Herculaneum and Portici: what to see, where to eat

ANDrcolano knows how to surprise. Excavations coexist in an area of ​​20 sq km one of the most fascinating ancient cities of the world, UNESCO heritagewith the glories of the Bourbon era. Embrace yourself in a lively urban area that blends with its neighbour Arcadeswith a priceless view of Vesuvius and the sea and with glimpses of Ischia, the Amalfi coast and Capri. Long resin coursethe main artery, still dominate some of the 122 period villas that make up the Golden Mile, another attraction of the city. Luxurious palaces, which bear witness to the charm of Herculaneum on the Neapolitan nobles who came on holiday, today coexist with modern condominiums and older popular homes.

An open-air museum

The archaeological site of HerculaneumHerculaneum in Latin, is an open-air museum. It’s like stepping into a time machine to be transported in a Roman city, with its villas, apartments and studios, commercial activities, places of worship, a gym and a beautiful port: the sea had a different position than the current one. Then, on October 24, 79 AD, the catastrophe. Vesuvius emits a roar and hits the city with various pyroclastic flows, 400 degree burning clouds which cause the instantaneous death of the inhabitants. Life stops and the buildings are buried in mud and 20m high volcanic material. The area will then return to being inhabited, but the ancient city falls into oblivion.

The rediscovered theatre

Then, in 1710, a farmer digging a deep well on his property finds some amazing marbles. He doesn’t know it, but it’s under his feet the ancient theater of Herculaneum. A jewel that can be visited today (from 18 years of age, for safety reasons). Unlike the ancient city, brought to light for five hectares, the theater is still prisoner of volcanic rock, but the tunnels dug as early as the eighteenth century allow you to enter the bowels below the modern city of Herculaneum and experience a moment of great emotion. By torchlight, with helmets and torches, one discovers the architecture of this place which could hold up to 2500 people.

The rich shopkeeper and the VIP villa

The countless houses of the archaeological site of Herculaneum tell us about a wealthy populationcome on farm owners to the Merchantsgive it craftsmen to the fishermen. It was a clean city, with an aqueduct and sewage system. To avoid being in the sun, one could walk under the arcades and stop for a snack in one of the many thermopolia, the fast food of the time. Some shopkeepers were wealthy.

As the owner of House of Neptune and Amphitritethe splendid mosaic that decorated the family dining room. The countless houses of the archaeological site of Herculaneum tell us about a wealthy populationcome on farm owners to the Merchantsgive it craftsmen to the fishermen. It was a clean city, with an aqueduct and sewage system. To avoid being in the sun, one could walk under the arcades and stop for a snack in one of the many thermopolia, the fast food of the time. Some shopkeepers were wealthy. As the owner of House of Neptune and Amphitritethe splendid mosaic that decorated the family dining room.

Among the wealthy of Herculaneum, there is Quintus Granius Verus, the lord of the Deer House, a 1000 m2 villa with a garden overlooked by numerous finely decorated rooms. His abode had the privilege of enjoy the sea view. We can imagine him, Quintus, under his pergola, sipping a glass of Falerno wine from Campania with friends, watching the seagulls circling on the waves.

Gyms and spas

A gem of the archaeological site is the gymwhich testifies to the interest of the inhabitants for physical well-being. Not only that: it also took place in this place political and cultural activity, between a workout and a swim in the pool. To notice the columns: they look like marble, they’re actually brick with a stucco finish finished to look like marble. Like we do today when we cover the outside of a villa with stone-like slabs to make it look like it was built in stone: the Romans already knew this trick. To wash and cure the body, Herculaneum also had its own spa.

Ladies on the run with jewels

Within the site, it is possible to visit the exhibition “Splendors. The luxury of ornaments in Herculaneum”which features some jewelry, tools, personal items found during excavations. The 300 skeletons found in the port – people killed by the volcano while waiting for a ship to take them to safety – tell us that there is nothing new under the sun. When you run away, you take money, valuables, important objects with you that can be easily transported. Rich ladies had worn their armillas, superb bracelets of gold. Not to be missed the 9-metre boatwith perfectly preserved wood, found by archaeologists in front of the baths, exhibited in a building adjacent to the “SplendOri” exhibition.

