Pompeii’s ‘chaste lovers’ on display for Valentine’s
Print Edition
THE lava may have cooled 2,000 years ago but Pompeii is a hot destination this Valentine’s Day with a special opening of the exceptionally preserved House of the Chaste Lovers.
This rich baker’s dwelling, complete with garden, stables, mill and a sumptuous fresco of a tender kiss, stands on via dell’Abbondanza, the once-bustling thoroughfare of this ancient Roman city destroyed by a volcano.
It also boasts the grinning skeletons of petrified mules caught in the 79AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
Visitors will be able to snatch a rare glimpse this weekend of the 1500-square-meter site.
After February 14, the house will close its doors again for a four-year restoration which is part of a multi-million euro Pompeii preservation project.
“The complex encapsulates both the beauty and the challenges of Pompeii,” said archeologist Alberta Mattelone.
“There is the archeological heritage — the houses and frescoes — as well as the traces of the eruption, the volcanic deposits. Then there are the conservation problems; roofing, escarpments, preserving the frescoes,” she said.
The kiss decorates one of the walls of the triclinium, the small dining room where ancient Romans would have lounged on couches to eat and drink.
Whether the menu was cheese and honey or dormice, it will have been accompanied by freshly baked bread.
Next to the triclinium sits the bakery, its stones used to ground the grain and a large oven where flat, round loaves were prepared and sold at a little shop next door.
Just inside the shop’s doorway are the scribbled running tabs of customers who still owe the baker money for bread they likely munched on with dried fruits and olives.
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