A Volcanic Venue.(Society and the Arts; ARCHEOLOGY)(Pompeii, overcrowding)

Byline: Barbie Nadeau

To reduce overcrowding at Pompeii, officials propose limiting visitors and renting out the ruins.

The excavated rooms of the Fullonica of Stephanus wool factory are home to some of Pompeii's best-preserved artifacts. Against one wall, terra-cotta basins used to wash wool in a mixture of water and urine--a winning formula before soap was developed--offer a rare glimpse of Pompeian life before the disastrous eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79. But on a recent April morning, these stunning rooms were nearly the site of another explosion: a group of French tourists on the way out collided with some Germans trying to enter through the same narrow doorway. After much tussling, the umbrella-wielding tour guides broke the impasse. But the bottleneck underscores one of Pompeii's most serious problems: overcrowding. "I got here very early this morning, and my first three hours were wonderful," says David Lee, an American visiting the site with his 5-year-old daughter. "But that was before the tour buses showed up."

Pompeii's haunting ruins are one of the world's most important ongoing archeological digs, attracting nearly 2.6 million visitors each year. Not surprisingly, it is a major source of pride among Italians, who strive to showcase heritage sites without sullying their historical context. Like many Italian excavations, Pompeii is accessible, allowing tourists to wander through the ruins unhindered--provided they can find elbow room. Recent renovations and a new numbering system that make the ruins easier to navigate have only exacerbated the hordes of visitors descending daily on the dead city. Now local officials have come up with a controversial plan to fix the chronic crunch. Campania's new regional-heritage councilor, Claudio Velardi, wants to limit the number of daily visitors to hundreds instead of thousands, and make up for lost revenue in ticket sales by offering the ruins for rent. "By controlling the number of visitors, we could first make the Pompeii experience better for everyone," he says. "But we could also increase revenue by offering an opportunity for someone like Google or Microsoft to use the site for a private event."

In fact, Velardi has already talked to both tech giants about renting Pompeii, though he faces an admittedly tough battle winning governmental approval to use the public site for any private, non-Italian use. He also plans to talk to Pixar and Warner Bros. ...