My hometown has a pretty darn good pizza joint run by a couple Napolitani brothers, Salvatore and Vincenzo.   I remember talking to Vinny about Pompeii when Doug was running a tour there a couple years ago and talking to him about the treasures in near his hometown, and asking whether he was homesick for them.

“Nah,” he said…”Italy is a great country, but the Italians, they’re no good people…they don’t take care of what they have.”  At the risk of sounding provincial, I’d argue that’s not as true in Rome, Florence, Milan, and Venice…but in Campagna?  Perhaps.  Pompeii is not being properly cared for, and that’s got to stop.  It belongs to Italy, yes, but it also belongs to all of us on the planet.  It’s an unparalleled and irreplaceable opportunity to glance back in time and see what an ancient culture–one whose shadow we still live in, whether we realize it or not–actually looks like.

It can’t be allowed to just fall apart.