Colosseum

Ave Caesar! we who are about to die salute you!

Photo album click here

That is how the gladiators entering the arena for the game of death, or freedom used to salute the king.

Like most of the first time visitors to Rome, our first stop was at the Colosseum. I am not a ball game fan, and have not visited ball parks unless there was a graduation or a musical show I had to go to.

If you have ever watched The Gladiators, this is a place you don't want to miss.
gladiators movie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvTT29cavKo

Much like the present day American Football, the Roman Gladiator games, borrowed from Etruscan and Greek culture, when it was mostly a funeral rite game, are as much as an entertainment as much a deflection of public pent up emotions away from the powers to be. Although Romans considered everybody else as savages, these sports would be as savage as anything can be. 

Knowing how organized the corporate sports is today, it is surprising that it was not much different two thousand years back. The Gladiators, like the present day football players, have to suffer and inflict suffering on their competitors for the entertainment of the masses and the pockets of their handlers. These 'entertainers' then and now are both paid handsomely, traded like slaves, and are celebrities. The name, fame, money and the adrenaline of the sports made many freemen and nobles to be a gladiator and enter in voluntary servitude for five years, not much different from the football players of today. Money earned in one bout of game could be equal to the annual salary of a Roman soldier. 

Now we have owners of teams, and then they had lanistas, the owner of the Gladiator schools. Half of the players were contractual, rest were slaves. Many of these slaves were not born slaves, but were freeman of the conquered lands and colonies who ended as slaves at the end of wars. For an able bodied man who can fight well, being a gladiator was a god given opportunity to earn freedom and much more; although there was a risk of death. In reality very few of the losers had to pay with their lives. It was the will of the king, with a thumb up or down to let the gladiator live or die. Ninety percent was the chance to survive. There was an economic side of it too. If a gladiator dies, the sponsor has to pay for the replacement.

Sports medicine has its roots in these games as the doctors taking care of wounded gladiators were experts in fractures and treatment with opium and immobilization. 

A POSTHUMOUS INSULT TO NERO:

The Colosseum was build on a site where a lake was build by Nero. It seems that Nero is the punching bag for all the things wrong with Ancient Rome. Probably he was not as bad as history has made him. 

Yes, he may have orchestrated the death of his mother, who had orchestrated his rise to throne, and he had married his half sister, was the first Roman king to commit suicide, had a freedman castrated so he can marry him as he resembled his dead wife; yes all of that may be true but he never played fiddle while the Rome burnt. Fiddle was perhaps not invented by that time. He may have wanted the fire to burn Rome so he can rebuild it the way he wanted. He also used the fire as an excuse to punish Christians, but he opened his palace gates for the ordinary Romans to find shelter after the fire. He had made a lake where the Colosseum now stands, and perhaps after his death, Romans wanted to erase many of the landmarks attributed to Nero so the lake was gone. 

King Vespasian as a general, along with his son Titus had led the First Jewish Roman war which ended in the destruction of the Second Temple ( see the Arch of Titus in Roman Forum). When he became king, he came with the idea of building a colossal stadium for gladiator games. It was to be called Flavian Amphitheatre. It will be a place for him to meet and address Romans and control their thoughts and release there pent up emotions. 

It was to be 150 feet high and would accommodate 50,000 people. Arena( means sand) is oval shaped 280 by 165 covered with a wooden floor and then sand on top of it. The basement was below the arena, where the gladiators and hungry animals were kept, and brought up by lifts.

Vespasian died in 79 AD and his son Titus was left with the task of completing it. During his reign there were two national catastrophes, the volcanic destruction of the southern city of Pompeii ( covered in a later blog) and another fire of Rome. It was becoming clear that he is on the wrong sides of the gods and he needed the Colosseum to turn the tide against his probable fall from grace. 

Given this he wanted a great opening Inaugural Games of the Colosseum. Held in 80 and lasted for one hundred days. 9000 wild animals were killed in these inaugural games. 

Like the Superbowl it was a big extravaganza. There was the pre-game show but without dancing cheer leaders.  Instead there were loins, kept hungry and fed human flesh to develop tastes for human, and common criminals to face them and be eaten alive. Some times the loins got scared by the cheering crowds and then the game-master, the beast trainer had to pay with his life. 

