A woman decided to return the stones she recovered from the area of the Pompeii tragedy (Italy), fearing that it could have triggered a curse on her.
This Italian city was destroyed by the eruption of the Vesuvius volcano in 79 AD, causing the deaths of thousands of people.
The area is of great attraction as archaeologists have managed to reconstruct the bodies of several victims by using the holes in the ground to make plaster molds.
So this anonymous woman visited Pompeii and decided to extract the pumice stones left after the eruption to keep as a souvenir.
But after visiting the ruins, she became ill with cancer and decided to return them to Pompeii with a letter expressing her regret.
“I didn’t know anything about the curse. I didn't know that I shouldn't have taken the stones. After a year, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I'm a healthy woman, the doctors say it's just “bad luck.” Please accept my apology and these pieces. “I’m sorry,” the letter says.
Dear anonymous sender of this letter… the pumice stones have arrived in Pompeii… now good luck for your future & in Bocca al Lupo as we say in Italy pic.twitter.com/vaYlqUudke
— Gabrielzuchtriegel (@GZuchtriegel) January 9, 2024
The director of the archaeological park, Gabrielzuchtriege, divided a photo of the letter and stones and wished the woman “good luck for her future.”
The “Curse” of Pompeii
This is not the first time that tourists from Pompeii have returned stolen items on the grounds that it brought them bad luck. The myth of the “curse” has only grown stronger.
In fact, in his book The Curse of Pompeii: Superstition and Archaeology, journalist Antonio Cangiano documented how bad luck and unpleasant and tragic events were caused to people stealing items from this area.
For example, in 2020, the owner of a real estate agency found a package shipped from Canada containing some remains that he claimed brought bad luck.
The package was sent by a woman named Nicole who said she had been suffering from breast cancer since her trip to Pompeii.
She attributed her illness to the curse caused by removing items from a “land of destruction” where thousands of people tragically died.
“I was young and stupid, I wanted to have a piece of history that no one could have.” “I didn't really think about what I was getting,” he said.
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