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Telegraph
25-05-2025
- Telegraph
Why I swapped a two-hour flight to Sardinia for a two-day journey by train and ferry
The sea glittered as we cruised into Naples; Ischia to port, Capri to starboard and the camel-humped profile of Mount Vesuvius ahead. We sat on deck in the spring sunshine and considered our good fortune. We weren't on an expensive cruise but an overnight ferry from Sardinia. When DH Lawrence made a similar journey with his wife in 1921 there were cattle on deck and the crowing of cockerels woke them in their cramped four-berth quarters. By contrast, our quiet twin cabin, high above sea level, had an en-suite shower and a large window. The cost of the 15-hour crossing, including accommodation, Wi-Fi, four-course evening meal with wine and continental breakfast, was just £160 for two. Being early April, a time of year that many Italians still call 'winter', there were fewer than 200 passengers on board the ship – Grimaldi Lines' Europa Palace – with capacity for nearly 2,000. I was travelling back from Sardinia to the UK after a week's holiday with friends. For over two decades now I've chosen not to fly; preferring slower travel. It had taken me 22 hours by train and ferry to reach Sardinia, which I had spread out over two days. Although sleeper trains are having a renaissance across Europe, I prefer to travel by day then check into a hotel for a good night's rest and the chance of some sightseeing before continuing the journey. On day one, a Saturday, I travelled on the Eurostar to Paris, leaving at lunchtime, before taking a first-class seat on the top deck of a high-speed TGV for three hours to Marseille, and arriving at my hotel, the Mercure Centre Vieux Port, just after 9pm. On Sunday morning, I walked to the vibrant old port, not to catch a ferry – that wasn't until the evening – but to sightsee. A glorious food market was setting up and tour boats were heading out to the nearby Frioul archipelago. I hiked to the basilica of Notre Dame de la Garde, for views over the city, to the islands and Château d'If. Later, I swam in the bracing sea and enjoyed a cold beer at a buzzy outdoor cafe in the fishing neighbourhood of Vallon des Auffes. Then it was an hour's afternoon train (£15) along the craggy limestone coast to the port of Toulon, where I took an overnight ferry – £80, including cabin, Wi-Fi and breakfast – to Sardinia. First stop was Ajaccio in Corsica, where dawn rays gilded snow-capped mountains. The only other English voices I heard on board came from a couple from Harrogate who were taking their camper-van to Sardinia for a three-week island tour. Sixteen hours after departing Toulon, we arrived in the northwestern Sardinian port of Porto Torres at midday, and I headed to my guesthouse, Affittacamere da Priscilla. Rosa was my host, with whom I practised Italian. She told me how to find the best nearby beach, Balai, and I was soon flopped on white sand lapped by a gin-clear sea. The next morning it was just a ten-minute walk to the train station for a three-hour ride (£17) through the verdant heart of Sardinia to Cagliari, where I met up with my friends. Six of us enjoyed a week of spring sun and eating and drinking by the beach. Away from our sea-view villa, we wandered around the hilly capital, Cagliari; up marble steps to the bastion that DH Lawrence somehow found 'dreary' and to the city's archaeological museum with its fascinating Bronze and Iron Age sculptures and figurines. We ambled through narrow streets, and at the cathedral – which Lawrence describes as 'baroque and sausagey' – I climbed 80 steps to the top of the bell tower for views across rooftops to briny, flamingo-dotted lakes and the sea. Occasionally there was the scent of orange blossom. We dined al fresco at a restaurant – Impasto – in a square shaded by ficus trees. For the long journey back to the UK, my friend Sue joined me. We joked about the number of animals we might take. There is the option of up to ten pets per passenger on Grimaldi Lines. Dog owners exercise pooches on the top deck, where staff in high-vis vests mop up puddles of urine. There's also a small swimming pool (for humans, presumably) but, being early in the season, it was empty. Less than an hour after the ferry docked in Naples, we were sitting on the restaurant terrace of Hotel San