Herculaneum,The,New,Pompeii,Fo travel,insurance Herculaneum – The New Pompeii

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For those of you who know history and even if thesubject is not your forte, you probably have herd of both Pompeii andHerculaneum. Since that fateful day in 79 A.D. the two cities have beenin an eternal battle for the hearts minds and dollars of visitors fromaround the globe; Herculaneum just dealt the death blow to Pompeii; andthe world waits for the bell to ring ending the fight.The twocities are located in the same area around Naples and are only a fewmiles apart but they have drastic differences that make each unique;but recently the region of Campania has made changes to Herculaneumthat puts it on the top of the ruins to see in Italy.Let's talka little history why don't we. First let's talk about the name;Herculaneum is the ancient name and is no longer used except in booksand movies. In fact when you are driving on the A3 highway or takingthe chercumvisivania (train that runs from Naples to Sorrento withstops along the way) from the Amalfi coast the signs do not sayHerculaneum. If you don't know this little tidbit of information youwill be forever lost trying to find the site. Today the name used inmodern Italian is Ercolano. On August 24, 79 AD the eruption of MountVesuvius buried the town in superheated pyroclastic material.Pompeiibeing just that much closer to Mt. Vesuvius resulted in a huge amountof damage compared to its sister city just a few miles further away.Throughout history and the expert promotion efforts of the ItalianGovernment and various guide books, TV shows and made for TV movies;Pompeii has risen to the winner's podium in the eyes of the world.Herculaneumhas always been much better preserved than Pompeii and much smaller butwas located tightly in a small neighborhood and was fraught withdifficult access, parking and support by the local community. Pompeiion the other hand established itself as the easiest to visit withdozens of parking lots, cafe's, restaurants, audio guides and aninfrastructure that could handle thousands of visitors each day.WhenI went to Pompeii for the first time, it was a hot summer and the firstthing that blew my mind was the size of the site. Pompeii is huge, Imean city huge. There is no quick visit of Pompeii; in fact it will eatup a travel day in a New York second. The site surprises people fromaround the globe with a maze of ruins that would take most people aweek to see correctly. The majority of the structures that remain aredouble and single walled compounds without roofs but the structuresthat are more complete are quite amazing such as the bath house andgladiator arena. Pompeii is so large that you see parts of the city oneat a time not just individual buildings. If you have the time, Pompeiiis a must but Herculaneum is coming up fast and may pass itscompetition due to the impressive and grand improvements around thearcheological site.Less than 20 months ago the town ofEurculaneo decided that the site deserved better; actually they wantedmore money from tourist's visits so they made some impressive changes. Prior to the improvements the access to the site was primitive atbest. Tour buses, cars and people had to walk long and hard to enterand ticketing access, information and restrooms were few and farbetween. The changes made to the flow of people and information isdramatic and places Herculaneum at the top of easy access sites.Theimprovements to the area include a new underground parking garage, newbus parking, new wide access entrance area and garden, huge ticketing,information and rest area with ample access to restrooms. Herculaneumis well below ground level by about 200 feet so a very wide and smoothwalkway has been built that follows the upper rim of the site andoffers a very mild slope to a new bridge that puts you directly at thehighest point of the ruins. Prior to the new ramping system, visitorshad a grueling 200 step climb through a tunnel that was formed throughthe rock that surrounds the site; that tunnel is still open for thosewho explore to the lowest point of the site and want to depart fromthere instead of trekking back up to the new bridge.For visitorswith limited mobility or those that don't care to walk far; Ercolano isthe only choice. Pompeii is very spread out and requires hours ofwalking, Herculaneum is much smaller and one can walk from one end tothe other in less than 5 minutes. While Pompeii offers a vast arena ofarcheological wonders spread over ½ mile radius; it can take a time andimagination to put your mind's eye back in time to the golden days oflife in the town while Ercolano offers almost a complete town toexplore. Instead of seeing many single and double walled ruins you cantake your time to go inside houses, meeting rooms, shops, bakeries,town halls and baths and see complete spaces from ancient wallpaintings to wood doors as they stood in 79 A.D.The shear amountof details within the ruins is stunning and will keep even the mostrestless of the family members happy and eager to explore the ancientpast of this great city. END