"There is no planned trip through southern Italy that does not include the Pompeii stop . Any manual of the good “guiri” (and not so guiri) includes a visit to the city at the foot of Vesuvius . With more or less time, the pack comes with some time in Naples and another in the ruins of this city devastated by a volcano , so fashionable these days, to continue towards Rome or in search of the Amalfi coast. It all depends on the itinerary chosen.
Although Pompeii would well need a whole day to itself or perhaps more if you are one of those passionate about archeology or the Roman Empire . Be that as it may, the truth is that the place is well worth it. The speed at which the lava ate its streets and its people, some of them immortalized forever in the same posture they had almost 2,000 years ago, has turned this point in the Campania region into a unique document of what the city was like. life then, before that fateful August 24 of the year 79.
Such is the importance of the place, that every so often, not long, in one of the archaeological campaigns that are maintained as a rule, a new landmark is discovered. Like that “ thermopolium ” (thermopolium; from the Greek “thermopolion”: “Hot food to sell”) discovered in 2020, a kind of “fast food”, fast food restaurant, in the middle of the street . It had already been partially unearthed a year before, but it was not until months later that the investigation confirmed that that counter was a McDonald's of the time.
The “local” was located in something like one of the fashionable and most populated neighborhoods of Pompeii, at the crossroads between the streets of the Silver Wedding and the Balcony Street , and, in addition, the discovery came with more prizes: a fresco of the sea nymph, Nereid, riding a horse and paintings of various animals, especially poultry, painted in bright colors.
All this is a consequence of a lava flow that, in a fleeting way, stopped time in Pompeii: “The thermopolium gives the impression of having been closed and hastily abandoned by its owners, although it is possible that someone, perhaps the oldest man , stayed and died during the first stage of the eruption, when the attic collapsed,” Massimo Osanna, general director of the archaeological park, acknowledged at the time.
But apart from the discoveries that emerge as you scratch in the dirt/lava/ashes, there is a specific aspect of the city that draws a lot of attention to visitors who drop by the place: the penises. . Penises everywhere . The penis as an emblem linked to a society that had it much more present, at least visibly, than we have it now. Walls, doors, bread ovens, roads... The quintessential male virile member fills everything."
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