Francesco al Monte with morning coffee and a Vesuvius view. We nosed around the former monastery, where there were strange cave-like tunnels and a meeting room set as if for the Last Supper. There was still a full afternoon to explore the city, so we walked down through the Spanish quarter, its narrow lanes overhung with washing. We stepped into doorways as cars squeezed past and ate at a little pizzeria as Vespas and pedestrians brushed by. In the old town, we hoped to see the veiled Christ sculpture at Cappella Sansevero but it was fully booked. The orange trees and painted tiles of the Santa Chiara cloister provided consolation. The daringly modern facade of the 15th-century church of Gesù Nuovo astounded me. The next morning, before breakfast, I took a funicular up to Morghen, near the hulking presence of St Elmo's castle. I walked back to the hotel, down wide paved steps, a view of Vesuvius framed by graffiti-daubed buildings, a street cleaner sweeping away beer bottles from night-time revellers. Then we took a taxi to Naples Central station for our plush Frecciarossa train to Milan, which reached speeds of 185mph. In first class a steward trundled down the aisle with an espresso machine dispensing caffeine shots to a mostly business-suited clientele heading to Rome. There were views of snow-topped Apennine mountains, the chalky blue Tiber and rolling countryside with cypresses and hilltop villages. We passed under Florence without stopping and before long we arrived at Milan Central. Over 400 miles had whizzed past in four hours and 40 minutes; the train was just one minute late. In DH Lawrence's day, the Italian railway was 'infinitely more miserable' than the British. The opposite seems true today. Our connection to Lugano was waiting. At Chiasso, Swiss border guards walked through the train. Six hours after leaving Naples, we arrived in Lugano, in the Italian-speaking south of Switzerland, Ticino. Continental Park Hotel was a handy five-minute walk from the station with views of lakes and mountains. The next day we had a leisurely breakfast and a stroll in Tassino Park, neighbouring the hotel and full of blossoms. Mountains were wreathed in mist and morning sun sparkled on the lake. At midday we left on a train to Basel. The route took us along the shores of Lake Lucerne, where yachts sailed with a backdrop of Alpine peaks. In buttercup-spattered meadows, cows wearing bells grazed. Soon, I imagine, they will be herded up to high summertime pastures. The route didn't have the drama of the Bernina and Glacier Expresses, with their viaducts, altitude and inclines, but it was gently beautiful, as well as being faster and more straightforward. At Basel, we changed for a train to Frankfurt. It left 25 minutes late. So much for Swiss punctuality. I went to the buffet car. It was predictably expensive – CHF28 (about £26) for a (large) glass of wine with some antipasti – so I opted for a small bottle of beer (£5). We reached Frankfurt six hours after leaving Lugano. Here we took a local train to a small town, Hofheim, to visit old friends. Two days later we continued our journey: a comfortable three-hour train ride from Frankfurt to Brussels followed by the Eurostar to London. Sardinia itself was glorious, but it was the travel there and back that was the adventure. You don't often say that about flying. How to do it The total cost for my journey from Banbury to Sardinia and back was approximately £500, including ferries, first-class trains and some meals. This relatively bargain price was mostly thanks to a 'four-day-in-a-month' flexi-pass from InterRail. I paid just £202 for a first-class pass (compared to £170 for second), meaning comfortable wider seats for train travel of up to 24 hours a day if I wished. Eurostar first class includes preferential check-in and a meal service with wine. Travel to and from your UK home station is included with an InterRail global pass. Seat reservations are mandatory on some trains – generally the faster ones – and add to the cost (Eurostar first-class reservations cost about £35 each way). On days where I was only making inexpensive train trips (Marseille to Toulon and Porto Torres to Cagliari), I paid for these separately to avoid using a pass day. Reservations for InterRail pass holders on Eurostar can sell out several days or weeks in advance during peak season.
