Pompeii

For my first trip outside of Rome, two of my friends and I went to Pompeii. By necessity, we spent some time also in Naples and we ended up grabbing dinner there, but the main attraction and reason for the day was definitely the ruins.


My first impression of Pompeii was that it was much bigger than I thought it was going to be. I mean, the place is huge. I think most people (at least I know I did) forget that Pompeii was a full functioning Roman city.

Because of this, there is a lot of history behind the ruins. I'm going to be honest - I really don't know much of it. I did no real research before going and neither did my friends. We were only equipped with the ideas about Pompeii that are considered common knowledge - that Pompeii was a Roman city destroyed completely and suddenly by the neighboring volcano Vesuvius. And that actually turned out to be enough.


It was a gorgeous day and we ended up exploring the ruins at our own pace, without guides or any restraints whatsoever. We stumbled upon things like strangers in a foreign land (like the gorgeous mural above). I think that we knew enough to be able to understand the significance of everything, but not too much for it lose any of its mystery.

I'm not saying that the trip would have been less enjoyable if we had known more of the history and significance of the place. It's just that, among ruins, Pompeii holds a unique place in that anyone can understand their significance well with just a basic familiarity with the history.


Most ruins which are easily accessible and visible to the public are self aware. By this I mean that they were made to commemorate something and they were made to last for that particular reason. The people who made the Coliseum probably weren't thinking of the bustling cars and goggling tourists the structure encounters now, but they did know that it was a building like nothing else.


Pompeii on the other hand, is strikingly plebeian. The city is represented without bias. In Rome, the things that were important survived and the things that weren't became bus routes and highways. But in Pompeii, everything survived and was frozen in time.

After spending so much time in Rome - such a fluent place representing so many cultures - I can't help but ask "why can't Pompeii become a modern city now?" This comes across as extremely blasphemous. Didn't I just say that Pompeii is unique because it is untouched and unbiased?

But it seems to me that merely preserving history is a relatively new idea (at least it starts from a time when civilizations could afford to physically preserve older civilizations instead of building off them). We should try to find a balance between preservation and progress. Pompeii has a rich history, and people should be able to enjoy it in a daily way, just as it was meant to be enjoyed.


I have to admit that on this thread, I really am torn. I appreciate history, and I realize we can't preserve it and live it, but the ideal thing would be if we could strike a perfect balance between the two. Rome seems to have struck quite a good balance between the historical and modern (like the picture above of Piazza del Popolo filled by a political rally concerned with modern issues), and it's what makes it such a unique place. (By the way, Rome is currently celebrating its 2763rd birthday).


Either way, Pompeii is a really cool place and everyone should see it!

Ciao!
Matt