
Structures partially collapse at Pompeii archaeological site after earthquake
A minor earthquake in southern Italy has led to damage to structures within the Pompeii archaeological site.
Officials confirmed on Thursday that a wall and a vault had partially collapsed.
The quake, measuring 3.2 in magnitude, is the latest in a series of tremors originating near the Campi Flegrei super volcano, not far from Naples.
The affected section of Pompeii had previously sustained damage during a major earthquake in 1980.
Restoration work had been carried out since.
Gabriel Zuchtriegel, the site's director, said that inspections are underway to ascertain whether other areas have been affected by the quake.
No injuries were reported in the shake.
The damaged structure did not house any frescoes or movable relics.
Pompeii was famously destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
The wealthy town, which was home to between 10,000 and 20,000 people, was largely preserved underneath a thick layer of volcanic ash.
It has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site as it 'provides a complete picture of an ancient Roman city'.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Telegraph
3 hours ago
- Telegraph
The age of the distinguished, insightful travelogue is over – now it's all idiots abroad
Whether it's Joe Lycett knocking back Swedish firewater made of beaver glands in Channel 4's Travel Man: 48 Hours in...; Gino D'Acampo setting fire to his deodorant spray and skinny dipping ('look: free willy!') his way through Italy in ITV's Gordon, Gino and Fred: Road Trip; or Sue Perkins smirking while snacking on giant croissants and pan-fried crickets in Sue Perkins' Big Adventure: Paris to Istanbul (also Channel 4), you might have been struck by something about recent TV travel documentaries: namely, their lack of the je ne sais quoi that marked the heyday of travel-documentary oeuvre. The Seventies saw Alan Whicker hanging out with the Sultan of Brunei and the super-rich recluses of the South Pacific islands, all sardonic wit and (whatever the climate) his signature tailored suit. The Eighties and Nineties, of course, gave us the affable Michael Palin, bringing to life the architectural wonders of Timbuktu and the Tuareg caravan travellers of the Sahara Desert. In the 2010s we moseyed along the River Nile and the Trans-Siberian Railway from Russia to Mongolia and China with plummy national treasure Dame Joanna Lumley. Not a shot of snake's blood or gratuitous nude between them. Veteran American travel writer Rick Steves, 70, recently weighed in on the debate around the current crop of dumbed-down travel programming, noting that TV travel shows and YouTubers baiting clicks with 'grossout' foreign food and whizzing through world bucket lists are problematic for the destinations that are featured. Such programming, Steves argues, peddles the 'superficial aspects of travel and tourist traps' as it 'exaggerates a destination's potential dangers for comedic effect' ('don't drink the toilet water, guys – phnarr, phnarr!'). Seasoned travel head Noel Josephides, aged 77, chairman of tour operator Sunvil, also laments the loss of the golden days of linear television from the Seventies to Nineties, when travel shows were 'serious and their presenters were respected' by both the public and travel industry. 'I used to watch Michael Palin, Wish You Were Here…? on ITV, and the Holiday programme on BBC religiously, and if a destination was mentioned [Sunvil] could fill a whole season with bookings,' he recalls. These days, he notes, none of these things are true. 'Everything has been dumbed down and it's more about the presenter than the destination,' he complains. Former TV commissioner Gillian Crawley tells me that she believes 'celebs with no insight' should be removed from TV travel scheduling altogether, including actors such as Palin and Lumley and today's C-list crop. 'I used to wonder why I was sending someone from Corrie to Borneo to look at the orangutans because [the actor] was pretending to be an eco-warrior at the time,' she recalls. Instead, Crawley rates presenters with a depth of knowledge and a 'critical eye', such as Sir David Attenborough and Dame Mary Beard. 'Even Michael Portillo is better than some of the current crop,' she says of the politician turned rail presenter, 'as he at least does like trains.' She concludes: 'It doesn't matter whether someone is posh or not posh – they're just slebs with no special insight and they can pay for their own holidays.' However, Kylie Bawden, who has worked as a location arranger on shows including Ainsley's Caribbean Kitchen and Joe Lycett's Travel Man: 48hrs in Washington, DC disagrees with the idea that travel TV has been dumbed down. The more intimate onus of today's travel TV, she says, is as much down to social media and consumer demand as it is an erosion of standards. 'Viewers have access to celebrities via social media that was never possible in the Palin days,' she tells me. 