We did not have the time during our brief trip to see the ruins in Pompeii or Herculaneum. But we did the next best thing which was to visit the Archaeology Museum in downtown Naples. All of the artifacts that were found during the excavations are housed here in the museum rather than at the actual site of Pompeii.
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| Pompeiian mosaic of a Panther, a symbol of Dionysus the god of wine |
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| Colored mosaic detail on a column excavated from Pompeii |
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| For me, this comedy scene was the most intricate mosaic of them all - the tiles were smaller than the head of an eraser |
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| Close-up detail of the comedy scene mosaic |
The museum is also home to the Farnese sculpture collection. The statues are incredible, some of them done on a very large scale. Many are copies of original Greek statues, but they are so old that the copies themselves are of historical significance.
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| Statue of Apollo with a lyre, done in two different types of stone |
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| These two-headed statues were kind of creepy. In the foreground is a duo of Herodotus and Thucydides. |
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| The Farnese Bull is the largest single sculpture found in antiquity. It tells the myth of Dirce being tied to a wild bull, but it took archaeologists many years to figure out which bull myth the sculpture represented. |
After a couple of exhausting hours touring the museum, it was nice to find a bench and sit in the amazing Sala de La Meridiana to view the frescoed ceiling.
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| The museum building itself was quite beautiful, this is the staircase leading to the 2nd floor |
Seeing an open doorway, we stepped out onto a balcony but were chased back into the museum by a guard -- the door wasn't supposed to be open as the balcony was being restored. I still managed to snap a photo of the pretty domed building across the street.
After a full day in Naples, we ate our first Napolitan pizza dinner. Mangiamo! Delizioso!
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| Best. |
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| Pizza. |
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| Ever. |
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