CNN
17-05-2025
- Science
- CNN
Ancient home shows evidence of how Pompeiians tried to shelter from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius
Archaeologists have uncovered evidence that four people, including a child, in the ancient Roman town of Pompeii used furniture to block a bedroom door and shield themselves from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. Ultimately, the home became their final resting place, according to new research published in April in the E-Journal of the Pompeii Excavations. During the catastrophic eruption, the volcano spewed hot, lethal gases and ash into the air, slowly killing most of the city's population. Ash and volcanic rock called pumice then covered Pompeii and its residents, eerily preserving the victims' last moments for millennia. The excavation team made the discovery while investigating the House of Helle and Phrixus, named for a mythological painting found in the home. Researchers partially investigated the home's front rooms between 2018 and 2019, but the team behind the new study revisited the site over the past couple of years, exposing one-third of the building in preparation to restore and open it to the public, said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii. 'Excavating and visiting Pompeii means coming face to face with the beauty of art but also with the precariousness of our lives,' Zuchtriegel said in a statement. The investigation has also revealed that the home was under renovation during the time of the eruption, and ironically, the very art for which the house is named echoes the tragic events that unfolded within it, the researchers said. During the excavations, the team unearthed an atrium with a water collection basin, a banquet hall with lavishly decorated walls, a room with a central opening for rainwater and the bedchamber. Small fragments of volcanic debris probably fell like rain through the opening during the first phases of the eruption, causing the four people inside the home to rush to the bedroom and blockade it with a bed to protect themselves. But as the fallout from the eruption continued, the researchers believe the inhabitants pulled back the bed from the door and attempted to escape. The Pompeiians' remains were found in the banquet hall. 'The arrival of the first pyroclastic cloud that entered the ancient city or the collapse of parts of the upper floors could then have caused the death of the four victims,' the study noted. Pyroclastic clouds, or a dense mixture of ash, gas and rock dispersed during a volcanic eruption, caused a searing, rapid avalanche of debris to fill the home, Zuchtriegel said. The team made a cast of the bed after identifying voids left by the decomposition of the bed frame and pouring plaster inside it to preserve its shape. The scene is just one of many examples that serve as a reminder of the terror and agony faced by Pompeii's residents as they attempted to seek shelter, he added. 'Many took shelter in small rooms of buildings presumably, because they felt safer and more secure than in open areas exposed to the volcanic material raining down,' Zuchtriegel said. 'Just in the last year we have discovered a couple of victims who had barricaded themselves in the narrow entrance hall to The House of the Painters at Work. Having closed the doors at each end of the hallway, they must have believed and hoped they would be protected.' And in the House of the Thiasus, a young man and an older woman closed the window and door to a small room to protect themselves, only to get stuck there. 'Nevertheless, hours into the eruption (the victims) became trapped as the pumice accumulated outside, blocking any potential escape route should they have decided to flee,' Zuchtriegel said. In the home where the four people examined in the new study died, a central wall in the banquet hall has a fresco of Phrixus and his sister Helle from Greek mythology. As the myth goes, Helle and Phrixus escape their hateful stepmother Ino by flying away on a ram with golden fleece. But during the escape, Helle falls into a strip of sea, which was named Hellespont after her — it's known today as the Dardanelles or the Strait of Gallipoli in Turkey. The fresco captures the moment when Helle holds out a hand to Phrixus for help. The ancient story likely no longer held any religious value for Pompeii residents and served merely as a decoration and status display, Zuchtriegel said. But in hindsight, it mirrors the desperate moments faced by the people trapped in the house during the eruption. 'The discovery of a group of individuals, who perhaps represent only a few of the household, were clinging to hope of survival in the face of horror and tragedy much like Helle herself who, in the fresco that lends its name to the house, attempts to cling on to her twin brother in vain,' he said in an email. 'When we excavate everything that we find is a surprise and in Pompeii those surprises come in the form of fragments and clues that can tell very personal stories but also shed light on the collective experience of loss and disaster in tandem with the hope and aspirations of the population,' Zuchtriegel added. The removal of thresholds, missing decorations and portions of cut masonry at the entrance suggest the house undergoing a renovation — but the disruption wasn't significant enough to keep people from living there or seeking refuge during the eruption. The house was also still full of elegant items and was well decorated, Zuchtriegel said. In addition to the human remains, the team also found a bronze bulla, or an amulet worn by boys until they reached adulthood. Amphorae — two-handled jars used for storing liquids — were uncovered in a basement that was utilized as a pantry. Some of the jars contained garum, a pungent fish sauce that was common at the time. The researchers also found a set of bronze pottery, including a cup shaped like a shell, a basket vase, a ladle and a single-handled jug. 'Each house in Pompeii is unique,' Zuchtriegel said. 'Each has its peculiarities, its unique decorations, and its individual assortment of objects reflecting the personal choices and tastes as well as the fortunes and of course, misfortunes of its ancient occupants. The House of Helle and Phrixus was quite small, but it had marvelous paintings, which express the ambition of these people to rise in the social hierarchy. At the same time, they had to be careful not to lose their status.'
