Gabi and Theresa's Big Adventure: Herculaneum

Herculaneum is that "other city" that was wiped out at the same time as Pompeii. The two cities are the subject of Theresa's favorite episode on the Discovery Channel. Of course, on TV they re-enact the last days of the fated citizenry with great drama. One of the most heart-rending locations is at Herculaneum's docks, where hundreds of people met their doom hiding amidst the arcade - essentially boiled to death by pyroclastic flows from Vesuvius.

Theresa tells me that Herculaneum is much less excavated than Pompeii - owing to the fact that it is encased in a much harder rock crust than the ash layer that buried Pompeii. Despite the destruction, the city's remains suggest that this must have been a prime location for the real estate marketers. Nothing like a little villa in the suburbs of Rome.