At the Archaeological Park of Herculaneum an itinerary tells the gastronomic culture of the city buried by Vesuvius in 79 AD
A journey through time would not make you feel the same emotions you feel when visiting Herculaneum. Twin of Pompeii, with which it shared the same tragic end. Buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD and rediscovered by chance in 1710, Herculaneum was something different from its more famous neighbour. Not a city of trade and commerce, but an elite, refined seaside resort frequented by Roman nobility. Its buildings still tell this story today: the Casa del Bicentenario, the Casa dell’Argo, the extraordinary Villa dei Papiri. Multi-storey structures, intact mosaics, even charred wooden remains, exceptionally preserved by the pyroclastic flow that buried it.
A city jealously guarded like the most precious of jewels. A place that tells Roman life better than any textbook, better than any television program. It is enough to visit it to realize the greatness of a civilization that has made the history of the West, and which still represents it at its best.
The food and wine heritage of Herculaneum
Herculaneum not only boasts a priceless artistic and cultural heritage. Today she is the Muse of the food and wine tradition of that glorious civilization, a witness through her buildings and monuments to a world that no longer exists, but of which many food products survive. The so-called «Mediterranean diet» existed here two thousand years ago. And not only that. Even a kind of avant-garde street food that is so fashionable in our era. A legacy that has its roots in the ancient Romans but which travels through time to us, still relevant today. It is therefore worth sharing.
The Archaeological Park of Herculaneum
The Archaeological Park of Herculaneum offers a thematic itinerary dedicated to food, entitled Food places in Herculaneum. The guided tours are scheduled for April 3rd, April 17th and May 1st 2026, with free entry with park access tickets.
The route starts from the streets of the ancient city. Here they meet thermopoliasmall rooms with masonry counters and terracotta jars set into the service surface: legume soups, cereals, fish. Hot meals and drinks to take away or consumed on site. A formula that recalls, with surprising fidelity, contemporary street food. Next to these, there are places specializing in the sale of wine, recognizable by the painted signs with colored jugs that indicated the quality and price of the drink.
The diet of the ancient Romans
The itinerary then touches the baker’s oven Sextus Patulcius Felixwhere it is possible to reconstruct the entire bread supply chain: from grinding the wheat with lava stone millstones to cooking. The anthropological analyzes conducted on the skeletons found on the ancient beach found traces of this process even on the teeth of the inhabitants.
The research also returned a detailed picture of the diet: fish, seafood, legumes, olives, figs and nuts. With a significant presence of natural sugars which explains the numerous cavities in human remains.
In the richest domus, like the House of Deerfood took on a completely different meaning. In the triclinium overlooking the garden and the sea, the banquet was a social ritual: appetizers, main courses, fruit, music, conversation. Luxury as a real language.
The legacy of Vesuvius
But the story does not stop at the excavations. In the Villa CampolietoOutside the site, an exhibition expands the narrative with finds and organic materials preserved from the eruption. What Vesuvius destroyed, paradoxically, it also preserved. And today he gives it back to us intact and more current than ever, even in that Mediterranean diet which is one of the Italian excellences recognized worldwide. Survived, just like those buildings of immortal beauty, incandescent lava and inexorably advancing time.
