David Gilmour was serious when he said his return to Pompeii would become a movie. "David Gilmour live at Pompeii" the inevitable title chosen, will be out in worldwide cinemas on September 13. The launch strategy involves the presence of the rockumentary in cinemas for one day only, before the release of the DVD and the Blue-ray in November.
The film is about an hour long, shot in 4K, and directed by Gavin Elder, a South African filmmaker who has already directed a docufilm on Duran Duran. "The show includes songs that cover all of David's career, as well as many Pink Floyd classics, including “One of these days”, the only song that was played in the 1971 concert, too" says the production’s press release, which mentions the footage of the 4th and 7th of October of 1971. However, they were certainly not real concerts: the group was alone with the crew among the excavations, except for a few lucky viewers. "The concert also included the performance of “The Great Gig in the Sky” taken from the album The Dark Side of the Moon, which David Gilmour rarely performed in his solo career". The superintendence of Pompeii, which at the time - as usual - denied the request to have a rock concert inside the ruins will have royalties on the sales. The DVD will, of course, have a different duration and will include a few extras including interviews. A television broadcast seems likely at least in England on the BBC. Two thousand and six hundred people were standing where gladiators fought in the first century BC. The "Rattle that lock tour" did not make prisoners, with much nostalgia, just like the location. The history that was inscribed amongst the stones is the history of humanity, accompanied by the most revolutionary soundtrack of the twentieth century. This is sure to be an instant classic. Lasers, pyrotechnic fireworks, the big circular screen, psychedelic solos, and then the long-awaited playing of "One of these days," the only song in common with the 1971 film lineup. We look forward to seeing this concert in the cinemas on September 13th. Join us for a guided tour of Pompeii with a licensed guide and virtual reality headsets. Time-travel to the past and experience how Pompeii was 2,000 years ago.
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Summer has come and everybody’s starting to plan their holidays. If you’re going to visit Pompeii and the Campania region in general, this article is perfect for you to not miss all the latest news for enjoying a great summer! First at all, Ancient Pompeii becomes family-friendly, thanks to some nurseries, which offer private and relaxing spaces for nursing and diaper changing, inside of the Archaeological Area. The three nurseries, symbolically inaugurated last May 14th on Mother’s day, are located in three different places of the Ancient city: on the Via dell’Abbondanza, on Via Nola and at the crossroads of Via Stabiana and Via Della Fortuna. This service is one of the initiatives organized in the Archaeological site in order to offer a more comfortable visit and meet the needs of the tourists. The campaign started in December 2016, with the project “Pompei per tutti” (Pompeii for everyone), proposing a facilitated itinerary for families with stroller or mobility impaired people. Actually, they will have no difficulty accessing and visiting the site. Another great news is the creation of “ArcheoTreno”. It is a vintage train which connects Naples, Pompei, Paestum and Ascea, in order to promote the archaeological cultural heritage in Campania. ArcheoTreno is part of the Region's strategies to promote and encourage tourism in Campania, using land and sea transportation. In addition to enhancing and improving links to the various tourist destinations in the region, among the goals is also the relaunch of rail travel that has begun to involve an ever-growing array of enthusiasts around the world.
