Ambassador Paolo Crudele hosted a cultural seminar at the Italian Residence in Canberra, in the broader framework of events accompanying the exhibition dedicated to 'Pompeii - The Lost City,' currently being held at the Australian National Museum. This was announced by the embassy. With a record number of visitors (100,000 in eighty days since its opening), it is the fastest-selling exhibition in the history of the Museum.
The welcome speeches by the Ambassador and the Director of the National Museum, Katherine McMahon, were followed by a rich debate, moderated by ABC journalist, Virginia Trioli, and oriented by a panel of professionals and experts: archaeologist Estelle Lazer (head of the Pompeii Cast Project); volcanologist Rosa Di Donna (CSIRO researcher); historian Caillan Davenport (head of the Centre for Classical Studies at ANU University); curator of the Canberra Gallery Museum, Virginia Rigney.
The scientific segment of the meeting explored a series of topics of undoubted interest: the impact of the destructive and conservative fury of the Vesuvius eruption in 79 AD; the link - geological, but also historical and cultural - of volcanoes with the territories on which they insist; the challenges related to the restoration, restoration and consolidation of the archaeological site and the works preserved therein. No less dense in content was the humanistic part of the symposium: the testimony of Pompeii as an emblem of Romanity and a founding myth of Mediterranean civilisation, but also the profound beauty of the lost city, inspired by scenes of common life, rituals and fragments of an eternity that speaks to present and future generations. To all this is added - as emerged from the debate - the prospect of sustainable tourism, which accompanies and enhances the fragility of Pompeii, guaranteeing a broad and accessible enjoyment of the Archaeological Park, also thanks to the institution's commitment to the removal of architectural barriers and the conception of increasingly inclusive itineraries.
"It is a great pleasure for me to open this moment of multi-voice reflection on the legacy and relevance of Pompeii," said the Ambassador. "This is all the more true in view of the place that hosts us, the Residenza d'Italia, inspired by the ancient Roman domus in its structure and conception and guardian of artefacts and visual works of art that still bear witness to the creativity and talent of our civilisation. The record numbers of visitors to the National Museum on the occasion of the exhibition dedicated to Pompeii tell of a growing demand for Italy, which finds in culture and beauty two extraordinarily powerful and evocative vehicles".
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