The miracle of wood

Find some old wood that has been preserved is a real rarity. The organic material it rots and deteriorates, or burns in fires. It happened in Herculaneum a miracle. The volcano’s cloud has charred furniture, beds, beams, doors, stools and under the blanket that buried them they were preserved until archaeologists found them. The challenge to face was crazy: for the first time we found such ancient wood, it was necessary study techniques to save it. If you visit the small but very interesting exhibition “Matter. The wood that didn’t burn in Herculaneum”curated by Stefania Siano and Francesco Sirano, respectively archaeologist and director of Herculaneum Archaeological Parkin the Royal Palace of Portici, one is amazed.

In the first place, for the restorations that have given us back objects that look like those from our grandmother’s cellar, and not from almost two thousand years ago. Then, for the beauty of their workmanship and for their modernity. There rocking cradle of a newborn it’s a wardrobe with space for the Lares, the spirits of the ancestors who watched over the house. A Bed is one inlaid wooden stool. A small table it’s a wooden wallet with its coins. The furnishings of the Romans weren’t all that different from ours.

Triumph of fish on the plate

It’s lunch time. For a light lunch, there is near the archaeological site Gobbling. The grilled squid with crunchy salad it is perfect for staying light with taste. Long live the King it is instead a restaurant where fish meets others gourmet flavors of the area, such as artichoke hearts. The appetizer of raw fish (prawns, grouper, mullet, tuna) is delicious, the linguine with red mullet, pea and fennel sauce.

Portici, a palace for the holidays

A visit to the “Materia” exhibition is an opportunity to discover the Palace of Portici summer residence of Charles III of Bourbon and his wife Maria Amalia of Saxony. During a trip, the two royals were so enchanted by the beauty of the area that Charles wanted to buy pre-existing land and villas to build his vacation home. It was 1738 when the works began. There was no way to make him change his mind: Vesuvius was a dangerous neighbor (the last eruption took place in 1944), but the king was very religious and relied on God. In the meantime, the discovery of the ancient cities thrilled Charles to such an extent that he made him open, inside the Reggia, the first museum dedicated to the artifacts found in Herculaneum and Pompeii, the Herculanense Museumthen merged into the Royal Bourbon Museum of Naples.

scenographic effects

The Reggia, curated by the best professionals of the time, it did not have a long life under the Bourbons. In 1872 it passed to the State property of the new unitary Italian state. The furnishings are sold and the building is destined to headquarters of the Real Higher School of Agriculture, then Faculty of Agriculture, still present.

The pearls of the Botanical Garden

Together with the School, in 1872 it is also created the Botanical Garden of Portici, in the spaces of the previous gardens commissioned by Charles III. It can be visited with a single ticket together with the Royal Palace, today it has a beautiful collection of succulents, a monumental camphor, a stupendous female Ginkgo biloba and the increasingly rare Primula palinuriendemic to calcareous areas. If you go there, you absolutely cannot miss it two very rare plants, which the garden owns. The first is the Woodwardia radicans that looks like any fern. Instead, it is a living fossil, whose ancestors date back to the Tertiaryi.e. 60 million years ago. The second is the Welwitschia mirabilis, unique in Europe (there is one specimen in Berlin, but there are around 40 here). This drought tolerant champion hails from the Namib and Kalahari deserts. At first glance, it will look ugly, resembling a mass of crumpled leaves. In reality, each plant has only two leaves that can reach up to 6 meters in length, capable of absorb moisture from dew and thus managing to survive in the most prohibitive conditions. In the wild, you can only see it in Namibia and Angola.

Villa Campolieto

If you want to see one of the Vesuvian villas of the Golden Mile, Villa Campolieto it is among the most beautiful and has been skilfully restored. It is open to visitors and can be booked for events and weddings. A curiosity: the architect Louis Vanvitelli, who also worked at the Reggia di Portici, created the spectacular frescoed dining room with a particular technique. In one corner, there is his portrait while scanning the sky with a monocle.

Sunset walk at the port

At sunset, a glass of Taurasi red wine or a Fiano d’Avellino in one of the many bars and clubs port of Granatello di Portici it’s the best way to end the day, before dinner. It is suggestive to take a stroll along the seafront at sunset, passing by the fishermen’s boats offering their fish. The view is gorgeous: Capri and Ischia, Naples and in the distance Capo Miseno. The Ercolano Portici railway station, an ordinary building, reminds us that the first railway in Italy, the Naples-Portici, arrived here in 1839. For enthusiasts, not far from Portici there is the National Railway Museum of Pietrarsa.

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