Ercolano

We decided that food was a priority for all of us at this point.  Because of our hasty exit, we did not venture down to what was Herculaneum's beach. Here in 1981, archaeologists discovered hundreds and hundreds of skeletons in what was a boat storage area that had been hidden behind a wall of volcanic stone.  Archaeologists had wondered why they never found any human remains when they excavated.
The picture on the right shows Mount Vesuvius with the top third missing and in the bottom of the photo, the arched doorways of the boat storage houses are FULL of human bones.
*shivers*
It seems that the poor residents of the city tried to escape by boat and were overcome by the flow of debris and gases from the volcano travelling towards them at speeds of up to 300km/hr!

Luke was really upset that we missed this, but for Liam and I; it was probably a good thing ...

And now some cute kitties:

Liam The Cat Whisperer

Our next outing was to go up to Mount Vesuvius to see the origin of all this destruction.  We had an hour to kill before our tour left.

There are many different restaurants just metres from the train station. As you walk by you will be vigorously approached by restaurant workers handing out flyers with their menus trying to entice you to eat at their establishments. All have incredible deals on lunch menus; drink and light entree like a salad or pizza for €6! Too good to be true? TIP #2: BEST VALUE LUNCH BY THE TRAIN STATION. We had 45 minutes to have lunch outside at a beautiful sunny table.  The service was fast and the food was VERY good-deal of the day; we totally hit the jackpot!

We needed to fill up to conquer the 25,000-year-old Monte Vesuvio!