Veni, vidi, Pompeii!

Oliver's review of his visit to the historic Bay of Naples, in October.

 

Frozen in time.

Last half-term I had a holiday to the Amalfi coast, or the bay of Naples where Pompeii and Herculaneum is. On the first day I visited the very famous Pompeii and was amazed at the quality and quantity of what remained. I thought that, compared to British archaeology was very impressive. The highlight of Pompeii was the incredible bathhouse which was brilliant to see how a bathhouse really looked.

Pompeiian street with Mt. Vesuvius in the background.

On the second day we went to the National Museum of Archaeology in Naples. Naples was not a very nice place to say the least ! When we finnaly got to the museum I was a little disappointed. Many of the things I wanted to see, I could not because the Italian way of keeping a museum is very different to a British way. If they want to they just close off a gallery which is really annoying when you have gone there to see specific things.



Naples Museum



But on the third day was the highlight, when we went to Herculaneum. I thought that Herculaneum was alot better than Pompeii because the level of preservation was so much better. The wood was still all there. A olive press, rope and a pair of partition doors still remained from 2000 years ago. It was not as big as Pompeii because they have only excavated less than a quarter of the town.

I really enjoyed my holiday to Pompeii and would suggest it to anyone who wanted to go, but I would not suggest the National Museum of Naples because of the city and the Italian atitude to keeping a museum.

Oliver