VESUVIUS and HERCULANEUM, Wednesday, February 18

Wednesday, we went up Vesuvius, which was cold and windy. We hiked around the crater part way, peering down at the mists of emissions and the flat silent floor where pressure is quietly building. Then we went down to Herculaneum to see what the mountain could do.

"We" would be me (Nancy), Julianne, and Donna Ellefson, who didn't have much trouble talking us into coming to Naples. We took the public Circumvesuviana train to Herculaneum the city, where we met our guide Roberto Adinolfi, a geologist certified on Vesuvius. He certainly knew what he was talking about and was able to put the present in context of the past and future. He also knew how to wangle us a ride from the parking lot up to the guide's hut/staging post from which we absolutely had to hike. 

Roberto and Donna at the guide's hut. Did I mention it was cold?

Julianne, however, stayed in the hut. She hadn't brought her jacket or gloves or hat, and she wasn't about to venture out in the wind that seemed like half a hurricane. 

Vesuvius--cold, windy.  One bird, a jay. (this is Julianne speaking in italics) I like the general idea of visiting a volcano and Nancy has had the desire to do this since forever or so. Vesuvius looms above the Bay of Naples, visible from everywhere.  Puts out steam.  OK--good enough.  Looked over the edge. Can we go down yet?

European Jay, picture from The Guardian

Everybody knows about the eruption in 79 CE that buried Pompeii and Herculaneum, Stabiae and probably a lot more villages still deep in the earth. One hears less about more recent eruptions, for instance the latest one, in 1944 right after the Allies drove the Germans out. A river of lava flowed downhill but did little damage; American planes took a lot of pictures and thus our guide was able to show us images of a new dome (later collapsed) building inside the 79 CE crater, which itself had blown the top off a previous, bigger crater. 

J here.  The 1944 eruption did destroy the funicular which carried tourists up to the top.  The opening of this funicular was celebrated in one of the world's all time favorite songs, which you can hear by clicking this link:  Pavarotti singing Funiculi, funicula


We were also introduced to the work of another artist who had a concert at the top of Vesivius in 2014.  Our hosts Max Carola and Gabriella Rinaldi produced a concert by jazz acordionist Richard Galliano, which you can hear by clicking on this link: Galliano at Vesuvius
  
Good concert.

River of lava from 1944 hardened in place - Naples beyond

Back to blowing tops. Doesn't Vesuvius sound like Mt. St. Helens, our own volcano south of Seattle that blew in 1980? Mt. St. Helens blew its top off too, and a new small dome has been building inside the remnants of the old. 

But the Italian volcano is on a much larger scale, bigger altogether and more dangerous with all those people right nearby. Also, Vesuvius is much more active than MSHelens, erupting perhaps 42 times since 79 CE.

Just now Vesuvius is quiescent, which is alarming to people who know about the habits of volcanoes - it should be belching more steam and making small movements, but it doesn't. This means that since 1944, pressure has been slowly building inside the magma chamber far below, prevented from release by hardened lava plugs in the pathways to the surface, and what next? 

The small steam vents are not enough to relieve pressure

Interior of the caldera, showing strata of ash among the lava flows

The highest point we reached. The French kids
 just kept going. Up around that corner, 
icy wind and no reward, so we quit.
This is looking south, toward Pompeii, 
if you could see it through the haze.

View across the caldera, which is 2.5 km around. 
This odd-looking object with advertising stickers 
is an instrument to record movement. 
There are such recorders all around the rim
and in the bottom of the caldera, deep below the rim.

I like mountains. I liked hiking up to Everest Base Camp in 1997 in spite of altitude sickness. I liked camping overnight in the Mount Saint Helens ashfall with geologists and botanists in 1983, when the streams were running sulphur yellow and for a miracle fireweed was popping up all around. Even as an undergraduate I liked climbing the little rock falls left over from glaciers in Wisconsin. 

But Vesuvius? Not easy to love, and it's not just the weather. Vesuvius feels bleak and demanding. There's a lot of small-scale rockfalls and erosion on this mountain, which keeps vegetation mostly at bay, though there are lichens that digest the minerals in the stone. Still it's very barren, and not friendly. Not to mention, it will kill some people in future. But then, I might have liked it better in the summer.

HERCULANEUM

In Herculaneum, warmer, more birds.  Also filled with French schoolchildren--this is their winter holiday and they are everywhere. Sort of the 13-15 year old range.  Perfectly nice kids.  I thought France had a low birth rate but the evidence of my eyes says baby boom.

The people of Herculaneum didn't have a chance, between the poison gas, the superheated steam, and the fall of cinders and ash. Probably they hardly knew what hit them. Here's how deep it got:

The depth of burial at Herculaneum.
The bottom was the seashore.

Old city, new city. Not terribly different, actually,
as to style. This view from near the entry.

At the port, people huddled together, as far as possible
from the mountain, but trapped by the sea.

Most of the beautiful art that was found at Herculaneum got taken to Naples and elsewhere, but a few pieces remain in place. We didn't see everything - too tired after Vesuvius to give Herculaneum its due. But, here are a few.

I'm going to guess that the guy
on the right with lance and sword is not
doing murder but a medical procedure.
A very opaque piece as far as meaning goes.
Not big, maybe 12 x 18, wall-hung.

Cute little boys probably from a larger sculptural
group, perhaps a fountain?

A beautiful mosaic of very tiny tesserae,
carefully designed and made, hung like a painting,
and again, opaque to me in its meaning.

We looked for how people lived, but of course it's a little hard to feel your way into ancient life.

Look how well the mortar lasted
even with the clay fill eroded away.  

Store room

It seems that many houses had no kitchens,
and people regularly ate at fast-food joints.
This is one. Fire in the hole, food in pots on top.

And then, the French school kids having fun, as well they might, out of school.

It's not important, just for fun.

We were glad to hop on the Circumvesuviana, then Metro Line 2 to Amadeo, and Bus C27 to our cozy apartment.  Outside our gate a grocery store with provolone made with "fleur di latte" a milk from one specific area near Sorrento. Delicious cheese, bread, prosciutto and wine.  Not cold anymore.  All good.

By Nancy and Julianne