A day in the domus 

The Roman domus or house was constructed around a large courtyard, the atrium, which opened into several rooms and was adorned with grand mythological scenes. In the center of this courtyard, the roof was open, and underneath was a basin that collected rainwater, stored in a cistern. Beyond the atrium, there was a garden often shaded by a portico surrounded by columns. Some houses had a small kitchen, often connected to it was a latrine, in addition to closets and various household objects. Originally, they were painted in vivid colors, from the walls to the columns.

Similar to today, the week was composed of 7 days, each dedicated to one of the seven planets they knew, which according to their belief ruled the Universe. Let's delve into the details of how a typical day unfolded.

They woke up early around 8 in the morning, as the voices of workers and schoolchildren were heard from the early hours. They began with personal grooming – men would tend to their beards and hair at home or at a barber shop. Women would adorn themselves and pay special attention to their hairstyles, often influenced by the current empress's hairdos. The mode of dress had few variations between the sexes and was primarily influenced by the fashions of each era.

The pleasure of real dining

For the Romans, the space and time dedicated to culinary pleasure were truly sacred. After two light meals of the day, sometimes standing and hurried, the only proper meal was the dinner known as "ientaculum." This important evening event, organized in the domus, was a grand banquet that could last until midnight or even until dawn.

It took place in a special room of the house, the triclinium, the traditional Roman dining room consisting of three long couches where the hosts and their guests reclined while conversing leisurely. These banquets were a symbol of social superiority and elegance, with attendees dressed in luxurious attire.

Food was eaten with the hands as forks didn't yet exist, so slaves were always nearby with water jugs for handwashing. A Roman dinner consisted of at least seven courses: appetizers, three main courses, two roasts, and dessert.

As for drinks, the dinner began with a welcome cup. 

Following the appetizers, they drank a wine mixed with honey called "mulsum." Then, between courses, they drank wines from various regions. Greek wines were the sweetest, those from Marseille were smoother, and Spanish wines were the strongest. Wines from Falernum and the Vesuvian area were among the favorites. These wines were always consumed mixed with a bit of water.

After dinner, the "commissatio" or ceremonial drunkenness took place. This was achieved by downing cups of wine in succession, following the lead of the person presiding over the event. It marked the end of the dinner and the night.

Exploring the city

Pompeii flourished during the dominance of the Roman Empire, with public buildings and grand houses of important families being constructed under the emperors Augustus (27 BCE - 14 CE) and Tiberius (14-37 CE). It is estimated that Pompeii had around 20,000 inhabitants, including 12,000 free citizens and 8,000 slaves.

The Forum was the grand public and institutional square of the city, where most political activities and business transactions took place. On Saturdays, the bustling atmosphere of the city moved to the markets, where merchants, moneylenders, and auctioneers offered their merchandise.

The baths (termas) were the place to daily enjoy the relaxing pleasure of the waters. It was a true hub of the city's life, with personal care accessible to everyone, even the humblest. 

The baths featured a variety of baths, porticos, gardens, shops, gymnasiums or massage rooms, and even a library.

The thermopolium was a small and appealing tavern where people could eat and drink hot food. Most citizens had their midday meal there. It had a counter with containers of various products to eat while standing or sitting in interior rooms. This meal usually consisted of bread, cold meat, vegetables, and fruit, accompanied by wine. 

Sometimes, forbidden games like dice and knucklebones were played in the backroom.

Gladiator combat was the major social spectacle of the city. The amphitheater of Pompeii accommodated 20,000 people enjoying violent fights to the death, a display of unbridled passion both in the arena and the stands. These fighters, originally slaves or prisoners, became professional soldiers, gaining popularity and wealth.

They were differentiated by their place of origin, known by names like Samnites, Gauls, or Thracians, among others, as well as by the type of weaponry they used. The theater was one of the most popular shows, often held in the evening by torchlight. The first permanent theaters were built during the time of Augustus. Three types of scenes were created based on tragedy, comedy, or satirical drama. The building consisted of three parts, just like today: scaena (stage), orchestra (semicircular area at the foot of the stage), and cavea (audience seating). The orchestra was reserved for magistrates and members of the senatorial order. Attending the theater was a major social event. Pompeii had two theaters: the Teatro Grande, which could accommodate 5,000 people, and the Odeon, with 1,000 seats and a roof, where concerts and recitals were organized.

The city had numerous temples, but the most important ones for the people of Pompeii were dedicated to Jupiter, Juno, Venus, Isis, Apollo, and Mars. Romans believed that all aspects of life were controlled by the gods, and the annual calendar was filled with festivities to honor them.

