Salerno, Italy

From Gibraltar, we sailed to Salerno on the western coast of Italy. As we approached Salerno early in the morning, we passed the village of Vietri Sul Mare known as the gateway to the Amalfi coast which is famous for its inlets, coves, and tiny settlements.

Salerno itself was a much smaller port than Naples which is often the anchor of the usually bigger cruise ships visiting this area. When we arrived it was cloudy but during the day did brighten although remained cold. High on the hill above the port was the imposing Byzantine Arechi castle built in the 6th century

My choice of excursion was to visit Herculaneum, the Roman town that had, like Pompeii, been buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. On a previous cruise we had visited Pompeii and even climbed to the summit of Vesuvius and I was keen to see Herculaneum which people said was better than Pompeii although smaller. Both towns had been buried in 4 to 6 meters of volcanic ash and pumice. I remember reading Robert Harris’s book “Pompeii” which graphically described how horrifying it must have been.

The fact that Herculaneum was tightly surrounded by modern-day properties made it difficult to capture its nature in a single photograph but once we started to walk its streets it was easier to imagine the hustle and bustle that must have been there in Roman times with shops, bathhouses and religious sites.

The photograph below looking down on the site is in fact the original sea front but the eruption flowed into the ocean and created new land such that Herculaneum is today some distance from the sea. You can see what were thought to be boat houses and in trying to escape the hot ash flows and toxic gases many of the residents sought shelter in the boat house only to perish there. The skeletons were thankfully resin replicas of what the archaeologist found.

The museum had some of the artifacts found on the site and I was amazed by the quality of workmanship that was used in Roman times.

Today was Palm Sunday and an altar was set up in the theatre. I attended the service remembering how important Easter was to Penny and her work with the flowers in the church.