Pompeii 1,930 years after the event

Pompeii is a dead city.  In the cobbled streets, the open plazas, the Anfiteatro, there is no echo of past lives, just the tranquillity of a cemetery long abandoned.  Frescoes shimmer behind a veil of ages.

Founded in the seventh century B.C. Pompeii underwent invasions and colonisation until 80 B.C. when it became a Roman colony.

The eruption that buried Pompeii was not the first natural disaster to hit the city.  But it was in the first century that these natural disasters reached cataclysmic proportions.

The fifth of February 62 A.D. was an important day in the pagan calendar.  Two sacrifices were to be offered in Pompeii.  One was to honour the Emperor Augustus’s anniversary, the second to appease the spirit guardians of the city.  On that winter afternoon an earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale hit the city and surrounding countryside.

Roads, bridges, temples and homes were ruined.  It is believed that almost every building in Pompeii was damaged. 

Oil lamps overturned during the quake spread fires which added to the devastation.

In the days following the earthquake lawlessness ruled.  The city was plundered.  Its surviving citizens starved.

Over the following seventeen years many people moved to other cities, but some remained behind and attempted to rebuild Pompeii.  The reconstruction was far from finished, when, on 23^rd August 79 AD, the people of Pompeii celebrated Vulcanalia, the festival of the Roman god of fire.  The following day Vesuvius erupted sending a rain of ash south as far as the Gulf of Salerno. 

It is at this point that historians begin to differ.  Were Pompeii and its sister city Herculaneum destroyed in the two days following the initial eruption or was the final deadly shower of ash two months later in October?  Almost two thousand years later, the most intriguing aspect of Pompeii is that so much of the city has been revealed, rather than academic questions of exact dating.

Anyone planning a visit to Pompeii should read Pliny the Younger’s letter to Tacitis.  His vivid description of the last days of Pompeii is an engaging, timeless account of a people and place during natural disaster.

Pompeii lay under sixty feet of ash and pumice for over 1500 years until a project to redirect the flow of the River Sarno unearthed what was, 150 years later, to become the site of the excavation of Pompeii.

It was not until the late 1800s that professional and controlled methods of excavation were employed at the site.  During this time Giuseppe Fiorelli devised the technique of injecting plaster into cavities left around human remains.  The grotesque figures stored or displayed at the site are examples of his technique.  It is these echoes of tormented deaths that most embody the reality of those catastrophic days in the summer of 79 A.D.

Today Pompeii is best visited in the cooler months of the year.  During the summer months its roofless buildings and cobbled streets bake under the Italian sun.  In winter it may be cold, but is usually dry and it is  pleasant to spend a day poking around the cobbled streets, inspecting the interiors of the homes of merchants remembered now only because of the disaster that destroyed 2,000 people millenia ago.

A word of advice – the available maps of the site are continually being updated and changed.  For the person who has travelled half way round the world to visit it, this is one place where the price of an official guided tour is money well spent.

What is memorable about Pompeii is not the brothel with its erotic frescoes.  After all, this is the oldest profession and more imaginative versions of the frescoes exist on in a variety of forms in all parts of the world. 

It is the complexity and sophistication of the social life of Romans at that time, reflected in the public buildings, that is most thought provoking.  There are pagan temples and the famous Anfiteatro, the oldest Roman amphitheatre in which gladiators fought before a crowd of 20,000.  But there are also law courts, the forum, the covered markets, specialty shops, public baths, a water supply, roads with pedestrian crossings and night lighting, systems for removal of human waste and garbage.  There are many places in the world today almost 2,000 years later which have never known such development.  

Observer

New Year's Eve 2009

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Rome to Naples and Pompeii : Journey – the middle

Two hours south of Rome the bus enters Naples via back streets, and threads through ancient tightly packed slums.  The guide relapses into silence.  There is nothing she can say.  These are not the slums of Asia or the sub-continent with exhausted beaten masses eking out a living.  Hard faced people quivering with angry energy glare at the bus, watch for the raised camera, any opportunity to raise a fist.  This is the city of blood thick on the streets, of ancient internecine wars.

Naples is almost 3,000 years old with a story convoluted through three millennia of telling and the shadow of its slums overlaying all. 

