J + 21 : Pompeii and Herculaneum

The beautifully restored Atrium in one of the wealthy Households in Pompeii

Herculaneum was - compared to Pompeii - an intimate experience. The crowd - not only from cruise ships - discovered Pompeii. I guess the site made it on several "bucket lists". More visitors contribute to longer queues. But there is more. "Smart" Italian bureaucrats installed a ticketing system that requires first and family name for each visitor (sic!). Wonder what purpose this serves. Security - not precise enough; marketing - useless without a cell phone number; statistics - no granularity thus no. There was once a time when we bought cardboard tickets for cash = 15 sec. Now that individual names are required = 3 min. Don't we love watching officials putting in Thai or Icelandic names? Of course I do get the logic: several EUR millions investments + Increased waiting time by factor 12 = job creation! It is innovation European style.

One of Pompeii's Main Streets with the Pedestrian Crossing to

make sure that your Sandals did not get wet or dirty

We finally made it in - Lomè, our creative guide, found a way to buy tickets on-line and we could jump the queue. The first thing we noticed is how much bigger Pompeii was than Herculaneum. The town has a surface of 66 hectares of which 44 were excavated. The rest is still covered by ash. It is more than three times larger than Herculaneum and was once home to 15'000 to 20'000 people. Recent research puts the number even higher at 30'000. The Vesuvius' eruption in 79 AD killed an estimated 2'000 people - 93% could evacuate on time.

Pompeii's large Forum illustrates the Importance of the Town during Roman Time - Mount Vesuvius is at the Back

You need to look no further than the large temples, theatres, streets and individual houses to understand that Pompeii was a significant town. Well organised with its classic grid, it has one-way roads, side walks, pedestrian crossings and regular public fountains. Shops and businesses line the town's larger roads. The residential areas for rich people are spacious and have sufficient depth to insulate the owners from the hectic street life.

Milling Stones to make Flour in one of Pompeii's Bakeries

One of the houses we visited was a bakery which had everything from milling stones to an oven for baking bread. Upon closer look, I found the oven to be identical to the outdoor oven in my house in the French Cevennes. We use it every summer to make pizza. Amazing that the design of my oven (built around 1650) is almost 2'000 years old. We know that the bread looked different in Roman time. Still.

This Bread Oven is identical to my Oven in the Cevennes

I found Pompeii immensely practical for the people who lived there. They thought about everything that modern urban planning has to address. Like separation of fresh from waste water, bringing fresh water close to the residential areas, hard paving roads to make them suitable for heavy traffic, separation of pedestrian flows from others, managing the heat during summer time, having places for public debates and entertainment. Medieval towns were so much worse. During the time of enlightening, we had to reinvent what the Romans already created 2'000 years earlier.

The Pompeiians used Bricks to build the Columns of the Basilica \ Pompeiana, the Towns Central Law Court and Business Center.

The Columns were plastered to make them look like Marble

This time, I left Pompeii with a far better understanding. Maybe because I am older. Not looking for spectacular sights anymore, but for the difficult to achieve ordinary. Building a well functioning town requires discipline, dedication and effort by all citizens. A philosophy that asks "what can I do for my town" and not "what can my town do to me". This spirit of belonging and being accountable together was clearly visible in Pompeii. I found this an up-lifting thought at a time when parts of our modern cities fall apart. This sense of being in it together was nobly expressed during Pompeii's darkest hour - when the Vesuvius exploded. 93% of its citizens were safed - without early warning systems - what an extraordinary achievement.

Map of well organized Pompei from 79 AD when the Vesuvius exploded