If It Was Today...

Another Day, Another Park

Posted on November 8, 2025 by If It Was Today

We decided to walk to the Botanical Garden of Rome today. It was a reasonable distance, just 39 minutes to walk there. Interestingly, taking a bus was 35 minutes, and driving wasn’t much better, at nearly 30 minutes. We always prefer to walk if it’s reasonable, but this was a no-brainer.

We’ve been walking around Rome for the past week, surprised by how much of the city is taken up by archaeological excavations. It gives you a sense of the tradeoff between preserving the past and living the present. Our route took us past the Basilica San Nicola in Carcere, which shows how this hasn’t always been the case. It was built at the beginning of the sixth century on the ruins of three earlier temples. The ruins were incorporated into the basilica, presumably to reduce cost by reusing the existing structure. You can clearly see the temple in the basilica walls.

Next we crossed the Pons Fabricius, the oldest bridge still in use in Rome, dating to 62 B.C. Another example of preserving the past, but in this case, it’s still in daily use as a pedestrian bridge.

From there it was a short walk to the botanical garden. The focus is on the plants, but they also display some of the many ruins discovered on the site, which creates an interesting effect.

We learned that four fountains of unknown origin were discovered on the site. The first we spotted was the smallest fountain I’ve ever seen. To get a sense of scale, note the leaves and the individual water drops.

This next cactus was very unusual. It looked a little like a brain.

It wasn’t high season, but there were still some flowers on the trees.

We had a bit of an adventure earlier in the week trying to see the parakeets flitting around the trees. They were noisy, but very shy. We finally managed to get a good look at them the other day, after much effort. But in the botanical garden, they were not shy at all. Every time we turned around, we seemed to see one … of five.

This tree reminded me of something from a haunted forest.

Another view of the Monk Parakeet, eating berries on the trees. They were everywhere.

More flowers.

Eventually we found the second fountain in the botanical garden. This is more like what I expected of a fountain.

We spotted this bush covered with berries that look a lot like haskap berries we get at home. We were surprised they hadn’t been eaten by the birds, leading us to wonder if they were poisonous. A bit of research revealed they are Myrtle berries, which aren’t related to haskap. They are also edible, though they are very tart. Maybe that’s why the birds haven’t eaten them.

Later we came across this in the bamboo section. I agree with the sentiment, but for the record, we did not carve this.

As I mentioned earlier, it was almost as if the parakeets were taunting us, making it easy to spot them after being so elusive earlier in the week. This was a Rose-ringed Parakeet, eating persimmon fruit.

One bad thing about the botanical garden was that it was on the side of a hill, which meant we had to climb a lot. We’ve had more than enough hills this week, so we would have preferred it to be flat. On the plus side, it offered views of Rome with hills in the background.

Here is Jan trying to get a better picture of the Rose-ringed parakeet feeding.

And here is the partially eaten persimmon.

And just to drive the point home, another shot of a Monk Parakeet in plain view.

T botanical garden was relatively sparse at this time of year, but it was still an oasis of calm forest quiet. It was a pleasant outing with renewing forest smells all around. When we finished, we headed back to the apartment for a brief rest before another visit to the vegan restaurant, Rifugio Romano, for dinner. Last time I tried the “3-D printed steak” so this time I wanted to try the “3-D printed salmon”.

The texture was good, if not perfect. The taste wasn’t identical to what you would expect from salmon, so it might not do well in a blind taste test. But if you set aside those expectations and rate it on its own merits, it was very good, the pepper corns adding just the right amount of zip. And the potatoes were divine. I highly recommend it if you are in the area.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Botanical Garden, Italy, Parakeet, Photography, Rome, Travel, Vegan | Leave a comment

On The Hunt

Posted on November 6, 2025 by If It Was Today

Our plan for today was to enjoy the Villa Borghese gardens. It was a comfortable half hour walk from our apartment, so we planned to walk both ways and look for anything of interest along the way, letting events unfold as they may. Oh, and look for a place to eat lunch.

The walk up was uneventful, other than spotting a lovely place for lunch. More about that later. The Villa Borghese gardens had been a private estate, but now it is a public park with free admission. This is just one of the many entrances to the park, the architecture highlighting its renaissance origins.

