THE COLISEUM IN ROME,
THE ROMAN EMPIRE'S ARCHITECTURE AT ITS BEST
A couple of days later we arrived in Rome, “the eternal city”, the city with so much history and so much art and architecture. Rome is located in the central-western portion of the Italian boot and apparently it was originally inhabited by blond people coming from the north, different from those who populated the rest of the Italian peninsula.
Rome's history spans over two thousand five hundred years and according to the legend, it was founded by Romulus and Remus, the twin sons of a princess and a god that abandoned their children, who soon were adopted by a female wolf which fed them till they grew up to take care of themselves. Rome was the capital of the Roman Empire for over seven hundred years and since the 2nd Century AD Rome has been the center of the Catholic Church. The Vatican City, an independent city-state presided by the Pope is located within the boundaries of Rome. At the end of the middle ages, Rome was ruled by various popes who transformed the city, along with Florence into one of the major centers of the Italian and European Renaissance.
THE VATICAN CITY, A CITY STATE WITHIN THE CITY OF ROME
Even though the group I joined was formed by young people who liked partying above almost everything else, we allowed ourselves some cultural activities, including visiting Rome’s rich artistic, architectural and archaeological sites which are its most important historical heritage. We visited many landmarks and monuments which date back over 2,000 years such as the Roman Coliseum, The Trajan Forum and the Via Apia, which are kept in a remarkable condition thanks to a careful and faithful restoration and reconstruction work. We visited the Vatican City and within it, the St Peter Basilica (“the greatest of all Christian churches in the world”), and the Sistine Chapel which is a great museum of renaissance art by itself, with its ceiling painted by Michelangelo Buonarotti, one of the greatest artists of human kind. While in Rome, we ate “like Romans” and enjoyed Italian and international cuisine, we partied and danced till our bodies asked for a brake, and then we continued partying for an additional while.
A PORTRAIT OF MICHELANGELO BUONAROTTI, THE MASTER
OF ALL MASTERS OF THE ART IN THE RENAISSANCE
At about three o’clock in the morning in one of our never ending partying nights, we decided to visit the “Fontana di Trevi” (The Fountain of Trevi), where legend holds that if visitors throw a coin into the fountain, they are ensured a return to Rome. A few guys in the group were actually so happyly drunk, that they wanted to jump into the fountain, however a couple of carabinieri who were present at the site, prevented that to happen in spite of the insisting requests from all of us in the group. A current version of the Fontana di Trevi's legend is that your wishes will come true, and you will find the couple of your dreams if you throw three coins with your right hand over your left shoulder and into the fountain. Our partying had been so good, and the alcohol we ingested was so much, that I don’t think either one of us was capable at the moment of distinguishing right from left or even feet from shoulder. That was a great night, a real partying night. Our European holidays at their best!
After four days in Rome we decided to head over to Naples (Napoli in Italian), the capital of the Italian region of Campania and the home town of the Italian Pizza. Naples is known for its rich history, art, culture, music and gastronomy but also for its political and economic corruption and a thriving black market. It is actually believed that the omnipresent Italian Mafia is headquartered in Naples. The city had then a population of around one million. Naples was founded by the Greeks in the 8th century BC; therefore, it is one of the oldest existing cities in the world. The port of Naples is one of the most active and important in Europe. From here, we took a boat tour to the island of Capri, now very famous for it was the home of the laureate Chilean poet Pablo Neruda while he was a political exile in the mid fifties. The Oscar winning movie “The Postman” was filmed here in the mid nineties and portrays a love drama in which Neruda helps his postman conquer the love of the girl of his dreams.
After Naples we decided to visit the ruins of what was the prosperous and politically very important city of Pompeii which was completely destroyed and buried under 12 to 20 feet of ash from the volcano nearby in 79AD. Pompeii not only disappeared from the face of the earth, but it also disappeared from the historical records for about 1600 years, until its buried ruins were accidentally discovered in 1592. Since then, excavations have brought and extraordinarily detailed insight into the life of a city that existed at the height of the Roman Empire. We were but a few of the 2.5 million people who visit Pompeii every year.
