Ciao, Italia!

When I was a graduate student in the Archaeology Program at UCLA, I usually spent my summers working on archaeological digs. However, in the summer of 1990, I took a break from digging to study Arabic at a language school in Tunisia. After six weeks of intensive language study, I was ready for a break, so I stopped in Italy on the way home. To say I loved it was an understatement! I visited Rome, Pompeii, and the Amalfi Coast, and spent a week in Florence staying with family friends. For years, I promised myself I’d go back, and last month, I fulfilled that promise.

The following day, I took a half-day tour of ancient Rome, which included the Colosseum, the Forum, and Palatine Hill. If you’ve ever watched the 2000 movie Gladiator (which I just rewatched, by the way—so good!), you’ve seen the Colosseum. Up close, it was even more incredible! Our guide took us through the different levels and explained what each part of the arena was used for. Even though April isn’t the “high season,” the place was packed! On the other hand, Palatine Hill—an area once considered one of the most desirable neighborhoods in ancient Rome—was much quieter. We visited the ruins of temples, walked through gardens, and took in the incredible views.

My next experience—a half-day tour based on the book Angels and Demons by Dan Brown—was purely for entertainment. If you’ve read the book (or seen the movie), you might recall that the hero, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, has to crisscross the city trying to solve a series of clues before an antimatter bomb goes off under Vatican City. Though our tour lacked the same “save-the-world” urgency, we visited most of the places in the story, including the historic church of Santa Maria del Popolo in the Piazza del Popolo, St. Peter’s Square, the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, and the Castel Sant’Angelo (the location of the “Church of Illumination”). Along the way, we learned which parts of the story had a basis in fact and which parts stretched the truth (or were just made up). Sadly, we did not get to take the secret underground passage from Castel Sant’Angelo to the Vatican (“il passetto”) or visit the secret Vatican archives.

After three days in Rome, I headed to Naples (Napoli), a three-hour bus ride from Rome. Though it’s grittier and noisier than Rome, the city has a vibrant energy and a huge passion for football (aka soccer), as evidenced in numerous banners, flags, posters, and shrines to their football club, S.S.C. Napoli. In the evening, I joined a food tour centered along the Via dei Tribunali, the main street running through the historic center of town. Our tasting menu included pizza (of course!), deep-fried pasta in bechamel sauce, bruschetta, cheeses, gelato, and limoncello. Yum!

Before going on this trip, I’d read that you shouldn’t attempt to visit the ancient ruins at Pompeii and Herculaneum on the same day. Since my time was limited, I didn’t have much choice, so I booked a day tour to visit both sites. I’m glad I did, because the two experiences were very different. Both of these ancient cities were completely devastated by the volcanic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. As a result of the eruption, Pompeii was buried under more than 19 feet of ash and pumice, and was only rediscovered during the 1700s. It’s an extensive site—filled with wide streets and the remains of homes, shops, public baths, temples, and theaters—and it’s impossible to see in a few hours. Our tour guide—a local archaeologist—told us it’s still an active excavation site, and that he usually works there for most of the year.

Herculaneum, while well-preserved, is less popular with tourists than Pompeii (which was absolutely packed). It’s a much smaller site because only about 20% of the actual city has been excavated. Much of the rest is located under modern-day buildings, which means there’s a good chance it will never be revealed. Still, during our visit we were able to see the ruins of numerous homes, shops, and villas, some of which had gorgeous mosaic tile work or frescoes painted on the wall.