Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town

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The Bodies | Perhaps the most famous and fascinating representation of the tragedies which befell Pompeii and our own mortality, these 13 casts are not actually 'mummies' or corpses 'frozen in time'. Instead, they were the ingenious creation of Giuseppe Fiorelli in the 19th century, who poured plaster into the void in which flesh and bone had wasted away within caked ash of Vesuvius, effectively creating negative imprints of these citizens in their final terrifying moment of existence. That doesn't make them any less haunting though.

Beneath layers of volcanic ash lies the Villa della Notte – the Night Villa – once home to the captivating slave girl at the heart of an ancient controversy. And concealed in a subterranean labyrinth rests a cache of antique documents believed lost to the ages: a prize too alluring for Sophie to resist. The autumn or early winter months of September, October and November can still be good months to visit Pompeii. September and October are both still warm and sunny, and the summer opening hours at Pompeii last until the end of October. The waters have stopped flowing from the aquedect - who you gonna call? Dambusters! The water engineer heads out amid widespread corruption in Pompeii, thwarts a murder plot, finds out what happened to his predecessor, falls in love, and investigates the ominous rumbling from the nearby Vesuvius. It’s easy to look at weather, bad archaeology, mismanagement, and organised theft as the key factors contributing to the deteriorating conditions of Pompeii prior to the 2012 project, and tut and moan about their inevitably.

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However, the most important thing to appreciate in advance of your own visit is the necessity for each and every traveller and tourist to act responsibly and considerately within this ancient place. A sweltering week in late August. Where better to enjoy the last days of summer than on the beautiful Bay of Naples? But even as Rome’s richest citizens relax in their villas around Pompeii and Herculaneum, there are ominous warnings that something is going wrong. Wells and springs are failing, a man has disappeared, and now the greatest aqueduct in the world – the mighty Aqua Augusta – has suddenly ceased to flow. For while Amara is caught up in the political scheming of the Imperial palace, her daughter remains in Pompeii, raised by the only man she ever truly loved. Although she longs for her family, Amara knows they are safest while she is far away. Perhaps, with enough cunning and courage, she will manage to turn Fortuna’s wheel in their favour. Baths were not a luxury. Baths were the foundation of civilization. Baths were what raised even the meanest citizen of Rome above the level of the wealthiest hairy-assed barbarian. Baths instilled the triple disciplines of cleanliness, heathfulness, and strict routine. Was it not to feed the baths that the aqueducts had been invented in the first place? Had not the baths spread the Roman ethos across, Europe, Africa and Asia as effectively as the legions, so that in whatever town in this far-flung empire a man might find himself, he could at least be sure of finding this one precious piece of home?” The realities of her existence are made bearable by the other she-wolves at the Wolf Den. Together they can gossip, offer comfort and dream; and their dreams, when woven together, create a picture of life that makes Amara catch her breath.

I recommend catching the train from Porta Nolana station. Since Porta Nolana is the start of the Circumvesuviana line, you’ve got a better chance of getting a seat on what can be very busy trains. Get on a train that’s headed for Sorrento and get off at Pompei Scavi – Villa Dei Misteri. Pompeii from Naples cruise port (Stazione Marittima) If you would like to book a guided Pompeii tour, the following are all highly rated and well-priced, so would be a good start point. We recommend booking a tour which meets you at Pompeii, rather than includes transport to/from Naples, as this opens up better options as well as more flexibility for what you do after the tour ends! If you’re a fan of Robert Harris, read our #AuthorsOnLocation piece for more of his thrilling books, set in different locations).But, more credit to Harris, he weaves it into a plot involving a new “aquarius,” a chief engineer responsible for one of the Roman Empire’s aqueducts. The Aqua Augusta’s previous engineer has gone missing and Marcus Attilus Primus, from a long line of water engineers is persuaded to fill the gap. What he doesn’t know is that Vesuvius is about to erupt and that its early stages are responsible for the problems with the aqueduct. A guided tour from Rome, a direct coach transfer or even a private tour is another option for visiting Pompeii from Rome on a day tour. When to visit Pompeii Visiting Pompeii in spring Mount Vesuvius ( Vesuvio in Italian) towers over the Gulf of Naples. The volcano is thought to have lain dormant for 700 years before its eruption in 79 AD, and various settlements had grown at its foothills. The fertile soil of Campania, the proximity to Naples, and the access to the sea would have made it a pleasant and prosperous place to live, work, and trade. But it was not jus Pompeii’s buildings he knew. It was its people, and the mysterious working of its soul, especially at elections: five neighborhood wards – Forenses, Campanienses, Salinienses, Urbulanenses, Pagani – in each of which he had an agent: and all the craft guilds – the laundrymen, the bakers, the fishermen, the perfume makers, the goldsmiths, and the rest – again, he had them covered.”

