Day 7: Herculaneum

Herculaneum: below the modern day sea level.

Today we went to Herculaneum! We had to get up at 6 in the morning in order to be on the bus by 7:30.  Ashley's alarm didn't go off so I had to go upstairs and wake her and her roommate so they wouldn't miss the bus. We were stuck with toast with butter again.  The bus ride was supposed to be two hours.  We got to Herculaneum at about 11am.  As we approached we could see THE Mount Vesuvius!  Herculaneum was another city in addition to Pompeii that got destroyed by the eruption in 79 A.D.  While Pompeii was destroyed by the deadly gases and lava from the volcano, Herculaneum was destroyed by boiling mud. The city consisted of mainly wealthy people.  Only 25% of it has been excavated because modern Naples has been built on top of it.

By the time we got off the bus, we were already pretty hungry having only eaten toast once again.  Ashley and I will have a lot to say if they allow us to give feedback concerning the quality and hospitality of the Loyola Rome Center.  While there are many great things about it, there are also many negatives which you will continue to read throughout the following blogs.  When we got off the bus we were given a radio with an ear piece and told to follow a tour guide.  The town of Herculaneum is below sea level to the the volcanic eruption covering everything so we descended down into the ruins.

A tablet that survived the eruption

The ruins were pretty cool.  There was a lot that survived the eruption.  The city was also bigger down below than what it seemed from overlooking it.  A lot of the architecture survived including some murals and mosaics that still retained their colors. Most of the buildings were still intact and we got to explore throughout the city with the tour guide many houses, diners, a gym and a swimming pool. 

The boat houses where the original sea level used to be

It was a very fun and educational experience.  It was pretty cool to see the way Italians lived in the first century.  I actually wouldn't have minded living there myself.  We spent about two hours there.  We were quite hungry when we got back on the bus, as was everyone else.  We all thought we were going straight to the restaurant but apparently the Student Life Assistants had other plans.  We were forced to go on a bus tour around Naples with a tour guide.  Ashley and I both fell asleep and everyone else who we talked to also did because we were all tired and hungry.  From the little that I was awake I gathered that Naples has a horrific trash problem and has to ship there trash out to other areas to be land-filled.  The area was pretty trashy and being dragged through the city made me dislike it even more.  Another cool fact that I heard was that Naples was where pizza was invented.  Much to everyone's happiness our bus stopped on the side of the road overlooking the Mediterranean Sea right in front of a pizza restaurant.  The pizza place was really cool but unfortunately we were an hour and half late for our reservation.  Furthermore it took another hour to cook the pizzas. But it was worth it when they finally came out.  The pizzas were all individual cheese and they were bigger than our faces! We finally ate at 3:30 and it was delicious!!

We were extremely tired and full when we finished lunch.  We got back on the bus and continued our tour around Naples.  The bus drove to the top of the city and we all got out and took photos.

Naples

Mount Vesuvius is to the right

When we got back on we finally were on our way back home, which took FOREVER.  It was longer than four hours because by the time we got home it was dark outside.  By this time Ashley and I were hungry again and hunted around for food.  We found out to our surprise that not a single source of food could be located in the Rome Center because everything was closed even though it wasn't that late.  The unfortunate thing about our neighborhood is that it technically is not in Rome and there are few restaurants nearby.  The closest two eateries consist of pizza.  We were both pizza-ed out so we went to look for somewhere else.  We ended up finding a Chinese restaurant called Ni-Hao.  It WAS THE BEST AND MOST DELICIOUS CHINESE FOOD I HAVE EVER HAD! And everyone knows I'm not a big fan of Chinese.  I got the chicken fried rice and it was sooooo good! IT tasted nothing and looked nothing like the way it is made in America.  After eating we went home and went to bed.