What would Pompeii look like today?

What would Pompeii look like now, if the city had not been destroyed by Vesuvius in 79 AD? What - in other words - if Pompeii had continued to develop like other Roman cities?
Check out my other channels, @toldinstone and @scenicroutestothepast

[@jeffreyhenion4818]

What I liked about Naples was how much of life is lived out in the streets. With its densely-packed, narrow lanes bustling with all the characters of urban life, the streets of Naples invoke the streets of Ancient Rome far more than the pristine vistas of any later-day reconstruction.

[@fugu4163]

No wonder that people that could afford it built gardens with a pond as a centerpiece in their homes. A place to relax from the bustling life in the streets outside.

[@slizzysluzzer]

Only to a point though. Modern sanitation laws and building codes, the advent of the automobile, street cleaning crews, and even modern air quality standards all would make the experience of visiting ancient Rome still quite different in the end.

[@jeffreyhenion4818]

True. Your chances of getting whacked by a scooter were far less back then. 😉

[@AlkalineAjay]

Exactly I love Napoli. It gets a bad rap, but it’s very authentic

[@m.m.1301]

I hope tourists stay the fuck out and not turn it into another Rome or Venice

[@MarkVrem]

Would there be a Pompeiisan Cheese.

[@lame-related]

You are a genius 😄😆🤣

[@BriarRouge]

One can only dream.

[@susannewcomer9614]

The cheese would likely be featured on an especially delicious flatbread, now with the addition of tomatoes.

[@xmaniac99]

More like mozzarella

[@MarkVrem]

@@xmaniac99 Pomparella. Not gonna lie sounds good.

[@christopherflux6254]

Fun Fact: a modern Pompei town exists after being built in the 19th century. In fact when I went in the Pompeii Archeological Tour, our tour guide was a born and bred Pompeiin.

[@MikeS29]

One of my favorite places is the town of Lecce, in Puglia. The roman amphitheatre has been partially excavated, having been found in the 1970s, I believe, and it is very easy to see the shape of the remainder of it in aerial photos (google maps etc.). The buildings followed the shape, and only became apparent when they discovered and excavated the part that has been "liberated."

[@MikeH-sg2ue]

Thanks for that bit of education! I was 14 when I was there, & enjoy it I did, all while learning loads. It was on a school cruise. I’ve found Roman History intriguing ever since! Keep it up!

[@The_Butler_Did_It]

Very interesting. I'm looking forward to the follow-up video on what Naples would look like today if all the post-classical buildings were stripped away.

[@Sebastian16753]

a McPompeii's on every street corner

[@m.e.345]

A shame, I think.. even here in Canada, I try to patronize local businesses.

[@gaius_enceladus]

@Sebastian16753...... or a "McCaesar's"................ :)

[@yippee8570]

Well, fast food was very much part of Roman culture

[@airingcupboard]

Excellent. I absolutely loved Naples. I missed that church though....another reason to go back.

[@Lorenzo-sq7tu]

In Via Dei Tribunali you can visit both some remains of the theater and an ancient street below the ground level, as well as a couple of entrances to "Napoli Sotterranea" tours.

[@rickb3078]

Great content. Thank you!

[@HebaruSan]

Exactly right. There are many examples of Roman cities surviving to the present day, it's called the rest of Italy.

[@gaemlinsidoharthi]

What a lovely video. Genteel and interesting.

[@cheekytyke]

I’ve been to both places and the points you make are very thought provoking

[@RizzstrainingOrder66]

loved the video, thanks

[@gemellodipriapo]

Thank you! Amazing vid!

[@brianmckeever5280]

Very interesting, thank you!

[@chipwalter4490]

Ryan this is a great concept for a video - kinda like before and after of Ancient Rome 👍

[@CMVBrielman]

Start a crowdfunding campaign where you digitally create a modern Pompeii. I will donate. Edit: as long as you don’t just bury all the landmarks.

[@Rikard_A]

Do you know how many issues it would be to guess such a history. In what country would it be in? Would it be a city state or a county? What name would it carry? How would the Byzantine Empire have effected the city? There would be so many unknowns.

[@CMVBrielman]

@@Rikard_A Well, unless you have a portal to a parallel universe… there’s no wrong answers!

[@gaius_enceladus]

"What? Fifty denarii for a flight to Gaul? That's outrageous, by Jupiter!" :)

[@orion7763]

Very cool to have a museum of found artifacts integrated into the subway station

[@hypercomms2001]

Impressive... thank you! I have to say, when I visited Pompei and Herculaneum... in 2006... everyone warned me about visiting Naples, saying it was too dangerous for tourists and so we only visited Herculaneum.. even then with the walk down from the train station the disdain for tourists was apparent .... how do you find it now?