The middle of the day, when the elite may retire to each lunch was reserved for the killing of criminals by crucifixion. And then of course the prime time was for gladiators games.

One of the most vividly recorded game is between Verus and Priscus a Balkan and a Celt. who were both declared winner, a rarity, by Titus and both earned freedom. BBCmovie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR8H4mWItlk

Some myths about the Colosseum is that it was the place where many Christians were executed. 

After the Fall of Roman Empire it slowly got vandalized and used by many Romans, poor and rich as a place to life, steal and hide. The Popes and Catholic Church, the real power left behind in the city after the Fall, were not interested for a long time in preserving the place. Eventually it was claimed to be a site to be preserved and a big cross was put in it where perhaps the Caesar used to sit, along with the Nuns.

Walking around the Colosseum on the outside does not make you realize the enormity of it. You realize it only when you enter it and reach the second level. Amazingly today's ball parks are not much different than the mother of all stadia. Amazing to realize that it was built in 5 years fro 75 to 80 AD. Elliptical in shape 187 meters at its longest and 155 at its shortest.

There ware 80 arches and all the 'gates' are numbered except the four reserved for the royal and elite. Entry was free but it was a privilege. The ticket had the seat number and the route to reach the seat. a total of 50,000 seats, allotted on rigid social division. 

All the glory of Rome would have come alive in this amphitheatre. Strange to think that the citizens and leaders of the most civilized empire loved the savagery of killing sports and were not apologetic about it.

Next: The Vatican

ROMAN FORUM

All Roads Lead to Rome (rather to Roman Forum)

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Photoalbum

Growing up, this was amongst the first few English language proverbs I learnt. I presumed it meant one would achieve the desired goal what ever way one takes, as long as one is actively engaged. 

But why Rome. It turns out there was a reason this proverb would make sense in Italian peninsula. Rome was a city state, turned eventually into a colonial empire and it needed roads to communicate, conquer and control its colonies.

These roads were made of flat rock, many were lava stones, wide enough to accommodate two carriages, (dual highway) lined with trees on both sides, mostly pine, and had stations every 15 miles or horse change and 30 miles for night stay. Originally laid for military purposes, later used for trade and eventually for commoners to travel. 

This is 500 BC, safely two thousand years before Sher Shah Suri built upon the old Maurya Empire road in early 16th century.

So all the roads originated from Rome to the rest of the world they knew as theirs, and hence if you travel back on any of these roads, you will sooner or later enter Rome, or more specifically the Roman Forum. All these roads had these milestones which told the travelers how far away they were from Roman Forum. Like now we have milestones (at least in my childhood) informing the miles away from the local GPO)

Mile stone

Example of one mile stone in Roman Forum. 

Roman Forum was where Romans lived. literally.  Rome was a city of one million people, a very large number by any standard, definitely the largest for a very long time, considering that we are talking about two thousand years back. 

Rich lived in their palaces and mansions, and poor lived in small cabins around the city, but everyone thrived in the public space. Here you have the public spaces for every activity, religious, civic, senate, official work, and public debate.

Rome has given us concepts and words on all activities of daily civic life. Words like palace (Palatine Hills), Senate, President, Forum, Rostrum. Coliseum, Basilica. all is here.

It is the valley between two of the seven hills of Rome, Palatine Hills and Capitol Hill.

The best example one can imagine the grandeur of Roman Forum is watching the segment of the movie Cleopatra when she enters Rome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNjrfXOgZkM


This ancient Rome, once vandalized by the Vandals at the fall of Roman Empire in 476, and the population of 1 Million was reduced to 10,000,   it slowly deteriorated as the focus shifted from Rome to other areas of power. Even if the Papacy remained intact in Rome as a client state of other kingdoms, the central interest in Roman forum was gone, Over centuries it was neglected, and eventually buried under the dirt and debris of time. Later only the tops of certain monuments and structures were visible, and rest was underground. It was being uses as a grazing ground, Many artifacts and building materials including copper and other minerals were stolen or recycled and it was not until the British Gibbons in 1700, who realized it and it was gradually excavated.

There are more than one way to enter Roman Forum, but the more common is through the Arch of Titus as it takes you from the Coliseum to the Forum. This arch is of particular importance and one of the few places I recommend you spend some time.