Despite taking place nearly two thousand years ago, it was the gift of the eyewitness testimony of Pliny the Younger, who watched from the beach as his uncle staged a one-way rescue mission across the sea, which traced the natural disaster to 24th August 79 AD - recent findings suggest the eruption may have occurred a few months later. It has been almost fifteen years. I’ve thought about you often, mostly unkindly. But there: I have thought about you.’ The only way to combat this type of tourism is common decency (chances are if you’re reading this that you’d also be equally horrified by people graffitiing or clambering on two thousand year old ruins), but also raising awareness and educating those who don’t know better (or don’t seem to care). Due to the size of Pompeii, there will never be enough guards or staff around to make sure people are conducting themselves in a way which doesn’t cause harm to the ruins - so it’s important that other visitors step up to protect our shared heritage. Because of this, what we find in Pompeii is that every step in the development in the science of archaeology was tested out in Pompeii—with mixed results," he says. by visiting Herculaneum, a few stops along the Circumvesuviana train line from Pompeii and another easy trip from Naples or Sorrento. Herculaneum was also destroyed when Vesuvius erupted, but it’s much quieter than Pompeii. Herculaneum is also much better preserved and many of the buildings still have their upper storey intact.As she adjusts to this new life, Amara is still haunted by her past. At night she dreams of the wolf den, and the women she left behind. By day, she is pursued by her former slavemaster. These are just a few of the strands that make up an extraordinary and involving portrait of an ancient town, its life and its continuing re-discovery, by Britain’s leading classicist. Obviously, as other people have observed, there can be no suspense about whether Vesuvius will erupt or not -- spoiler: it did, and Pompeii was destroyed; that's just historical fact, like the sinking of the Titanic. But there can be atmosphere, and there are several subplots -- a romance, civic corruption, the work of the engineers on the aqueducts... These are mostly well handled, though I couldn't believe in the love story -- mostly, I felt it was spoilt by the ending, which was a bit too... easy. The House of the Tragic Poet | Home of the famous 'Beware of the Dog' / 'Cave Canem' mosaic, it's actually one of the best preserved private houses so don't just pass by the entrance. We didn't get one because, well, we've found that a tour guide can sometimes prove more restrictive for us than we'd like. We like to do lots of our own research and reading before visiting ruins, and don't like to have to rush taking photos or savouring something that captures our curiosity. Also, the experience of having an underwhelming and slightly dull tour guide in control for a couple of hours is enough to sour the experience of any place (trust us on that).

But while his quest is knowledge of the living Pompeii, Stanford University's Gary Devore, the project's co-director, notes that the eruption still resonates because of the intimate connection it created between past and present. But the carefree lifestyle and gorgeous weather belie an impending cataclysm, and only one man is worried. The young engineer Marcus Attilius Primus has just taken charge of the Aqua Augusta, the enormous aqueduct that brings fresh water to a quarter of a million people in nine towns around the Bay of Naples. His predecessor has disappeared. Springs are failing for the first time in generations. And now there is a crisis on the Augusta's sixty-mile main line—somewhere to the north of Pompeii, on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius.However, it’s important to understand the perennial problem which plagues fragile Pompeii: the more that’s unearthed, the more that needs to be protected. Attilius—decent, practical, and incorruptible—promises Pliny, the famous scholar who commands the navy, that he can repair the aqueduct before the reservoir runs dry. His plan is to travel to Pompeii and put together an expedition, then head out to the place where he believes the fault lies. But Pompeii proves to be a corrupt and violent town, and Attilius soon discovers that there are powerful forces at work—both natural and man-made—threatening to destroy him. We therefore highly recommend planning a little bit in advance and taking advantage of the following free itineraries and maps.