Tag: frescoes

Italy- Vino, Views & Vacation Vibes: Day 4

Saturday, August 30th, 2025

This morning we walked to the train station in Sorrento to meet our guide, Gino. Our group rode the train with him to the Pompeii station. He gave us a tour of Pompeii. We had visited here before but we still saw things we hadn’t seen before.

Entrance to Pompeii

Pompeii was a UNESCO World Heritage site. It was a Roman city that was destroyed and preserved by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD.

Mt. Vesuvius in the background

Pompeii was founded in 600 BC and was a busy Roman trading city and port with approximately 20,000 residents. After the eruption of Vesuvius that buried the city, it was rediscovered in 1599 during the construction of a canal. Excavations are still happening today.

The Stabian baths were public baths from about the 2nd century B.C.! It was divided into two sections, one for men and the other for women and it included a courtyard that was used as a gymnasium.

Stabian Baths Courtyard

We visited the House of the Faun which was a large home with an area of 2,970 square meters or 3,552 square yards. The owner was a wealthy magistrate. The home had an atrium decorated with a mosaic floor and in the center was a bronze statue of a dancing satyr.

The home also had an enormous floor mosaic that depicted the Battle of Issus between Alexander the Great and the Persian King Darius.

In the Palestra dei Iuvenes was a frescoed wall. It was a private gymnasium for young men.

Frescoe in the private gym

Our guide showed us the highlights but we barely touched the surface of how big the Roman city of Pompeii was.

After our tour we visited the Antiquarium which housed many artifacts discovered during excavations.

Modern archaeologists detected hollow spaces in the volcanic debris. This space was created by victims’ bodies decomposition. They slowly filled in the spaces with plaster. They created molds. Below are a couple of the molds that were housed in the museum.

When we finished our time in Pompeii we took the train back to Sorrento. We stopped by a wine bar near our hotel to enjoy some wine.

We enjoyed an Italian red wine that our server suggested. It was delicious.

This evening we walked around Sorrento.

There was a travel agency nearby and because the weather tomorrow was supposed to be great we booked an Amalfi coast boat tour.

Club Italy Vacation 2023 Day 7

Thursday, June 8, 2023

Since we were up so early yesterday, we relaxed at our villa where breakfast was included in our stay and it was quite a spread each morning.

Chris and Dave were busy planning out our adventures. Chris did a lot of research on the medieval towns around the area.

Chris and Dave busy planning.

Late morning we left for San Gimignano which was the town we could see from our villa. The city was named after the bishop of Modena, San Gimignano who they believed saved the city from Attila the Hun.

There are 14 remaining of the 72 towers that originally existed. These were tower houses that symbolized wealth and power of the owners.

It originally was an Etruscan village and it’s location along the Via Francigena pilgrimage route allowed it to grow. The Via Francigena was an ancient road/route from Canterbury in England, through France, Switzerland, and through Italy to Rome and on to Apulia which had ports for embarkation to the Holy Land.

A view of San Gimignano from our parking spot.
The outside fortification wall of the city.

San Gimignano’s historic center is a UNESCO world heritage site.

We visited the Collegiata, a Roman Cathedral.

Collegiata

The frescoes in the cathedral date from the 14th century.

Photo of the restoration
Restoration behind the partition.
Saint Fina Chapel
Saint Fina’s resting place in the chapel.
Photo of Saint Fina’s vault.
1000 year old fresco

After our visit of the church, six of us climbed the Torre Grossa’s 214 steps, the tallest tower in San Gimignano. It was 177 feet tall. Its walls are a little over 6 feet thick. It was worth the climb to experience the panoramic views of the city.

San Bartolo church was anciently dedicated to St. Matthew. This church went under complete reconstruction in 1173. It was devoted to St. Bartolo who was a local saint who died in 1299.

St. Bartolo Church

It was always worth stopping in to wine shops to have a wine tasting or just to enjoy a glass!

San Gimignano was known for its Vernaccia di San Gimignano wine which was made from white wine grapes. In fact, I read that is was so famous that it was even mentioned in Dante’s Inferno.

Below were some pictures from our exploration of the town.

After a fun time spent in San Gimignano, we had purchased some wine, cheese, and salami to enjoy at the villa in the evening because we had a late lunch in the town.

It was another great day!