This arch is to commemorate the final victory of Romans over Jerusalem. Judea as it was perhaps called was already a Roman province for long time, but the Romans allowed the Jewish Temple to function as long as it did not interfere with the Roman rule. 

Ultimately the Zealots rebelled and Rome responded by siege and final destruction. This arch was perhaps the oldest Arch build to commemorate a victory and has been used as inspiration for many triumphal arches including the famous Paris Arc de Triomphe.

Siege of Jerusalem was in 70 AD which led to the destruction of the Second Jewish Temple, ( only the Western Wall of which remains). This Arch was build ten years later by the brother of the king Titus. By that time Saint Peter was already crucified 64, and there would have been presence of Christians in Rome, but this artifact does not show any mention of that.

Two sides on the inner side show two different scenes. Entering the Forum, the left side shows the Jewish Slaves being brought in the city, carrying their belongings, the most prominent being the menorah candle.

 On the opposite side, shows the Romans and their King, Titus entering the city triumphantly on horses. Until the State of Israel was founded in 1948 there was a rabbinical prohibition to walk under the arch and many Jews refused to walk under it. 

The menorah depicted in the Arch is perhaps the oldest relic of a menorah and was used as a model for the menorah on the emblem of the State of Israel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emblem_of_Israel#/media/File:Arch_of_Titus_Menorah.png

VESTAL NUNS:

Many pagan cultures have the concept of celibate men and women giving up pleasures of normal life for deities. Perhaps the catholic church's concept of nuns grew form the Roman vestal nuns. After all Catholicism is basically a Roman phenomenon. 

Some how a woman's chastity has always fascinated men of god.

So there is this temple of Vesta. Nuns were from the families of elite, the patricians, from age 6-10 and chosen by the High Priest, Pontifex Maximus (the same name taken by the Pope) and offered 30 years of service. She would remain celibate, have certain privileges like special seating in Colosseum, voting and property rights. She would have special duties like keeper of the wills and keeping the fire on at the temple and after 30 years of service could be free to marry.

If however she did not remain chaste she would lose her life. She would be buried alive, as shedding blood was prohibited in the confines of Rome. In fact burying alive was also prohibited in Rome so they would be buried with some food so that the eventually die in the underground tomb.

Temple of Vesta
The Temple of Vesta represents the site of ancient cult activity as far back as 7th century BCE

And then there is the Temple of Caesar. It was here that Julius Caesar was cremated and later deified. He the first Roman made into a deity. There was a comet appearance in Rome at the time of his death and it was considered that Caesar's soul has joined other gods in the sky as one of them. That is the reason that the sign of comet, ie a star with a tail became the official mark for Rome.

Now the tradition of making 'saints' in Catholicism is perhaps the modification of the same old cult of deification?

Then you have the actual Senate and the Rostrum. Rostrum as the name suggests was the actual Speaker's Corner and gave the Romans the freedom to express their views openly and freely.

The Temple of Saturn,  temple to the god Saturn has the most iconic picture looking at the bare columns from the East side to the rest of the Roman Forum and with Arch if Titus and Coliseum in the background

Next: Killing people for sports, The Colosseum 

The House of Worship for All, The Pantheon

The Most Influential Building in Art History

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Photo album

I always thought of pagan as a bad word, meaning uncivilized and uncultivated. Perhaps used pejoratively, pagan religion or culture would be something preceding organized religion, be polytheistic and would have left much to be desired.
 
Later I learned many pagan ethics and morals are rooted in human nature and are quite altruistic.

Pantheon, perhaps was not the name given to it by its makers, is the grandest example of paganism. Built, over an older temple of 27 AD, by Roman Emperor Hadrian from 118-125 AD, this is the only relic of Ancient Rome which still stands intact. However the numbers of dieties worshiped here is reduced to Trinity.

Like many religions who either completely neglected shrines of previous religions or consecrated them as their own, Ancient Christians of Rome were not much different. This is yet another church in the long list of Roman churches. That is the reason it survives intact, much like the Cordoba Mosque; otherwise it would have been neglected or demolished.

