Day 76 ~ Positively Positano (& Pompeii!)

Many a trip continues long after movement in time and space have ceased.
~ John Steinbeck

I almost cancelled this tour. Our excellent destination guide, Debbie Fields, said in her port talk that it’s 1700 steps up to the coastal road where we’d catch the tour buses that would take us to Pompeii. I wasn’t sure I could do it. When I went to see the excursion office, I was assured that Debbie had misspoken and it was a 15 minute walk to the buses.

This was the second set of steps we had to climb.

Turns out, Debbie was right. And wrong. 

The wisteria formed  beautiful roof for us.

There were probably only 100 stair steps for us to negotiate, but the rest of the trek was a steep grade up the side of the cliff Positano is built on. There’s no way for a vehicle larger than a Vespa to make it all the way down to where the ship’s tender dropped us off. And maybe even that wouldn’t make it because of the stair steps.

I had to stop twice to catch my breath until my O2 saturation levels returned to the high 90’s. (If O2 levels sink below 90%, it means my blood doesn’t have enough oxygen for my organs to function well. That’s why I monitor it when I’m under exertion.) My step counter registered over 1000 steps by the time I settled into our 16 passenger bus. A larger bus would never have been able to negotiate the narrow winding road along through the town.

And along the gorgeous Amalfi coast.

The drive to Pompeii took a little over an hour and we were treated to glorious vistas at every turn. Once we turned away from the coast, we drove through a 3 mile long tunnel, an amazing feat of engineering that saved us from going up and around the mountain.

Pompeii was inhabited much earlier than the Roman era, but it was a thoroughly Roman city in 79 A.D., which is when Mount Vesuvius exploded, hurling pyroclastic material toward Pompeii and nearby Herculaneum at an explosive 450 mph. There was no outrunning the toxic gas and tons of ash that buried the city.

   

But before it was destroyed, Pompeii was a center of Roman culture and trade. Archaeologists have uncovered 2 amphitheatres, one with such perfect acoustics, our tour guide Claudio (pronounced “Cloud-ee-oh!) could be heard while speaking in a normal voice without amplification. The other had an intricate system of pulleys and gears beneath the stage that allowed them to create spectacular effects. They called the contraption “deus ex machine” (God in the machine).

In contrast to the medieval towns we’ve been touring with their winding lanes and crooked streets, Pompeii’s main road is laid out east to west to make the most of the daytime sun. North-south streets branch from it, straight as arrows. There are raised sidewalks on either side of their sunken streets. I’m sorry to have to tell you this was so they could also be used as open sewers, but the practical residents were careful to put tall stones at each crosswalk, so pedestrians could remain above the nastiness in the street.

The small white stones glow like cat's eyes in the dark, showing pedestrians where the sidewalk is at night.

Archaeologists have uncovered lead pipes that delivered water to the homes of Pompeii. Ugh! Lead pipes­­­­­, I hear you saying, but the pipes weren’t a problem. The water contained enough particulate that a thin layer of calcium built up in the pipes and protected the water from the lead. However, calcium tends to sink so the lead cisterns that held the water still contaminated it.   

The populace had some health issues beyond their water problems. Their diet was based on spelt grain bread and they didn’t eat much fruit, so scurvy was rampant. As was syphilis.

The "House of Happiness" was decorated with pictures that showed the services that were offered. 

 

Which shouldn’t be surprising since there were at least 35 brothels in Pompeii. We toured one of these “houses of happiness” and the DH was surprised to note that the streets around it weren’t laid out with 90 degree angles. The alleys spoked off in much sharper angles. Claudio explained that was for privacy’s sake. Patrons would go in on one street  and exit on another so they didn’t have to meet anyone they knew coming in.

Life expectancy was only about 40 years in first century Pompeii. There was only one cast of the body of a victim of Vesuvius on display in the city. The others discovered have been moved to a nearby museum. This person was so small, under five feet tall. I couldn’t tell whether it was a man or a woman, but Claudio said the belt he/she wore proclaimed him/her a slave.

This pic shows how close Vesuvius was from the city. Once the disaster began, there was no escape.

But there was hope. Claudio showed us this example of first century graffiti on one of the excavated walls. If you look closely, you can see the shape of a fish—an early Christian symbol. The apostle Paul certainly sailed past this coastline on his way to Rome, but some other Christian must have made it to Pompeii before Vesuvius erupted, less than 50 years after Christ’s death.

I was fascinated by Pompeii. My writer’s imagination was churning the whole time, imagining the people who lived there, what their lives were like, what was important to them. It should have been sad, but I felt encouraged after seeing the city. People have been coming into this world with the same hopes, dreams, wants and needs since the Garden. And while terrible things may interrupt us in the middle of our plans, there is something in each of us that goes on. Just as beauty returns to a place of devastation.

That’s all for now. Tomorrow…Rome!