Herculaneum / Ercolano

Ercolano from the access path

Fresh from the large scale of Pompeii, we moved on to Ercolano which is a much smaller site, but still with many wonders. We arranged to join a party led by an archaeologist to ensure we got the best from our visit, but we probably should have made more notes. He was particularly strong on the brothels of Ercolano!

Ercolano lies at the western foot of Mount Vesuvius on the Bay of Naples, just southeast of the city of Naples. The original city was engulfed by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79. The section excavated to date is in the southwest corner of Herculaneum and covers about a quarter of the city.

The important difference with Pompeii is that Pompeii was engulfed by lava from above, while Ercolano was victim to ash carried by water. This meant that the remaining buildings are in better condition  than at Pompeii and several have reasonably intact upper storeys. The site has been classed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997.

We were routed round via this wonderful mummified ship  ...

 

... and emerged by the large and very well preserved white statue we saw earlier. It stands on the Terrazza di M. Nonio Balbo and is named after a Roman Senator.

Not far away is the Casa del Rilievo di Telefo, with its wonderful colours.
 

We now came to realise that a visit around Ercolano is heavily focused on one long and remarkably well preserved street. Several of the houses had spectacular frescoes or mosaics, many of which were in a remarkable state of preservation.

This panel shows Neptune the God of the Sea (Poseidon in Greek) and Amphitrite, the Goddess of the Sea.

 In some ways  even more impressive was this two storey building little table sitting by the edge.

Another beautiful fresco.

 I am not sure what this is. A two ended bath perhaps or trough for horses.

Towards the end of our tour we came to the College of the Augustales, which is thought to have been the centre of the cult of Augustus. The frescoes are in good condition considering their age.

I could have done with a better commentary, but a large extent the frescoes and mosaics speak for themselves.

Naples

          

                                                                        The Castel Nuovo

We are in Naples for a family wedding, but first we are keen to see something of the city and also the great sights of Pompeii and Herculaneum. We leave our rather grand hotel (apparently popular with professional footballers) and walk to the Castel Nuovo. It was founded in 1279 and is also known as the Angevin Castle (its founder was Charles I of Anjou). The white triumphal arch was commissioned by Alfonso of Aragon in 1442.

The castle is rectangular, with a large courtyard: this is the opposite end, viewed from the outside.

 

 

We followed the pavement by the main road towards and then beside the sea. There are many fine buildings on the landward side of the main road. This often crowded path brought us to the second of Naples' castles: the Castel dell'uovo, Naples' oldest castle - and yes there is an egg supposedly buried in its foundations.

 

The castle stands on a small island which was once used by the Greeks as a harbour and which was converted into a fort by the Normans in the 12th century. We had a pleasant ramble through the castle, which is now used for cultural events and exhibitions. This is the view from the ramparts inland towards the city.

 

 

 

The Castle is now surrounded on the landward side by a large selection of restaurants. Looking back the way we came we caught a glimpse of a three-masted sailing boat, with the twin peaks of Vesuvius behind it. Not my best photo, but better than nothing.

We headed inland towards the Piazza Trieste e Trento and then walked up via Toledo as Ange was in need of new sunglasses. Once that need was satisfied we continued along this long pedestrianised street to reach the spacious Piazza Dante ...

 

 

... inevitably with a statue of the great man himself.

 

 

We then headed through a warren of streets to find a grand baroque church, the Gesu Nuovo, hidden behind scaffolding. We later discovered that the scaffolding concealed a rather austere and not very attractive facade. The Baroque interior was a bit OTT.

 

 

 

More or less opposite was the church of Santa Chiara which was built in 1313–1340 by Queen Sancha of Majorca and her husband King Robert of Naples who is also buried in the complex. Inside the church is spacious and with a pleasant interior. Beyond the church there was an incredible garden and cloister. The garden features these exquisite columns with majolica tiles added in 1742 by Domenico Antonio Vaccaro.

 

 

The four walls of the splendid cloister were covered with seventeenth century frescoes depicting Saints, allegories and scenes of the Old Testament.

 

It remained only to amble back to our hotel and its footballers. Not that we actually saw any.

Padua: The Euganian Hills

Villa dei Vescovi

The Veneto is generally very flat, but the area to the southwest of Padua, the Euganian Hills, offers a bit more variety. Today's outing took us to three interesting places within this area. And on the way we paused at Battaglia Terme (one of the innumerable places claiming hot springs) to photograph two things we had noted on our trip to Montagnana a couple of days ago. The first was Castello Catajo ...

... and the second was the Ponte dei scaini, a Venetian-style bridge in the centre of the small town.

Our first main destination was Arqua Petrarca, once just plain Arqua, famous for being the final home of the great 14th century poet and humanist, Petrarch. Apart from being famous for his his own sonnets, Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is apparently often credited with initiating the Italian Renaissance. The pretty town climbs up a hill and is divided between the lower and upper sections. The first sights are the church and the Villa Contarini.

Reaching the upper area, the small pretty church has a lovely loggia attached to it.

Just beyond is Petrarch's house ...

 ... with lovely frescoes, added later, showing episodes in the great man's life. Here is a picture of him.

And here are a couple of the Euganian Hills seen from his window: Monte Castello to the left, Monte Cero to the right.

We went on the the Barbarigo Garden at Valsanzibio. This is the first thing you see from the road: the absolutely astonishing Doorway of Diana, which is right by the roadside.

