Today's blog title references the two exhibits Trish and I visited last night at the Discovery Times Square Center - Pompeii & Harry Potter. Incidentally, I have seen Harry Potter's (aka Daniel Radcliffe) tushie when he bared it all starring in Equus on Broadway a few years back. Disturbingly titillating as that experience was, eyeing a young Potter in the buff - even legitimately in the theatre- left me feeling like that dirty old uncle you avoid at family picnics. You know, the one in the polyester pants, patting his knee and asking you to sit on his lap. Yup, that one.
We decided to check out the Pompeii exhibit as a preview to our family's Mediterranean cruise at the end of the month when we'll be visiting the actual ruins of Pompeii - very exciting. Trish and I (mostly Trish) have been feverishly researching private tour companies for shore excursions. In 6 days we're seeing Rome, Naples & the Amalfi Coast, Florence, Pompeii, Pisa, Sicily, Marseilles and Mallorca. Not to mention the 3 days we're staying in Barcelona before and after the actual cruise.
My list of must-sees is probably unrealistically long - Leaning Tower of Pisa, ruins of Pompeii, Mount Etna, the Sistine Chapel, Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum, Michelangelo's David, Giovanni's House of Spicy Sausage (I made that one up - just making sure you were still paying attention) and on and on and on...but hell, I'll probably never be back again, so might as well try to cram in as much as possible. I'll definitely need a vacation from our vacation when I get back.
As for the Pompeii exhibit, it's definitely worth a discounted ticket on Goldstar (nearly half off regular admission). It's not as glitzy as the recent King Tut exhibition (how do you compete with gold encrusted caskets?), but the room filled with plaster casts of the victims caught in the volcanic ash is really quite chilling.
It also seems Pompeiians were pretty saucy in the bedroom. Part of the exhibit focuses on the many brothels in the city and even displays some R-rated frescoes - we're talking wild threesomes. Seriously. Who knew Pompeii was the ancient equivalent of the Playboy Mansion circa 1975?
If you're a Harry Potter fan, the Harry Potter Exhibition is a must-see. Though I advise you give yourself at least two hours to see everything. We entered an hour before closing and had to rush through the last quarter of the exhibit. At 10 minutes before closing time we were unceremoniously ordered to finish up our visit by a tall security person with the worst fake British accent I've ever heard. In fact, all the poor workers throughout the exhibit were forced to put on horrible British accents. The worst offender was the young man in charge of the sorting hat in the first exhibit room. I'd honestly have preferred an American accent to his horrible fake British one. Oh well, the tourists from Nebraska (yes, there was a Nebraskan in our group who got sorted into Gryffindor) didn't seem to notice or mind.
Unfortunately, we couldn't get any fun shots in Hagrid's hut or with the life-sized Buckbeak statue since photography was prohibited in the exhibit halls. Damn those copyright laws!
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