Earlier in the week we briefly spotted a green parakeet but utterly failed in our attempts to take a picture of it. Today, almost as soon as we entered the gardens, we spotted more of them, flitting between the trees and generally making a racket. I think they are very territorial. We saw them when they were flying, but their camouflage is nearly perfect – the moment they landed it was impossible to see them. And so the hunt began – we wanted a picture today. Note how “crowded” it was in the gardens.

Finally we managed to spot one feeding in the trees. These are the trees that grow pine nuts, so I suspect that is what they were after. They were like acrobats – half the time they were upside down in search of food.

With that mission accomplished, more or less, we continued enjoying our stroll in the park, listening to a saxophone in the distance.

While walking, a tree stump caught my eye. For context, this was at least six feet (two meters) high. The sun through the trees highlighted the red in the stump.

We didn’t really have an objective other than to enjoy the lovely day, but we were on the lookout for unusual things. Like this statue from World War I, with a donkey carrying a small cannon. Not what I was expecting.

Just behind the statue was a small museum beside a quiet courtyard with orange trees, laden with fruit. For the record, we didn’t pick any.

There is a small lake in the gardens where you can rent a boat. We passed on the boat, but enjoyed looking at the temple on an island in the lake. It is dedicated to Aesculapius, the God of Medicine.

And then, suddenly, we spotted the Rose-ringed Parakeets again. This time they were perched in the sun, in plain sight. This picture is dedicated to D & S who love birds.

We stopped for a cappuccino at a small cafe in the park, and then decided to make one final stop before lunch – a lookout over Rome. Apparently the view is stunning at sunset, but lunch was calling so we settled for this.

I mentioned earlier that we had spotted a Lebanese restaurant just outside the gardens, and we headed back to find it for lunch. We got lovely seats outdoors in the shade, and ordered a selection of Mezeh for lunch. Jan had baba ghanoush and fattoush salad. Both were among the best she has ever tasted. When I visited Jordan a decade ago, I discovered shankleesh, so when I saw the Lebanese restaurant I knew exactly what I wanted. And for those who may say that we shouldn’t eat Lebanese food in Rome … Lebanon was part of the Roman Empire. So there!

It was still early, so we took a little detour on our walk back to the apartment. We’d been told that the crowds were insane at the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps, so we decided to see for ourselves. Along the way we passed the Flaminio Obelisk, one of thirteen ancient obelisks in Rome. This one was Egyptian, dating back to 1300 BC and was brought to Rome by Augustus in 10 BC. It was rediscovered in the sixteenth century in fragments, and reassembled as you see it today.

And then, in the area beside the obelisk, along with all the tourist souvenirs, we spotted a stand selling garden seeds. Not your typical souvenir, but we were on the hunt for the chicory that is used to make puntarelle, so we had a look and … another success.

For a day that started without any particular objective, we were doing amazingly well.

Next it was onward to the Spanish Steps. We had heard there was an admission fee, but not today. There weren’t all that many people either.

Based on the limited crowds at the Spanish Steps, we decided to check out the Trevi Fountain next. When we turned the corner, our first view was encouraging.

But then we turned around and…

If you wanted to get right down to the edge of the fountain, you had to buy a ticket, but if you just wanted a look, it was free. So no Instagram photos from me, but you weren’t getting those anyway. I’ll close with a closeup of the detail above the fountain … because you know I love closeups.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Birds, Italy, Photography, Rome, Spanish Steps, Travel, Trevi Fountain | Leave a comment

Absolutely!

Posted on November 5, 2025 by If It Was Today

We took it easy today. We’ve been traveling for three weeks now, most of it with other people, and all of it in crowds. We’re introverts, so every now and then we need a day to recharge our batteries. Today was one of those days. So no photos of Roman ruins today.

I mentioned our dinner last night at the fish restaurant that friends had recommended, highlighting the atmosphere and the fish. But I said nothing about the salad, which was a highlight of the meal.

The salad was unusual … reminiscent of many things, but not readily identifiable. It was crisp, with a hint of bitterness, and reminded us of endive and celery, but it wasn’t quite any of those. We asked our server, and he said “chicory”. It didn’t look like any chicory we’d ever seen, but it was a start. In the grocery store today we looked for chicory without success, and then spotted this. It looks exactly like last night’s salad.

A bit of research confirmed it is a type of chicory, and that it is cut into thin strips and then soaked in water for an hour, to remove some of the bitterness and make it curl. Mystery solved. Now we just need to find it in Canada. Wish us luck.