'Today's audiences want something more light-hearted than before, but they also want to feel like there's a real possibility that they could replicate the experiences they are watching on TV. So, less crossing the Sahara desert in a camel caravan and more the best speakeasies in Washington or where to go to experience trad pub music in Ireland.' 'Parasociality', or the trend of viewers and listeners wanting to feel as if they are personal friends of the celebrities they follow, is – it seems – partly to blame. Bawden adds that destinations are often more than happy to roll the red carpet out for Lycett, Perkins et al with a view to the audience booking a holiday inspired by TV. 'Set-jetting [viewers travelling to destinations they have seen on TV] really drives bookings in the 2020s,' Bawden argues. Gavin Bate, director and mountain leader at tour company Adventure Alternative, corroborates this link between TV appearances and booking spikes: 'When the Comic Relief celebrity team climbed Kilimanjaro and the BBC aired the programme on a Sunday night, we got loads of Kilimanjaro bookings the following morning,' he explains. 'And any kind of wildlife programme, especially the Attenborough ones, will result in people booking more wildlife holidays – especially to see endangered species like the clouded leopard in Borneo.' James Willcox, founder of Untamed Borders, takes it a step further, believing that 'we are more likely these days to see bookings driven by the antics of travel YouTubers and Instagrammers than traditional travel documentaries'. One thing's for certain: the era of the patrician broadcaster showing viewers destinations they can never hope to reach has lost favour, and in its place we have the pally 'everyman' and 'everywoman' travelogue, with their smorgasbord of tick-list travel experiences. And yet, there are some antidotes to this phenomenon – in the gritty Channel 4 shows of ex-Army officer Levison Wood, for example, who slogs through inhospitable terrains from Siberia to the elephant migration routes of Burundi, and in Simon Reeve's various odysseys, in which he combines a diffident everyman approach (that appeals to the 2020s viewer) with thoughtful explorations of remote locations and communities. Wood is back with a show later in 2025 and Reeve is currently on BBC 2, exploring 'Arctic tundra, vast forests and stunning fjords in Scandinavia with Simon Reeve. 'I am very relieved Simon Reeves is back on with his Scandinavia series,' vlogger Emma Reed, who is based in Hampshire, tells me. 'Comedians on tour or hapless celeb father/son jaunts are becoming sooo tedious.' I'll raise a shot of snake's blood to that.


Telegraph
10 hours ago
- Telegraph
An insider guide to summer in Rome, Italy's eternal city
Rome has been around for almost three thousand years and yet carries all that weight of history with a dolce vita lightness of heart. It's a city that combines the intimacy and human scale of a village with the cultural draws of a historic, art-laden European metropolis. Classical ruins and early Christian places of worship stand next to – or sometimes lie beneath – Renaissance palazzos and Baroque fountains. But there are also great neighbourhood trattorias, quirky shops and a buzzing aperitivo scene. The golden rule for visitors? Don't try to cram too much in. Rome moves at a slower pace than many northern cities, and to enjoy it you should take time out in pavement cafés as well as ticking off all the big cultural draws. Explore our in-depth guides to Rome's best hotels, attractions, restaurants, shopping, nightlife and free things to do. In this guide: What's new in Rome this summer New hotel: Orient Express La Minerva opens its doors The former Grand Hotel de la Minerve has reopened as the Orient Express La Minerva, after a four-year renovation. This is the luxury rail brand's first hotel in the world. The interiors now glow with Art Deco chic, and the rooftop restaurant has reclaimed its place as one of the most spectacular in Rome's centro storico, with direct views over the Pantheon's massive cupola. Concerts: Rome Summer Fest Italian and international stars take to the stage for the city's annual music festival, Rome Summer Fest. There are more than 70 concerts scheduled between June and September this year, including A-listers from Sting and Alanis Morissette to Nick Cave. Performances are held in the outdoor Cavea at Renzo Piano's modern Auditorium Parco della Musica, a delight for architecture aficionados, as well as music fans. Patron Saint celebrations: Feast Day of Saints Peter and Paul Rome's 2025 ecclesiastical calendar is filled with Jubilee-related events, but there's one summer celebration that is uniquely Roman: The Feast Day of Saints Peter and Paul, which honours the city's patron saints each year on June 29. People will be out in droves for the Mass at the Pantheon and an infiorata (floral display) in front of St Peter's. The main attraction however, is the Girandola, a spectacular fireworks display over Castel Sant'Angelo that lights up the sky around 10:30pm.