Origin and birth of Pompeii

The settlement originated on a plateau in the Campania region to control the valley of the Sarno River, where a bustling port was situated at its mouth. The city was located 30 meters above sea level on a mass of Vesuvius' lava. It grew in relation to the coastline as a privileged location and crossroads, very close to Naples. This prosperous territory, abundant with fertile land, flourished through agriculture, hunting, fishing, livestock farming, vine cultivation, and the export of wine.

In the 6th century BCE, the true urban birth of Pompeii occurred. The city solidified as a stable, supplied, and fortified habitation center. Its population was diverse, primarily consisting of Etruscans – an Italic people from the Tuscany region – Greeks, Romans, and local Samnite tribes. The involvement of these Samnite peoples and their expansion movements led to Rome's intervention in southern Italy, gaining hegemony over the entire Campanian territory. Thus, Pompeii, as an "ally," became part of the political organization of the Roman Republic, rebelling until it secured the same rights as the capital of the state.

After the siege by the troops of Lucius Cornelius Sulla, the city surrendered and from 80 BCE, it became a Roman colony with the name Cornelia Veneria Pompeianorum. During this time, its 20,000 inhabitants spread over an area of about 60 hectares, surrounded by walls. The heart of its prosperity was located in the active maritime and commercial port of the city. History marked the features of Pompeii in 79 CE as one of the most advanced cities of antiquity – open, cosmopolitan, and prosperous. We'll have the opportunity to explore its character in a way that has not been seen before. Additionally, thanks to the account of the Roman writer and lawyer Pliny the Younger through his Letters, we will firsthand discover his description of the eruption of Vesuvius and the astonishing narrative of Pompeii's destruction by the forces of nature.

Giuseppe Fiorelli and the bodies of Pompeii 

Giuseppe Fiorelli, the most influential director of the Pompeii excavations, was also the archaeologist who perfected the technique for recovering the bodies found in the city. In February 1863, he conceived and promoted the technique of "casts," based on the application of plaster casts in the cavities formed by the dissolution of the bodies themselves, essentially creating molds. Wet ash was molded tightly around the corpse, penetrating all facial cavities and clothing folds. As it solidified around the preserved flesh, it captured the impression of the body and encased the skeleton. By pouring liquid plaster into this mold, the features and gestures of the Pompeians who perished in the eruption would be faithfully replicated, portraying their final postures. The agony of animals was as painful as that of humans, as seen in the striking example of the house of Vesonius Primus (VI, 14, 20), where a dog tied with a chain in the atrium was petrified in its last, agonizing attempt to break free. Each mold used to recover the bodies of people and animals connects us emotionally across time to the catastrophe and the moment when the life of a city was abruptly halted. Their sight compels us to empathize with the tragedy and the extraordinary impact of the disappearance of thousands of lives in a natural disaster of unparalleled violence and destruction in human history.

To date, nearly 400 bodies have been recovered under the pumice stone, and around 700 among the solidified remains of the volcano's pyroclastic flow. Different investigations have not reached a consensus on the death toll, which would likely exceed 1,000 victims in any case. We're discussing sensitive material with significant emotional power, directly connecting us through time to the catastrophe and helping us empathize with the extraordinary impact of the disappearance of thousands of lives in an unparalleled natural disaster. In 2022, researchers from the University of Copenhagen successfully sequenced the genome of a victim of the eruption, achieving the first successful sequencing of human DNA from an individual who perished. This allowed them to identify common gene groups from the island of Sardinia in the male victim, as well as ascertain that he suffered from tuberculosis.
 

Dress in ancient Rome

The Romans took the way they dressed very seriously: they slept in pyjamas, and did not leave the house without combing their hair or with their clothes wrinkled, to the point of considering the moment of dressing in the toga and the perfect placement of its folds almost a ritual.

Both men and women had the tunic as a basic item of clothing. It was the garment par excellence in all social classes. There were no trousers! The tunic differed in length, being short-sleeved or sleeveless and knee-length for men, or with sleeves and down to the feet for women. To keep warm in winter, the Romans wore different thicker woollen tunics, one on top of the other.

On top of the tunic, citizens wore a toga to mark their social status. As a curiosity, when a woman wore a woollen cloak or stole over her tunic, it indicated that she was married. Putting the toga on top of the tunic was almost a rite because, this garment had the shape of a semicircle that could reach up to 6 metres in diameter.

Men:

• The tunic differed in length, being short-sleeved or sleeveless, and in winter they wore woollen tunics.
• The toga was the most important garment. Its colour, fabric, designs and length showed their rank.

Women:

• Tunic down to the feet. They could wear a woollen stole over the tunic to indicate if they were married.
• Hairstyles and jewellery were signs of high social class.

Soldiers:

• Soldiers wore a breastplate with a leather belt and a helmet with a plume.
• They wore a helmet with a plume.

