Ercolano, uno scrigno prezioso Le Guide di Paestum e Velia en

Herculaneum is one of the cities buried during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD; it was the first to be discovered by eighteenth-century european scholars, thanks to the Bourbon excavation of tunnels, started in 1738.

Less known than Pompeii, it is a real gem for its wonderful state of preservation.

The city was smaller than Pompeii and however an important seaside resort for its splendid maritime villas of illustrious men.

Herculaneum was also famous for figs cultivation and luxury homes.

What is really amazing, is that it’s still possible to see burnt wooden doors, beams and partition of homes, metal items as beds and many other little carbonized things. In different private homes there are nice mythological frescoes or still life paintings, such as those of the House of the deer, or amazing mosaics such as those preserved in the house of "Neptune and Amphitrite". Beside private buildings, there are thermal baths and little shops for food and beverage, with terracotta amphoras. Then, on a piece of wall along the street, there is a rare inscription: it’s the punishment inflicted on those who threw rubbish in the middle of the road: a serious problem even in that time !!! On the wall near “The house of the black salon" there is a fresco reporting the cost of the so called "cucume", that is containers for wine; another fresco invites people to participate in a gladiators’show in the amphitheater of Nola. How much life !!! What is perhaps very impressive is the accumulation of skeletons of those who tried to escape towards the sea, during the eruption of 79 AD, but were suffocated by burning lava on ​​the ancient beach. In one word, Herculaneum must be visited !!!