Shrine of the Virgin of the Rosary, Pompeii

The Shrine of the Virgin of the Rosary of Pompeii is a minor basilica in the modern town of Pompeii. The church was commissioned by Bartolo Longo, a local lawyer who had a devotion to the holy rosary. He was given a painting of Our Lady of the Rosary from a Naples convent. The painting became the centerpiece of the new church. The church was completed and consecrated in 1891. In 1939 it was enlarged to a basilica and is the cathedral for the bishop of Pompeii.

Shrine of the Virgin of the Rosary of Pompeii

The bell tower

Detail from the tower

The portico of the church has many fine statues of holy Italian men and women.

St. Frances Cabrini

Ludovico da Casoria

Luigi Guanella

Leonardo Murialdo

The inside of the church is fantastically ornate. We went to Sunday Mass here. The schedule of Masses is hourly so there wasn't much time to wander around and take pictures. We could have spent a lot of time here.

Nave

Ceiling

John the Evangelist with Pope Francis below!

The organ

Our Lady of the Rosary painting from Wikipedia

Random Bits of Pompeii

Here's some interesting things from Pompeii that didn't merit their own post.

Our bed and breakfast was pretty awesome because of the baked treats I mentioned on a previous post. The kids also loved the room because of all the bouncing around they could do. They both wanted to sleep in the top of the bunk bed but the railing was a little low (at least it looked that way to us parents), so I slept there.

The best of a half dozen shots of the kids playing

Walking around town we saw some nice art, including a column with Our Lady on the top!

Our Lady on a pillar!

They should use this for a fruit and veg shop

Pompeii column

Memorial of a visit by Pope John Paul II

In the evening, lots of Christmas lights were up in the downtown area.

Christmas train near the church

One nice street

Further down the same street

On the morning we left, some dogs came by and walked with us all the way into the train station. Once we stopped and stood around waiting for our next train, they began to lose interest in us. Maybe they were hoping for some fabulous pastries.

Our faithful companion loses his faith

Sadly, the overcast weather meant that this picture from the train was our best view of Mount Vesuvius. L spent the whole time we were in Pompeii worrying whether the volcano would erupt again. We were constantly reassuring her that it was safe and nothing would happen.

Mt. Vesuvius

Tomorrow, we'll see the basilica of Pompeii, our last post for the Italy trip (though there's a couple of Roman churches left over that will be popping up on future Sundays).

Game Review: The Downfall of Pompeii by Mayfair Games

The Downfall of Pompeii by Mayfair Games

Some games take their inspiration from historical events. You'd think it would be tough to base a game on the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. The Downfall of Pompeii recreates that experience in a light and exciting two-to-four-player game.

The game is played in two phases. In the first phase, players place as many of their people as possible in the city, hopefully close to exits. Players have a hand of cards with numbers corresponding to buildings on the board. Each player plays one card, puts a token (one of their people) in the appropriate building, and draws a new card from the draw deck. Turns continue until the first AD 79 card is drawn.

Sample cards

Then, play continues with some new rules. First, when placing a token, if the building already has other tokens, the player may place additional people in buildings of the same color or in the grey-colored neutral buildings (representing relatives fleeing into the city). Second, occasionally the new card drawn is an Omen card, which means a person needs to be sacrificed to the mountain. The player who drew the card chooses a token to put in the volcano (presumably, some other player's token). Third, if a building can't fit anymore people, then the card can be played as a wild card allowing placement of a token in any building on the board, but the relative bonus does not take effect, i.e. no extra tokens are placed. Eventually the second AD 79 card is drawn and the lava starts flowing.

The lava tiles

In the second phase, players start drawing lava tiles from a bag and placing them on the board. Each tile has one of six symbols on it, indicating where the tiles can be placed. Each symbol has a starting square for the first tile with that symbol. Any subsequent tile is placed next to a tile with the same symbol. Naturally, if lava flows to a square with tokens on it, all those people are tossed into the volcano, representing their death. The kicker is, six tiles are drawn before players are allowed to move their tokens out of the city. After six tiles are placed, players continue to draw and place one new tile, but also they move two of their tokens. A token moves the number of squares equal to the number of tokens in their starting square. If a token starts from a square with two other tokens, it moves three spaces. If it is alone on a space, it moves only one space. Two different tokens must be moved unless (1) a player only has one token left, then it can be moved twice, or (2) if a piece is alone, it can move one space and then move again according to how many pieces are in the new space. Gates are disbursed around the walls allowing people to escape the city. Unless the lava flows across the gate!

