What do Neapolitans do when the wind blows at 70 mph? The answer is they stick their washing out to dry just the same as any other day. More than one person came home at the end of yesterday to find an item of their laundry missing. I know because on our perambulations we saw at least one sheet and a few items of clothing littering the pavements.
To escape the wind, we took a tour below ground where Roman remains have been found. From a seventeenth century church we climbed down through Mediaeval remains to the remnants of a market place from the third century BC, which was abandoned when, after three days of rain, a local hill sent a river of mud down to bury it. Fortunately, no human bones have been found as the mud slide is thought to have happened at night, when everyone was at home.
The mudrock can been seen between these doorways. Archaeologists have yet to excavate this area.When the Romans came they made use of stones (in this case for a lintel) that the Greeks had left behind.This was a hole in the wall where the Romans paid their taxes. You can just see holes in the horizontal stone at the top where iron bars would have been fitted to prevent ciizens from grabbing the collected dosh.A wood-fired oven, similar to ones used in pizzerias today, can be seen at the back of this bakery (on the left).This shows an inexpensive building technique. The diamond-shaped bricks are made of ‘tuff’ (volcanic ash) and are laid on top of Roman cement. Apparently walls made in this way are more earthquake resistant (they obviously didn’t see the mud slide coming).This arch leads to a covered area with shops.A vent to draw fresh air into the covered market area
As a postscript on the wind yesterday – the wind was in gusts, rather than a consistent blow, but caused damage to a number of the badly maintained buildings here, causing large lumps of plaster to crash down on the streets below.
My husband, Mark, and I have just sold our house and are taking a year out to have an adventure before we settle down to retirement. We decided on a journey through Italy as it has the perfect combination of good weather, interesting history, great wine and wonderful ice-cream! As we will be starting our journey in January, we are beginning in the very south of the country.
View all posts by tortoisesontour
Published
2 thoughts on “Out of the Wind on an Underground Tour”
Your blogs should be put into a book- it reminds me of Arthur Eperon’s book of his travels through France. We followed his routes for a few years and you’re tales are tempting us to do the same in Italy! Looking forward to the next ten months of travelling stories😀
Tortoise Travel 
Your blogs should be put into a book- it reminds me of Arthur Eperon’s book of his travels through France. We followed his routes for a few years and you’re tales are tempting us to do the same in Italy! Looking forward to the next ten months of travelling stories😀
LikeLike
Thank you. I haven’t come across Arthur Eperon, but I will look him up.
LikeLike