Pompeii for real

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With spooky, half-shaped visions of Roman Polanski's Pompeii flashing in my head, Hollywood Elsewhere visited the actual Pompeii ruins yesterday. I'm very glad I went -- this is the best-preserved ancient Roman city anywhere, covered as it was and frozen in time by tons of ash that spewed out of Mount Vesuvius on August 24, 79 AD. The problem is that I was too cheap to buy a map or go with a tour group, and by the end of our visit I'd come across only one lousy plaster-covered body.

The frescoes and the pottery and the precisely preserved apartments and villas are fascinating, but let's be honest -- if you come to Pompeii, you want to see how the citizens met their doom. You want freeze-frame death statues of people going "aaaah, this hurts!" And in this respect, Pompeii struck me as a faint ripoff. There should be bodies everywhere, in every house. Bodies of men, women, children, dogs, horses. Plus there were no chariots or carts. Or none that I came across.

On top of which the area just outside Pompeii's ancient walls looks like a cross between Orlando Disney World and the border-approach in Tijuana. Scores of ticky-tacky motels, gross souvenir shops, low-grade pizzerias and fruit stands. Jett found it disgraceful, saying that the commerce dishonors the dead.

I'd run a couple of photos but the laughing Mediterranean ISP that's linked to the Positano internet cafe I'm sitting in is, for some reason, giving me "access denied" messages when I try to upload images to my server. I spent two hours with tech support trying to fix the problem, and it's costing me 8 euros an hour.

comment #1

Reedyb says ...

I think the casting could work. I've read the book this is based on. It's intrigue between an engineer who is all about seeing something wrong, and who loves the viaducts, and who gets swept up in palace intrigue with this chick (hey, it's Scarlet Johannson, for chrissakes) and then it all blows up spectacularly.

A little bit MacBeth for Polanski fans. Interesting to see how a master of visual stylings uses CGI. The work in The Pianist was pretty seamless.

comment #2

Rich S. says ...

I just read an article in Smithsonian magazine that says a lot of the artifacts from Pompeii, including many of the plaster casts of the bodies, are on a museum tour of the U.S. Just the luck, huh?

By the way, in karmic terms, the article also mentioned that Vesuvius is still one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world. But now the population surrounding it is magnitudes larger than in 79 A.D. I wonder what future generations will make of the plaster casts of people wearing "Someone went to Pompeii and all I got was this lousy low-thread t-shirt" shirts.

comment #3

chmoye says ...

Yeah, it's a shame they don't have more corpses for your amusement, Jeff. Maybe you should try Auschwitz or Dachau for tragedy-based thrills. Perhaps they'll have souvenir ashes for you there.

comment #4

Josh Massey says ...

Come on Chmoye, you have to know what he means. There's a visceral thrill involved with knowing the gruesome history of where you are at any given moment. Standing on the streets of Edinburgh, I couldn't help but imagine - and get a small spark out of - the amount of blood that was spilled on the stones beneath my feet.

comment #5

Jayne Gacey says ...

Jeff, everyone knows you go to Pompeii for the Roman Porn on the walls.

comment #6

Mark says ...

When i was there, bodies were everywhere, and no tour guide was required. Just follow the stray dogs.

comment #7

christian says ...

that would have been ironic if when jeff was looking sour faced at the dearth of frozen corpses, the volcano spewed forth and captured jeff in one final pose....

comment #8

cjKennedy says ...

...his expression forever contorted in a "Goddamnit there's no WiFI!" grimmace.

comment #9

T. S. Idiot says ...

"Standing on the streets of Edinburgh, I couldn't help but imagine - and get a small spark out of - the amount of blood that was spilled on the stones beneath my feet."

I get this same sensation in Manhattan.

comment #10

RoyBatty says ...

FYI for Wells and anyone interested: the casts aren't plastered-covered, they are plaster.

When they were digging the ruins, they kept coming across voids in the ash. Someone finally realized they were where bodies used to lay. If I remember my NOVA, the people were killed first by gas. Then the ash covered them but before it burned away their bodies and bones it basically formed a mold. By pouring plaster into these voids.

It also explains why there are no carts and other organic-related items. Their voids were probably missed and would be very hard to fill (think of spokes made of wood, which probably burned away before the ash could settle).

comment #11

nola says ...

I have been to the two internet cafes in Positano. Slow as hell but I didn't care because, I was in Positano. One of the internet places is really a bar and I thougth it was great I could have a class of wine and check my emails.

Many of the artifacts from Pompeii are in the Archeological Museum in Naples, which is pretty incredible. Naples is very, very different from Florence. Totally chaos and stunning.

comment #12

hatchling says ...

I've been to Pompeii a couple times. Jeff really should have sprung for a guided tour or at least a guide book. You can't get into some of the best sites without being with a guide or bribing a guard. But first you have to know what you're looking for. if you know the right location, you can bribe a guard [they live for this, trust me] to let you into the buildings with the porn filled walls.

I might argue that it's the best preserved ancient site though. Nearby Herculenium is pretty damned spectacular and still largely un-excavated. nola is right. Most of the real treasures from Pompeii are in the Naples museum. Naples.. wow... buried in uncollected garbage at the moment, but a stunning experience ... a sensual overload.

No whining about the lack of fast wifi in Positano. Cripes... enjoy the incredible views and ambience and log on back in the larger towns of Naples, Sorrento or Salerno.

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