Excursion Herculaneum and Pompeii

Pompeii is the most famous and visited archaeological site in the world, was visited in 2008 by over 2,000,000 people. Pick up directly from your hotel or meeting point indicated, where, it is through the municipalities forming part of the Sorrento peninsula and continue to State Road 145 "Sorrento", where you can admire from the Sorrento peninsula in all its glory ! After a journey of about 30 minutes to get to Pompeii. Pompeii was founded around the eighth century BC by Osci who settled, divided into 5 villages at the southern foot of Mount Vesuvius not far from the river Sarno then navigable. The number five, in Oscan, probably derives the name of the town. The first settlements date back to the Iron Age, or the IX - VII century BC C., when there was the culture of "graves". Pompeii at that time was a very important commercial center, so that went into the expansionist designs of the Greeks and the Etruscans before, the Samnites later. The Samnites has the merit of having enlarged the walls of the town, has a large urban development. Later, as happened in the Campania region, was conquered by the Romans, who managed to enter the last quarter of the third century BC fully into the economic circuit Roman This could occur because the Mediterranean was under the complete control of Rome and goods move freely so that, as Pompei, a large producer of wine and oil, was able to export freely to the Provence and the Spain. At this time there was a strong push architecture: the Forum were reconstructed triangular and rectangular and the Forum were born important buildings like the Temple of Jupiter, the Basilica and the House of the Faun, which is the size of a Hellenistic palace. In the same period has also built the Temple of Isis is a clear evidence of trade with the East of Pompeii. Under the dominion of Rome Pompeii municipium and then became first colony "Venus Cornelia Pompeianorum" because it ruled by dictator Publius Cornelius Sulla who captured it in 89 BC and gave the names just mentioned: Cornelia, named after Cornelius Sulla and Venera because Venus was particularly adored by the dictator. During this period the city experienced a deep humiliation because many lands were confiscated to be sold to veterans. In addition, the city is Romanized, so that both sides of the institutional architecture either side were very similar to Rome. Pompeii became the residence of Homes "of the Roman nobility and, in imperial times, many families support the policy of Augustus, moved here and ordered the construction of buildings like the Temple of Fortuna Augusta and the building of Eumachia. Under Nero the Campania region suffered heavy damage due to an earthquake which occurred in 62 or 63 AD. The Roman Senate immediately ordered the reconstruction, but all was in vain, since August 24 of 79 d. C., when the works were still underway to rebuild the town, a disastrous eruption of Vesuvius wiped out completely with it, Herculaneum and Pompeii, Stabia and Oplonti. There was almost no escape for anyone and the thriving Pompeii was only a cloak lava often up to three meters and cement the inhabitants and destroyed all manner of life. From this great tragedy was born the famous archeological excavations of Pompeii, where d has been brought to light the ancient Roman city destroyed tragically after one of the eruptions of the nearby volcano Vesuvius in the year 79. For centuries, Pompeii no one knew anything, he had lost the location. The first signs of the recoveries occurred in 1628: during some works in the valley of the Sarno, the ruins emerged that aroused scientists' interest. But only a century after it began in Herculaneum, and about ten years later in Pompeii, the excavations regularly encouraged by Charles III of Bourbon, King of the Two Sicilies. In Pompeii the work started around 1748, in the area of Civita, which was then believed to be Stabia, alternating with breaks due to other discoveries at Herculaneum, and continued mostly without a definite plan and without a precise method, performed by prisoners at chain and by boys at an early age. The documentation was limited to graphical representation of the objects excavated, with no concern for the data of excavation. The research was aimed only at finding material for museums or to decorate the royal palaces, while the buildings excavated, once stripped of artworks, were left without any care to the weather. With the outbreak of revolution in France also started the first revolutions in Naples and the activity of the excavations, and only decreased significantly with first Joseph Bonaparte and Joachim Murat, later resumed on a larger scale and more labor-intensive. They tried to identify the perimeter of the entire city to know the extension, and interest shifted from the mere recovery of precious objects to the knowledge of architecture and urbanism. With the birth of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861, the Savoy showed early not to underestimate the prestige arising from the discovery of Pompeii. By the will of the new king systematic excavations were begun: the direction of Giuseppe Fiorelli was appointed professor of archeology at the University