Day Twelve and Thirteen: Farm Villas, Amphitheathers, and Mt. Vesuvius, oh my!

Yesterday and today, we traveled all over the Naples area to visit many different sites. Yesterday, we visited three ancient rural farm ruins. The first two ruins were located in more elaborate summer vacation homes that just happened to have a farm attached. The final farm ruin was more of a working farm in which almost every room of the home was used for farm production.

Here are a few pictures of the rural farm house:

These cisterns are placed in the ground to hold grape juice. The grape juice would

then ferment causing an extraordinary event to occur: wine making!

Today, we visited numerous sites as well. We visited another site that claims to be the Grotto of Sybil, the prophetess of Apollo (see day 10 for details). This site was even spookier than the last. We entered a dark, deep tunnel. At the end of about 150 yards, we reached a small doorway leading to an even more confining space. Down at the bottom of the tunnel was a small river. Some scholars think that ancient people believed that this was the entrance to the Underworld. The small river was the River Styx, the river that all souls used to enter the Underworld. Very spooky.

Could this be the ancient entrance to the Underworld?

We also traveled to Mount Vesuvius today. This is the active volcano that wiped out both Pompeii and Herculaneum. We drove most of the way to the top and then climbed about 300 yards up to the summit. We were able to see most of the Bay of Naples area - even Pompeii from the top. Also, the crater was huge. It was also VERY cool (literally!). The mountain had these lovely flowering trees that smelled like juniper. On the way up the mountain, I could smell the fragrant breeze. The cool air caressed my face. The crater in the volcano was massive. When the volcano blew in 79 A.D., it blew about 1/3 of the mountain off the top and into the air. The crater is a reminder of this powerful force of nature.  

Here I am with Vesuvius in the background.

My camera battery died of the way up the mountain!

I look pretty dead myself!

(Maybe it was all that journeying into the Underworld!)

Tomorrow, we head to Herculaneum. This is a small town that was destroyed by lava from Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Also, some ancient papyrii scrolls were found here. Scholars have been working for centuries to try and restore them so we can read and learn more about ancient culture.