Pompeii, from discovery to discovery: but the king is naked. Or at least undressed. And tomorrow looms in canvas pants

I have told this episode of my private life many times, chatting with friends. But this time I am making an exception. I want to tell it in written form because, in my humble opinion, the fact has become of pressing topicality. In short: about fifteen years ago, in the early 2000s, in Arezzo, where I had stayed in a hotel, when it was time to pay for the room, I heard the hotelier, a middle-aged Tuscan from Arezzo, say to me. “Excuse me, but are you actually from Pompeii? So there is a modern city called Pompeii? I know the excavations because I visited them when I was young, but I had always thought that next to the famous excavations there was no town with a municipality. In short, I thought that at most there were only 'four 'ase!” he concluded, pronouncing the last words with a strong “aspiration” that was all Tuscan.
So, I tried to explain to him how and why he was wrong…that Pompeii is new etc…that Bartolo LONGO etc…that the excavations instead etc…leaving him quite surprised and perplexed. Today I wouldn’t do it anymore, I think. I would just nod and shake my head slightly.
And this time it is me who asks the reader the question – a provocative one – from the online columns of this newspaper Le Cronache della Campania.
But does POMPEII exist? I mean the new city, the inhabited one? Or are they just 'four' places? Was Aretino right? Well, from the signals coming from the territory, I would expect a provocative yes. But still a yes! And a clear one!!
Let's try to think for a moment without pretending not to see that the Municipality is led by a Municipal Administration that is as ectoplasmic as it gets. The Mayor administers (editor's note: so to speak...) a town that is dull and deserted by the La Cartiera Shopping Center and by the inaction of its municipal administrators. Today, it is still attached to the religious tourist flows directed to the Marian Sanctuary and to the secular ones of archaeological tourism, which populate the many B&Bs that have sprung up spontaneously here and there in the territory.
But the crisis is there and it is evident in the decreasing numbers that even religious tourist flows are forced to deal with. And the decreasing numbers are those attested by the sacred particles (editor's note: the consecrated hosts, to put it more simply, in ecclesiastical language) distributed by the officiants on the altar to the devotees weekly. It is known - and it is a known fact - that it is increasingly rare to see in the streets of the City of Pompeii numerous and compact phalanxes of the faithful as once, organized by willing and diligent priests and tertiaries.
And it is not only the "competition" of the distant places of the holy Padre Pio that generates defections among the pilgrims (editor's note: can I still call them that?) once mainly "Marian". On the other hand, what do the Ecclesiastical Administration, on the one hand, and the Municipal Administration, on the other, do to make the pilgrim's "day" in Pompeii more pleasant and easier? ... Not to mention the parking in the blue lines, expensive and relentless ... Without dwelling on the absence of a shred of a Tourist Information Office, worthy of the name in a civilized country. And, finally, without forgetting the young people, fleeing Pompeii to look for work elsewhere, while millions of euros rain down.
This desolate and bleak panorama is contrasted by the Administration of the Pompeii Archaeological Park – the one that used to be called the Superintendency – which remains extended only over a quarter of the municipal territory, in offense to common intelligence, without ANYONE, among the experts (editor's note: who are they?) caring about the inconveniences caused to the living City, divided in two, or rather in a quarter and three quarters.
But announcements and discoveries are not lacking, even if some of the recent discoveries, such as that of the clean and painted emerging candelabra – polished and fresh – from the lapilli, which appears dirty and already removed and put aside, would be laughable or at least are only suitable for the “herds of cattle” of the Media and Social on the Internet.
In short, they make the news, but Pompeii – all of Pompeii – needs much more. In the meantime, however – it must be recognized – the number of visitors to Pompeii is growing, perhaps also attracted by the news of the discoveries, but the statistics say that the tourist numbers of Naples, Sorrento, Capri, Paestum and other tourist sites in Campania are also growing – and more. It is up to this newspaper to speak out of tune.
In fact, there are many more serious things to think about, such as the Buffer Zone of the great Pompeii Project, the transfer of the historic Naples-Pompeii railway upstream from Vesuvius, the role – never a territorially driving one – of Pompeii itself, the creation of an Archaeological Museum in one of the large empty containers in the city centre, the last and only hope for the future of Pompeii, all of Pompeii.
It is better not to talk about the Restorations, for the sake of the European Homeland, since they are done with EU funds. Whether Minister Salvini likes it or not.
They will speak for themselves and soon. As will the unfinished works. As will the pavements carried out without saving, but in alternating colors, while the rumors tell that most of the Restoration Works, it seems that the necessary surveys have been made.
So what happened to the much-vaunted Plane of Knowledge? And the survey drones?
In short, if the King is not naked…. he is at least undressed. And for Pompeii – all of Pompeii – tomorrow looms in canvas pants.

 Federico LI Federico