As I was getting ready to write tonight, I poked my head out the window of our room to look for tonight’s super moon, and was treated to this.

Our major outing today was a walk through the park to the grocery store. Out of the blue, Jan asked “would you stay in the same place again?” Without a second’s hesitation I replied – “absolutely”. I hope to be back, and we’ll definitely stay in the same place.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Food, Italy, Photography, Rome, Travel | 2 Comments

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

Posted on November 4, 2025 by If It Was Today

We both wanted to visit the forum when in Rome. I also wanted to visit the Palatine hill, one of the original seven hills of Rome. Neither of us were sure we wanted to visit the Colosseum (we’ve been before), but all the tickets we could find for the forum also included access to the colosseum. So we decided to get tickets for the works.

Every site warns you to book online to avoid long queues. We’ve seen many long lines in the past few days, so we agreed that booking online made sense. We were set to pay when our bank insisted on sending a text to my mobile number to verify the transaction. That would have incurred significant roaming charges, so we cancelled the booking and decided we’d take our chances.

Yesterday, one of the secondary gates to the forum didn’t have any queue at all. We thought maybe it would be the same today, and we were right. We requested our tickets, and were informed that … the tickets were free today. Apparently it is the Festivita Nazionale, the Italian equivalent of remembrance day. For once the bank’s extra security measures saved us money.

Tickets in hand, we had immediate entry to the forum. This shot was taken just as we entered the forum. Note the clear blue sky.

And here is another one from yesterday, taken just outside the forum. It is a statue of Caesar.

A lot of what you see in the forum has been “reassembled” from the broken pieces found during excavation. But it is still impressive to see how well it has held up after two thousand years.

Here you can see one of the pieces still on the ground. It actually gives you a better view of the egg-shaped pieces that are part of the carving in the previous picture.

There is so much to see that it is difficult to do it justice. Here is one of several triumphal arches. It’s easy to see where Napoleon got his ideas for The Arc de Triomphe.

Here is a view of the engraving on the inside of three arch.

In the renaissance era, the forum was buried and covered by palaces and gardens owned by the Farnese family. Much of that was lost because of the excavations, but some has remained. Here is an intriguing fountain.

It isn’t obvious from the previous photo, but if you zoom in on the ferns, you can see that the water trickles down through the plants.

After we climbed to the top of the palatine hill, we were treated to stunning views. This shows the scope of the forum excavations.

From this vantage, you can also see the colosseum.

You have a good view of the city from here, and we spotted a tower that definitely looked like it was leaning. Not as much as the famous one in Pisa, but still… definitely leaning. I did a bit of research, and sure enough the Torre delle Milizie is leaning as a result of an earthquake in 1348. You’ll also notice that the top is somewhat irregular. After the earthquake, the top two floors were demolished because of earthquake damage.

And here is a view that we see a lot when we travel. Me, taking pictures, pictures, and more pictures.

Jim taking pictures. He does that a lot.

One reason I wanted to visit the palatine hills was the green spaces we could see from the colosseum. Eventually we found quiet spaces we almost had to ourselves.

Jan spotted a bird that looked like a green parakeet so she took the opportunity to do a bit of research. Turns out there is parakeet found in Rome, although it isn’t originally native to here.

Our free tickets included access to the colosseum so after a brief rest, we headed over. Although we hadn’t originally planned to go inside, we were glad we did. As usual, we spent a lot of our time reading informative signs. For example, we learned that the stone is being cleaned (with pure water) to remove centuries of grime. This picture shows the before and after views.

One of the more interesting displays was a scale model of the colosseum constructed at the end of the eighteenth century. Fascinating.

And then, the real thing.

After our tour, we walked back to our hotel and passed an interesting tree. We saw it earlier in the week, and with a bit of research learned it is a strawberry tree, and that it has become a symbol of Italy. During Italian unification it was associated with the colours of the Italian flag: green leaves, red berries, and white flowers.

Strawberry tree, with the colosseum in the background

For dinner, we walked over to a local fish restaurant recommended by friends. It was packed, and an unpretentious experience – just good food. Note the rustic wine glasses. But the fish and the salad were both fabulous.

