Tourist Site Rewrites History

(CNN) — It's world-famous for the Roman ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii, destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 C.E., but the latest tourist attraction in Naples shows a very different side of the city.

Opening in June, the Ipogeo dei Cristallini -- Hypogeum of Cristallini Street -- is part of an ancient cemetery, located just outside the walls of Neapolis, as the city was called 2,300 years ago.

Not only is the cemetery more than 400 years older than the ruins of Pompeii and the other Roman towns along the Bay of Naples, but it isn't Roman at all. In fact, it was built by the ancient Greeks, who founded Naples in the eight century B.C.E., and kept it a fully Greek city, even when it came under Roman control centuries later.

It's a game-changing opening, according to archaeologists, that promises to change how we think of Naples, the Mediterranean in ancient times, and even Greek artistry. It also, those involved with the project believe, has the potential to protect Naples from a tourism boom that, if it continues, could bring overtourism to the city.

In the bowels of the city

Forty feet below the garden of a 19th-century palazzo, in what's now the Sanità area of the city, a steep staircase burrowing underground leads to four tombs. Each with their own grand entrance -- one even has Ionic columns sculpted on its façade -- they open on to what is thought to have been the original pathway that mourners would have taken.  READ MORE...

Megafires New Norm

Image caption,The megafire on Evia led to thousands of residents fleeing their homes


World leaders at the COP26 summit in Glasgow are under pressure to respond to global warming, and intense heatwaves and frequent forest fires are becoming an increasing threat around the Mediterranean.

This summer alone Greece was hit by thousands of wildfires, fanned by its worst heatwave in decades. Turkey, Italy and Spain all witnessed dramatic fires in recent months and the fire on the Greek island of Evia was the biggest in Greece since records began.

What happened on Evia was a megafire, an intense conflagration, which took almost two weeks to bring under control.

With more heatwaves forecast for future summers, there are fears that megafires could become the new normal.

"We never expected this," says Nikos Dimitrakis, a farmer who was born and raised in northern Evia. "We thought a part might burn, as in previous fires. But now the entire area was burned."

Image caption, Greeks evacuated the island as the fires turned the sky orange

When the fire reached his land, he told me there was no-one there to help. Surrounded by flames, he grabbed tree branches in a desperate attempt to put out the blaze.  READ MORE...

Greeks in Pompeii Skeletons

Archaeologists in the ancient city of Pompeii have discovered a remarkably well-preserved skeleton during excavations of a tomb that also shed light on the cultural life of the city before it was destroyed by a volcanic eruption in AD 79.

A skull bearing tufts of white hair and part of an ear, as well as bones and fabric fragments, were found in the tomb in the necropolis of Porta Sarno, an area not yet open to the public that is located in the east of Pompeii's urban center. The discovery is unusual since most adults were cremated at the time.

An inscription of the tomb suggested that its owner, a freed slave named Marcus Venerius Secundio, helped organize performances in Greek in Pompeii. Experts said it was the first confirmation that Greek, the language of culture in the Mediterranean, was used alongside Latin.

"That performances in Greek were organized is evidence of the lively and open cultural climate which characterized ancient Pompeii," the director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, Gabriel Zuchtriegel, said in a statement announcing the discovery.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Zuchtriegel said Marcus Venerius clearly had been able to make a living for himself after he was freed as a slave, given the "monumental" size of his burial tomb. "He didn't become super rich, but certainly he reached a considerable level of wealth," Zuchtriegel said.  READ MORE

Favorite Places to Live and/or Visit

While my wife and I like East TN as the location in which we live and Myrtle Beach as the location in which we visit...  everyone else, for the most part, has their favorite locations for one reason or another which allows for the rich diversification that makes American Great... 

For example, we have visit several places in Europe, around the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, Alaska, and Hawaii and none of those places suit our personalities 100% even though there were aspects of those areas that we really enjoyed as we were experiencing them...

Locations, to us, are not just locations but they consist of:

• travel time to get there
• transportation to get there
• cost of living there
• number of people there
• annual climate there
• things to do there

As we get older, even the 6 hour drive to Myrtle Beach is becoming to long of a time to take just to get someone in which we feel comfortable and know what to expect.  And, it is this knowing what to expect that clinches the deal for us...

COVID has put a damper on our travels and this fear will probably continue until next Summer even if they get a vaccine because we believe vaccines should be tested by others first in case they need to be modified due to side effects...   of course, the FDA would have taken all of that into consideration one would think.