The lads walked down the By way of Vesuvius, which runs alongside the Home of Leda, just under the slope upon which the sheep grazed. There, they tried to strike up a dialog with Barbara dell’Isola, 28, an artwork restorer in white scrubs (“What are you as much as, Barbara?”) who labored close to the sensual fresco of the Spartan queen holding Jupiter, disguised as a swan, on her lap.
She thought, at first, that having the sheep work the fields above her whereas she labored on the partitions “was unusual.”
“I felt like there was hazard, that some detritus would possibly fall on the partitions,” she stated. However then she realized that “they solely eat.”
Among the park’s employees noticed the return of the sheep as a form of return of life to Pompeii, a spot, maybe greater than every other, that was synonymous with agonizing loss of life.
A pleasant brown-and-white stray canine adopted Maurizio Bartolini, Pompeii’s gardener, as he walked to the fields. He stated the park’s clear atmosphere and lack of air pollution had drawn extra wild animals, together with hoopoe birds, an owl that took residence above the aristocratic Home of Pansa and many hedgehogs.
“The animals have come again to Pompeii,” he stated.
At round 1 p.m., Mr. de Martino despatched his canine Sara to begin rounding up the sheep, whose incessant ripping on the grass appeared like a heavy rain. They made a loud, pealing parade again by the Vesuvius Gate and down a dust highway exterior the park with Mr. de Martino following carefully behind. Giuseppe Mingo, 59, one of many upkeep employees, watched them go, the ruins at their backs, the volcano looming above their heads.
“It’s like historic instances,” he stated.
