Ant invasion! Well, we had survived three days before the
ants attacked. I got up to make the tea only to discover an army of ants
crawling around the sink and hob. They ere very small ants but what they lacked
in size, they made up for in volume. Frantic squishing followed and then, after
hastily throwing on some clothes, I inspected the outside of the van. Sure
enough, the electric cable drum was swarming with ants and a trail was making
its way up the cable and in through the electrical connector area. I brushed
off all the ants that I could reach and perched the drum on top of the tyre to
get it and the cable off the ground. Back into the van for more squishing but
as fast as I squished, they kept appearing from behind panels.
I went to reception and asked to move to Area 1 of the campsite where there was
obviously still an ant problem but there were less of them and more vans to
choose from. I was told that it wasn’t possible to move because the empty
pitches were booked. I asked for some ant powder and was issued with a spray
can and told that I could keep it. I walked back to the van and tried to spray
the ant powder only to find that the can only sprayed air – it was empty. Back
to the reception where they informed me that they had no more ant powder left!
Given that they told me that they always had a problem at this time of year,
they should have had a large stock of ant powder. They did agree that we could
move into Area 1 but not until 14:00. We moved the van within Area 2 and hoped
that the ants wouldn’t invade us again for a while.
After the difficult trip to Oplontis on Friday, we decided to take a risk and
visit the Villa Regina and its associated museum in Boscoreale. We were told
that the Pompeii mini-bus left from the Piazza Esedra that was just down the
hill from the campsite but we didn’t know exactly whereabouts in the square.
When we got there, the square was absolutely swarming (like ants?) with
hundreds of people on tours, waiting to get into Pompeii at the nearby gate.
Sunday is said to be the busiest day at Pompeii and we could see the evidence. We
couldn’t see how any minibus could get into the square so we looked around the
outside streets to find bus stops. We stood at one and Jane spotted the minibus
driving past. I waved at the driver and indicated that we should go into the
square. He stopped especially for us and we hopped aboard. He was rather
surprised that we were going to Boscoreale rather than Oplontis but was happy
to take us. We stopped for a few minutes next to another mini-bus and then set
off – we were the only passengers. We were somewhat concerned that they
wouldn’t turn up to collect us, as happened at Oplontis. It appeared that, if
they had no customers at Piazza Esedra, they simply didn’t run the service, so
I suggested that we would be ready to be picked up at 14:15. He spoke no
English but made it clear that Villa Regina and the museum would only take one
hour – he obviously didn’t know us! We made it clear that we would need longer
so he indicated that he would return in one hour and, if we weren’t there, he
would come back in a further hour.
We went to the museum to get our tickets (included with the MyPompeii Card) and
were told that it was best to see the museum before going to the villa next to
it. We were the only visitors – what a contrast to Pompeii! The museum is very
well set ou – it was reopened two years ago after a major refurbishment. As
expected, it covered the Villa Regina but it also had finds from many other
villa in the area around Vesuvius. The curator came over to us and was very
chatty, explaining much about the finds and explaining that the famous
Boscoreale Treasure of many silver items
was spirited away to Paris, illegally. They would like to have it back! We also
saw small finds from an Iron Age lake village very similar to that near us in
Somerset – the Glastonbury Lake Village.
By now, its was over an hour since we arrived and we still hadn’t seen the
villa. The curator took us down to the villa set in a very large hole, many
metres deep, excavated through the volcanic ash. Villa Regina was a
wine-producing estate surrounded by vineyards, part of which have been
recreated close to the buildings. The most impressive part of the remains are
the many, huge, sunken jars (dolia) that were used to ferment the wine. The 18
dolia were able to contain 10,000 litres – enough to keep Dionysos happy! Not
the most luxurious Roman villa – is was a rustic farm villa – but interesting
nonetheless. One abiding memory of the villa will be the extremely hungry mosquitoes
that lurked in it, keen to feed on the rare, tasty visitors – we both got
bitten many times.
The curator directed us to a nearby bakery that was open on Sunday mornings. It
was very popular and we were able to buy some excellent smoked bacon focaccia
and other essential supplies.
We only had a few minutes to wait before the minibus arrived and we were very
grateful to see it. He had no passengers and we were the only ones on the way
back.
When we got back to the van, there were more ants and we moved the van again.
There were some new German arrivals and I warned them about the ants. They were
next to another German van and the owner explained that he had they all over
his large van – they were getting through the electric socket and also crawling
all up the sides and over the roof, coming in through the roof hekis (windows).
After lunch, we drove round to reception and were allowed in to find a spot in
Area 1. The pitches were smaller but there was more shade and not as many ants.
Photos: The Villa Reale – note the plaster cast of a tree standing on the
right; The ‘dolia’ used to ferment the wine; A plaster cast of a pig found in
an outbuilding of the villa – they kept pigs in the country so that they could
interbreed with wild boar, which gave a better flavour to the meat; A black
& white mosaic from another Boscoreale villa.
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