Behind this lie two pools. Walking along the side of them brings you to large, the rather down-at-heel, house ...

... with formal gardens leading away from it.

Our third port of call was the Villa dei Vescovi, a quite beautiful early 16th century country house. This is the front gate ...

 ... and behind it the main facade of the house itself. Inside, as you would expect, there are frescoes, this time by the Flemish artist Lambert Sustris ...

... and these extend into the loggias on both sides with lovely views of the Euganian Hills.

Conditions: sunny and warm.

Rating: five stars

Padua: the Scrovegni Chapel and the Erimetani Museum

The Scrovegni Chapel looking towards the west end

This is actually our second visit to the Scrovegni Chapel - we briefly visited Padua in 2003, when we were staying in nearby Castelfranco Veneto. In 2003 we just rocked up at the chapel, paid an entrance fee and wandered in to have a look (and did seemingly not take any photos!). Now you have to have booked a timed ticket in advance and start you visit by waiting for 15 minutes in a specially designed air conditioned ante-room (there is an excellent video about the chapel to keep you amused).

The chapel is fairly nondescript from the outside (and because of the surrounding trees, quite hard to photograph).

It was built in around 1300 as the chapel of a palace for the wealthy banker Enrico Scrovegni. The palace and chapel were built on the site of a Roman arena and a fragment of the arena can still be seen. The palace was demolished in 1827, but the chapel mercifully survived. It was covered in magnificent frescoes by the great artist Giotto between 1303 and 1305. This is the Chapel looking towards the altar and the apse.

All the surfaces of the chapel are frescoed. The side walls tell the stories of the life of Christ and the life of the Virgin Mary in a series of sequential panels. Below them are panels in grisaille showing the Vices and Virtues. Here are a couple of typical examples. Firstly, Christ entering Jerusalem in triumph on a donkey ...

... and then the virtues of Justice and Fidelity.

This was a particularly pleasing group at the altar end ...

 While at the end opposite the altar there is a splendid Last Judgement.

After 15 minutes you are shepherded out and the next batch of vistors are released from the ant chamber. Short of trying to photograph everything, 15 minutes turns out to be enough to get a strong sense of the Chapel and indelible memories to treasure.

We then went round the nearby Eremitani, the Civic Fine Art museum located in the former convent of the Eremitani. The content are based around the collection of a wealthy merchant, Nichola Bottecin, which was donated in the 1860s. 

There were a couple of small panels by the great Giorgione, but not in great condition. The highlights were some lovely pictures by a female artist whose name I was sure I would remember, but now cannot ...

 ... a pictures of angels presumably arranged as they once were in a chapel ...

... and a crucifix by Giotto.

But the real highlight was this beautiful painting by Andrea Mantegna.

Rating: five stars for the Scrovegni Chapel, four for the Eremiti.

Greece: Mystra (or Mystras)

Mystra castle and upper town

Mystra was once an important Byzantine city, but became sidelined after its capture by the Turks in 1460. When Greece gained independence from the Turks in 1831 it was finally abandoned after a long period of decline and a new (but totally undistinguished) city of Sparti (near to ancient Sparta) was built nearby. Mystra is now a World Heritage site.

There are two entrances to Mystra, which was built up a steep hillside: the lower town entrance and the castle entrance. We decided to start at the top where it was quieter - which worked very well - and were pleased to discover that we could then go to the lower entrance on the same ticket.

We headed uphill from the castle entrance along a rocky track and soon enjoyed a fine view down the hillside to the Palace (of which more later).

 Up close, the battlements of the castle (founded in 1249) were impressive ...

... but it soon became clear that it was a total ruin. There was a deep ravine on the rear side of the castle, making it pretty much impregnable from that direction.

We retraced our steps past the ticket office to reach the church of Santa Sophia (1350-65). It is taller inside than it looks in the photo and had one especially attractive fresco in the sanctuary.

Now we came to the strikingly named Palace of the Despots.  The modern meaning of despot is clear enough, but in the Byzantine period a Despot was simply the person in charge of an administrative area, a Despotate. The Palace has been under restoration for the last 20 years. In the 14th and 15th centuries, it was the centre of government of the whole of the Peloponnese, known at that time as the Morea.

We continued our descent as far as the Monemvasia Gate which marks the entrance to the Upper town.

We were surprised to find that the road which led direct to Monemvasia started here (we were in Monemvasia only yesterday - about 74 km or 46 miles away).

We returned to the castle gate and drove down to the bottom gate from which we soon reached the wonderful Metropolis (1291) - designed as the city's cathedral. It is a small, but very beautiful building. Here is a view from higher up the hillside. The fantastic domes were added in the 15th century.

The three-sided cloister was lovely ...

... and the rather battered frescoes above the crossing were a delight.

We came next to the strangely named Hodegetria church (1322), once the church of a monastery. It is an imposing structure with a hidden clock tower to the rear at the right.

 Inside it was covered with beautiful frescoes.

The third great church of the lower town was the Monastery of the Pantanassa (1428).

Our guide book describes it as one of the last Byzantine churches. Partly this is because of the fall of Byzantium not many years later, but one should also note the gothic arches on the left indicating a change in architectural style.

It is still in use as a monastery, although apparently with not many nuns.  At this point we realised that the climbs and descents had worn us out and it was time to stop. There were still a good few buildings to explore.

Conditions: cloudy and quite cool - rather a shock after recent hot days.

Rating: five stars.