It is late morning on August 24th in the year 79 A.D. A thick black cloud rises from Mt. Vesuvius. The cloud takes the form of a huge pine tree, and gets larger by the minute. In just a few hours it completely covers the sky, while burnt rocks begin falling everywhere. The Earth continues to tremble and in full daylight night falls on Pompeii and its surroundings. The most disastrous and deadly phase of the eruption arrives in just a few hours, at sunrise on the 25th. The sea withdraws, and burning floods of vapor filled with ash expand at the velocity of a hurricane on top of trees, humans, and anything in the way. This petrifies the people of Pompeii, who try leaving the city while protecting themselves from the falling rocks with pillows and blankets. Pompeii becomes buried and time has completely stopped. Oil-lamps, necklaces made of precious stones, weights, gladiator helmets, aqueduct and drainage pipes, beds, incisions on the entrances of grocer's shops, amphoras, carts, frescoes in the houses of the rich, streets, kitchen utensils in bronze and iron, statues of Gods, even a lover's last kiss. All things are immobilized in their last breath of life which they must infinitely repeat. We have found first-hand accounts from distances far away. Two extraordinary and touching letters exist by Pliny the Younger -- the historian of the Roman era who found himself in Campania at the time of the volcanic eruption -- in which he narrates what he saw and what he heard from the few survivors who fled Pompeii just in time.

On our tour of Pompeii we will try to bring the entire city back to life, describing the culture of the time, the role of the family, the relationships between generations, the conditions of women, marriage, the role of the slaves, the clothing of the different social classes; the politics and government of the city, the methods of electoral propaganda; the production of bread, trade and commerce, clothes dyeing, the preciousness of the oil produced in Pompeii (which Catone had brought to his villa in Molise in spite of the expensive transport prices); the religious life with its various temples, cultures, beliefs and superstitions, funeral rites; the typology of the Roman houses, the various rooms, how they uses them, the heating of certain halls, the evolution of the different styles of frescoes and mosaics; the meals, the food, the famous ancient garum sauce; the gardens, the aqueducts, the public and private lighting system, latrines, public amusement, the amphitheater fights between supporters of different gladiator teams, life in the thermal baths, the taverns and the gambling; the brothels where both men and women prostituted themselves and which were widespread in many of the empire's cities. This tour will give a meaning to the thermal baths, the forum, the basilica, Fauno's House, the House of the Vettii, the brothels, the great theater, the Temple of Iside, and the many places that will always fascinate us for the stories they tell and the secrets they hold.