11-09-2010, 11:04 PM
While it is unfortunate that an incorrect newspaper item should be the means by which a 'spotlight' is focused on the crumbling of these monuments, the problem really is severe and deserves to be highlighted. Pompeii and Herculaneum are literally crumbling before our eyes, vandalised and graffitied. ( who would spray paint some lovesick teenagers message across a priceless 2000 year old fragile work of art?....But I have seen frescos thus destroyed!! :evil: ).
Because of its size, Pompeii always had 'closed' sections ( but a pretty girlfriend with a winning smile and who spoke Italian could get the custodians to open up anywhere :wink: , even where priceless artifacts were displayed in the buildings themselves - secured only by a padlock (!) --such days are long gone!! ), when I first visited Herculaneum, one could freely enter almost every building, and venture onto balconies and upper stories. Now, most of Herculaneum is 'chiuso per retoratio' too. No upper works are accessible, and perhaps more than half the site is closed, whole streets being inaccessible. Much is overgrown too. A sorry mess........
( (
Because of its size, Pompeii always had 'closed' sections ( but a pretty girlfriend with a winning smile and who spoke Italian could get the custodians to open up anywhere :wink: , even where priceless artifacts were displayed in the buildings themselves - secured only by a padlock (!) --such days are long gone!! ), when I first visited Herculaneum, one could freely enter almost every building, and venture onto balconies and upper stories. Now, most of Herculaneum is 'chiuso per retoratio' too. No upper works are accessible, and perhaps more than half the site is closed, whole streets being inaccessible. Much is overgrown too. A sorry mess........
( (
"dulce et decorum est pro patria mori " - Horace
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