Another picture of me … amazingly, not talking or taking pictures

Posted in Travel | Tagged Colosseum, Fish, Italy, Photography, Rome, The Forum, Travel | 2 Comments

Roman Holiday

Posted on November 3, 2025 by If It Was Today

If you follow this blog at all, you know we aren’t ones to cram in “must-see” tourist sites when we travel. I’ll admit that we visit some iconic sites (witness Pompeii and Herculaneum) but we also enjoy days where we just wander around the city. Today was one of those days. Our nominal goal was to check out a restaurant that friends had recommended. But the real objective was to walk, and let events unfold as they may. I was mapping out the route to the restaurant, when I realized we would walk right past an Exhibition of Lego Brick Models. Can you guess what we did?

Just to provide some context here, the pink panther was at least six feet tall. A few days ago, our Saturday “random walk” took us through the Circus Maximus. Today we saw what it originally looked like … rendered in lego bricks. We’ll have to return to the Circus Maximus later this week to look at it again, now that we know what it looked like when it was new.

There were an unbelievable number of amazing models, but one that especially caught my eye was the scale model of modern Rome. Note that it took one person 600 hours to build this.

This last picture focuses on the area near our hotel … right outside the colosseum. The next Lego model is truly amazing – a model of the Millennial Falcon from Star Wars that was at least ten feet across. They didn’t tell us how long that one took.

After checking out the Lego models, we walked past the restaurant, then headed back home, stopping for gelato along the way, of course. Gelato is a pretty common thing to see/do in Rome. Equally common is to find newly excavated Roman ruins like this.

While I was drooling over the ruins, Jan was fortunately able to find something that interests her as much. She checked out a nearby fabric shop. She found the perfect fabric for a fun summer top, and later modeled it in her best Instagram pose. (We’ve been seeing a lot of those lately…)

By now the sun was beginning to set, and the moon to rise, giving us impressive views like these.

Here’s another perspective.

It was the golden hour and all the monuments were highlighted by the setting sum. Here was Trajan’s Column. I showed it in an earlier post, but I think it looks much more impressive in this light.

Here’s another view of the monuments, with the rising moon adding a nice touch.

One of the buildings currently under renovation near the Forum had a partial collapse today and the road along the Forum was blocked off, forcing us to take a roundabout path back to the apartment. Along the way I spotted this car, which reminded me of the Lego display we had just visited. To me, this looks like it could be a Lego car.

When we got back to the apartment we were hot and sweaty, and it was time for refreshments. Jan had Cerasuolo d’ Abruzzo, the rose wine we learned about (and learned to love) in Abruzzo. It was Monday, so it was time for Monday Beer Club for me. I had an IPA I spotted in the local store. In this case, the I in IPA stands for Italian. Very nice … and a little different.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Italy, Lego, Photography, Rome, Travel | 2 Comments

No Particular Place To Go

Posted on November 1, 2025 by If It Was Today

Saturday in Rome. No particular place to go. Friends who were here a few weeks ago were shocked at how busy Rome was. We were worried. They said all the major sites were packed with tourists, and you needed timed tickets for admission just about everywhere. So we decided we would just wander, going with the flow. More to the point, out of the flow. Our hotel is near the Colosseum so we immediately ran into the crowds we had been warned about.

Our tentative plan was to head west toward the Tiber, but it took us past the Pantheon. It is just as impressive as I remember.

But the crowds are not the same as I remember from twenty years ago.

One of Jan’s objectives for the day was to have a gelato in Rome. Amazingly, we found a lovely gelato place mere steps from the Pantheon, without a lineup. When in Rome, gelato is the perfect lunch, right?

As I said earlier, our main objective was to wander and look for things off the beaten track. We turned down an alley and found ourselves in a large space that looked like it might originally have been a “circus” … an oval race track. At one end was an impressive fountain. It isn’t the Trevi Fountain, but it’s still impressive and you can get close enough to see it. And you don’t have to pay a cent.

We kept heading west, crossed the Tiber, and before long we saw St. Peter’s. We kept going until we crossed the border to enter Vatican City. It’s a separate country, so that made our day an international walking tour.

We crossed the street in Vatican City, then headed back to Italy, walking south along the Tiber. By now, the crowds had thinned right out. But the architecture was still impressive. Jan pointed out one of the street lights along the river. It was far away from any tourist spot, and yet it was very ornate, and rather impressive.

An ordinary … but definitely not “ordinary” … street light in Rome

We walked along the Tiber, planning to see the Circus Maximus on our way back to our hotel. One of the bridges had a jazz ensemble playing in the middle of the bridge. It was the perfect soundtrack for the day. You can’t see the musicians in this picture, but trust me, we could hear them for quite a while.