It is a small city of one million people and famous for pizza, opera and Sophia Loren.  It could equally be famous for one of the worst traffic problems in the world.  Traffic lights are ignored, drivers invent their own direction of traffic flow against all odds and triple parking seems to be the norm.  A walking tour of the city, preferably with a Neoplitan speaking guide, is an attractive option for a visitor, in fact the only practical option.

Step out of the main part of the city and the Bay of Naples opens to another reality.

Along the waterfront it is as if the slums did not exist.  The bay is a perfect curve.  Arms linked, couples stroll along the promenade, children chase seagulls, old men sit on benches smoking and staring out to sea, women gather in excited gesticulating groups.  The walkers are not as fashionable as the technicolour movies of the 1960s promised and the rock wall protecting the promenade from the sea is the least attractive feature on the front.  But after the chaos of the city it is a welcome space to stand and gaze across the bay to the horizon where Capri floats between a cerulean sky and ultramarine sea and then to turn around and look back at the hills of the city and see in them an order that is non-existent in the city proper.

But now we are almost at our destination

Outside Pompeii is a cameo factory that has attracted a record number of warnings from tourists about its hard sell policy.  However on this day the hard sell is tucked away and visitors are treated to a demonstration of cameo carving.  An ancient art brought from Greece by the Romans its history reflects much of the history of Europe.  Royalty gave cameo images of themselves to favourites and admirers.  Cameos have been copied and cast in plastic, glass, and resin by such names as Wedgwood, but the art of carving by hand survives.  And the cost of buying a hand carved cameo reflects its labour intensiveness.

The gates of Pompeii beckon.

Observer

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Rome to Naples and Pompeii - On the Highway of the Sun

The journey begins. 

The drizzle decreases, the light strengthens.  Soon the sun is shining, appropriately, as the bus is roaring along the Autostrada del Sole – the Highway of the Sun.

Passengers shed overcoats and covertly check out their fellows.  The guide abandons her mobile phone, rises from a nest of paperwork and relates stories about the places flashing by.  She indicates the Castelli Romani at the foot of the Alban Hills.  This rich agricultural area a short distance south-east of Rome has fed the population since the dawn of history.

But it is a modern achievement that inspires her proudest moment. 

Italy was the first country in the world to build Autostrada.  Building of these began in 1921 and reached a peak during the fascist era.  However it wasn’t until the 1950s that the Milan-Rome-Naples autostrada was built.  The upgrading of the system continues today.  What ancient monuments were destroyed to build it?  What poor villages flattened?  What would have happened to the highways of Italy if Benito Mussolini had not come to power?

The bus takes a detour around the perimeter of the monastery of Monte Cassino.  The guide now tells an epic tale of glory and adventure, of men of faith and honour and monsters with swords and fire, of destruction and creation.

In 500 AD, Benedict of Nursia disgusted by the immorality of Roman society, abandoned his studies there and retreated to a cave to live as a hermit.  He attracted disciples but problems with his first community led to his founding a monastery on the fortified hill above Cassino in 529.

At that time Cassino was still largely pagan.  It had been devastated by the Goths but a temple of Apollo survived within the hilltop fortification.  Benedict, in keeping with the history and future of the site, destroyed the sculpture of Apollo and the altar on which it stood and rededicated the site to John the Baptist.

Benedict never left the monastery and near the end of his life he drew on his experience and knowledge to write what became known as the Benedictine Rule.

The Regula Benedicti is a guide for monks living communally under the authority of an abbot.  It has become the main guide in Western Christianity for monastic living in community for both men and women, in both the Orthodox and Catholic and, since the Reformation, in the Anglican and Protestant conventions.

Because of its strategic importance on the road to Rome the monastery of Monte Cassino was sacked or destroyed and rebuilt several times over the next millennia.

The last destruction was on February 15, 1944.  During the final stage of World War II the monastery sheltered hundreds of civilians.  In three hours during the battle of Monte Cassino it was reduced to a heap of debris under which many of the refugees met their death.

The monastery, memorials and graveyards that today sit on the mountain and on neighbouring Mount Cairo were built in the decade after World War II, exclusively financed by the Italian State.

The tour guide, exhausted by history subsides beside the driver

Observer

29 December 2009

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Rome to Naples and Pompeii

In the beginning ...

