State of emergency for crumbling Pompeii
The Italian government has declared a state of emergency at Pompeii in an effort to rescue one of the world's most important cultural treasures.
A Italian cabinet statement says it will appoint a special commissioner for Pompeii, the ancient Roman city buried by an eruption of the Vesuvius volcano in 79 AD and now a UNESCO World Heritage site.
"To call the situation intolerable doesn't go far enough," says Italian Culture Minister Sandro Bondi.
Archaeologists and art historians have long complained about the poor upkeep of Pompeii, dogged by a lack of investment, mismanagement, litter and looting.
Bogus tour guides, illegal parking attendants and stray dogs also plague visitors.
Some 2.5 million tourists visit Pompeii each year, making it one of Italy's most popular attractions, and many have expressed shock at the site's decay.
A report in Corriere della Sera this week says most of the 1500 houses at the site are now closed to the public. Their frescoes have faded to become almost invisible and restoration work that began in 1978 has yet to be completed.
The "state of emergency", which the government says would last for a year, allows for extra funds and special measures to be taken to protect the site.
"Every year at least 150 square metres of fresco and plaster work are lost for lack of maintenance," says Antonio Irlando, a regional councillor responsible for artistic heritage.
"The same goes for stones: at least 3000 pieces every year end up disintegrating," he says.
A long-running dispute between local authorities over how to look after Pompeii has only made things worse.
Pompeii's superintendent Pietro Giovanni Guzzo, who will now be flanked by the government's commissioner, says he had long denounced problems at the site - from retired guards who have not been replaced, to the lack of a sewage system and poor "veterinary surveillance".
Two-thirds of the 66 hectare town, home to some 13,000 people in the Roman era, have been uncovered since serious excavations began 260 years ago.
The remaining third is still buried, but Corriere said the ground above it is being used as an illegal rubbish dump - a result of the trash crisis in the nearby city of Naples - and is scattered with tyres, fridges and mattresses.