Usually the pagan houses of worship are dedicated to one deity, but here is an example of (at least) seven known deities, all being worshiped at the same time, much like Kaaba in pre Islamic Mecca. In fact Kaaba would have existed as a similar house of pantheistic worship as this Pantheon.

In one way it is the ancient world corollary to the modern interfaith houses of worship. One could worship any deity of interest, like an equal opportunity provider.

Architecturally it is a marvel. On the outside there is a porch, Portico which is rectangular building with large columns, leading to the actual building.

 Inside what you see is the Mother of all domes. It is perhaps the most influential building in art history. Many domes in the later history were inspired by it, including Michelangelo's St Peters Cathedral, Florence Cathedral and even the US Capitol.

It is a big and simple dome, with seven niches in it. the walls of the circular building are tall and then there is a big dome sitting on it. It is the largest structure of reinforced concrete anywhere in the world, built in second century and still stands on its own. 

In order to have as less weight as possible, the width of the wall of dome was highest at the bottom, 21 feet and gradually is decreased as it reaches the top, where it is on 3.9 feet. On top there is a big hole, yes it is open. 

 Eyes to the Heavens

Oculus, The hole on the top of the dome is 9 meters feet wide in diameter. As you enter you see the sunlight beaming in and as the day goes by the beam shifts. Only in the midday it is straight down.

The height of the oculus is equal to the diameter of the dome's largest circle ie 142 feet. In other words, the whole building can accommodate a big ball equal to the diameter of its dome's largest diameter.

One myth is that it never rains in the Pantheon. Possible explanation is that in the old days, it was lit up by candles and the hot air collects at the top of the dome. So in case of rain the water was heated by the hot water and vaporized before it reached the ground. However, there are twenty two strategically places holes in the ground mosaic which drain the rain water so that there is never accumulation of the rain.

Rome officially got Christianized in the fourth century. After the Fall of the Roman Empire much of the Rome was under the indirect rule of Eastern Rome and the Byzantine Emperor gave the building away to the Roman Pope who finally converted Pantheon into a church in 609 in the name of holy martyrs. Remains of martyrs from the catacombs were brought in here and buried near the base of the holy Alter.  Rumor is that once the place was bathed for purification, seven winds blew as if the seven pagan gods ran away out of the building.

The importance of the place continued as many notables are buried in it. The fist king of united Italy, Emmanuel, decided to be buried there. He is like the George Washington of USA or Quaid e Azam, M A Jinnah of Pakistan; and here is where he thought he should rest eternally.

The famous painter Raphael, whose work adorn Vatican Museums and is considered second to Michelangelo in his contributions to Vatican wished to be buried here. A few centuries after his death, there was a question whether it was his remains or not; his body was exhumed and reburied after confirmation.

Pope did change the direction of the worship and now the original niche is the main place of worship, adorned by Madonna and Child.

Copper was used much by Ancient Romans, the pagans,  and was stolen or 're-cycled' by Medevil Romans, the Christians. The prime example of that is in Pantheon. Its dome was originally covered with copper plates with outside covering of bronze and copper tiles. These tiles were stolen by Constans II in 663 and were on route to Constantinople but re-stolen by Saracens en route. Thousand years down the road Pope Urban VIII needed copper for currency and churches and removed copper plates from the roof, giving him 200 tons of copper sheets and 4 tons of copper nails. Re-cycling, or repossessed from one god for the other.

Out of may copper and bronze from Ancient Rome, only the bronze doors  of Pantheon remain unmelted. 

Waiting for someone! I hope not.


Next: The Roman Forum. All roads lead to------
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Ref: 
http://www.copper.org/education/history/60centuries/greece_rome/copperin.html
 http://www.findingancientrome.com/PantheonUnexplained.shtml

Do in Rome as the Romans Do

Italy.blogpost3

Rome is where I got pick pocketed.

Warned a lot, multiple times, but somehow I did not think it was something I have to worry about. I was wrong. It was on the third day, coming back on the subway from Termini Station to our Menzonni, I did the cardinal mistake of getting in the crammed middle car where it was jam packed. I do not remember anything except that on the steps out of the station I reached for my wallet and it was not there. Luckily the money and the passport were in other pockets. What I lost was my driver's license, and cards including the Capitol One card which does not cost international service charge. So all in all it cost me a few hours of phone calls and made me fully financially dependent on my better half for the rest of the trip; and the anger and embarrassment of why me and how come it happened to me.

