Eternal Pompeii

Ancient Rome is now in vogue. The popular television series produced by the BBC and HBO has stirred interest in many of the viewers about how the Romans really lived. Public libraries receive numerous queries on the subject every day... Paavo Castrén, a professor emeritus in classical philology... has headed the Expeditio Pompeiana Universitatis Helsingiensis (EPUH), the Pompeii Project of the University of Helsinki, for five years, leading the group's investigative work on Pompeian excavations. This September, Castrén also published his book Pompejilaisia kohtaloita, 'Pompeian Lives', later probably to be published in English and Italian... Despite the welcome attention, Castrén is frustrated by the sensationalism in fiction about Rome... More information about the real lives of the ancient Pompeians will be available to the public in February 2008, when the Amos Anderson Art Museum opens its exhibition on the results of the excavation. The exhibition will display a 3D virtual model of the House of Marcus Lucretius, findings of the Finnish group and objects to be loaned from the National Archaeological Museum in Naples... Pompeii is a cosmopolitan working environment. There are archaeologists from at least fifteen different countries working there. Finns have close relations particularly with their Swedish, Italian, Dutch and German colleagues. In addition to research teams, the place swarms with tourists... The archaeologists are not even dreaming of ever happening on any real treasures, but well-preserved waste mounds are valuable finds. Finns have discovered a toilet pit in their city block, into which food scraps had also been thrown. Contained in an anaerobic space, the heap gives clues about the ancient Pompeian diet.

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Excellent! I'm a little jealous. :') Are you visiting Italy in general? Somewhere around here there's a cool thread with suggested itineraries... hmm, a search didn't turn it up. I've got some ideas to recycle, but understand I've never been there.

If you're in Florence, visit the Uffizi; while there, find Michelangelo's Doni Tondo, it's what the whole Sistine Chapel looked like when new (and does again). Oh, and I heard that the Sistine is closed on Mondays.

Laocoön and His Son
Vatican Museums | circa 2000 | Mary Ann Sullivan
Posted on 08/28/2004 7:07:50 PM EDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1201959/posts

If ruins are of interest, Ostia, the old port of Rome, and one of the first planned suburbs, might be worth checking out. There's a Roman-era restaurant there which is in good shape.
http://www.vroma.org/images/bonvallet_images/index3.html
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/travel/2002627993_ostia20.html

And of course, the Pantheon, which was for quite some time the largest dome in the world (eclipsed by Justinian's church of St. Sofia) and model of a sort for Brunelleschi when he built the dome in Florence.

And let's not forget the Etruscans:
http://www.mysteriousetruscans.com/tombs.html

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