During this summer, every fourth Sunday of every month, ArcheoTreno will offer a cultural and archaeological journey. From June to December, there will be seven runs, from 7.30 to 24.00. The departure is from the station of Napoli Centrale and the arrival is at Ascea, with stops in Paestum, Pompei and Velia. ArcheoTreno joins to the “Reggia Express project”, which offers eleven train runs, from Napoli Centrale to the famous Caserta’s Palace, every second Sunday of every month, until December, excluding August. On board there are tour guides, wearing 18th century costumes. And, about the trasportation, don’t forget that there also is the Campania Express train, a special fast train that goes from Naples to Sorrento in 50 minutes. But, usually, people who come to Pompeii and the Campania region want also to enjoy the beautiful weather and sea that these places offer. So, the FEE (Foundation for Environmental Education) gives fifteen Blue Flags to many sites in Campania, according to water quality and services offered to bathers. The rewards go to two sites in the Province of Naples, Anacapri and Massa Lubrense Marina del Cantone, Marina di Puolo and Recommone. The Province of Salerno gets better results with Agropoli, Ascea, Pollica, Vibonati, Positano, Sapri, Centola, San Mauro Cilento, Montecorice, Capaccio, Pisciotta, Casal Velino and Castellabate. So, what are you waiting for? Come see one of the most beautiful archeological sites in the world and book one of our unique time-traveling tours through the Ancient Roman city of Pompeii! When the archaeologist Vittorio Spinazzola saw the cast of the two intertwined bodies (just found in the house of the Criptoporticus of Pompeii) he had no doubt. It was a man and a woman, hugged together in their last moment of life. Someone christened them "lovers." A year later, Spinazzola, archaeologist and regent of the ruins, was sent away because his sympathies were not really directed towards Mussolini. The "Lovers" instead remained there, with mixed success, rarely shown. However, in people’s imagination, they remained the most fascinating cast of the history of Pompeii, a symbol of love and passion. For decades, the casts were closed in storage and have never been studied. For a "Christian Pietas" because as explained by the Superintendent Massimo Osanna in 2015, "they have always represented the bodies of dead people and not only archaeological remains". It was the month of May, a few days before the exhibition "Kidnapped to Death” which took place in a large wooden pyramid set up in the arena of the Amphitheater. A historic day, not only an exhibition. The plaster that hid bones, clothing fibers, buckles, and common objects that Pompeiians normally wore in 79 AD, could be studied. CAT, DNA tests, spectroscopy and all the most sophisticated instruments that modern medicine has were used. All this effort for a man and a woman of two thousand years ago. Some casts were even treated with an IV because they were yielding to time. Ironically it was happening to the most recent ones, those found in the sixties and seventies of the twentieth century. They realized that poor quality plaster had been used. Much better plaster was used by Giuseppe Fiorelli, the man who invented the casts in 1863, that’s why his plaster cast were intact. Obviously, the exhibition brought the “Lovers” before the eyes of the people. However, Mr. Osanna, with scientific rigor, brought the truth to which Spinazzola believed in. They were not a man and a woman but two women, perhaps a mother with her daughter. Love “kidnapped to death" was not the passion of two lovers but a mother’s desperate hug on the last attempt to save her daughter. And yet there's another twist. "Pompeii never ceases to amaze. I always imagined that it was a hug between two women. But CAT and DNA have revealed that they are men", said the superintendent Massimo Osanna. And they are not father and son. According to the results of the scientific tests, they are two boys aged 18 and 20 years. "We cannot say - says Mr. Osanna - that the two characters were lovers. However, it can be assumed, but it is difficult to know for sure”. The analysis does show that the eighteen-year old cast belongs to a male, and probably so for the twenty-year old. However, on the oldest there is no certainty, because the DNA after two thousand years is very spoiled. Their love is the only thing that resists time. Join us on a time-travel Pompeii tour through the ancient with a licensed guide + VR headsets to see how Pompeii look. Watch the "How It Works" video here. Thanks to the Great Pompeii Project, a visit to ancient Pompeii introduces newly restored dwellings, such as the House of the Bear, the House of Siricus and the Bakery of Popidius. The House of the Bear is named after the mosaics in the hallway, representing a bear injured by a spear and an inscription of the Latin greeting “Have”. It was built around 50 AD in the space formed between two old houses. Despite its small size, the domus stands out for its richness in decorations, especially the pavements, such as the mosaics, decorating the basin of the impluvium. Behind the house, there is a little garden, a fountain and an aedicule, with a decoration representing a seabed, a shoal of fish, Neptune and Venus in a shell, emerging from the sea. The House of Sirucus is a large dwelling, whose owner, Publius