It was close to forty degrees when we trudged through the streets of Ercolano. I passed two squashed rats on the way (a combination of two things that make me squirm--rats and dead things) so the thought this place better be worth it did cross my mind. 'This place' was the excavated ruins of Herculaneum, a half hour train ride from Naples on the gritty, south west coast of Italy. The town was buried by the eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 79AD- yes, that's the same eruption that destroyed Pompeii. Herculaneum is far smaller than its famous sister, with much of the ancient town still buried under the concrete grandeur of modern Ercolano. I'd visited Pompeii several years ago and was completely blow
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