Amuleti e altri oggetti forse appartenuti a una maga/Amulets and other objects that perhaps refer to a sorceress
of past excavations, which often rose for four to five metres, rendered it necessary to undertake new excavations, often completing works left unfinished in the past. As can be imagined when dealing with Pompeii, there were many discoveries and a whole host of surprises. Along Via di Vesuvio, the road that dissects the city of Pompeii from north to south, crossing at right angles Via di Nola first of all then Via dell’Abbondanza (the decumanus), parts of new houses – such as that containing the fresco of Leda, one of the most stunning and sensual mythological images that the Vesuvian city has revealed, with the beautiful Spartan queen captured in the amplex with Zeus transformed into a swan. In Regio V, the excavations have also brought to light an entire street with shops, restaurants and houses aligned on both sides, such as that adorned with stunning mosaics inspired by the mythology of Orion. Depicted across the two floors of the house is the beautiful and gigantic hunter from the Greek myth capturing all kinds of animals, being transformed into the constellation of the same
name; or the house with a garden, its frescoes and treasure of amulets that perhaps refer to the domestic activities of a sorceress. In anticipation of being able to reopen these environments to the public, a large expanse of Pompeii’s Regio I and II is once more available for fruition as the last part of the city to be fully secured. New road axes and especially works of great beauty, such as the Casa del Frutteto (House of the Orchard), on Via dell’Abbondanza, with its extraordinary rooms with walls decorated with depictions of lush gardens, and the Casa degli Amanti (House of Lovers) as the only peristyle example to have been preserved to this day, with two floors and two rows of columns. Closed to the public following the 1980 earthquake, it owes its name to the discovery of graffiti that shows one of the most famous words of love: amantes ut apes vita mellita exigunt (lovers, like bees, make life as sweet as honey). Here by the sentimental wit etched by the first hand is a second more sceptical addition, with the sweet comment: Velle (I would like that). The occasional writings on the walls,
the words that speak to us across the centuries, are the aspect that – more than anything else – brings us closer to the ancient people, offering us unique fragments of that daily life, devastated by the eruption but not erased by time.
NAPOLI 111 FRECCE AL GIORNO/A DAY
Rizzoli, pp. 416+32 tavole fuori testo a colori € 20 67