Rome & Pompeii

[Ebusitanus]

I just came back from a quick Rome-Pompeii marathon trip and I have some impressions-questions.<br>
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For something that surely attracts so many millions of visitors every year at these sites, I´m shocked on what a miserable effort has been made to make most of the places international visitor friendly.<br>
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Almost a total lack of descriptive signs everywhere. If you did not have a guide book with you to interpret what you had in front of you, you would be totally lost. And I´m not even asking for a nice sign describing a bit the place and its history, no, not even signs saying "Constantine Arch".<br>
Most of those signs, when you could locate one, seem to date back from the Mussolini days, old, outdated and rotten.<br>
When you had the incredible luck of finding a more detailed sign near the ruins it was 99% only in Italian.<br>
The same can be said about even Museum displays you visited. 99% of descriptions (With the Dioclecian Thermes as lone exception) everything was just in Italian.<br>
How can such a touristic international hub be so careless about their millions of visitors?<br>
Not to make odious comparaisons but in Spain the majority of archeological displays and museums give you a free multi-language description flier where you can at least get an head start on what you can see and where it is. Signs explaining the pieces are in various languages.<br>
All that was totally missing in Rome, no fliers, no explanation panels. In the National Roman Museum you had one floor plan at the entrance of the floor in Italian to give you directions. Coliseum, Palatine, Forums...nothing..not even a sign saying this freaking temple is the Saturn temple..nothing.<br>
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If you do not have a book with you and some in deep previous study of what you will be visiting you will be miserably lost. A very poor service to such an international magnet of visitors and not something I was used to at all.<br>
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Pompeii was amazing..truly...the same sign problems and them being in Italian did not help.<br>
Question...I was shocked when noticing that almsot half of Pompeii is still under a big layer of earth. Is this on purpose? There was even a private house sitting in the middle of the town doing agriculture above what must be tonns of roman housing and streets. The possible archeological wealth lying there must be compelling. How is that land at least not expropiated?<br>
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more to follow later <p></p><i></i>

[richsc]

I'm trying to remember if the Smithsonian has signs in various languages, but I don't think so. I know they have guide books available, and earphone/recorders.<br>
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As to the unexcavated Pompeii, you have to look at the state of preservation of the excavated stuff to get a feeling for what the resources can preserve. A lot has disappeared over the centuries/decades in what has been excavated just due to exposure and erosion. Lots more money would be needed. Just look at the $100 million being expended on a small portion of Herculaneum! <p>Legio XX<br>
Caput dolet, pedes fetent, Iesum non amo<br>
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[Ebusitanus]

Well, being English the Lingua Franca of these days, I do not expect a full blown set of ten languages, but at least English for all the Gods!...But then, many areas do not even have Italian signs.<br>
If this would be some laidback Italian village in the mountains I would somehow understand..but this was Rome..a city that gets Millions of international visitors every year desperate to see and walk the Coliseum and the Forums...really a very poor touristic show.<br>
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Yes, I understand the cost involved and its sad not more funds can be allocated to these matters...nevertheless I had thought that a city that was begun getting excavated in the mid 1700´would have had these areas already covered. Who knows what lies beneath that huge area.<br>
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[Carlton Bach]

Well, the excavators in Pompeii were originally going to do just that, but the problem is that as technology progresses, excavations become more expensive per square meter. Nobody could afford to properly 'do' half as much of Pompeii today as was done in the 19th century. The other thing is that technology still progresses. My archeology professor had tears in her eyes when she told us of the excavations at Vix in the 50s where they *washed the glass vessels* before putting them on display. Today, we could have analysed the contents - probably cosmetics or scents. Many modern archeologists today stand on the position that you shouldn't excavate any site you don't have to because future generations will curse you for it.<br>
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As to Rome - well, it's a site that attracts more visitors visitors every year than they can handle, so they don't really *need* to be nice, do they? <p></p><i></i>

[Ebusitanus]

Yes, although with that logic no one will ever excavate anything since in ten years time tech will have improved over the present one. In any event I do not think present day archology with good funding is that bad or reckless as to loose all that much aditional information.<br>
Places like Pompeii should, just alone for the attraction they create, have much more archological emphasis placed on instead of all those trips to Syria or Irak where stuff is best kept at this time underground till sitaution improves.<br>
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But what I found so interesting is that there was an inhabited private house in the middle of Pompeii doing its wine plantation over the unexcavated ruins..obviously they have not even expropiated it.<br>
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On Rome, I´m not asking for a personal guide here per person, but there is a huge leap from handing out free informative sheets in diferent languages with a small map and some general information and the general display signs near the pieces like I see here in Spain at every Museum or dig and what you get at Rome where you basically have to do your own thing by buying books or hiring a profesional guide.<br>
I love books and I buy them anyhow, but others less inclined are missing so much stuff its actually sad. No signs, nothing...and the few panels you can locate are in Italian only.<br>
Its indeed bad for business no matter how you turn it. <p></p><i></i>