Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town

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Mario Praz’s Illustrated History of Interior Decoration is a wonderful chatty collection of case studies that explores the history of the subject in a well-informed and erudite manner. That realization led me back to Pompeii and then Rome, but also to tracking down the archaeology of Roman roads.

The overarching notion she combats here is that when Pompeii was buried by volcanic debris from Vesuvius in the great eruption of A. If you take to the Circumvesuviana to the Ercolano station, you can hire a taxi from a lot directly outside the station. Plenty of streets blocked to traffic here and lots of detailed archaeological evidence to get to grips with, but coming through the book to the reader is the passion of the author and his need to discover and reveal new facts about Pompeii to his readers. We ask experts to recommend the five best books in their subject and explain their selection in an interview. Though the Romans have long departed Pompeii, the swirl of humanity keeps going in Pompeii and beyond.The photographs of Luigi Spina take readers on a journey through the classical architecture of the nine districts of Pompeii – including through areas off-limits to tourists.

Berry, who teaches ancient history and archaeology at Swansea University in Wales, packs her magazine-style pages with large-format color photographs of the art, artifacts and buildings of the town, and the result is suitably dazzling.You will enjoy your food more if you plan to eat outside the site in modern Pompeii, which is filled with tourist restaurants and one McDonalds (between the cathedral and the Piazza Anfiteatro entrance). Contrary to popular assumption, the inhabitants were warned about the volcano; the town was semi-evacuated when it was engulfed.

Destroyed by Vesuvius in 79 CE, the ruins of Pompeii offer the best evidence we have of life in the Roman Empire. Robert Harris's harrowing novel Pompeii illustrates why historical fiction can often inspire readers with more wonder than a nonfiction work does. I read this in preparation for a trip to Pompeii this summer and it hugely enhanced my enjoyment of the visit. In 2007, together with studio, Harris wrote a screenplay based on Pompeii for director Roman Polanski. The novel was inspired by the painting The Last Day of Pompeii by the Russian painter Karl Briullov, which Bulwer-Lytton had seen in Milan.This book, published after her death, is a memoir more than anything, detailing her work, her travels, and her vast experience of working in Pompeii.