Lavish Views, Luxurious Villas, and an Animal-Lover

Friday, August 6, 2010

 

 Wednesday we went to Oplontis to the so-called “Villa of Poppaea”. This was my second trip there this summer but with different lecturers I saw the site with whole new eyes. It was interesting to look at the layers of ash, pumice, and pyroclastic flow that covered the villa before the archaeologists dug it up. We also looked carefully at the styles of wall-paintings in this well-preserved upper-class home outside of Pompeii.

Layers of ash, lapilli, and pyroclastic flow can be seen behind Matthew

In the afternoon we took a hydrofoil to Capri for two nights. We returned this afternoon. What a great time! We saw the Villa Jovis, one of Emperor Tiberius' villas. We stayed at a four-star hotel on Anacapri called the Hotel San Michele, which boasts the largest swimming pool of all the hotels on Capri. This trip is usually a highlight of the end of this two-week program, but we had to do it this week due to scheduling conflicts. Apparently next weekend is a major Roman holiday, and hotel rooms on Capri are not to be had for love or money.

"Capri" means "goats." Here are capri on Capri! We were near Tiberius' villa.

 Matthew and I enjoyed taking the Funiculare, a kind of tram that climbs up and down the hill, to the beach, where we took a boat tour around the island. We didn't get into the Blue Grotto due to tides and weather. This cave may have been a dining room for Tiberius. Fragments of statues of Tritons were found in the cave which could connect him to it. 

Mother and son enjoy the boat tour around the island

Heading for the "Kissing Cave" on the boat tour

We also visited the Villa San Michele, quite near the hotel, which is a former residence of the Swedish-born physician and writer, Axel Munthe. He died in 1949 but lived an intense life. I plan to look up his book, The Story of San Michele, when I get home. It sounds like a great read. His love of the island of Capri resonates in the book and helped popularize it as a destination. He was also quite the animal-lover, according to the signs at the museum.

A photo of Axel Munthe, the animal lover with his menagerie

The gardens of Axel Munthe's home, the museum at San Michele, are as gorgeous as the views!

The views from San Michele, just like views all over the island, are fantastic, and the grounds and gardens are worth the visit in themselves. I also got some nice inscriptions from a cemetery on Anacapri that will be a nice challenge for my Latin Two students.

One of many spectacular views on Capri

 San Michele is Italian for the Archangel Michael, by the way. There used to be a church by that name on Munthe's property, which may have been another villa of Tiberius' in a former life. The property was run down when Munthe bought it and fixed it up. Munthe liked Classical antiquity. There are even a couple of sphinxes, one Etruscan and one Egyptian from 1200 B.C.E., on the property. 

I thought it most interesting that as a physician, he never billed for his services. He found some wealthy patrons who supported him quite lavishly but he served the poor as well, including a stint in the Red Cross during WWI. For more pictures from this leg of our trip, visit this set on Flickr.

Tomorrow we go back to Pompeii. I had better rest up while I can!