Our next side quest was Isola Tibernia, a small island in the Tiber. On the eastern side of the island is Ponte Fabricio, the oldest bridge in continuous use in Rome. It dates back to 62 B.C. and is still used for pedestrian traffic.

At each end of the bridge is a pillar topped with a four headed statue of the god Janus. One look at the statue makes clear how old the bridge is.

Four-headed statue of the Roman god Janus

And then we arrived at the Circus Maximus. I’d argue that this should be a major tourist attraction in its own right, given how important it was in Roman history. But unlike the Colosseum or the Pantheon, we nearly had the place to ourselves.

The Circus Maximus runs right beside the Forum, and this gave us views of the ruins in the Forum. We still plan to go inside, but it’s impressive even from the outside.

Our route to the hotel took us past the Colosseum again.

After a rest and water, we decided to return to the same vegan restaurant we enjoyed last night. One of the menu items had caught my eye … “plant-based, 3-D printed steak”. The menu claimed you would be amazed, and I was curious enough to try it tonight.

It was good. Very good. Not the best steak I’ve ever had, but easily in the top five. I may have to return later this week to try their 3-D printed salmon. Stay tuned.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Circus Maximus, Italy, Photography, Rome, The Forum, The Pantheon, Travel | Leave a comment

Pompeii

Posted on October 31, 2025 by If It Was Today

After seeing the crowds on our trial run to Pompeii, we were thinking that perhaps seeing Herculaneum plus the wonderful exhibits in the Archaeological Museum would be enough. But Ian convinced us (or at least me) that it would be worth getting up early and catching the train to be at the gates to Pompeii when the site opened at 9:00 AM. There was already a lineup at 8:45, but Pompeii is a huge site and we quickly found ourselves ahead of the crowd. When we arrived in the forum, we literally had the place to ourselves.

When I asked Ian about the plan for the day, he said he just wanted to walk the streets of Pompeii. All of them. We didn’t achieve that objective, but we made a good start. One advantage of just walking the streets is that you see things that don’t make it into the guide books. For example, this street is something you rarely see in ancient Roman cities.

This is more typical of a Roman city – streets that are straight as an arrow.

The three large blocks in the road are for a crosswalk. The gaps allowed carts to pass through, but the raised stones allowed pedestrians to cross without having to step in the water and animal dung that would have littered the streets. Cool idea.

In the early days of excavation at Pompeii, many of the best frescos and tiles were removed to preserve them. Most of these are now housed in the Archaeological Museum in Naples, which we visited on Monday. But eventually they decided that wasn’t the best idea, and for a long time now they have been trying to preserve the best items in their original context. There are so many amazing things to see – far too many to show here, but I will try to give you a flavor of what you can see in the buildings in Pompeii.

Reliefs on the ceiling of the temple baths

Tiles in the entrance to a house – beware of dog…

You get the idea. They are stunning, but what we enjoy doing most is looking at the artifacts and trying to imagine what it would have been like to live and work in Pompeii. For example, this sidewalk had us wondering why it was so narrow.

One of the buildings was a bakery that handled all aspects of bread production from grinding the wheat into flour, mixing the dough, baking the loaves, and then selling them. The first picture shows the millstone, which would have had a small donkey walking in circles to rotate it.

Then the flour was mixed into dough in a small room to the left of the oven and formed into loaves which were passed through a slot to the left of the oven, where they would have been baked. It looks a lot like a modern wood-fired pizza oven.

And then the finished loaves were sold to the public at the front of the building. You can see the millstones in the back of this next picture.

There were many of these counters around Pompeii. Some were far more elaborate than the one in the bakery and included clay pots to hold cooked food.

One of the counters was partially broken and you could see the side of the clay pot that was set into the counter. It had writing on it – I’m guessing it was where it was made. Menae is a town in Sicily.

It was also interesting to see how the buildings had been repurposed over time. On this wall you can clearly see the outlines of arches, doors, and windows that had been filled in over time.

I mentioned in an earlier post about how the grooves at the entrance to the shops were used for sliding doors. We found one place that showed exactly how this worked. The next picture is a plaster cast of the remains of the doors found when they were excavating. It is a bit like vertical blinds with each of the vertical wooden slats being about six inches (15 cm) wide. When the door was open they would stack neatly against the wall. When the slats were closed, a bar on the inside would provide security.

