Day 29- Stabia in the back, Pompeii (Say it out loud, you'll get it)

(Originally posted on facebook July 10, 2013)

After our disappointing day at the mostly shuttered ruins of Pompeii yesterday, we headed out to unknown quarters, the recommended but remote ruins of Stabia Castellamare, sort of the Malibu of Pompeii, where wealthy people built their palatial retreats on a bluff overlooking the sea. Just as at Pompeii and Herculaneum, the sea is now a good half mile further out due to volcanic and river deposits etc., but it is still very clearly seen from the yards of the two villas we were able to visit there. In fact, there is a great view of the whole Bay of Naples from the houses, which are nestled up against the hills that continue out to the Sorrentine Peninsula. 

delicious looking gardens abound in the area of Castellamare

The overall feeling there today was very tropical, from the warm air and afternoon rain, to the loud and warm people, who seemed to be more comfortable in the heat, unlike their northern neighbors, who run for shade during the middle of the day. As we got off the train in town, we sat down to peruse the computer map I had saved from earlier. A short, very friendly woman asked us some mostly unintelligible questions and then kept beckoning us to follow her. I could tell she had some kind of speech impediment, but it wasn't till later that I realized that she was deaf, which explained her touching us to get us to look at her so she could lip read. It was feeling a bit strange, and I could understand about one word in ten, but she lead us straight to the water fountain by the stadium, which was on the way to the Villa site, and then she turned off with some friends after friendly kisses and hugs. 

So we kept on through the thronged streets, passing lovely fish stalls and fresh fruit markets, on out to the edge of the small town, then up the street with a small sign for the site. Houses all had amazing gardens, and as we got further up the street, they turned to orchards with gardens interspersed, all full to bursting with produce: tomatoes everywhere, long purple eggplants, flowering zucchini, plums, peaches, and all kinds of citrus, including the local giant lemons, which are the size of footballs. There were a couple of tiny fruitstands where we bought some delicious peaches- I'm lamenting that my picture taking seems to be so focused on art only- these stands were so classic.

Approach to the Villa San Marco leaves you scratching your head saying, "did I read that sign correctly?"

After about 20 minutes on the road, we spotted the entry to the Villa San Marco, walking down a dirt road that led past a field of produce to a funky little assembly of shacks and farmhouses, four or five lazy dogs lying around, and a small, barely visible sign pointing to the entrance. A nice lady came out to ask us to sign the guest book (they didn't want out tickets at all) and she pointed us down the hill to the entrance.

After you pass the ramshackle entrance area, you walk down the entry of the Villa. 

This house was LARGE! And residential feeling. Unlike most of Pompeii, the house's walls have been completed back to their original height and roofed, which gives you a much better feeling for what the spaces were like, and it protects the walls (and us) from (some) of the damaging effects of exposure. We were the only ones at the site, which was also very nice. An employee came and monitored us for about 5 minutes, then she disappeared. We were free to roam anywhere that wasn't cordoned off, which was very nice. You really get a sense of how nice this house must have been, with pleasant sea breezes and a very large central swimming pool surrounded by trees (about which they know exactly how big and placement by the plaster replacement technique I mentioned yesterday). There was an outrageously nice bath area that had Marianne really pining for a spa day, which we have not managed to figure out here.

Pool area of the Villa San Marco, where we sat and ate lunch with nobody but the ghosts of 2,000 year old residents.

After about an hour here, we headed out for the other site, the Villa Arianna, about twenty more minutes down the road. They have located and mapped about 6 large villas in the area, but these two are the only ones open to the public at present. The entry to Arianna was similar to San Marco (ie- subtle!) and the house was too. Very large rooms with spectacular views. Not quite as homey feeling as San Marco, but really special. Both houses were decorated mostly with fourth style decorations, which are somewhat sparser, but the feeling overall is quite rich and varied. 

Part of the bath complex at the Villa San Marco.

Unfortunately they were also both part of the earliest explorations of the area under the Bourbon rulers in the 18th century, who had the rude habit of removing fresco bits for display elsewhere- most are now in the Archeological Museum in Naples. They have replaced the missing bits in many of the spaces with photo reproductions, which while not as good as the real thing, are certainly better than nothing at all. 

Awesome "wallpapered" room at the Villa Adriana. The panel at bottom was removed to the Archeological Museum in Naples, but at least you get some idea of the look from the copy placed there.

Still, there's plenty to see, and the lack of crowds and barriers made it really pleasant. As we were exploring Arianna, the daily rainstorm with lightning was clearly visible to the east of Mt Vesuvius, and we contemplated hanging around the villa for it, but decided instead to hoof it for the train. Fortunately, the road we were on makes a loop, so we came back into town from a different side, and since the rain wasn't really coming down hard, we decided to find the beach area. Wound through the town, which is very plain jane, and ended up on the "beach", an esplanade area with a wide, trash strewn bit of dirt and grass leading to the waters edge. Don't know why it's so unkempt- it's a pretty bay in general, and the water looks relatively clean and very calm, but nobody seems to care for it at all. Further south you can see Sorrento perched on the hill, to the north you can see Naples and the islands of Procida and Ischia. It looks like there was once a street car along the esplanade, but it is obviously dead for some time. On the way back to the train station spotted an overgrown Stile Liberty mansion with butterfly capitals and beautiful wrought iron balconies. These art nouveau houses just seem to pop up in strange places like little bits of frosting on the cake!

Detail of Stile Liberty balcony of a house we stumbled upon in the town of Castellamare.

Came back on the train and picked up our usual eat-in groceries: a bag of arugula, tomatoes, beets (cooked ones in a pouch- we both love beets), some kind of roasted veggies to put in the salad, some cheese for me, some beans, bread, and a bit of dark chocolate with hazelnuts (yum!) Later we'll still manage to stuff in a gelato somehow.

Back for the passegiata in Pompeii. I think he's thinking "maybe if I wear camouflage, no one will recognize me!"

Struggling tonight with figuring out where we're going to stay when we get back to Rome tomorrow- it's hard because we're really on a tight budget and we've been waiting til the last minute because of schedule details. My band was supposed to play a gig on Thursday night, but because the standby flight we were going to try for looks too full to get on, we backed out of it, so now I think we're trying to stay here one more week to get in those last details in Roma and the surrounding area.