Later I learned that it is not uncommon. More than one of my Italian patients laughed and expressed their inherent contempt for Rome when I told them about this episode.

That was however the only bad experience I had in Rome. Romans, if that is what the citizens of Rome are called today, are pretty laid back people. Streets are always full of people and like New York, it is hard to separate the tourist from the resident. Sometime it seems that every one is a tourist. Italians in general have an easy going attitude towards every day life, I am told. There is an expression il dolce far niete (the sweetness of doing nothing) The Punjabi equivalent of that would be /thand ay. ٹھنڈ  اے 

It was early morning on Friday May 29th that we landed in Rome after a long direct flight from NY.  You realize at the airport that there are benefits to be a national of EU countries. They have 'fast pass' and everybody else, us included, stand in the longer line.

The weather was nice and the car ride to hotel was a long one. Nicholas, our driver was as good at English as we were at Italian. Later I realized that to be a prevalent issue. Spain is much better than Italy for English speaking visitor. It is better to learn a few words of Italian to avoid unnecessary hurdles.

Riding through the streets and roads of Rome reminded me a bit like Lahore during 70's and 80's, Wide roads, with small cars, many vespas and a lot of trees. Climate is not much different either. Many times in travel around the city you see the city wall. In fact there are two walls. The earlier one is Servian Wall around 7 miles long and the second larger are the Aurelian Walls, almost 12 miles. Tall as much as 32 feet they are almost 3 yards wide. By now I know a bit about the bricks. The smaller the width and the flatter it is, the older and ancient it is.

English names of the cities are not what they are actually called. I learned that in Spain and the same was true in Italy. Rome is Roma. Florence is Firenze, Venice is Venezia (z pronounced as tz as in Nazi), Milan is Milano, Turin is Turino, Naples is Napoli and so on. 

As I mentioned earlier, you see a lot of Bangladeshis, as much as Africans or more. They are competing with each other on how to sell the counterfeit brand name ladies bags, selfie sticks and other visitor paraphernalia.

Traveling by public transport was very easy. There are only two lines of subway which cross each other at the station Termini. The same ticket can be used for buses. Almost no one checks the bus tickets, it seems to have an honor system. One has to validate the ticket on the bus or on the subway for the first time. Cabs we did not use but reportedly do not cost more than 15 Euro or so for an average trip. A good map helps, but one has to know the names, as one place may be named in more than one ways and there may be a difference between what your guide book says and what map reads.

I never visited as many churches as I did in this trip to Italy. They are a fascinating place to go. More tourists than worshipers but still have a sense of quietness and serenity.

After visiting a few must-see places one quickly feels the sense of saturation and information overload. The best way to enjoy the city in the afternoons and evenings is to get lost in one of the many walking streets of  Rome. 

Walk from The Roman Forum to the Piazza Venezia and lounge in the footsteps of Emmanuel Monument. Then either to Trevi Fountaion to the Spanish Steps or to the absorbing sunlight in the Piazza Navona. Or go anywhere, and make your own discoveries.

Walking along River Tiber is an experience in itself. Once known for its floods now it is confined between high embankments and the riverbed is lined by boulevards lungoteveri. It is walking distance from the Vatican and worth a stroll. It has scenic bridges and unforgettable views.

Let yourself be absorbed in the mood of the city. As they say do in Rome as Romans do. As my favorite travel guide Rick Steve points out, if you fall off your moral horse, call it a cultural experience

Next: House of Worship in Ancient Rome, still intact

Rome 101

Italy. Blogpost 2

 

Romans are children of Mars, the god of War. That explains a lot.

Rome is a name one hears growing up in more than one contexts. An ancient city, a civilization, an empire, a mention in Qur'an, full of history and romance and much more. Once you are there you realize that Rome is all of that. It gradually grows on you while you are there and continues to do that after you have left. 

A friend of mine had warned me, 'Rome wich history purry pai ay', Rome is full of history. I realized that all the times, every day. It is perhaps the oldest place with continuous civilization and a connection to modern man's history. 

