Stepping into the life of ancient Pompeii without taking a flight to Italy. Impossible, you may think… unless you’re in the Bay Area. After a delay due to the pandemic, the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco opened its doors to visitors with a special and magnificent exhibition, Last Supper in Pompeii: from the Table to the Grave. By bringing Roman sculpture, mosaics, and frescoes, as well as cups, utensils, and silver dining services for banquets, it reveals how the ancients loved to eat and drink.

Conceived and developed by the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, and organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in collaboration with the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, the Parco Archeologico di Pompei, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura San Francisco, and the Italian Consulate in San Francisco, the exhibit focused on the importance of food and drink in everyday life in Pompeii, which was indeed shared across the Roman Empire.