Caserta Palace

The first stone of the Caserta Palace was laid on Jan 20, 1752. The architect was Luigi Vanvitelli who followed the work until he died in 1773. It was built for the Bourbon Kings and cost over 6 million ducats. The Palace consists of the Royal Apartments and the English Garden behind the palace.

These are the steps that lead up to the Royal Apartments

I'm not sure if you're supposed to ride on the ancient lion statues but that's how the Hudsons roll sometimes

Take one guess as to what body part my three year old made sure everyone noticed??

Almost every room has a beautifully painted ceiling

The Throne Room

I think everyone needs a good birdcage clock and a bull clock don't you?

Out back of the palace is the Royal Park. It expands for 120 hectares. 1 hectare=2.471 acres. You do the math because that's not my strong subject.

The Margherita Fountain

Beyond this body of water are many other fountains and a waterfall but we were too tired to make the trek all the way up there. I'm sure we'll go back one day so I'll post pics at a later date. It's a great place to have a picnic and let the kids run around.

The Beach

We finally ventured out to one of the more popular beaches in the city of Gaeta. Unfortunately during the month of August all of Italy is on vacation and also trying to get to the coast and spend time at the beaches as well. It was packed! There are many beaches here, some that you can swim in and some that are not safe to get into because the water is polluted. If you want to go to a nice beach that is clean then you usually have to pay for it. A few euro for chairs, a few euro for an umbrella and then enjoy! If you don't want to pay then they have much smaller areas where you can use your own beach chairs or blanket as long as you can find an open space. I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked to but you can still get the gist of it.

Every Italian and their Italian mama going to the beach too

 The number of people there was unreal!

The water was really cold but the kids enjoyed it anyway

Back home down the teeny tiny streets

It was a good day....

Herculaneum

The archaeological digs at Herculaneum along the east end of Italy’s Bay of Naples, literally sits in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, which on Aug. 24, A.D. 79, erupted and sent hot gas, rock and ash down on the city, destroying those who lived there but preserving the site for history.

Mt. Vesuvius


 In the middle of the night a shower of burning cinders and rock fragments covered Pompeii. It lasted until the next day, caving in roofs and claiming its first victims. The Pompeians tried to take shelter in the houses or hoped to escape by walking on top of the layers of pumice stones constantly being formed, which by this point were more than 2 meters deep. But at dawn on August 25, a violent explosion of toxic gases and burning cinders devastated the city.

The ruins of Herculaneum below with the modern city of Ercolano above. Herculaneum was a resort for wealthy Romans and is said to be better preserved than the ruins in Pompeii.




Before the eruption, the city could be seen from approaching ships. They were greeted by this statue. Archaeologists were able to piece him back together.

You walk up and down old cobblestone streets within this site. You can enter what used to be old stores, homes of the very wealthy, auditoriums, bath houses and changing rooms. Many of the buildings still have small plaques with roman numerals on them signifying an address or building number. There is still artwork on some of the walls that withstood the eruption as well as very elaborate mosaic floors that look almost brand new.

This area was once a restaurant that had a view of the ocean. The city sunk after the volcano's eruption and with all the build up of rock you can't see the water from there anymore.

The sunken city

This was a pretty interesting day trip. We were also able to see some cool stuff on the drive over and we got the chance to test my husband's driving skills on little Italian streets in big American SUV. Quite the adventure!