Pompeii snack bar re-opens...nearly 2000 years after it was destroyed by eruption of Mt Vesuvius

dailymail.co.uk ^ | March 20, 2010 | Rhianna King

[Free ThinkerNY]

In AD79 it was Pompeii's most popular hang out, where locals would stop off to meet friends and partake in a snack of baked cheese smothered in honey.

Now, nearly 2000 years after the Italian city was buried under ash and rubble by the devastating eruption of Mount Vesuvius, its favourite snack bar has re-opened.

For the first time the thermopolium, as it is called in Italy, will be open to tourists after having undergone and excavation and restoration process over the past few months. Tomorrow 300 VIPs selected at random will attend an advance opening of the snack bar where they will enjoy a taste of Roman cafe society, including the sweet, calorific treats enjoyed by the all sections of Pompeii society before the city was destroyed.

Pompeii, which is near Naples in the Italian region of Campania, was destroyed, and completely buried, during a catastrophic two-day eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius on August 24, 79AD.

The volcano collapsed higher roof-lines and buried Pompeii under many meters of ash and pumice, and it was lost for nearly 1700 years before its accidental rediscovery in 1748.

Since then, its excavation has provided an extraordinarily detailed insight into life during the Roman Empire.

[ApplegateRanch]

"Hey Blam, I've heard that Homo Erectus ate crunchy food... "

Yup. I heard they liked carrots.

I thought it was asparagus that kept them Homo Erecticusses erect and cussing.

[ApplegateRanch]

Hot lava on a stick!

That's a too tuffa sell. You'll have better luck with sausage onna bun.

[ApplegateRanch]

The more I look at that in context, the more appalled I become at what researchers a couple thousand years from now would make of me and the mosaic we had installed on the wall behind our stove in the home we sold a few years ago. It was NOT a menu.

Yes, I built (mainly with my own two hands) it to last. "If you can't park a Sherman tank in the living room, and not have it fall into the basement, then A) the room is too small; B) the floor is too weak; C) BOTH." (You have to build it in, however; it would never fit through the door.)

My building philosophy is, "if a tree falls on it, the tree should either bounce or break; not damage the roof!" I believe that comes from my Romano-Germanic, Romano-Gallic, and Romano-Brittanic ancestry.

[americanophile]

Must be hell to get reservations.

[uglybiker]

I think someone burned the cheese.

Or cut it.

[wildbill]

Hummingbird tongues! Mole snouts! Likker fish with garum! mmm mmmm mmmm Get ‘em while their hot!

[colorado tanker]

Hmmm. Ancient Roman barmaids often had a little something "extra" on the menu. Wonder if they'll be that authentic??

[SunkenCiv]

:’)