Herculaneum

The day started with another train journey, this time we were sat opposite an American couple who were on their way to Pompeii. They became so engrossed in conversation that we had to tell them that they had reached their stop but we had a good laugh with them and exchanged tips on bars, restaurants and other tourist spots. Herculaneum is instantly impressive. We had not even bought our tickets and I was already mesmerized by it as it is all there in front of you as soon as you walk through the gates. The site itself is a lot smaller than Pompeii but I found it much more immersive, we opted for the Audio guide this time so we could get around the site easier than we did with Pompeii. The first thing we came to was the beach.
Oddly enough it didn’t look like a beach but this was because the eruption had covered the whole area, the shore line had actually moved when the volcano effectively reclaimed an area of land. Just behind where the beach used to be were a number of out buildings. When the volcano first started to erupt people took refuge in these but they had underestimated its power and the 500 degree heat had instantly killed them. The skeletons are still visible in the buildings as a grizzly reminder of its might. As with Pompeii there were quite a few places that we were unable to get to see as there is a lot of restoration going on but in general the whole site seems better preserved with a greater
wealth of frescos and mosaics remaining in the buildings themselves. In all it took about 2 and a half hours to get around all of the buildings that were available and at the end there are additional audio files relating to the eruption including a transcript of a letter that was sent by a resident shortly before the city was devastated. As we left the site the sheer enormity of the scale of the eruption hit me, I had seen all of the buildings, the ruins and the remains of some of the victims but none of this hit home until I was standing looking down at the old beach, on land that would not have existed if had it not been for the volcano. About 500 yards behind me was the shore line that Vesuvius had formed and on the other side overlooking the whole of Herculaneum is a residential area, again, on land that was formed by a natural disaster. It still amazes me that despite the constant reminder of the areas history, people still choose to live in the shadow of the volcano.