Back in 2013 we went to see the Pompeii and Herculaneum exhibition at the British Museum. Before then I had only been aware of Pompeii, but I was amazed by the artefacts on display from both sites, and added Herculaneum to my list of places to visit.
The Herculaneum site is much smaller than Pompeii, but like Pompeii much of the site has yet to be excavated. We spent around three hours walking around the site, aided by a map and a free PDF transcript of the audio guide which I had downloaded to my phone beforehand (the audio guide would have cost €8!).
It was sad to find that much of what we saw was covered in graffiti, so it was not a surprise to find that some areas were locked up and out of bounds. However there was still plenty to see, and the best areas for me were the two bathhouses. I was also amazed that in various places we were walking across the original mosaic flooring.
As we had a half hour wait for the train back, we stopped at a café by the station for a coffee and were royally ripped off, being charged €8 for two small americanos which tasted foul. Definitely avoid Bar Vesuvio if you’re in the area!
We’ll now be having a couple of days downtime, staying locally and exploring Pompeii new town. On Thursday we will be back on the road again driving towards Bari, from where we’ll be catching the ferry to Greece on Friday.
Mike
