Again, I'll try not to bore with selfies in front of random buildings. There are more blogs of this kind than there are humans currently alive. Instead, I want to take a deeper dive into the history because it can be life-changingly fascinating.
Here's some info about my favourite historical places:
What a place! This doesn't get nearly the attention it ought to compared to the colosseum (Seriously, just watch Gladiator). This area is packed with ancient relics, ruins and history.
Nowhere else in the world have I felt so genuinely transported back in time. I was there, literally walking the same steps of legends like Julius Caesar and the great general, Gaius Marius. Caesar's temple is there, where people to this day commemorate him with flowers and such. You can see it in this panorama, the columns behind the biggest tree.
Also nowhere else in the world have I felt like I was actually walking around in Elden Ring's Lands Between. You can certain see where the inspiration came from, with a little filter to really hammer it home:
Is that a screenshot from the game or a photo??
The arch of Titus is staggering to hear about. Upon defeating the Jewish rebellion a second time, Jerusalem was obliterated, never to be heard from again until something like the 1960's, 2,000 years later. In the meantime, 50,000 Jewish slaves were brought to Rome where many of them were forced to build this massive, intricate arch. To add salt to the wound, the Jews had to carve the detailed story of their destruction into it, which remains in pristine condition to this day.
I want you travel go back in time with me for a minute.
Not as far as the Romans, though. Maybe a few centuries after they faded away, and you and I are some peasants in England. Our parents, grandparents and great grandparents were all raised in the dark ages, a time of poverty, cultural stagnation and, well, darkness. Written records of events essentially vanished after the Romans disappeared. Nobody knew how to do what Romans did, and so their mighty structures fell into disrepair and faded into the mystical ruins that still stand today.
Walking around the woods, you stumble across some giant stone arches, the size of which was simply so overwhelmingly huge you couldn't even fathom their purpose. *what in this God's earth would ever require an arch to be so enormous?
Back then, there was no internet or library to read about what the hell these mysterious structures were. This would be like those uncontacted tribes in the Amazon stumbling upon an IMAX theatre playing Batman Begins.
Many people of these times made the obvious conclusion: Giants. Only giants would require arches this big for them to find shelter, perhaps.
This is the imagination springing into my mind when I saw the Basilica of Maxentius. You can the three large arches on the right side of the panorama. Or here:
For scale, I circled an entire crowd of humans significantly closer to the camera. Some people suggest it once looked something like this:
Some Olde English folk even wrote a poem about this concept of giants, called 'The Ruin':
Wonder on the wall; the work of giants stands out,
the stone of a city. The old masonry is wondrous,
the precincts are broken, the buildings crumbled,
the giants’ work decays. Tumbled are the towers
ruined, the roofs fallen, ruined the barred gate,
frost on the plaster, broken the battlements,
undermined by age. The earth-grip holds
the proud builders, departed, long lost,
and the hard grasp of the grave, until a hundred generations
of people have passed."
People genuinely believed they were giants. But... it was the even mightier Romans.
When our modern civilisation falls, what will we become? Confused peasants? What imaginative religion would people start to believe in? What mythological creatures? What stories will people tell when, 5,000 years from now, they find an old shopping bag and a broken iPhone relic?
It's an inspiring, everlasting question that captures so much imagination, and leads to the creation of some incredible games like Horizon and, well, Elden Ring.
Anyway, I could go on all day about the Forum, better if you just go there yourself with a good audio guide.
I mean, sure, Rome generally was also amazing, I just have the most lasting thoughts about its historical monuments. Some other places seemed so touristy that even with their historical significance, just felt cheapened, like the Trevi Fountain which is essentially just an old fountain, but with 10,000 people lingering around it 24/7. This, and the Pantheon, we did little more than walk by them.
As a good husband, I didn't want to dominate this romantic trip with history, and the forum along with the Vatican absolutely fed me my fair share!
Unfortunately I didn't think to take photos of a lot of stuff but we did find some awesome places. Nightlife in trastevere was amazing, as was the food. We found a restaurant so popular that the queue was hanging around three of the four sides of the building. And yet, we managed to get in pretty quick and have a great meal at like 10pm (apparently not uncommon in Italy).
I just had to try a carbonara, the most stereotypical of all pastas, just to compare with the one I sometimes get delivered home in Shanghai. I must admit, I now feel somewhat ashamed to ever order it again. Whatever I've been eating, it's not carbonara. It's like off-brand Mac n' Cheese by comparison to a true Italian Carbonara!
We discovered a random riverside market around Trastevere district which again had a great vibe but we, coming from China, were both quick to point out the majority of this stuff was remarkably like... well, tacky Chinese schlock. Hardly surprising!
Anyway I'm past my 1,000 words so I'll end it off there - although I fully intend on complaining about one particular event we went to see. Next time!
Worth multiple visits! History is endless and life changing, phenomenal food, even the touristy restaurants!
Unfortunately this was our last stop, and it was time to face the reality of equally hot, but far less glamorous Shanghai once more. Italy has certainly reminded me of what amazing life exists out there. Being in big cities so long, you tend to forget. How that will affect my future plans, we'll see!