We also learned that Pompeii had local elections, and we saw many political ads on the walls.

We didn’t have to work that one out by ourselves – there was a very helpful information stand.

You could also see sculptures inset into the walls, like this sign showing how amphorae of olive oil were carried.

And then we had this rather rude one…

Pompeii has an arena and two theaters that are beautifully preserved. This is the medium sized one, which is still used for live performances.

The stones on the streets of Pompeii are clearly original, but the sidewalks look like a recent addition. We were trying to figure out what the original ones looked like, and then we saw this. Looks like they were concrete with stones set into it.

Near the end of the day we were on a rise and were treated to a view that gives a hint of just how much there was to explore, if we truly wanted to walk every street.

At the end of the day we got together with Lisa and Dale, who are also in Italy and were with us at The Amazing Abruzzo. We ordered a lovely Napoli pizza on the outdoor patio … though shortly after this picture was taken it started to sprinkle rain and we moved inside.

Jan decided to have a quiet day in Naples, checking out a few sights and an art museum. Wise choice – I was walking for six hours straight.

Today was a travel day. We took the train to Rome. On our walk to the grocery store to get food for breakfast, we passed this. More Roman ruins.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Italy, Naples, Photography, Rome, Travel | Leave a comment

National Archaeological Museum – Napoli

Posted on October 29, 2025 by If It Was Today

We thought we’d seen a lot yesterday, but boy, were we wrong. We spent four hours today in the Archaeological Museum, and barely scratched the surface. I’ll try to give you an overview of our visit with minimal words and probably too many pictures.

First, some of the best frescos were relocated from Pompeii and Herculaneum to the museum to preserve them. These two examples give you a taste of what you can see.

There were also thousands of bronze pieces. This was a brazier used to provide heat (and beauty) in a wealthy home.

There were also many beautiful wall mosaics.

Here is another one that was nearly two meters high. Note the power plug at the bottom to provide scale.

You might think that is a fresco, but it is a mosaic. If you zoom in on a section you can see the detail.

In some cases the individual pieces were tiny – barely over 1 mm square. Jan put her hand near one mosaic (being careful not to touch) to give you a sense of scale and show how small the individual pieces are.

And then there were the floor mosaics. These are in the Magna Graecia rooms. The artifacts around the walls are from the Greek colonies in Italy and Sicily, but the mosaic floors are from various villas excavated in the area around Napoli. Amazingly, you can walk on these floor mosaics, though you do need to put protective covers on your shoes.

The previous picture shows that the floor mosaics go on and on and on. But now I’m going to show you just how many there are. And this is just a fraction of what you can see … and walk across.

I realize this may be a bit overwhelming but there isn’t any other way to show the scope of the mosaics. They are truly amazing.

There was also a small, but interesting section about gladiators. Turns out that the portrayal you see in the movies is dead wrong. (I know, who would have guessed.) It seems gladiators were more like today’s professional wrestling, with different gladiators assuming different personas to provide entertainment for their fans. This next picture is a piece of two thousand year old graffiti, where someone scratched a drawing of their favourite gladiator on one of the walls, preserved by the eruption of Mt Vesuvius before it could be repaired.

It’s almost Halloween so I’ll end with this wall mosaic that speaks for itself.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Herculaneum, Italy, Naples, Photography, Pompeii, Travel | 3 Comments

Herculaneum

Posted on October 28, 2025 by If It Was Today

We took the train to Pompeii yesterday to get a feel for how crowded it would be, and as a result … we decided to go to Herculaneum today. The crowd on the train was similar to yesterday, but not many people got off at Herculaneum so there wasn’t a queue to buy tickets. Here was our first view of the ruins.

You can wander through the city streets and go into most of the buildings as you explore. This gives you a rough idea of what the typical street looks like. The high building at the end of the street is the modern city, fifty feet above the level of the ancient city.

It was interesting to see the construction techniques in the city. Many walls were built with stones arranged in a diamond shape, rather than the brick-like walls we think of today. Apparently this was because the technique didn’t require much expertise, so they could use unskilled labor rather than (expensive) artisans. Some things never change. Then they would cover the stone with stucco and paint it with frescos. You can see that here. At the bare wall is at the bottom where the stucco burned away, while the stucco and and fresco are still visible at the top.

