DOI chapter:
Chap. II: Herculaneum, Papyri - Torre del Greco - Pompeii; its Theatres, Temple, Porticos, and Villa, general Appearance and Effect - Excursion to the Aqueduct, and Palace of Caserta
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62268#0049
Ch. II.
THROUGH ITALY.
39
bly can escape mutilation, and pass through the
process without some detriment, or rather with-
out material defalcation.
The fate of Herculaneum naturally reminds us
of Pompeii, which was destined to perish by the
same disastrous catastrophe in the first century,
and to arise again from its tomb in the eighteenth.
We accordingly made an excursion to this town
on Monday the 7th of June. It is about fourteen
miles from Naples, on the road to Nocera. From
Naples to Torre del Greco the highway is al-
most a street, so close are the villas, villages, and
towns to each other. As the road runs along the
coast, and at the foot of Vesuvius, every break
gives on one side a view of the bay, on the other
of the mountain.
Torre del Greco still presents in its shattered
houses, half buried churches, and streets almost
choked up with lava, a melancholy instance of
the ravages of the last eruption. The depth of
the destructive torrent is in some places five-and-
twenty feet; so that the entrance into several
houses is now in the second story ; and into one
church, through the great window over the west-
ern door. Some edifices were entirely destroy-
ed ; others were surrounded, incrusted and filled
with lava, and may perhaps give a very accurate
THROUGH ITALY.
39
bly can escape mutilation, and pass through the
process without some detriment, or rather with-
out material defalcation.
The fate of Herculaneum naturally reminds us
of Pompeii, which was destined to perish by the
same disastrous catastrophe in the first century,
and to arise again from its tomb in the eighteenth.
We accordingly made an excursion to this town
on Monday the 7th of June. It is about fourteen
miles from Naples, on the road to Nocera. From
Naples to Torre del Greco the highway is al-
most a street, so close are the villas, villages, and
towns to each other. As the road runs along the
coast, and at the foot of Vesuvius, every break
gives on one side a view of the bay, on the other
of the mountain.
Torre del Greco still presents in its shattered
houses, half buried churches, and streets almost
choked up with lava, a melancholy instance of
the ravages of the last eruption. The depth of
the destructive torrent is in some places five-and-
twenty feet; so that the entrance into several
houses is now in the second story ; and into one
church, through the great window over the west-
ern door. Some edifices were entirely destroy-
ed ; others were surrounded, incrusted and filled
with lava, and may perhaps give a very accurate