I think Philip and I have reached saturation point for ancient history in this part of the world! We’ve had a wonderful day today, travelling with a few of our group by train to the ruined city of Herculaneum which was also destroyed by Vesuvius at the same time as Pompei in 79AD.

Herculaneum is not as well-known as Pompei, but I enjoyed exploring it, and got more out of it. I found Pompei overwhelming – too vast, too much, too many people. Herculaneum’s ruins were discovered earlier – in the early 1700s by locals digging down for wells and the earliest evacuations were amateurs and locals who helped themselves to the treasures, antiquities and whatever they found. Only about 20% of the site has been excavated – the rest of the city is under the current town and they’re focussing now on conserving properly what is uncovered. It’s a much smaller site, but better to access and understand and far less people. They don’t have the big tour buses visiting.

You walk down through the town of Ercolano and then all of a sudden, the ruins of Herculaneum are right there in the town before you.

The city was buried under 20 metres of volcanic ash (buried deeper than Pompei) and only about 1,000 of the 7,000 people escaped. It was a fishing village in the winter and a resort for the very wealthy in the summer.

This photo (above) is of the boat sheds under the big house where they found 300 skeletons of people waiting in vain for boats to come and rescue them. The boats were on the way but didn’t get there in time. It’s copies of skeletons you can see in the photo through the doorways. The real bones are elsewhere.

Lots of the people waiting there had brought stuff from their homes – everyday objects like wicker baskets, lamps, bottles – and also expensive jewellery and lots of coins. We later saw some of the objects they’d recovered in the little museum nearby.

The remains of a boat from the nearby boatsheds

It makes it all seem more personal and heartbreakingly sad. These were real people once upon a time. Trying to get away with some of their personal wealth – but all in vain.

In this frieze above, it looks like the man on the right is going to put a knife into the other man. Maybe he’s a surgeon? I don’t know, I’m making it up!

This statue seems to be celebrating savagery. It’s hunting dogs tearing at a deer.

Beautiful, colourful frescoes on the walls. Mosaic on the floors. Decorations like columns or fancy ledges around the rooms. No effort or expense seemed to be spared for the wealthy.

Ordinary, small rooms for ordinary people and workers. It was a busy town.

Some items found in the boatsheds with the people waiting in vain for boats

It took us a long time to get back to the hotel by the trains which weren’t running as frequently in the afternoon. You often stop for long times between stations when the railway tracks narrow from two lines to one line, and you have to wait for the oncoming train to pass through before you can proceed.

This afternoon I decided to go for another swim. My last one in the Mediterranean. I decided to make more effort to find the “free” beach where you’re not expected to pay. I had more success! Now that I know what signage to look for, it’s not as difficult as I previously thought. I needed to change my perspective on how to look and find directions here. But to reach the beach I had to walk down what felt like 10,000 steps.

Hot, black sand and big stony rocks and pebbles all the way into the sea. It was easier to flop into the water as soon as it was safe to do so, rather than wade over stones and big pebbles. Much more buoyant with the very salty water and very refreshing. Here’s the proof again!

The walk back up those 10,000 steps made the shower in the hotel very welcome! No wonder Italian people are not usually overweight with the high-carb food and high-sugar diet they eat. It’s all the steps and hills they have to climb!

Our last day here in Vico Equense on the Amalfi Coast. There’s a ceilidh (pronounced cay-ley) which is Scottish music and dancing – like a barn dance – this evening for our group.

At our last meal tonight, at dessert-time, the lights were turned off in the dining room, dramatic opera music came on the loudspeakers and in walked two staff with flaming bombe alaskas – great applause from our group! It was a great success with everyone. Philip had two helpings!

Tomorrow our group heads back to England. It’s been a great week that we’ve really enjoyed with a wonderful group of people, and we got such a lot from our week in Amalfi. A fabulous week.

Some of our group at Herculaneum.

(There were more photos to add, but the programme keeps putting them in upside down – I can’t fix the problem – so that’s your lot for today – and it’s probably more than enough anyway!!)