of Naples from 1860 to 1863, then Director General of Antiquities and Fine Arts of the Kingdom of Italy, which divided the city into regions Islands and numbering all the houses, the system still in use today. The Fiorelli adopted a scientific method, with log-excavation, surveying, indexing of objects, and employs more than five hundred workers in the work. To him we owe the invention of the method of filling with plaster the gaps left by the victims in bank ash hardened, providing a kind of matrix that produces the imprints of the bodies caught in the moment of death, with dramatic and intensity. The system to remove all objects from the excavation was abandoned: the paintings and mosaics were mostly left in place, the houses were covered with carved roofs which copied the layout and provide a hedge against early deterioration. The years that followed were the best: widen the search to the east and toward the Porta di Nola, are brought to light many houses, of which consolidate the structures and restoring the paintings on the site. From 1924 to 1961 the direction of research is carried out by Amedeo Maiuri whose figure is linked to the deepening of the historic city, and he, for one, wants to know the earlier stages of the city, on further exploring the oldest strata in the most vital such as the Forum, temples, walls. The last thirty years has been alternate to a modest exploration activities for the conservation and preservation, of primary importance to this unique place in the world. The excavation work is overshadowed today against the need to restore and protect this world-famous site is the best example of a Roman city in the world. The visitor will realize that Pompeii offers a variety of issues that will need to select the guide to give an idea as complete as possible of the classical Roman city. In fact you can admire all the structures typical of the Roman world as the main square or forum, baths, theaters, the neighborhood of prostitution (brothel), the roads that intersect the second axis east-west and south-north, mansions with remains of frescoes from Roman times, the attraction of spectacular plaster casts containing bones of Pompeii died during the disaster, numerous shops that lined the streets, the remains of electoral registration. The excavations of Pompeii, Herculaneum and with those of Oplontis are given in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Site. Thanks to the scientists, the historians, archaeologists, restorers and all those people who are passionate about the tragedy of Pompeii did not destroy the city, there has only stopped the time to return from the appearance it had at that particular day 79. After the visit of the excavations free time for lunch and proceed for the visit of the excavations of Herculaneum. Immeasurable treasure trove of art and history, the excavations of Herculaneum give us an ancient and beautiful city founded by the Greeks on the shores of the sea, then falling under the rule of th Sanniti, and finally, in the Roman town of Herculaneum. Already seriously damaged by the earthquake in 62 AD, the city was later destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius (79 AD), which covered it with substantial mass of mud, ash and other materials, penetrating into every opening, solidifying into a hard, compact layer of 15-20 meters. The eruption of Vesuvius happened in two phases: the first was a total duration of 12 hours, with the fall of white and gray pumice and the second period of seven hours consisting of hot clouds of ash. It was this second phase, which affected Herculaneum. The city has come down to us "frozen" by the eruption of 79 AD which allowed the conservation of wooden structures and small objects, better, than has been conserved in Pompeii. Access to the excavations is through an avenue that is currently in the final section, along the former Marine. Recently the mystery of why no bodies were found in that area has now been solved, except for a small number of people, who were in their homes, the majority took refuge in the arches along the marina, where, waiting for salvation from the sea instead they were covered by the lava coming from the slopes of the volcano. The new entrance, under construction, will allow access to these ancient arches and the marina with the skeletons of fugitives, from where, skirting the Suburban Baths and the sacred area, we will arrive at the end of the fifth lower milestone. The latter was part of an urban settlement in orthogonal pattern, with roads parallel to the coastline called “decumani”, and those perpendicular to the first called “cardines”. Decumani and cardines divided the territory of the city into blocks of almost equal size. Herculaneum, which, unlike the nearby Pompeii was a particularly pleasant place for holidays, shows a wide range of private buildings of great historical interest, social and architectural heritage. Since 1982, a scientific support by the National Geographic Society of Washington, in particular studying skeletons, entrusted to Paleopathology Sara Bisel of Smithsonian Institution. Herculaneum, is always a fixed destination for thousands of tourists every year. Return to Sorrento in the afternoon.