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the sense of lives violently interrupted and theme in ancient Rome. We sit on the stone
people uprooted from their comfortable benches in the amphitheater that hosted
reality. Pompeii, like the Titanic, holds us in gladiator games and animal contests, as if
thrall for this reason. The light is on, then waiting for the show to start.
suddenly goes out. What is that like? We enter a villa and gaze into a back
The ancient town has gradually been yard that, on the day of the eruption,
excavated, so today we can walk down hosted a vineyard, probably of wine
cobblestone roads where horse-drawn grapes. Pompeii was renowned for its wine
carts left ruts in the lanes. We stop at a from grapes that thrived, ironically, in the
corner food stand that sold vegetable and volcanic soil.
fish stews for busy Pompeiians on the go. We stroll down narrow lanes decorated
We enter a bakery and peer into the brick by occasional frescoes celebrating long
ovens as if to check whether the bread is gone deities and the pleasures of an abun‐
done. dant life. We walk through the town forum
We visit people’s houses, minus the and admire its pockmarked columns. Mo‐
people, of course, and peek at the erotic saic floors. Collapsed temples. A Roman
paintings on the walls, a common decor time capsule.
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