Vedius Siricus, is well-known thanks to the finding of a bronze signet ring. It occupies from east to west the central part of the insula 1 of Regio VII, it’s an aggregation of two dwellings. Publius Vedius Siricus was a politician and business personality in Pompeii and he daily welcomed his “clientes” in his domus with the auspicious inscription of “cocciopesto” (fragments of earthenware or brick mixed with lime and sand) of these words: “Salve Lucru(m)”, i.e. “Welcome earnings”. At the entrance of the house which stands out for its elegance the large portico where the guests feasted on beds called “triclini”, located around a precious opus sectile pavement, surrounded by frescoes depicting Heracles at the court of Queen Omphale, Thetis in Hephaestus’ house and the construction of the walls of Troy. In the Triclinium, there are the casts of three fugitives, which were trying to leave, while the city was already half-buried by lapillus, and suddenly they were killed by a thermal shock, because of the first pyroclastic flow. The most recent interpretation identifies the four as a family consisting of a man, who paved the way in the vain escape from death, a woman that, clutching a few precious belongings she collected before fleeing, closes the line and encourages the race of two girls: a full-grown and one that still had to be a girl. The Bakery of Popidius Priscus was nearest the Forum and was the biggest bakery in Pompeii; actually, it produced more than eighty loaves of bread every batch, it had five volcanic stone mills and received a great number of customers at peak times. On the door, there is the inscription: Hic Habitat Felicitas (i.e. Here happiness lives). Popidius was an ambitious businessperson; actually, in addition to the bread trade in the city, he stamped the loaves, as they were a real work of art and exported his products in the neighboring Nocera. Even today, with a little imagination, the aroma of freshly baked bread seems to envelop all the streets around this bakery. Take a tour of Pompeii with us and time travel to the past! Start by viewing our guided Pompeii tours here. Or call our Pompeii office at +39 081 1877 7006. In Pompeii there has been a great return to celebrate the International Women's Day. The statue of the "Venus in a bikini", now in the Archaeological Museum of Naples (Mann), was back for the Woman’s day at her place of discovery, the eponymous domus. An initiative strongly supported by the Superintendence of Pompeii in accordance with MANN, who in addition to confirming the strong link that binds the two institutions today, will also remember the direct and historical connection since Bourbon. The project to accommodate the objects found in Pompeii’s excavations and then transferred to the MANN could also have future developments.
Since the 8th of March, the house in which was exhibited the statue was closed again, because of the works on the safety of Regiones I and II, provided by the Great Pompeii Project. The fame of the domus (house) is linked to the discovery of the marble statuette depicting Venus that melts a sandal. The goddess also presents a drawing of a golden embroidery fabric on the breast and on the pubic region (bikini). The statue is one of the most unique and interesting pieces of the archaeological adventure that took place at the foot of Vesuvius. The statue was found in a wardrobe located in one of the rooms of the house (the tablinum), where it had been placed during the work of the domus following the earthquake of 62 AD, along with other household effects and valuables including gold bracelets and coins. Almost certainly the statue was used as an ornament, placed on a pedestal located behind the impluvium (the ornamental pool at the center of the atrium). The sexual innuendo glimpsed in the gesture of Venus have then determined the future place in the erotic Cabinet of the Archaeological Museum, keeper of finds with erotic themes, where it was transferred after the discovery. This iconography of the Venus, which occurs twice in Pompeii, seems to have originated in greek-oriental influence of the late third century BC and its success is documented by a large number of figurines found in many centers of the Hellenistic East and Egypt. The image of Venus, goddess of beauty par excellence, was a real tribute to the female figure on the occasion of the Women's Day. Within the domus, the female figure is also expressed in the different mythological squares of different environments, depicting women and especially goddesses Diana and Actaeon, Omphale and Hercules, Pyramus and Thisbe, a nymph coming out of a body of water in a flower garden. The house is modest in size, is the result of the division of an earlier property, which probably took place in the first century BC and brought to light at the beginning of the twentieth century, which includes an atrium with a garden in the back. All the paintings in the house belong to the decorative phase of the IV Style. Book your time-traveling tour through ancient Pompeii with our licensed guides and a VR headset to see how Pompeii looked 2,000 years ago. View your tour options here. |
AuthorStaff at Flashback Journey to Pompeii. Our goal is to bring you up-to-date information on events, continuing archeological excavations and more on Pompeii. Archives
July 2018
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