New York Times
11-05-2025
- Science
- New York Times
In Their Final Moments, a Pompeii Family Fought to Survive
One day in the year 79, Pompeii came under fire. The explosion of nearby Mount Vesuvius sent a mushroom cloud of ash and rock into the atmosphere, pummeling the ancient Roman trading hub and resort in a ceaseless hail of tiny volcanic rocks. Many residents ran for their lives, trying to find safety with their loved ones before searing volcanic debris buried the estimated 1,500 residents who remained in Pompeii. In a study published last month in the journal Scavi di Pompei, scientists documented events at one home in the doomed city where a family sought refuge inside a back room by pushing a wooden bed against a door in a vain attempt to stop a flood of volcanic rocks from the sky, known as lapilli. The small-but-well-appointed residence is known as the House of Helle and Phrixus, after a richly decorated fresco in the dining room. It depicts the mythological siblings Phrixus and Helle escaping their wicked stepmother on a winged ram only to have Helle fall and, ominously, drown in the sea below. As with many ancient Roman residences, its atrium, an open-roof room centrally located in the home, was used for ventilation and rainwater collection. But on that day, the recess allowed volcanic rock to more rapidly overtake the space. Most Pompeians 'had no clue what was happening,' said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, an author of the study and the director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii. 'Many thought the end of the world had come,' he added. In the years that followed, the hot ash that eventually buried the home solidified and left an imprint that archaeologists filled with plaster to reconstruct the shape of the wooden bed that remained. The technique helps illustrate the horror of the Pompeian dead in their final moments and how perishable everyday items made of wood, textiles and leather were situated in their environments. The skeletal remains of four people, most likely members of the same family, were identified in the study. The lapilli, which reached heights as high as nine feet in some locations, could not be controlled, and researchers believe the people made a final attempt to escape, leaving the small room in which they had barricaded themselves. They got only as far as the triclinium, the formal dining room where their remains were found. 'The family in the House of Helle and Phrixus probably died when the so-called pyroclastic flow, an avalanche of hot ash and toxic gas, arrived and parts of the building collapsed,' Dr. Zuchtriegel said. He and his colleagues suggest that the remains of the four people found in the home were from a family that stayed behind and may have included some enslaved members who worked at the residence. Still, archaeologists don't know for sure if they lived there or simply took refuge after the homeowners had already escaped. 'It's not certain that the individuals found in the house as victims were part of the family,' said Marcello Mogetta, an associate professor of Roman art and archaeology at the University of Missouri who was not involved in the study. Among the skeletal remains was a bronze bulla that belonged to a child. The ancient amulets were worn like lockets around the necks of young free boys to shield them from danger until they reached adulthood. 'The amulet was supposed to protect them, so there's a cruel irony to the fact that it didn't,' said Caitie Barrett, a professor of archaeology at Cornell University who was not involved in the study. Bourbon explorers sent by Charles III in the 18th century carried out rudimentary excavations of Pompeii that disturbed the skeletal remains of the victims found in the House of Helle and Phrixus. When they tunneled into the residence in search of valuables like jewelry and artwork, they left behind holes in the walls. These early excavators often had little interest in human remains, either in respecting their preservation, dignifying their deaths or studying their material culture. But today it's the human toll that feels most prominent for archaeologists and for many of the visitors who regularly pour into Pompeii. Whether or not the remains belonged to those who were indeed family will be something that researchers may try to uncover through DNA analysis in the near future. Family or not, it doesn't change the human tragedy of the story. 'Whatever the nature of their specific relations, they would have been the last people to offer each other comfort at the end,' Dr. Barrett said.