The game board

The game ends when the lava tiles run out, i.e. when the volcano explodes and kills everyone left in the city. Whoever gets the most people out by the end wins. If there is a tie, then whoever of the tied players has the fewest tokens in the volcano wins.

The game moves quickly but has some interesting strategic decisions. Should a player fill up one building in hopes of getting more relatives out later? Will another player be able to jump in? Who should get thrown into the volcano when an Omen card is drawn, the person with the most tokens in the city or the one who just threw one of your tokens in the volcano? Should players concentrate on getting people closest to the exits out or people in the middle of the city? And what's the best (or worst) placement of the lava tiles? It plays between 30 and 45 minutes, allowing multiple plays in an evening. We've enjoyed it and even come up with a Doctor Who variant for people who want to save more Pompeians.

The theme is a little dark but the game is a lot of fun. We did play it in Pompeii which made it extra fun. And the map is surprisingly accurate!

Zombie Apocalypse Appropriateness: While not a good solo game, this is also not much of an upper in a zombie apocalypse. It's pretty easy to imagine some player whose token has just been thrown into the volcano exclaiming, "I bet you'd sacrifice me to the zombies just as quick as you sacrificed my token to the volcano!" Awkward. The last thing a group needs is people thinking about betraying each other in an extreme survival situation.

Pompeii Ruins Part IV

In the last post, we made it as far as the Porta Erolano. It opens onto a road leading to the town of Herculaneum. The road is lined with tombs. It was a common practice to bury the dead outside of town. The area is known as the Necropolis, the city of the dead! The tombs range from the first century BC to the first century AD.

Via della Tombe as our map called it

A fancy tomb

Also fancy

Regular tombs (those are "do not enter" signs!)

Going back into town, we discovered the House of the Tragic Poet. It is so called because of the mosaics of theater rehearsals and scenes from the Iliad. They've all been taken to the archeology museum. One mosaic left behind is right by the front door--the famous Cave Canem or Beware of Dog mosaic.

Walking back into town

Entrance to House of the Tragic Poet

Cave Canem!

As much of the house as we could see--we couldn't get past the dog!

We headed back toward the forum (where the only functioning restaurant inside the ruins is located) and discovered the Temple of Fortuna Augusta, built in the first decade BC to honor the divine emperor Augustus, who had returned from a military campaign in 13 BC.

Temple of Fortuna Augusta

Memorial Arch leading into the forum

Just by the Arch is the Forum Baths, where locals would bathe, typically in the afternoons. The layout has separate areas for men and women and provides a series of rooms--the dressing room, a cold room (frigidarium), a warm room (tepidarium), and a hot room (caldarium).

Forum Baths entrance

Relaxing portico before the bath

First room

The cold room?

The tepid room?

The hot room?

We had a simple lunch at the cafeteria, the usual pasta and pizza. It wasn't particularly outstanding food but it kept us going.

L and her pizza

After lunch, we visited the House of the Faun, so named for the bronze statue of a faun found in the fountain in the main courtyard. The house is the largest in Pompeii, measuring about 3000 square meters. It has many fine decorations as well.

Entrance to the House of the Faun

Faun Fountain

Statue detail (the original statue is in a museum)

Floor mosaic

A wall mosaic

The back garden

The somewhat smaller but still opulent House of the Dioscuri (named after a mosaic of Castor and Pollux who are collectively known as the Dioscures) is up the street. It also has many paintings and mosaics, mostly taken off to the museum.

Portico still being worked on

Some still lifes that didn't get moved

This house isn't far from the town walls. We could see one of the towers that guarded the town. Sadly we could not go in the tower.

Wall tower

We also discovered the House of the Scienziati, presumably for some scientific something or other inside. This was another home into which we were not allowed.

House of Scienziati

Detail

Portico from another house

At this point (actually long before this point), the children were pretty tired, so we headed back to our hotel for an afternoon nap. It was great to visit the ruins of Pompeii.