[@lulubelle0bresil]

wow, great! 🙏

[@DonaldDucksRevenge]

Nice finishing with the Ghostbusters firehouse

[@kaloarepo288]

A big part of Naples is built on a super volcano called "Campi Flegrei" from the Greek which means fiery fields - there are steam vents coming up everywhere in this area -"La Solfatura" - people are always falling into them like a family only a few years ago. An eruption of this super volcano is not a matter of if but of when -and it will have catastrophic consequences making the Vesuvius eruption of 69 look like a Sunday school picnic.

[@antoniousai1989]

That's stupid alarmism. Those types of eruptions happen every couple of million years.

[@kaloarepo288]

@@antoniousai1989 Let's hope so!

[@stanislavkostarnov2157]

some areas of Yafo-TLV Israel still have neighborhoods where the lower floors are actual Roman structures (the upper sections being Late Medieval or Ottoman period Arab structures)... whilst the use Characteristics of the buildings changed, some shops remain very Roman, reminiscent of the Pompeii "fast-food" Taberna... (the food today being more "Turkish sweets", Falafel and Shawarma) have to wonder if some such shops might have survived... but then again, maybe with the higher population density, in Italy, the medieval seems to eat up the ancient past much more vigorously than in the Middle-east or the Balkans

[@Bobomb1000]

im sure it would look very different but if you closed your eyes it would almost feel like nothing changed at all

[@paulkoza8652]

I get your point, specifically because of the close proximity of Naples and Pompeii. Perhaps you are correct. I somehow think that Pompeii came out ahead after Vesuvius erupted.

[@annascott3542]

I forgot - until watching this - about the modern graffiti covering Italian cities. Something I will never understand.

[@SubTroppo]

For me the fascinating thing is that so many people continue to live 'under the volcano' despite everything we know now. In a similar vein and given recent tornado activity in the America, I pose the question: what would a suburban house look like if it were designed and constructed to survive a powerful tornado undamaged?

[@fluffbuck3t]

It would be made of very thick concrete and have the walls and the foundation be one contiguous structure. With that foundation going deep. And it would have L4 armor plate for window shutters. The most powerful tornadoes are strong enough to rip pavement off of of streets, and turn nearly any object into an armor piercing projectile. EF5 tornadoes are no fucking joke.

[@SubTroppo]

@@fluffbuck3t I was thinking of a prepper bunker with a garage which would have the facility to quickly lower itself and lock into its own pit - with escape tunnels in case power is an issue.

[@stanislavkostarnov2157]

maybe like a bunker structure that's totally underground.... a big enough tornado and nothing above ground survives... otherwise, a totally stone structure like they have in Northern Scotland... I mean, if it's built totally out of stone blocks with tiny windows it will not budge in an average tornado wind... the outer rooms will get some flying debris, but the structure will be sound. I've been in nearly 200knots (180knts+) of sustained wind in these... yes it's terrifying, but they do not actually get visible damage.

[@silverado9104]

Delightful hypotheticals

[@MarcusLangbart]

It would have been interesting to see Pompeii compete with Napoli, Salerno, Benevento and Amalfi during the middle Age. Napoli was byzantine for a period (then norman, angevin, aragonese, spanish etc.), Amalfi fairly autonomous while the other two became lombard strongholds. Given its position, I think it would have been culturally influenced by Napoli or viceversa.

[@honkbonk84]

this is such ridiculous timing, I was there, at the scene when this vid was released :)

[@bobfrog4836]

"...survived until a 17th century earthquake...." I am so passionately anti-earthquake it's not even funny. There's a cause we should all be able to get behind. Eff plate tectonics.

[@annascott3542]

I forgot until watching this that Italian cities are absolutely covered in graffiti. Something I will never understand.

[@monicabonetti6671]

One word:misfit immigrations.

[@Mad_ox8]

So what you’re saying is shout-out Vesuvius for preserving Pompeii? 🙌🏼😊

[@chipwalter4490]

😱

[@obsidianjane4413]

I had to watch this twice. First for the architecture. Second for all the fat tourists. (sadly the other way around) lol

[@yippee8570]

When is the best time of year to visit Pompeii?

