So here I stand in the ruins of the Roman coliseum. I'm wearing black pants, a nice button-up shirt, and black wingtips. I've gone without shaving for 3 days. Twice today I've been mistaken for a Spaniard. I prefer it this way - looking European, that is. I take it as a compliment.
Though the usual hordes of tourists are all around me today, I find myself escaping from the dull roar of camera shutters and tour guides with ease. Looking over the railing into this decaying relic of the ancient Romans, I imagine myself as a spectator in a crowd of 50,000 fans, the capacity of the coliseum when it was in its prime. I can envision gladiators, ripped and brawny, fighting for lives against wild animals brought in by the legions returning from the conquering of some foreign land. I can feel the roar of the crowd and the rush of adrenaline coursing through my veins as the emperor sentences a band of slaves to their death with the single gesture of a 'thumbs up'. I can see myself there - a citizen of Rome in its heyday.
A walk across the street brings me to the forum magnum, called the Roman Forum today. The temples, abodes, and buildings of the ancient Roman government stand largely in ruin - what matters though is that they any part of them still stand at all. In one area, a row of marble columns is all that is left of the Temple of the Vestal Virgins. Beside it, an unnamed building's foundation allows grass and wildflowers to grow through its ancient cracks. "Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it" as Galadriel put it.
Journeying further down the road, past the crowds of people who have gathered in this neighborhood to witness a marathon, I find myself in a large, elliptical field, filled with gravel. It's two football fields in length and half a field across. A few chunks of weathered rock alert me to what I have just run across - the circus maximus. Here, in ancient times, dangerous chariot races were held to appease the city's citizens lust for competition. When the structure still stood, it was able to hold nearly 250,000 people, making it the largest of its kind at the time. Over time, the structure was dismantled to build other structures, and now all that remains is a shadowy outline of what it once was.
Later on during my week in Rome, I find myself running across the city to get to the Vatican. Granted, most of the main attractions in the city are within walking distance, but running from a hostel near the train station on the east side of the historical sector to the west side where the Vatican resides takes a good hour, so when I arrive at my tour guide's office outside the entrance, I'm exhausted. My second wind comes around soon as our group of 12 tourists, wearing headsets, is chauffeured past the eternally long lines. After going through a chaotic security checkpoint, we're there.
In case you've never been to the Vatican, here is a synopsis: besides being its own country, it has a lot of museums, archives, churches, and relics, and much of it is closed to the public. The places that are open are overwhelmingly beautiful. There are paintings (like Michelangelo's Transfiguration) and statues galore. One hallway I go down has nothing but maps of the regions of Italy drawn on the wall. Another has tapestries 15 feet high and 30 across, lining the length of the hall. By the time I get into the Sistine Chapel, my mind has been blown already, and seeing these most famous of works by Michelangelo is mind-numbingly awesome.
My tour ends after a quick run-through of St. Peter's Basilica. Once again, Michelangelo shows his stuff with the Pieta, a statue of Mary holding the body of Jesus in her lap - this is just one of the many statues inside this cathedral, which happens to be the largest in the world.On my way out, I pull out a tiny flask that fits on a keychain and fill it with holy water. Maybe this is sacrilegious...I'm not really sure. I hope not!
There are a number of other places I went to in Rome that are typical tourist destinations, like Trevi fountain, the Christian catacombs (which housed over 500,000 bodies over the years), the Villa Borghese (including a tour through the Galleria Borghese, home to works by Caravaggio and Bernini, such as Apollo and Daphne and The Rape of Proserpina), and of course the Pantheon (not to be confused with the Parthenon in Athens, Greece).
I'm stunned. Everything I've seen here in Rome has been awesome. There is a mixed atmosphere - of old and of new - that fits the city. I hope to return here again someday. That's all there is to it.
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At long last, I have arrived in southern Tuscany, where the walled towns of Siena, San Gimignano, and Monteriggioni are. These are the three cities I have looked forward to seeing more than any other - they will soon become my three favorite cities in all of Europe.
'Wait a second - hold on. After all that you've have told us you about the wonders of European cities, how is it that these three, tiny towns take the cake as your favorite places in all of Europe? How could they possibly be better than Paris? Rome? Frankfurt? Zurich? Venice? What about Florence? Surely one of these places, with all of their ancient boulevards and famous artwork, is your true favorite?'
Well, in case you didn't know, I'm a gamer. I play, buy, borrow, trade, and regularly read the latest news on all types of video games and consoles. There is a game series I have followed and played diligently called Assassin's Creed, which is a historical fiction based in Europe, first during the crusades (12th century AD) and later during the high renaissance (1470-1500 AD). The Templars in this story arc are the bad guys, while a group called the Assassins (first a guild, later an underground movement) take the law into their own hands and remove these evil Templars from power before they can ruin whatever province they've taken control of.
Now what does this have to do with these three cities? Well, as it turns out, two of these three cities are featured in a fully-rendered, explorable virtual environment in Assassin's Creed (AC) II. Because I have played this game extensively, I felt like it was my obligation to visit these places, to see what they were really like compared to the game world I have come to know so well.
Needless to say, my expectations were met and surpassed. Even though Siena, started back in the medieval ages, was not a part of the AC universe, the atmosphere of the place was electric. Siena, as I had read in my guide book ("Let's Go Italy! A Guide for Students") on the train/bus combo ride there from Rome, was home to the most dangerous horse race in the world: Il Palio. It is considered the most dangerous in the world because of the tight corners, small crowded track, the rule that requires jockeys to ride bareback, and the fact that there are no rules governing how you treat your fellow riders and their horses while racing. This race takes place in the town square, which is really an awkward pentagon, with a lot of elevation change from one side to the other. Though the horse race takes place in the summertime, you can still see the inner part of the track/square, where the brickwork separates the 9 neighborhoods of Siena - these 9 neighborhoods each have their own jockey and horse each year - the horse is picked at random from a pool, but the jockey that represents the neighborhood is hand-selected. The race is all about glory for your neighborhood - nothing else dilutes this.
San Gimignano and Monteriggioni were both strongholds during the middle ages, built upon hilltops for military advantage. The shops that inhabit the buildings are new, but the structures, as I have been told, are original save for the occasional buttress that keeps a building from collapsing. Monteriggioni was much like it was in the game, except that there was a certain main character's (Ezio Auditore da Firenze's) villa void from the town. I wasn't expecting anything more than a quaint tourist destination in each town, but I wanted to get a better view. In San Gimignano, I took the stairs (because medieval Italians didn't design buildings to incorporate escalators or elevators in their original designs) to the top of one of the town's 4 stone towers. From the top, you could see all across the Tuscan countryside: vineyards and pastoral farming as far as the eye can see. No skyscrapers. No smog. No bugs. A slight breeze. This, my friends, is the best of the best, because being here is immersive. If I had spent any more time here, I would have lost myself here. If ever there was a place I would want to escape to, this would be the place.
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