Review: Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) Pompeii Exhibit Guided Tour

This Royal Ontario Museum ROM Pompeii Exhibit Review is part of a Toronto trip report on Toronto luxury hotels and dining. We were intrigued to see that a special Pompeii Exhibit, “In the Shadow of the Volcano,” is at the ROM until January 3, 2016, particularly since we just visited Pompeii with Private Tours of Pompeii earlier this year.

For the prior posts, please see:

TAM Business Class Review JFK-Toronto

Beast Restaurant Toronto Review

Trump Toronto Hotel Review

Review: LiveToronto Walking Tour and Photo Shoot

Four Seasons Toronto Review

Park Hyatt Toronto Review

Annona at Park Hyatt Toronto Review

Getting to the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto (ROM)

The Royal Ontario Museum is located at 100 Queen's Park in Toronto, just across the street from the Park Hyatt Toronto and a short walk from the Four Seasons Toronto. The closest subway station is the Museum Station, on Line 1.

Royal Ontario Museum Hour and Ticket Prices

The ROM is open Monday to Thursday and Saturday to Sunday 10am-5:30pm and Friday 10am-6:30pm. The only day the museum is closed is Christmas Day, December 25.

General admission is CAD $17 per adult, $15.50 for seniors and students, $14 per child age 4-14, and free for toddlers 3 and under.

If you'd like to see the Pompeii Exhibit, tickets (which also include admission to all the regular galleries) are $28 per adult, $25.50 per student or senior, $20 per child 4-14, and free for toddlers 3 and under. A Pompeii Tour, which I highly recommend, is an additional $5 per person (adult or child).

Highlights of Our Pompeii Exhibit Guided Tour at the ROM

The Royal Ontario Museum, or ROM, is Toronto's version of the American Natural History Museum in New York City. We've often taken my son to the Natural History Museum, at least as much for those great movies on vertebrates and dinosaurs, narrated by none other than Meryl Streep, as for the actual dinosaur bones. I've seen reviews panning the ROM for having mostly models of dinosaurs rather than the original fossils, but honestly, I doubt that matters to your kid.

Sure, the museum isn't as extensive as the Museum of Natural History in NYC, but after all, Toronto is a third of the size of NYC, and we certainly didn't make it to even a quarter of the museum's displays during our visit.

We were both curious to see the Pompeii Exhibit, and thought it was a great complement to visiting Pompeii itself. Our visit to Pompeii's Gladiator training area, the amphitheater, public bath, streets, shops, brothel and Forum gave us a sense of the scale of this modest-sized Roman city, but unlike Herculaneum, you see almost no mosaics or frescoes, let alone fossilized wood or artifacts. That's where the ROM's Pompeii Exhibit comes in–you see some of the best preserved artifacts from Pompeii, plus a few from Herculaneum, that help you to understand what life was like and the artistic achievement of the time.

Here were the highlights for us:

1. Gladiator Helmet

This heavy bronze helmet was richly decorated with theater masks on the angular crest and with muses on the front. Contrary to popular belief, gladiator fights were usually not to the death. Significant time and money was expended in training gladiators, so their owners were loathe to lose such a major investment. The best gladiators were akin to our sports stars, with huge fan bases.

2. Statue of Jupiter

Many homes had small statues of the gods in them, and Jupiter, the king of the gods, was a popular one. He's shown here with his lightning bolt.

3. Marble Statue of Baby Boy, Part of Fountain

This statue of a baby boy and dolphin was part of a fountain decoration in one of Pompeii's elegant villas. Pompeii was supplied by the Aqua Augusta aqueduct, which meant that weathy families' villas often included formal gardens and ornamental fountains.

4. Bronze Statue of Girl

While my photo doesn't do this statue justice, look at the first photo to see the haunting eyes of this statue. It's a beautiful depiction of a Roman girl fastening her peplos (dress), and was found at the Villa dei Papyri.

5. Plaster Body Casts of a Family

This was hard to see, but the reality is that we only know as much as we do about Pompeii and this time period of the Roman Empire due to the volcanic ash that killed so much of the population and preserved many of their possessions and artwork. Our guide assured us that due to the heat of the blast, people were killed instantly and didn't suffer. It's a poignant scene though, with the parents and two young children (who likely were the reason the family didn't manage to escape).

6. Painting of Isis Welcoming Io

Since we've been reading a book of Greek myths with our son, who is also interested in Egyptian mummies and culture, it was interesting to see the Egyptian and Greek influences in this Roman painting of the Egyptian goddess Isis welcoming the Greek priestess Io, whom Zeus had an affair with and was subsequently turned into a cow by jealous Hera, queen of the gods.

7. Marble Bas Relief of a Busy Coppersmith's Workshop

While a more basic artwork than many of the others we saw, my son and I were amused to see a child tugging on one of the adults for attention–busy parents trying to juggle work and kids is nothing new 😉

8. Pompeii Marketplace

There was a Pompeii Marketplace set up as an interactive exhibit for kids to play with, a great idea for families with young kids who might not have the patience or interest in some of the artwork. My son had fun with the scales and seeing the kinds of foods locals ate at the time. Plus, it was handy to occupy him here, with headset off, while the group viewed artwork from the brothel, since that would have spurred conversations I plan to postpone for a few years.

9. Fossilized Bread

Yes, it doesn't look like much, but it was still incredible to me that this piece of fossilized bread survived. But Pompeii residents, even those of modest means, didn't just live on bread and water–a great deal of seafood and a variety of vegetables and fruits were eaten by a typical family, and spices have also been found. One of the most popular condiments of the time was garum, prepared from fermented fish–a Roman version of Thai fish sauce.