Day 17 Yummy Yamamay

** Rest assured, delay in posting blog not due to a lack of happiness, simply a lack of wireless…

OK so I spent yesterday mentally compiling a top ten and can report the list consists entirely of food types, wine, coffee, and a little nod towards the latest Yamamay male underwear advertising campaign… TRUST ME I tried to find a photo of it, but no such luck. You can just have drippy old Seneca instead.

The rest of the day was spent dodging rain and men. Naples is literally dripping in testosterone.

However, somewhere in all this gluttony, I stumbled across a brief description of certain 'fashions' in ancient Rome. The wall paintings excavated from sites like Pompeii and Herculaneum pre-Vesuvian Eruption (not exactly scientific terminology) are incredible and mostly depict people frolicking all over the place, eating, and drinking. Ancient stories, usually about ancient Bad Things, were fashionable. That is to say one minute EVERYWHERE, on every wall of every house, give or take a few years, and then nowhere. The story of Narcissus, for example, lasted about 5 years. Almost like a slooooowed down version of celebrity life span post-Big Brother. Ha which is p'haps an apt example for the story of a guy who fell in love with his reflection.

The concept of happiness was hotly debated around this time. In the early stages of Western philosophy, as mentioned briefly in 'Hedonism Day', happiness swayed from complete debauchery to absolute virtue and the school of Stoicism. The Roman philosopher Seneca was an advocate of Finding Happiness Through a Virtuous Life. In 'On the Happy Life', he sets out his argument for virtue as the only prerequisite for happiness, and if you are in pursuit of a virtuous, content life, you should deprive yourself of pleasure, make no effort to fulfill your desires, and shun material possessions. Seneca himself however, led a rather more colourful life that I'm entirely sure would have achieved the status of cover story in the Ancient Annals of Heat Magazine. Apparently (and I am gossiping here), he messed around with married women. Women married to Powerful Men in Rome. Oh Seneca. I desperately want to make a joke about his naughty behaviour landing him in hot water, but remembered Seneca did actually meet his fate by suffocating on water vapour rising from a Particularly Hot Bath. SO I will not indulge in that desire.

Not really sure where to go with this one. Seneca is not the best role model, putting it mildly, and neither do I want to deprive myself of any little indulgences on this trip (or ever, actually). I see the purpose and intent of Stoicism but if one of its chief campaigners can’t adhere to it, without locking myself away in a Tibetan monastery (tempting) to what extent can you truly live by it? Everything in moderation – as dull as ditchwater as that sounds it’s probably the best advice. Apart from when it comes to Italian cakes. And cheeses. And perhaps wine. Oops.