Gladiators:

• Gladiators usually wore a helmet or ‘murmillo’ on their heads.
• The right arm was protected with a ‘manica’.
• On the leg were high metal greaves.

The renaissance of Pompeii

Pompeii was lost to memory for over 1,500 years. It is in the 18th century that it emerges from its ashes and captures the Europe of the time, seducing the world with its new forms and decoration.

The first contact with the buried city was in 1592, during the construction of the Sarno canal that had to cross the territory of Pompeii. The amphitheater and the Temple of Isis near the forum came to light. A significant city had been discovered, but its name was still unknown, and the extent of the remains found was not yet understood.

The definitive discovery was in 1748 thanks to archaeological excavations promoted by Charles III of Spain, then king of Naples. For this, he relied on the Spanish Roque Joaquín de Alcubierre, who had previously worked on various excavations in the area.

Alcubierre began exploration in the place known as La Civita, where valuable pieces from the ancient Roman world were continuously extracted. In a few years, a remarkable settlement was revealed with the discovery in 1763 of a complete inscription with the official title of the city "Res Publica Pompeianorum": it was Pompeii, the ancient Roman city destined to become over time the symbol of the entire area destroyed by Vesuvius, thus forever changing the understanding of the ancient world.

Vesuvius: the power of nature

Mount Vesuvius, the most significant volcano on continental Europe and arguably the most famous in the world, erupted violently on October 24th in the year 79 CE. Traditionally, it had been dated to August based on various classical sources, but everything changed with the discovery in 2018 of a charcoal inscription on the wall of a house in Pompeii, providing the key to the exact moment of the catastrophe.

The volcanic nature of Vesuvius was not unknown to the ancients, as numerous earthquakes occurred, including the one in 62 BCE, which caused significant damage in Pompeii's neighborhoods and the collapse of important buildings like the Temple of Jupiter. However, for the Pompeians, Vesuvius was a sort of protective deity that offered hunting, abundant firewood, and the precious wine produced from the vineyards on the volcano's slopes. Yet, that mountain was, in reality, a volcano with a blocked crater until that fateful morning in 79 CE.

The initial ground tremors in the days leading up to the disaster, which are now considered precursors to the eruption, were then interpreted solely as possible earthquakes and not as signs of impending eruptive dynamics. Thus, the eruption caught most of the inhabitants off guard.

It all began late that morning. The eruption commenced with a terrifying roar, launching a plume of pyroclastic material and tons of gas that had been building up for 700 years.

According to Pliny the Elder, an enormous and strange cloud rose from Vesuvius, resembling an elongated pine tree with branches, forming a column of gaseous emissions that quickly reached a height of about 30 kilometers due to the force of the expanding gases. As the explosion's force waned, an intense rain of ash fell, followed by waves of tiny volcanic stones, and then various hailstorms of large pumice stones. Anything that was still alive faced significant challenges when the city was enveloped in a dense cloud of sulfur vapors at temperatures between 300 and 600 degrees Celsius, suffocating and scorching everything in its path. Pliny the Younger would evoke the scene in his Letters to Tacitus: "Broad sheets of flame were lighting up many parts of Vesuvius; their light and brightness were the more vivid for the darkness of the night... it was daylight now elsewhere in the world, but there the darkness was darker and thicker than any night.

The grand tour and the visit to Pompeii 

The travel experience of the Grand Tour was considered an essential form of education for young individuals from affluent European classes during the 18th century. It was driven by the empirical current, which advocated that knowledge originates from personal experience. This early manifestation of modern tourism was a way for aristocratic students, artists, and scientists to complete their education through a lengthy journey across Continental Europe, lasting for months or even years, and often carried an initiatory quality.

The journey through Italy typically concluded in Naples, which was the largest city in the country at that time, with the obligatory visit to the excavations of Pompeii. From the very beginning, Pompeii became the greatest archaeological attraction of its era. Impressions of the city were often influenced by prior readings, such as the immensely famous novel "The Last Days of Pompeii" published by Edward Bulwer Lytton in 1834. This historical work was a key literary piece that immersed travelers in a passionate vision, allowing them to experience the splendor of the city with a thrilling account just moments before the tragedy. With its romantic style and a plethora of details about the golden city, it is considered by critics to be one of the essential classics on the ancient world and has served as an exciting inspiration for the current exhibition.

This travel itinerary to Pompeii, motivated by the variety of monuments and landscapes that could be admired, has resulted in a multitude of writings, journals, and travel memoirs, as well as visual representations of the city. From watercolors, engravings, and illustrations from the 18th and 19th centuries to photographs, postcards, and countless modern snapshots, the array of historical and contemporary images testify to the profound allure that the ancient city of Pompeii exerted on the cultural formation of the travelers of that time.