Some of the habitués, recovering their moral liberty were the more tempted by the sudden darkness in the streets. Some of these Pompeians upon whom the fire of Heaven was already pouring, descended into the Métro passages which were as dark as catacombs.
The fertile soil on the slopes of Vesuvius produced (then as now) excellent fruits and vegetables, whereas the flatlands were heavily utilized for the cultivation of grain.
Hungry eye
What makes Pompeii special for us is not how, or how much, they ate and drank, but how well the evidence of those activities is preserved, from the beautiful banqueting scenes that appear on dining room walls in the fancier houses to the minute composition of the inhabitants’ diets that can be deduced from chemical analysis of their excrement. All this material culture is preserved owing to the same cataclysm,
Pynchon gravity
