Campania

An Italian researcher believes he has identified the location of Plato's burial place in Athens by analyzing papyri from Herculaneum.

According to the research, led by the Italian papyrologist Graziano Ranocchia of the University of Pisa, Plato is buried in a in a private area in a garden in the Academy, near a sacred shrine to the Muses.

A 60-year-old foreign national was arrested Friday afternoon the island of Corfu on an outstanding European arrest warrant issued by the prosecutor's office in Naples, Italy, for his involvement in a criminal organization and financial crimes, Greek police said Saturday.

The Royal Palace of Caserta, a long-neglected architectural jewel near Naples, is being returned to its former glory through a vast restoration project, partly financed by the EU's recovery fund.

Nicknamed the "Italian Versailles," after the royal palace near Paris, the Italian UNESCO site boasts 1,200 rooms, 1,742 windows and 123 hectares of lush gardens.

A meticulously reconstructed Pompeii bridal chariot that eluded the ancient city's modern-day looters is a star of an ambitious new exhibition in Rome, which invites viewers to reflect on today's connections with classical Roman and Greek civilizations.

A fresco depicting Hercules and originally from Herculaneum, a city destroyed along with Pompeii by the 79 A.D. eruption of Mount Vesuvius, was back in Italy on Jan. 23, along with 59 other ancient pieces illegally trafficked to the United States.

The newly restored remains of an opulent house in Pompeii that likely belonged to two former slaves who became rich through the wine trade offer visitors an exceptional peek at details of domestic life in the doomed Roman city.

Fish dart across mosaic floors and into the ruined villas, where holidaying Romans once drank, plotted and flirted in the party town of Baiae, now an underwater archaeological park near Naples.

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A German-born archaeologist has been chosen to be the next director of Pompeii, which is still revealing its ancient mysteries centuries after a volcanic eruption destroyed the Roman city and is one of Italy's most popular tourist sites.

Culture Minister Dario Franceschini announced on Feb. 20 that Gabriel Zuchtriegel won out over 43 other candidates for the job.

More than 200 ancient coins were returned on Jan. 21 to a museum in southern Italy by a priest who was told about the theft in confession.

The unnamed penitent, presumed to be the thief himself, asked the priest to return the loot to the Paestum archaeological park near Naples.

A 2,000-year-old fast-food stall unearthed from the ash of Pompeii has given researchers new clues about the snacking habits of the ancient Romans.

The ornate snack bar counter, decorated with polychrome patterns and frozen by volcanic ash, was partially exhumed last year but archaeologists extended work on the site to reveal it in its full glory.