It is helpful to refresh the history a bit while visiting Rome. You don't have to be a history buff, but some background information adds to the experience of the vacation. 

Much of the life we live, thoughts we have, work we do, politics we experience and art we cherish and are influenced by are all deeply rooted in the Greco Roman civilization. Here you have a chance to experience a bit of it.

At one time, it was either Rome or the rest of the world, they considered everybody else barbarian.

Basically, the history is divided into three parts:  Roman Kingdom, Republic and then the Roman Empire. Founded around 700 BC the Kings ruled for three centuries, then the word King became a bad word. Kings were replaced by senators electing Consuls, two at a time, for the next five hundred years.  After the death of Julius Caesar, the Roman Empire came into being, which lasted for another five centuries.

Rome conquered Greece in early second century AC. They inherited the Greek thought, adopted it and spread it to the world. This is all pre Abrahamic Faiths. Rome was Rome before anybody had heard of Bible in Rome. 

The world around the Mediterranean Sea seems to be the cradle of civilization as we know it today. First Egyptians, then Greeks and then Romans. Strange that in Urdu and Arabic the Mediterranean Sea is called Bahirae Rome ie Roman Sea.

Birth of Rome, like many cities is full of myth. 

The seat of the kingdom was Alba Longa, 12 miles away from the future Rome. King Numitor was dethroned by his brother Amilius who killed all his male heirs and forced the daughter Rhea Silvia to become a Vestal Virgin ,  basically a nun. She later became pregnant by the god Mars, the god of War, and gave birth to twins Romulus and Remus. 

The tradition of a virgin giving birth to children by gods is quite old in Roman mythology and who knows it may have influenced the later concept of trinity. Anyhow,  Amilius found out about the twins and have them drowned in the famous river Tiber. They survived and were nursed by Lupa, a She-wolf on Palatine Hills. She nursed them. The statue of wolf nursing the infant twins is an icon of Rome and I saw it far and wide in its colonies, even in Pisa. Brothers survived and later took the power. Later as it happens, one killed the other and the newly formed city was named after the victor. That was roughly around 700 years BC. 

Myths aside, Rome started as a new kingdom and survived for three centuries. Then it was brought down, as it usually happens, due the excesses of a son of the king. The seventh King Superbus was cruel but his son raped a noblewomen named Lucretia. A popular uprising ensued and a republic was formed. Republic is from res publica ie property of the people. (1)

As a republic it was governed by a senate of nobles, who used to elect two consuls on annual basis. (and we say presidency in our fratenral organizations for one year is too short) .  There were the party of the nobles ie patricians and then there were the common people, plebeians. Gradually the plebeians gained more say as the centuries progressed. Once in a while they used to elect a dictator, in situations of emergencies, who had more power. Then came Julius Caesar who, all his greatness aside, wanted to become the dictator in perpetuity. He was killed and in the aftermath his adopted son Octavius became the king. Then started the Empire phase, which lasted for another five hundred years.

Going back to the republic phase, it is amazing to think that two thousand five hundred years back these Romans got disgusted with the royalty, abolished it and replaced it with a republic instead of opting for another king.. The word king became a bad word. As a republic, Rome became stronger and ruled the area. Most of the modern day Italy was under Roman dominance but it was a republic not an empire for 500 years.

History is strange as the 'defenders of democracy' i.e Brutus et al became the villains for times to come and the dictator was eventually deified. Caesar was the first one to be consecrated as a god in Rome.

Even as it became an empire the Romans still insisted that it was a republic. The best time of Roman Empire was the 1st to 3rd centuries AD. 

In 313 the emperor Constantine legalized Christianity and himself became christian. Strange that he is the one who shifted the capital to Constantinople, newly renamed after him, and while the Roman empire continued to grow and flourish, it was downhill for the city of Rome after that.

Roman elite continued its dominance over the wold, but it gradually shifted to religious authority from political. The Roman kings eventually became Popes, the title for Pope in Italian is Pontifex Maximus, the senators became Bishops and their Basilicas, the public places, became the cathedrals.

So while the Christianizing of Rome was a boom to the religion and helped the spread of Christianity in Europe, the New World and the rest of the world, it took Rome off the map as the most important city in the world. It remained the center of the Western Roman Empire which lingered on for another two centuries and fell by 500 AD, at the hands of the 'Barbarians' of North Europe, mostly Germans. Many blame Christianity as the main cause of Rome's fall.

