Pompeii and North Pole Gelato

Wednesday morning, after a good sleep, Dee and I went out to see a foundling wheel (ruota degli esposti), only a few blocks from our hotel. This is a place where mothers, usually unwed, would leave their babies to be taken care of the state or church. It functioned for about 250 years, ending in the 1870s. There is a little wheeled compartment where she would put the child, often with some kind of small note or token in case she later decided to come claim the child, and then turn the wheel so the baby could be taken inside, without revealing the identity of the mom. Very sad, but interesting. The foundlings were often given very positive last names, such as Brillanti, Diamante, Stellato, Innocenti, etc.

The wheel is on the left.

An eyewitness description of the process from 1877

Alyssa had slept better, and we took the train about noon to Pompeii, where we had lunch together at the Hortus Pompei restaurant, right outside the entrance to the excavations. It has a lovely, shaded outdoor dining area.

From there, we took them across the street to meet the private tour guide, Cinzia. Since I had just seen it last month and Dee wasn't up to all that walking, we two left the three of them to go see the site. The private tour was a gift from us to Wes and Alyssa -- having a good guide can make all the difference, and Cinzia is wonderful.

Dee and I were able to grab a train back right away, not very crowded this time. We were able to sit down, on the opposite side from the sun. Arriving back downtown in Napoli, we took the subway up to the national archeological museum, which is quite renowned. We didn't do it justice at all -- should have hired a guide -- but we wanted to see if it was a good proxy for Pompeii, as apparently they have a lot of artifacts there. The brief answer is no. It has cool stuff, but without the same impact as seeing the streets, shops, home, and body casts in situ. The museum did not have any AC, which meant we were sweating pretty badly after a lot of walking in the sun to get there. It seems odd to us that, with all the art and artifacts, they don't try to keep them in a temperature-controlled environment. There was one person who had fainted, perhaps from heat exhaustion, and was getting medical attention. Also, there were tons of stairs everywhere, with no elevator or escalator in sight. I was worried about Dee, as stairs are still her biggest challenge, but she did ok. Not only does Italy not have the equivalent of ADA, at times it seems they almost go out of their way to be hostile to handicapped people. There was a scale model of the Pompeii excavations which was kinda interesting.

 

Meanwhile, back in Carlsbad, our kitchen fridge bit the dust after twenty years of service. Rich currently has no way to keep things cold and had to toss a bunch of food. Before leaving, we had hoped that our old appliances would last 18 more months, but apparently not. The dryer has had problems and the fridge has now died. Hopefully that will be all until we get home! Anyway, Dee bought a replacement online, a Kenmore from sears.com, scheduled to be delivered Friday.
Wes and Alyssa really enjoyed the tour of Pompeii, but they were fried from the sun and pretty wiped out. We had given them our portable umbrellas to use as parasols, but they didn't think they would need them, which was a mistake. Dee found a very nice restaurant just a block or two from our hotel for dinner, the Antica Trattoria e Pizzeria da Donato. It got great reviews and we really enjoyed it. We had been thinking of taking a taxi down to the Lungomare waterfront area for dinner, but traffic was looking like well over half an hour each way, so it was good to have something close. Unfortunately, Alyssa was not feeling well and went back to the hotel without eating. The poor girl is running on fumes.

After dinner, the three of us went looking for some gelato. We asked at a cafe on the main piazza (Garibaldi) outside the train station. They didn't have any, but the waiter, Leopoldo, recognized our name tags. He said he lives near our chapel and knows some Mormons. He asked about the free English classes, hoping that there some some in the morning (unfortunately not), since evenings do not work for him. We asked about gelato, and he told us about a great one called Gelateria Polo Nord (North Pole Gelato) near his house, about ten minutes by foot. We found it on Google Maps and had a pleasant walk as it was getting dark. There was one area along the way which was a bit scary, but we had some great gelato and enjoyed the walk.

My wife spoke on the phone with her cousin Lynn, who is set for her first day helping out at the home of my in-laws on Thursday. We are very hopeful that this will all work out. Lynn has some good ideas and is a great cook, which should make her very popular there! This would be a wonderful miracle if it works out, so your prayers would be appreciated.