The Sun
08-05-2025
- General
- The Sun
Tragic Pompeii discovery reveals doomed family's desperate bid to escape eruption by barricading door with bed
THE eruption of Mount Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago is largely considered to be one of the worst in history - incinerating or suffocating thousands of people living at the base of it. And archaeologists have just uncovered the heartbreaking final moments of a young family's bid to survive. 7 7 7 During a recent excavation of a house in Pompeii, archaeologists found the remains of four people, including a child, in a barricaded room. A bed had been moved against the bedroom door, in what was likely the family's last effort to escape the searing hot ash that was flooding the city. "In this small, wonderfully decorated house, we found traces of the inhabitants who tried to save themselves, blocking the entrance to a small room with a bed," Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Archeological Park of Pompeii, said in a statement translated from Italian. The findings, published in Scavi di Pompei, offer an insight into the people who knew their lives were in trouble when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. "Excavating and visiting Pompeii means coming face to face with the beauty of art but also with the precariousness of our lives," added Zuchtriegel. The house, named casa di Elle e Frisso, was first uncovered in 2019, during the excavations of a neighboring site called the House of Leda and the Swan. It was an ordinary day when Mount Vesuvius, a major stratovolcano, erupted and entombed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in ash. This type of volcano is known for having extremely violent eruptions due to its magma containing higher levels of gas. When Vesuvius first exploded, it sent a massive column of ash and volcanic rock into the air. The Tragic History of Pompeii This giant plume then poured down onto nearby towns, crushing houses and suffocating residents. A series of pyroclastic flows - fast-moving, searing avalanches of gas, ash and volcanic debris - then flooded through nearby towns and cities. Casa di Elle e Frisso, also known as the house of Helle and Phrixus, was a decorated home, with paintings and a banquet hall. Researchers believe the home belonged to a middle or upper class Roman family. And a lack of decorations and elements suggests they might have been renovating at the time of the eruption. The destruction of Pompeii – what happened in 79 AD? Pompeii was an ancient Roman city near modern Naples, in the Campania region of Italy. It was destroyed, along with the Roman town of Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area, and buried under volcanic ash in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. The violent explosion killed the city's inhabitants, with the site lost for around 1,500 years until its initial rediscovery in 1599 and broader rediscovery almost 150 years after that. The thermal energy released from Vesuvius was said to be a hundred thousand times that of the nuclear blasts at Hiroshima-Nagasaki. The remains beneath the city have been preserved for more than a millenium due to the lack of air and moisture in the ground. During excavations, plaster was injected into the voids in the ash layers that once held human bodies, allowing scientists to recreate their exact poses at the time of their deaths. Mount Vesuvius is arguably the most dangerous volcano on earth. It had been inactive for almost a century before roaring back into life and destroying Pompeii. Since then, it has exploded around three dozen more times – most recently in 1944 – and stands in close proximity to three million people. Although its current status is dormant, Vesuvius is an 'extremely active' and unpredictable volcano, according to experts. To this day, scientists are finding cultural, architectural and human remains on the banks of Mount Vesuvius. Excavations at thermal baths in Pompeii's ruins in February revealed the skeleton of a crouching child who perished in the 79 AD eruption. One painting that was found depicts the mythological twins Phrixus and Helle fleeing from their stepmother on a magical ram with a golden fleece, before Helle fell to her death in the waters below. It's this painting that gave the house its name. Other details found by archaeologists include a water basin, a bronze amulet thought to be worn by the child, bronze scales, bronze cooking pans and a hole in its roof to collect rainwater. Yet this hole is likely what let the deluge of ash swamp the home. "This is because the lapilli, the volcanic stones that risked invading the space, entered through the opening in the roof of the atrium," Zuchtriegel said. "They didn't make it, in the end the pyroclastic flow arrived, a violent flow of very hot ash that filled here, as elsewhere, every room, the seismic shocks had already caused many buildings to collapse." 7 7 7 7