Seems to me that the strength of Rome was in constant invasions and conquering new lands. Soon they ran out of real estate they can conquer. Empires need new territories to pillage and plunder in order to keep their standard of opulence. Perhaps that happened to Rome and many of the so called Barbarians, who were nothing more than Northern Europeans, trained by Romans and now became fed up, rose their arms and invaded Rome.

The Eastern Roman Empire continued to flourish, broke its religious ties with Rome at the turn of the fist millennium and went Orthodox. People of Constantinople still called themselves Romans and perhaps it was the second Rome. It is this Roman Empire which is  referred to in Quran. They were in an eternal battle with the Persians and finally lost to Muslims in 1453, forty years before the fall of Granada.

Western Civilization or history is divided broadly in three sections. Antiquity, Medieval and Renaissance. . Broadly speaking the times are up to 500 AD, up to 1490 and after that. One way is to say it would be before, during and after Christianity (as Renaissance eventually was the beginning of the fall of religion as the authoritative force in the West).

Rome was captured once again in late 19th century, this time by fellow Italians, who defeated the Pope and Italy became one nation with Rome as its third (and present) capital.

You see all of it in Rome. As I was told before the trip, Rome is full of history, I realized its depth as I walked the streets of Rome. I will try to trace back the trip in the chronological order of history: from the ancient times, to middle ages to modern. 

Only in Rome a place like Vatican is considered modern.

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 1  http://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/ancient-rome

Ten Days In Italy

A Trip To Remember

We spend ten days in Italy from May 29th to June 7th 2015. Those are among the best days of our lives.

It has been twenty five years together and we decided to be celebrate it in Italy. It seems like many people share this idea. We met two couples, a Pakistani American from LA and a Caucasian one from England. Both were there for their silver jubilees.

Many reading this would have been to Italy. It is a popular vacation destination. What I write here and in subsequent blog posts may not seen new to them. To me it was a lot more than I had expected. It was an enjoyable vacation, to say the least; and in addition to that, I did not realize how much Italy has to offer to a visitor.

For a very long time, we are not used to hear good things about Italy, It is in record debt and what I remember growing up was an ever changing corrupt government after another, not much different than the situation back home.

But what I realized on the trip was that not only being the inheritor of the Greek philosophy and legacy, Italy was also the real birthplace of what we know as the Modern Western Civilization. It was the place of Renaissance, not only in the cultural and art world, the ground breaking scientific discoveries were hatched in what we call Italy these days. Whereas the harbinger of the Dark Ages i.e. the Fall of the Roman Empire happened there, the rebirth, Renaissance, is also primarily an Italian phenomenon.

To be correct, it is not exactly an Italian phenomenon as I learned that Italy is a relatively new concept, even younger than USA. It was a fractionated place with lots of local states. It was only the events of the late 19th century that brought it together as one nation. I always wondered that in the colonial era we see hardly any Italian colonies, (besides Libya and Somalia); now I know why. There was no big country Italy with a strong Navy to conquer the world. Perhaps Venice alone was a local maritime power and had its area of influence beyond the traditional land of Italy.

What we did was the routine first time tourist essential for Italy: four nights in Rome, three in Florence and two in Venice. We had day trips to Naples and Pompeii while in Rome and to Sienna, San Gimigniano (Tuscany) and Pisa while in Florence.

It was warm and not terribly hot, we stayed in hotels close to the center of the cities and used public transportation a lot. Should have seen a lot more than what we saw, but still having a hard time to absorb what we have seen.

We saw a lot of Vespas and Bengalis, Bangladeshis to be exact, much more than the Africans, selling stuff on the streets. We did have Italian cuisine but could not resist Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Kurdistani food.

It was the right place and the right time for the occasion; could not have been a better place. Tipu Ahmed, APPNA's event planner, had helped us plan our trip to Spain a few years back, and he did the same this year. We had excellent plans and arrangements, and still economical. I will recommend that to those not comfortable chalking out their own plan.

Allow me take you with me as I retrace my steps back to Italy. You may find something interesting as we go along.