The Herculaneum Roman boat of the Suburban Thermae. 

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... which permitted to identify various typologies of the basic ancient residential units, made by stone masonry through original techniques; finally, the surveys underlined the widespread existence of several damage mechanisms, until partial collapse. Requiring months of work, all the collected data and direct surveys permitted to classify accurately in the GIS platform: the building geometry (plans, sections, fronts); planimetry (position, elevation and foundations); materials and details (type of masonry walls, floors and roofs; distance between the walls; mortar type; presence of external stairs and balconies, buttresses, steel ties and connections, weak points; non-structural elements); earthquake damage and maintenance. A detailed work has been dedicated to identify the abacus of the building typologies, taking into account that most of the Italian historic nuclei evolved similarly, in plan and elevation, starting from common basic cells; at San Giuliano, being absent isolated units, the cells have been divided into four principal categories: A (internal in-plane), B (internal in-slope), C1 (low corner) and C2 (high corner); they have been further classified following a more detailed tree and then mapped using the GIS database. Moreover, a specific procedure has been used to label vertical walls, floors and roofs. Finally, the Vulnerability Index I has been calculated in all the pilot sector units [Figure 9]. Arsita, an Abruzzo Municipality hit by the Mw 6.3 2009 seismic event, entrusted to ENEA the post-earthquake reconstruction plan in 2011. Taking into account the methodologies described in the above sections, the underway activities are consisting in: - in situ surveys (GPS, laser scanner, building safety analysis; definition of structural aggregates and units; architectonic-urban planning and vulnerability analyses; energy aspects and sustainable development; sociologic analysis); - laboratory and office work (analysis of materials; realisation of the GIS georeferenced database through open source GIS/CAD innovative archives; data validation and crossing; definition of hazard, vulnerability and risk maps; reconstruction guidelines for construction and environment; suggestion of intervention techniques; check of reconstruction projects). Down the century, the volcanic eruptions have produced many fatalities and economic losses. Today, almost half billion people is in danger. In Europe, the Vesuvius area is among these ones with highest risk. A probable explosive eruption of Vesuvius, in fact, is persistently menacing the surrounding urban zones and their about 600,000 inhabitants. The peculiar risky situation of the Neapolitan volcano has induced the European project COST Action C26 “Urban habitat constructions under catastrophic events, 2006-2010” (COST C26, 2006; Mazzolani et alii , 2009) to introduce the Vesuvius as a case study within its research activities. The objectives have been substantially two: to evaluate the volcanic vulnerability of the urban environment towards a Vesuvian eruption and to propose simple and economical mitigation interventions. The developed activity comprised the qualitative and quantitative definition of the volcanic actions produced by an eruption and the evaluation of their effects on some typical Vesuvian construction typologies, identified by means of the survey activity of pilot areas located in Torre del Greco (situated on the Vesuvius slope). Therefore, the investigation in Torre del Greco interested: - a building stock in the historic centre (281 buildings, mainly in masonry); - a peripheral residential area, next to the crater (20 buildings, in reinforced concrete and masonry); - 20 strategic public schools (in reinforced concrete and masonry). In addition, also 9 Vesuvian Villas (belonging to historic heritage) of the Golden Mile, located between the sea coast and the volcano, have been checked. A set of different combination of the following volcanic actions (for a sub-Plinian type I event) have been taken into account: earthquake EQ, ash-falls (tephra) AF, and pyroclastic flow PF. The collected data have been used to express a judgment of volcanic vulnerability trough quick methodologies and to perform specific non linear structural analyses with reference to some study cases. The results have shown the prevalent presence of buildings designed to resist ordinary vertical loads only, in compliance with the technical rules of their time of construction. Together with the evaluation of an insufficient safety level against the volcanic actions, the work emphasized many critical issues affecting the Vesuvius area. Also in this case, all the data have been classified in a GIS database [Figure 11] and elaborated to obtain damage scenarios, depending on the prevalent wind direction [Figure 12]. The Roman Boat of the Suburban Thermae of Herculaneum (length 8.5m, maximum width 2.6m) has been discovered in 1982, during the excavation works in the ancient harbour [Figure 13]. During the violent and destructive Vesuvius eruption of 79 AD, the boat was completely covered by the pyroclastic flow, and resulted in carbonization. It is an important archaeological object, because it shows a complete structure and reveals the ancient constructive methods. Due to its fragility, it was wrapped in a protective shell immediately after the discovery. The archaeological Superintendence of Pompeii planned a restoration intervention and found a new museum location. Because the boat could be damaged also by low entity seismic and vibratory excitations, ENEA (Indirli et alii , 2009) was entrusted for the design/realization of the support, including the innovative 3D seismic isolation system [Figure 14]. The first application of base isolation (only in the horizontal directions) in Italy to artworks was realised about twenty year ago for the Riace Bronzes in the Reggio Calabria Museum, by means of multi-layers HDRBs (High Damping Rubber Bearing Devices), with a reduction of 2.5-3 times of the horizontal seismic forces. Nowadays, the design of a new 3D system (including isolation in the vertical direction, is ongoing thanks to ENEA (marble spheres, wire ropes, marble basement), with a reduction of 15-20 times of the horizontal seismic forces. Other HDRBs systems have been applied to the bronze statues of the Emperor Germanicus (Museum of Perugia, Italy) and the Satyr of Mazara del Vallo (Museum of the Satyr, Church of Sant'Egidio, Mazara del Vallo, Trapani, Italy). An important study has been performed for the protection of the David of Michelangelo (agreement between ENEA, University of Perugia and Alga) against earthquakes, even moderate. In fact, this magnificent marble statue presents some microcracks in correspondence of the ankles, thus also small vibrations can cause its overturning. The design of the isolation system foresees martensitic stainless steel spheres between two paraboloid surfaces, with a duration of at least 1000 years without maintenance. The system has been tested at the ENEA Casaccia (Rome) on shaking table, with a comparable statue of “Venus at bath”. Finally, also the wonderful piece named "Venere di Morgantina”, recently returned to Sicily from the Paul Getty Museum (Malibu, California, USA) should be base isolated, due to its fragility, in the Museum of Aidone ...