[@toldinstonefootnotes]

Winter, when there are few tour groups

[@yippee8570]

@@toldinstonefootnotes Thank you! Makes sense, tbh

[@yippee8570]

@@toldinstonefootnotes Thank you! Finally persuaded my other half that we should go to Pompeii and have now booked to go in early March. We're on a really tight budget, but I found flights + accommodation for < US$500. I can't afford one of your tours, much as I'd *love* to, but I do speak a little Italian, so I'm quite confident we'll have a wonderful time 💚🤍❤

[@themetroidprime]

They'd make awesome pizzas.

[@carstengrooten3686]

Is it just me or does Ryan's voice sound different?

[@markmaki4460]

Maybe his mouth has changed a bit after speaking Italian for several days.

[@toriwilson6961]

It's the different microphones on phone vs proper mic. Also inside vs outside. I noticed the difference as well but enjoyed the different crowd noises.

[@chipwalter4490]

He has to make his voice louder in the recording taking place outside with a live crowd of people walking past. So the gentle conversational tone of his voice takes on deeper tones. I think this more stern sounding voice also suits him well..he could narrate all kinds of documentaries with that deeper, more forceful tonality.

[@Unknown-jt1jo]

@@chipwalter4490 He'd have to get... over... his habit of adding... unnecessary... pauses.

[@constantinexi6489]

@@Unknown-jt1joyou’ve been at this for months

[@silverado9104]

Naples -- the empire with its clothes, of centuries

[@ecurewitz]

Kinda sad there is so little visible from ancient Naples (amongst other Roman cities)

[@Staingo_Jenkins]

Video interaction

[@BlueBaron3339]

Odd premise but okay. The background sound was distracting at times. Only thing you can say for certain is that far fewer people would have ever heard of Pompeii had had it not been buried in a natural disaster, nor would the phrase, volcano day, exist...well...most likely.

[@heru-deshet359]

All structures would have disappeared from cannibalizing them by lazy medieval builders to build their structures and cities. The eruption was a very bad and sad thing for Pompeiians, but great for history.

[@sawahtb]

Have the Italians always loved graffiti?

[@BasBruurs]

lol, yes. Ancient Rome was full of it also. :)

[@solinvictus39]

Not as bad as this modern ghetto stuff that was inspired by American rap "culture". Unfortunately this horrible American export has despoiled many a historical building across Europe. When I first traveled Europe over 40 years ago you never saw the amount of vandalism that you see now.

[@m.e.345]

It is really sad.. many Italians don't appreciate the tourist hand that puts the bread on so many of their tables.. although admittedly some tourists are jerks too.

[@ccdsds3221]

@@BasBruurs What do Italians have to do with ancient Rome?

[@EllieMaes-Grandad]

@@solinvictus39 What else has changed in those four decades?

[@bobwerner6967]

In other words, it would have looked like crap.

[@bdso9593]

All that street graffiti makes me sad. No respect anywhere.

[@markmuller7962]

Oh boy center Naples looks like a developing country

[@markmaki4460]

Northern Italy and southern Italy are almost separate countries, culturally speaking (and this has been carried over in the last couple centuries of emigrants). Then again, all cities tend to get most beat up by their least civilized residents.

[@Unknown-jt1jo]

Ancient cities often don't look like North American suburbia.

[@MarcusLangbart]

you don't go to Napoli expecting Oslo. It's not for everybody I guess. you either love it or hate it, like Istanbul. Napoli is one of my favourite but you have to dig deeper and read about its culture and history.

[@ericthehalfmexican9187]

It’s definitely much worse than what you see in this video. There is trash everywhere, on the sidewalks, on the street on the highways, in the alleys. People drive there like they are in a mad Max movie, scooters zooming down the sidewalks, a ride in a taxi cab might be the last thing you do in life. Been there multiple times in the early 2000s.

[@dzonikg]

@@ericthehalfmexican9187 I been to Naples 3 times ,last time in Oktober last year.It reminds me off Belgrade Serbia in 90s when we had total sanctions and many people lost jobs so were selling smuggled stuff on the street .I get totally same vibe there.I got same vibe on Sicily also . Its just like totally different country then North Italy

[@hakimhakimi-jj3rb]

il y a un theatre donc il y avait des arabes originaire du moyen orient qui l ont construit.

[@moniumus6303]

THat type of theater was invented by the greeks

[@hakimhakimi-jj3rb]

@@moniumus6303 Is the one in Carthage also Greek? By the way, Greeks don't like being called that. They call themselves Hellenes

[@moniumus6303]

@@hakimhakimi-jj3rb oh you're one of those "well actually..." smartasses who just want to argue/disagree. Not worth it

[@void2240]

Hopefully not become like Paris