It is dark and cold, threatening rain, at the meeting place in Rome. Inside the small and shabby office a peculiar mix of confusion and indifference reigns. The waiting area is full of people being ignored while grey-faced employees lurk behind the counter shuffling paper and muttering among themselves. Minivans load and reloaded passengers in the predawn drizzle. The crowd in the waiting area increases and grows restless - a disparate group uniting now in the increasing certainty that the tour company hasn’t a clue.

The deadline for departure passes, outside the drizzle increases and the darkness thins. There is no tour bus in sight. Any attempt at making enquiries of the staff is met with please wait.

Young Arab men carrying crumpled bits of paper lead clumps of dripping people inside. Soon the tiny waiting area is crowded and those who cannot squeeze in, huddle outside in the dark under the dripping awning. Complaints in a dozen languages fill the air.

Three buses pull up outside one behind the other and simultaneously six people in blue uniforms emerge from a doorway behind the counter. With a sudden urgency the waiting people are organised into groups, ordered onto buses. Confused and damp, clutching vouchers, they obey, try to check they are on the right bus, but the only response in English is, please sit.

The driver and guide board one of the buses. The guide shouts Pompeii as the engine roars into life. Someone runs from the back of the bus yelling Pisa! Pisa! Stumbles down the stairs and disappears into the gloom. The guide casts a withering look at the remaining passengers and then engages in loud protracted discussion with the driver.

Patience, and the ability to enjoy the moment are worthwhile qualities on guided tours in Italy . Tourists have been visiting this country for millennia and the apparent confusion that seems to reign at the beginning of each tour seems to be always resolved. Even better Italy has some of the world’s best tour guide.

Observer

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Al Ain Aerobatic Air Show 2009

Al Ain Aerobatic Show in the United Arab Emirates was held the week before the winds came howling down from Europe sweeping dust and haze before them.

Friday 30th January, the third day of the show, started cool and calm with clear blue skies to provide a perfect canvas for the show.

Show organisers said attendance numbers were fewer than last year during the first two days. Numbers soared on Friday, the beginning of the weekend in the Middle East.

The open grandstand overlooking the airfield was full shortly after the show opened at 1.00 p.m. People continued to pour through the gate and were directed to watch the show from behind a 3 metre wire fence in an area in front of the children’s playground. The angle of view from behind the fence was uncomfortable and the space very limited.

People without young children went in search of alternative viewing spots – but to no avail. Those without grandstand seats could see only the parts of the stunts that were high in the sky as the grandstand and the various buildings in front of the perimeter fence obscured any lower view.

The afternoon heated up. Tempers flared.

Customers who did not storm out went in search of alternative entertainment and found that Al Ain did know how to entertain the masses.

There were camels enduring the enthusiastic patting of people of all ages, races, cultures and religions.

A military Apache helicopter drew a keen crowd that seemed to comprise mostly ex-military who interrogated the security guards in a most efficient manner. The guards, enjoying their moment in the sun, admitted to no deep knowledge about Apaches or indeed any military aircraft. They did point out the pilot who, secure behind opaque wrap around sunglasses, kept a safe distance from the throng.

A falconer encouraged passers-by to be photographed holding his falcons, and two young Emirati girls paraded proudly in their ceremonial dress.

Etihad provided a flight simulator for the latent pilot in all of us and the organisers of the children’s playground ensured rides and entertainment sufficient to keep the young ones occupied for the entire afternoon.

For one brief moment a police sniffer dog was brought out to demonstrate his skill, but once an interested crowd began to gather he was whisked away.

Those of us patient enough to pass the afternoon relaxing on the red velvet covered plastic chairs drinking coffee and eating chips were rewarded by a demonstration of Emirati singing and dancing, as well as by the passing parade of humanity, the variety of which is probably seen no where else in the world in the one place.

It is a hundred years since aerobatic air shows started. Al Ain provides a perfect venue for the first major show of the year and the line up of stunts was impressive.

It is definitely an event which should be part of the program for any visitor to the middle east during the winter months.

The organisers should give serious thought to providing a view of the actual aerobatics to those who buy tickets. There were many residents of the Emirates who did not go this year because of the very limited amount of seating with a view of the events last year.

Al Ain Airshow 2009 was supported by ADAC, operator of Al Ain International Airport, and organised by Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority and the UAE Air Force and Air Defence. So come on fellows, use those tactical military skills and arrange more viewing space next year for a show that is one of the most exciting events of the year.

Observer

February 4, 2009

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