Back in the Saddle

It's kind of hard to write blog entries without a functioning computer, but that problem has been remedied and it's time to catch up. First, the whole group took a weekend trip to Stabiae, nestled between the Bay of Naples and Mount Vesuvius. The trip was mainly focused on the ruins of Pompeii, but there were other opportunities to learn about the area, which had so famously been covered by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. Our first excursion took us to a recent excavation in Stabiae, an imperial villa that at one point had the Bay on its doorstep. The most illuminating feature was its completely intact bath complex, consisting of four different rooms, each at a different temperature.

The next day took us to Pompeii, the famous city directly within line of the eruption. The city is surprisingly large, with incredibly long major avenues bisecting rows of tightly packed houses and shops. Several sights stood out: the "Cave canem" mosaic adorning the porch of a small house, the immense House of the Faun, and the ampitheater's perfect acoustics. We finished our weekend sojourn with a trip to the Napoli Art Museum, which contained the famous Alexander and Darius mosaic (taken from the House of the Faun) and an entire wing filled with colossal statuary from the Palazzo Farnese. My trip would not have been complete, however, without having a pizza napolitano, so I made my way to a pizzeria and had a slice filled with cheese, light tomato sauce, and sardines, which were surprisingly mild and much more tasty than the tinned variety. We returned to Rome, having had our fill of ancient cities and anchovies in equal measure.