Our friend Peter and his girlfriend Stephanie were on a whirlwind tour of Italy and sent us a message saying they wanted to get together if possible. We were happy to see them, so they took the train down from Rome and I took them down to Herculaneum. We were going to go to Pompeii, but there was a ridiculous line to get in at the gate we drove by, so we went with plan B.
I had only been to Herculaneum once before with my parents. Above I linked to a very useful website which will teach you all you never wanted to know about Herculaneum (and the other Vesuvius sites). It also has photos of many of the areas that are currently closed to tourists.
Looking down into Herculaneum.
The funerary altar of Senator M. Nonius Balbus.
This cheeky bastard hiding in the altar decor.
Pretty flower!
Stephanie and Peter and the pretty flowers.
This is "The House of the Great Portal" because the door has a fancy arch.
Some of the frescoed walls of the Fancy Arch House.
Stephanie and Peter for scale.
This is from the Men's bathhouse.
This is from "The House of the Neptune Mosaic."
This mosaic is why the house is named that.
This is next to the mosaic. I was amused by the random heads.
This is "The House of the Beautiful Courtyard."
Peter is checking it out.
Look stairs!
And...I can't remember/find out what this is.
So...it's an outdoor shrine thingie.
Let's go with that.
This concludes the Herculaneum portion of our adventure.
Peter, Stephanie, and Dan all hung out while I took a nap. We then took our friends to Covo di Leo, a delightful Italian restaurant where there is no menu, they just bring you food. And the food keeps coming. You always think you're going to order a meat dish, but your stomach never makes it that far. Of course there's always room for dolce.
We took Stephanie and Peter back to the train station the next morning, where they boarded the train, sat and waited, and eventually were told to get off of the train. Apparently there was an accident or something and the tracks were blocked. They ended up getting a ride with a random guy and his mom up to Rome. I am glad they weren't kidnapped and murdered. They completed their adventures and are now back in the USA.
