• News
  • Film and TV
  • Music
  • Tech
  • Features
  • Celebrity
  • Politics
  • Weird
  • Community
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
TikTok
YouTube
Submit Your Content
Tourist returns ‘cursed’ stones to Pompeii after a year of ‘bad luck’

Home> News> World News

Published 16:57 19 Jan 2024 GMT

Tourist returns ‘cursed’ stones to Pompeii after a year of ‘bad luck’

The tourist said that they had been suffering from 'bad luck' since removing the stones

Kit Roberts

Kit Roberts

Featured Image Credit: X/@GZuchtriegel

Topics: News, World News

Kit Roberts
Kit Roberts

Kit joined UNILAD in 2023 as a community journalist. They have previously worked for StokeonTrentLive, the Daily Mirror, and the Daily Star.

Advert

Advert

Advert

If you are lucky enough to visit a site of great historical significance, then it's probably a good idea to be respectful of the site.

One person who visited Pompeii seems to have suffered some consequences of not respecting the historic site during their visit.

The woman took some volcanic rock from the site as a souvenir, but then returned them with a note apologising, and explaining that they had suffered 'bad luck' in the intervening year.

Archaeologist Gabriel Zuchtriegel posted an image of the note and the stones to Twitter, along with the caption: "Dear anonymous sender of this letter … the pumice stones arrived in Pompeii… now good luck for your future & in bocca al lupo, as we say in Italy."

Advert

'In bocca al lupo', literally 'in the wolf's mouth' is a popular Italian expression meaning 'good luck'.

As for the note, it was written by hand, and read: "I didn't know about the curse. I didn't know that I should not take any rocks. Within a year I got breast cancer.

The note with the rocks.
X/@GZuchtriegel

"I am a young and healthy female and doctors said it was just 'bad luck'. Please accept my apology and these pieces. Mi dispiace [I'm sorry]."

Advert

The apology in Italian is a nice gesture, though surely Latin would be better if you are addressing the spirits in a Roman city?

Sadly the note is not the first time that someone has returned artefacts they took home with them to the Roman city after getting cancer.

In 2020 a similar note arrived in the city that read: “I am now 36 and had breast cancer twice. The last time ending in a double mastectomy.

"My family and I also had financial problems. We’re good people and I don’t want to pass this curse on to my family or children.”

Advert

Pompeii is a site of enormous archaeological significance.
Alper Sitki Ersoy/Anadolu via Getty Images

Needless to say, regardless of whether you believe in curses or spirits in ancient places, taking 'souvenirs' from them is not something to be encouraged - this isn't the British Empire.

Pompeii and Herculaneum are iconic sites due to how well preserved the city was after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

The sites have fully intact streets, with murals inside some of the buildings even being intact in some places.

Advert

Some of the racier murals even scandalised visitors to the city after its rediscovery. They found the lewd illustrations rather at odds with the historical impression of Rome as the centre of modern civilisation and enlightenment.

  • 20-year-old woman who prefers trendy drink to water has doctors remove '300 kidney stones'
  • Trump reveals sobering number of Russian and Ukrainian soldiers who have died this year after issuing threat to Putin
  • Scientists think they've solved 180-million-year-old mystery of unusual heat beneath US mountains
  • Scientists issue chilling warning as biggest great white shark ever recorded in Atlantic heads to tourist hotspot

Choose your content:

an hour ago
2 hours ago
3 hours ago
  • an hour ago

    Acid attack survivor speaks out on Kim Kardashian’s bizarre new product amid online controversy

    SKIMS has been the subject to a roast by Anthony Hopkins and now a TV host who was subject to an acid attack orchestrated by her ex in 2008

    News
  • an hour ago

    Kamala Harris reveals her next career move after confirming she's not running for governor of California

    The former vice president has said she would not be running for governor

    News
  • 2 hours ago

    People are being labeled 'fake' Disney fans for not remembering this specific character in classic movie

    Fans have been left mind-blown by the revelation

    Film & TV
  • 3 hours ago

    Kamala Harris shares eerie reason she only uses wired earphones and it's left people very divided

    Kamala Harris has spoken of her love for wired earphones several times

    News