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I am almost embarrassed to admit this, but yesterday was my first trip to Herculaneum. I don’t have a very good explanation for this. I have been to Pompeii 20 times but had never visited it’s more colorful and suggestive counterpart. Maybe its a question of marketing, but Pompeii draws more visitors 10,000:1 (my hyperbolic statistic). The lower volume of tourist traffic accounts for two major pluses for Herculaneum: 1) Fewer visitors means less damage and graffiti, less being a relative term in Italy. (I will always wonder if the Marco + Stefania graffito from the suburban baths in Pompeii was written by the same hand as “Marco ama Stefania” message in the House of the Stag in Herculaneum...) 2) Fewer enormous tour groups. The archaeological site in Herculaneum is relatively small. Yesterday in the two hours I spent at the site, I encountered 20 people. It’s amazing to have whole villas to yourself. And not once did I see a tour guide using a car antennae to distinguish herself in a crowd. Aside from the aforementioned factors, Herculaneum has other advantages: carbonized wooden doors are still visible, more frescos and mosaics are in-situ, many villas preserve their vertical height, and some buildings have their second stories. In sum, visit Herculaneum.
Herculaneum
Monday, February 27, 2006