Pompeii reveals Roman kiss for Valentine's Day

The lava may have cooled 2,000 years ago, but Pompeii is a hot destination this Valentine's Day, as it opens the extraordinarily well-preserved House of the Chaste Lovers. This magnificent baker's house, with gardens, stables, mill and a magnificent fresco of a tender kiss, stands on the Via dell'Abbondanza, the once-bustling main street of this ancient Roman city. It also houses the grinning skeletons of fossilised mules caught in the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. Visitors can catch a rare glimpse of the 1,500-square-metre site this weekend. After February 14, it will close its doors again for a four-year restoration as part of a multi-million euro Pompeii conservation project. “The complex embodies both the beauty and the challenges of Pompeii,” 40-year-old archaeologist Alberta Mattelone told AFP. “There is the archaeological heritage – the houses and frescoes – as well as the traces of the eruption, the volcanic deposits. Then there are the conservation issues: roofs, steep slopes, preserving the frescoes,” she said. – Ghosts of the mules of the past – The kiss adorns one of the walls of the triclinium, the small dining room where ancient Romans sat on sofas to eat and drink. Whether it was cheese and honey or dormice, it was always accompanied by freshly baked bread. Next to the triclinium is the bakery, with its stones used to grind the grain and a large oven where flat, round loaves with cuts on the top were prepared and sold in a small shop next door. Just inside the shop door are the scribbled bills of customers who still owe the baker money for bread they probably ate along with dried fruit and olives from the food stall opposite. The stone mill was powered by six mules and a donkey that were kept in the stable – and were trapped inside when the molten rock and ash hit them. “They were examined by an archaeozoologist: they all suffocated, except for one, who was killed by a blow to the head when the building collapsed,” Mattelone said, adding that the unfortunate four-legged creatures were “in an excellent state of preservation.” Behind the stable lies the working painters' house, where interior designers were busy sprucing up a room when the volcano erupted, as well as a garden that is being restored exactly as it was thanks to archaeobotanists. The complex was first explored in 1912, revealing a balcony that was later damaged by Allied bombs during World War II. It wasn't until 1982 that serious excavations began. They ran until 2004 and the site was briefly opened in 2010, only to be closed again. – 'Big impact' – “We are opening it for Valentine's Day because we wanted to allow public access before closing the site to rehabilitate the roof and the supporting structure,” said Michele Granatiero, 61, the project's chief architect. “This is an opportunity to create an architectural, structural and technological work of great impact,” he said. Pompeii, Italy's second most visited site after the Colosseum in Rome, with a record number of visitors of 3.2 million in 2016, has been hit by a series of collapses in recent years due to lack of maintenance and bad weather. The rusty posts that support the walls of the House of the Chaste Lovers will be replaced by a few external struts and dozens of underground struts. Visitors will be able to explore the site from a new raised walkway under a roof made of aluminum and Plexiglas. Those lucky enough to get in now can visit, in groups of up to 20 people, an enchanting area with mosaics made of colored marble, storage rooms with ceramic pots and frescoes depicting birds, plants and one of the gentlest kisses of Roman times.