By the time we finished visiting Pompeii, we all were a bit tired
of visiting ruins, monuments, museums and works of art. Young people in holidays as we were, we needed a bit more of excitement, of partying and leisure, just as we had it in Rome the previous week, so we decided to go to the Riviera, the long coast line of the Golf of Genoa where the beaches are abundant, the partying never ends and the music is a permanent companion. Young female and good looking companions we had, and happy to be a part of our group too, so, someone in the group said; “to hell with the ruins, let’s get back to the living bodies!” and so we did!
Geographically, the term “Riviera” refers to the long and narrow stretch of coastal land peacefully nestled between the Alps and the Mediterranean Sea, extending from northwest Italy to southeast France. From East to West, therefore, this long stretch is divided between the equally beautiful shorelines of the Italian Riviera and the French Riviera. The term “picture perfect” finds its true meaning in the 200 miles of eye-catching stretch of coastline located in the northern part of Italy and extends for another 200 miles into the Southern part of France. The Italian Riviera coastline stretches from Cinque Terre in the east to Ventimiglia in the west near the French border. Genoa, the largest Italian port in the Mediterranean is at the center of the Riviera.
GENOA, AT THE CENTER OF THE ITALIAN RIVIERA
Genoa is famous for being the port where Christopher Columbus is thought to have been born in the mid 1400’s, at a time when this city was the most important port in Southern Europe. We had said we needed to stop there to “rest”, but resting is exactly what we didn`t do. We partied two whole nights in a row. Abundant, delicious Italian food, wine, beer, music and dancing is what I can remember of those two nights in Genoa. At four O’clock in the morning of our second night, when the streets were almost silent and desolate and after partying the whole night, we sat around the Christopher Columbus’s monument for a photo that never was, because nobody was able to take it! Such was the state of our bodies and minds at that time of the morning in Genoa. I’m sure Christopher Columbus wouldn’t have been very proud of having discovered the world where these dissolute young people who did not respect his monument, were born! Please excuse us Chris!
THE MONUMENT TO CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
IN GENOA HIS NATAL CITY
The Spanish driver of our bus was like one of those people existing only in the magical realism in the Latin-American literature, he seemed never to sleep, he knew every single place we wanted to go, he spoke every language you can think of, he was always in a good mood and while we were in the bus he was always telling us all kinds of good jokes to keep us awake, but, best of everything, he was the safest driver I have ever seen till these days. Manuel was his name and he was from Galicia, a province in North Western Spain, a region best known for its great food, particularly for its seafood. Manolo, as we called him, specialized in telling us jokes portraying his fellow Galicians as stupid. I still remember a few of those jokes. One of them is about this Galician guy who goes to the doctor asking for a vasectomy. The doctor tells him “sir, this is a very serious decision that needs to be consulted with your family, have you done so”? The guy readily answers affirmatively and adds “they voted yes 17-2”. Another one was about this old Galician lady who goes to the dentist and asks him to pull out her teeth, after looking into the lady’s mouth, the dentist tells her “mom, how come you want me to pull out your teeth, you don’t have any teeth”, the lady calmly responds “that’s why I’m asking you to pull them out doctor, I just swallowed them”. And the last one in the night: A man is being taken away by a nurse on a stretcher, he is pale, in panic and asks the nurse if she could take him to the emergency room, she calmly responds, “sir, I'm sorry but I can’t, when the doctor says to the morgue, it is to the morgue”, at the end of the story telling, Manolo said, “you know guys?, I’m glad I’m a Galician, but my parents are from Madrid!, I WISH I WAS BORN THERE TOO! And he laughed his heart out afterwards.
In my next posting: THE FRENCH RIVIERA, AND THEN SPAIN
No comments:
Post a Comment