Two thousand years after Mount Vesuvius buried Pompeii under volcanic ash, Italy's most-visited archaeological site faces destruction at the hands of vandals, tourists and government budget cuts.

Chunks of frescoes depicting life in the Roman city are missing, carried away by visitors or eroded by the elements. Graffiti is gouged into walls. Tourists ignore signs forbidding flash photography as they take pictures of erotic designs inside the Lupanare, an ancient brothel.

The city southeast of Naples has deteriorated so much that the Italian government declared a state of emergency this month. It named the central government's former head policeman for Naples, Renato Profili, to oversee the 76-hectare (188-acre) site and make its 2.6 million annual visitors behave without scaring them away. Culture Minister Sandro Bondi is holding a press conference in Pompeii today to discuss the state of the ruins.

``You think, `Wow, I can just touch everything here,''' said Melissa Murphy, a 25-year-old biology teacher from Dallas as she ate lunch in Pompeii's Forum. ``I like the freedom to roam unobserved, but if it's being destroyed, you must do everything you can to save it. This place needs more security.''

The moves come as Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government is proposing to shave 8 billion euros ($13 billion) from Italy's budget next year, with cuts expected for the Ministry of Culture. A third of Pompeii remains underground. Unless the country comes up with more money, it should stay that way, said Giandomenico Spinola, the Vatican's head archaeologist for classical antiquities.

`Emergency'

``It's obvious that there is an emergency in a country like Italy where there's so much to protect and so little money to do it,'' he said.

Visitors once arrived at the gate of Pompeii by boat. Now the site is inland after volcanic debris pushed back the Tyrrhenian Sea. The Temple of Venus greets visitors entering from the Porta Marina. They walk uphill to arrive in the Forum, once the center of ancient municipal life.

On a July 14 visit, tourists ran their hands along the walls of the city's bakeries, theaters and mansions as they tried to visualize life before the volcanic eruption on Aug. 24, A.D. 79. They left behind traces of sweat and acid that will eat away at the ruins.

Stray Dogs, No Guards

Stray dogs cooled themselves on the mosaic floor under the vaulted walls of the men's calidarium, which was the hottest of the succession of bathhouses, as visitors filed past the marble water basin. The walls sported modern graffiti along with remnants of terra-cotta paint.

During a five-hour visit, there were about 20 dogs and no security guards in sight.

Since 2001 the number of security guards has fallen 19 percent to 349, according to Soprintendenza Archeologica di Pompei, the administrative office of Pompeii. And Pompeii must share them with four other Vesuvian sites: Boscoreale, Oplontis, Stabia and Ercolano, the modern name for Herculaneum.

At least 150 square meters (1,600 square feet) of frescoes and plaster are lost to lack of upkeep each year and 3,000 stones crumble away, Antonio Irlando, the Campania region's alderman for culture, told newspaper Corriere della Serra on July 3.

Pompeii last year took in 33 million euros, about that same as in 2006. Eighty-two percent of that was generated by the 11- euro entrance fee, with the rest from the Culture Ministry. All personnel costs are paid out of the ministry's budget.

Virtual Museum

There has been talk about trying to promote neighboring sites to divert traffic from Pompeii, but limited parking would create chaos, a Soprintendenza official said. A new virtual museum that opened recently at Ercolano, on the Gulf of Naples, allows visitors to discover the sights, sounds and even smells of ancient times. They can ``unearth'' frescoes by waving their hand in front of displays, wiping away virtual ash.

Pompeii isn't Italy's only archaeological site in distress.

Former Prime Minster Romano Prodi's government cut this year's budget for protection of Italy's artistic and archaeological heritage by 20 percent to 489 million euros.

One way of boosting preservation efforts across Italy may be to ask private corporations for help.

Antonello Antinoro, Sicily's alderman for culture, this month proposed handing over management of the region's 2,500- year-old Valley of the Temples, where Greeks once worshipped Zeus and other pagan goods, to private entrepreneurs.

``It's too easy to talk about bureaucracy,'' said Guido Soroldone, administrator of a high school for the arts near Milan, as he peered through a locked gate into one of Pompeii's villas. ``In the end, it's more about taking personal responsibility on how the money is spent. It's about getting a better return on your investment.''

Alfonso Dellie Franci, 56, has worked for 20 years as a guide at Pompeii. He gushed with enthusiasm when recounting stories about ancient palace intrigue, or the city's red-light district. His voice turned angry when talking about tourists who plunder the site for souvenirs and politicians' failure to set the situation right.

When a stray dog rolled over inviting Franci to scratch her belly he obliged. ``I have no problem with dogs,'' he said. ``They have much more respect for Pompeii than people do.''