The wealthy could afford to have marble columns, but the middle class merchants settled for a brick core, and concrete coating around the outside to make it look like stone. Here you can see a column that looks like stone, but a piece of the coating has chipped away to reveal the brick underneath.

Some columns were made with ridges, like the previous picture, while others were smooth and decorated, like this one.

There were many frescos on the walls throughout the city. Many were faded, but you could still get a feel for what they would have looked like two thousand years ago. Many of these are exposed to the elements today.

The city was named Herculaneum because it was associated with Hercules. There were many temples and frescos highlighting the twelve labors of Hercules.

Here is another impressive fresco that Ian discovered just before the site closed (and in his words, they “kicked him out and locked the doors behind him”).

And here is a room that shows frescos and a stairway leading to the second floor (or the first floor, depending on where you are from).

In addition to frescos, there was also lots of amazing decorations like this one, which looked like a shrine.

Here is a closeup of the detail at the top. Note the detail and the vivid colours.

The site also featured a number of rooms showing the merchant shops. One was a bakery, while this next picture was a fast-food outlet and bar. The large pots in the counter contained ready-to-eat food – kind of an early take-away shop. The other interesting detail is the slot in the stone at the bottom, in front of the shop. This track was used for sliding bifold doors to close the shop at night.

Some of the entrances were plain, but others were quite ornate, like this one.

This next picture shows the detail on the top of the column, and gives you a sense of what it looked like when it was new.

They have also discovered marble inserts in some of the walls, like this one. You can see the metal pieces that hold it in place, but originally these would have been covered by plaster and therefore invisible.

There were also many areas where the original floor tiles and mosaics were still used today. This next picture was taken in an open hallway … we were meant to walk on it, honest.

In other areas, the mosaics were roped off and we only looked at them. This one was in a large room and the mosaic was about the size of a large area rug.

I mentioned earlier that the wealthy could afford to have real marble columns. Here is one that was destroyed in the eruption.

There were other signs of the destruction caused by the eruption. This had been a wooden beam inserted into the corner of a building. Now it is just charcoal. If you zoom in you can see the tree rings.

When Mt Vesuvius began to erupt, many inhabitants tried to flee. Hundreds were by the sea, waiting to be evacuated when the largest eruption occurred in the middle of the night. These plaster casts show what was found when Herculaneum was uncovered. It’s a little weird to see this just before Halloween.

As we were leaving, I took this shot of ancient Herculaneum at the bottom, modern Herculaneum above it, and Mt Vesuvius in the background.

After heading back to our hotel and freshening up, we walked to a nearby restaurant on the edge of the old city and had a lovely meal with a bottle of house wine from grapes grown on the slopes of Mt Vesuvius. You can’t get much more local than that. It was quite tasty, and cost 12 euros for the bottle. Yum.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Herculaneum, Italy, Naples, Photography, Travel | 7 Comments

Yesterday Was Too Chill (for some of us)

Posted on October 27, 2025 by If It Was Today

Yesterday we hiked up to the castle overlooking Naples, but some of us (not mentioning any names) felt the need to step it up today. There is a volcano near here – you may have heard of it … Mt Vesuvius – and they decided to hike to the top.

I hadn’t felt the need to be more energetic today so I don’t have all the details about the hike. But I’ll provide as much detail as I can. For openers, they had to hike five km from the train station before they even entered the park, and from there the trail grew steeper. At the end of the day they had hiked nearly 30 km and climbed more than 1,000 meters up.

From the top, they had stunning views over Naples. They could even see where we stood yesterday to take pictures of Mt Vesuvius.

Once they reached the top, they could walk most of the way around the caldera. Mt Vesuvius is technically still an active volcano so there is an element of danger, though it has been over 80 years since a significant eruption.

And then it was time to head down because they had to get down before the park gates were locked.

I’m including this next picture to show that I’m not the only one who likes to take pictures of flowers.

That covers the day for those who felt the need to step it up today. The others thought it made more sense to take it easy. So we took the train to Pompeii to scope things out. While we were there, lunch seemed like a good idea.

You may laugh, but it’s important to scope out how things work, like where to get your train ticket back to Naples. We almost missed our train because the people before us hadn’t done their homework.

After a rest and a refreshing drink, we headed for Ian’s favourite pizzeria. This time it was quite close, less than a kilometer. I quite like walking through the streets of old Naples. I like the excitement of dodging cars and food delivery motorcycles while walking down the narrow streets.