Google adds Pompeii to its Street View
Google has added Pompeii to its Street View application, allowing internet users to take a 360-degree virtual tour of the ancient Roman city. Italy’s culture ministry says it hopes the move will boost tourism to the site, state news agency Ansa reports. Among the ruins visible on the search engine’s free mapping service are the town’s statues, temples and theatres. The city was buried in ash after Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD79 and was not discovered until the 18th Century. The volcanic debris preserved many of the city’s buildings, frescos, silverware, mosaics and other artefacts. “Giving people a chance to take a virtual stroll through Pompeii will give an extraordinary boost to Italian tourism,” Ansa quoted Mario Resca of the culture ministry’s heritage promotion department as saying. The Google Maps service, launched in 2007, provides panoramic … Read entire article »
Pompeii guide ‘died in tourist row’
(ANSA) – Naples, July 6 – A tourist guide died at Pompeii last month after a squabble with rivals, union sources reported Monday. The dead man was identified as F.C., 84, one of the so-called ”historic” guides at the Ancient Roman site. Guides are becoming more aggressive in their bids for customers at the buried city, the UGL union said. Long-established guides like the late F.C. were having to defend their turf from unauthorised upstarts, it said. ”They’re like dogs around a bone,” said the UGL’s culture pointman, Renato Petra. ”If two of them get in a bidding war things can turn nasty and then you get something like what happened three weeks ago: one … Read entire article »
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