“Everything exists forever, no force can destroy what it once was”, with these words Théophile Gautier recounts Pompeii, reviving it with the words of the protagonist “Arria Marcella”. So the apparently abandoned city comes alive with its protagonists, those who, trusting in a different ending, waited too long before deciding to go, remaining immobilized forever in their last pose, frozen in time, in an imperishable memory of what they were.
In that fatal dawn of 79 AD life in Pompeii had started to flow with the usual animation of a commercial town. Although for some days a strange cloud had appeared on its top and strange rumblings were coming from inside, the Pompeians- who had built their city on a hill of prehistoric lava and they erected the walls of their houses with it- did not t care.
Yet 17 years earlier a violent earthquake had seriously damaged many buildings and the water pipes, making public buildings and Forum monuments unusable, but the citizens, motivated by the desire to return as soon as possible to a normal life, had ventured into a massive reconstruction to make the city more beautiful than it was before. In this way the echo of so much wonder could reach every province of the Roman empire, attracting even more curious and merchants.
At 10.30 am a noise suddenly rumbled in the clear sky: the top of Vesuvius had split in two. In a succession of roars, a pillar of fire rose and it quickly turned into a cloud of smoke. The Pompeians, stunned and incredulous, were overwhelmed by a bombardment of lapilli, pumice stones, blocks of rock that constituted the cap and the upper walls of the exploded crater. The roofs began to collapse under the weight of lapilli, the first victims were already counted. This was only the beginning of the end.
Today, after almost 2000 years, Pompeii still lives, and walking in its streets, entering in the homes and public spaces is like a journey through time.