The Independent
14 hours ago
- The Independent
Surging travel in Europe spikes concerns over tourism's drawbacks
Suitcases rattle against cobblestones. Selfie-snappers jostle for the same shot. Ice cream shops are everywhere. Europe has been called the world's museum, but its record numbers of visitors have also made it ground zero for concerns about overtourism. Last year, 747 million international travelers visited the continent, far outnumbering any other region in the world, according to the U.N.'s World Tourism Barometer. Southern and Western Europe welcomed more than 70% of them. As the growing tide of travelers strains housing, water and the most Instagrammable hotspots in the region, protests and measures to lessen the effects of overtourism have proliferated. Here's a look at the issue in some of Europe's most visited destinations. What's causing overtourism Among factors driving the record numbers are cheap flights, social media, the ease of travel planning using artificial intelligence and what U.N. tourism officials call a strong economic outlook for many rich countries that send tourists despite some geopolitical and economic tensions. Citizens of countries like the U.S., Japan, China and the U.K. generate the most international trips, especially to popular destinations, such as Barcelona in Spain and Venice in Italy. They swarm these places seasonally, creating uneven demand for housing and resources such as water. Despite popular backlash against the crowds, some tourism officials believe they can be managed with the right infrastructure in place. Italy's Tourism Minister Daniela Santanchè said she thinks tourism flows at crowded sites such Florence's Uffizi Galleries that house some of the world's most famous artworks could be better managed with AI, with tourists able to buy their tickets when they book their travel, even months in advance, to prevent surges. She pushed back against the idea that Italy — which like all of its Southern European neighbors, welcomed more international visitors in 2024 than its entire population — has a problem with too many tourists, adding that most visits are within just 4% of the country's territory. 'It's a phenomenon that can absolutely be managed,' Santanchè told The Associated Press in an interview in her office on Friday. "Tourism must be an opportunity, not a threat — even for local communities. That's why we are focusing on organizing flows.' Where overtourism is most intense Countries on the Mediterranean are at the forefront. Olympics-host France, the biggest international destination, last year received 100 million international visitors, while second-place Spain received almost 94 million — nearly double its own population. Protests have erupted across Spain over the past two years. In Barcelona, the water gun has become a symbol of the city's anti-tourism movement after marching protests have spritzed unsuspecting tourists while carrying signs saying: 'One more tourist, one less resident!' The pressure on infrastructure has been particularly acute on Spain's Canary and Balearic Islands, which have a combined population of less than 5 million people. Each archipelago saw upwards of 15 million visitors last year. Elsewhere in Europe, tourism overcrowding has vexed Italy's most popular sites including Venice, Rome, Capri and Verona, where Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' was set. On the popular Amalfi Coast, ride-hailing app Uber offers private helicopter and boat rides in the summer to beat the crowds. Greece, which saw nearly four times as many tourists as its own population last year, has struggled with the strain on water, housing and energy in the summer months, especially on popular islands such as Santorini, Mykonos and others. The impact of overtourism In Spain, anti-tourism activists, academics, and the government say that overtourism is driving up housing costs in city centers and other popular locations due to the proliferation of short-term rentals that cater to visitors. Others bemoan changes to the very character of city neighborhoods that drew tourists in the first place. In Barcelona and elsewhere, activists and academics have said that neighborhoods popular with tourists have seen local shops replaced with souvenir vendors, international chains and trendy eateries. On some of Greece's most-visited islands, tourism has overlapped with water scarcity as drought grips the Mediterranean country of 10.4 million. In France, the Louvre, the world's most-visited museum, shut down this week when its staff went on strike warning that the facility was crumbling beneath the weight of overtourism, stranding thousands of ticketed visitors lined up under the baking sun. Angelos Varvarousis, a Barcelona- and Athens-based academic and urban planner who studies the industry, said overtourism risks imposing a 'monoculture' on many of Europe's hotspots. 'It is combined with the gradual loss and displacement of other social and economic activities,' Varvarousis said. What authorities are doing to cope Spain's government wants to tackle what officials call the country's biggest governance challenge: its housing crunch. Last month, Spain's government ordered Airbnb to take down almost 66,000 properties it said had violated local rules — while Barcelona announced a plan last year to phase out all of the 10,000 apartments licensed in the city as short-term rentals by 2028. Officials said the measure was to safeguard the housing supply for full-time residents. Elsewhere, authorities have tried to regulate tourist flows by cracking down on overnight stays or imposing fees for those visiting via cruises. In Greece, starting July 1, a cruise tax will be levied on island visitors at 20 euros ($23) for popular destinations like Mykonos and 5 euros ($5.70) for less-visited islands like Samos. The government has also encouraged visitors to seek quieter locations. To alleviate water problems, water tankers from mainland Greece have helped parched islands, and the islands have also used desalination technology, which separates salts from ocean water to make it drinkable, to boost their drinking water. Other measures have included staggered visiting hours at the Acropolis. Meanwhile, Venice brought back an entry fee this year that was piloted last year on day-trippers who will have to pay between 5 and 10 euros (roughly $6 to $12) to enter the city during the peak season. ___ AP journalists Laurie Kellman in London, Derek Gatopoulos in Athens and David Biller in Rome contributed.