Italian Heritage

Ancient Italian Artwork

I Love Touring Italy – the Emilia Subregion

If you are looking for a European tourist destination, consider the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It may be the only region of Italy named for a road, one constructed by the Ancient Romans almost 2200 years ago. This article describes the Emilia subregion, a bit of its history, its many tourist attractions, local food, and local wine. A companion article presents Romagna, the eastern “half” of the region that borders the tiny country of San Marino and the Adriatic Sea.

Our tour of Emilia is quite straightforward; it follows the highway basically from east to west, going slightly southward along the way. We’ll start at Piacenza, a city founded on the Po River by the Etruscans. It became the first of many, many Roman military colonies. The Piazza dei Cavalli (Square of the Horses) located in the city center boasts baroque statues of two historic leaders. Nearby is a Thirteenth Century Palace, Palazzo del Comune, which was once the site of the city government. The Duomo’s (Cathedral) bell tower contains a cage that held troublemakers who were imprisoned stark naked and taunted by the crowd below. You may prefer looking at the beautiful art and sculptures inside the building. The Museo Civico (City Museum) contains a famous Boticelli painting and Etruscan artifacts. Art lovers will want to visit the Galleria d’Arte Moderna Ricci Oddi for its collection of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Italian art.

Opera lovers shouldn’t miss the town Busseto, famous for Guiseppe Verdi, who was actually born in the nearby village of Roncole now renamed Roncole Verdi. Busseto contains the Fifteenth Century Villa Pallavicino where he lived and worked and the Nineteenth Century Teatro Verdi that performs many of his magnificent works.

Parma is a historic city that has changed hands frequently over the centuries. It still maintains a French influence. Parma is associated with two culinary delights; Parmesan cheese (officially called Parmigiano Reggiano cheese) and Parma ham (prosciutto crudo). The term crudo means uncooked. It doesn’t stand for crude; this absolutely delicious ham is the opposite of crude. Piazza Garibaldi (Garibaldi Square) forms the center of Parma. Among the sights to see are the Sixteenth Century church Santa Maria della Steccata and its frescos, the Twelfth Century Duomo (Cathedral) and nearby Battistero (Baptisry), and several churches and museums. Parma is also known for its opera at the Teatro Regio. Modena and its surroundings is the home to four very different international stars: Ferrari and Maserati sports cars, the opera singer Luciano Pavarotti, and balsamic vinegar. Which do you prefer?

Don’t miss Modena’s old city, the Twelfth Century Duomo (Cathedral) with several fascinating medieval sculptures, marble bell tower, and crypt containing the tomb of its patron saint, San Geminiano. The Palazzo dei Musei (Palace of the Museum) contains many illuminated books and a very historic Bible and map showing Columbus’s landing in America, not many years after the fact. The Consorzio Produttori Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena (Traditional Modena Balsamic Vinegar Producers Association) will give you a taste of the city’s most famous food product. Stop in the Salumeria Gusti, founded over four hundred years ago claiming to be the world’s oldest delicatessen. Perhaps because there are only four tables don’t expect to pay regular delicatessen prices.

Bologna. Don’t judge this city by the bottom of the line prepared meat that somehow shares its name. Among Bologna’s notable achievements, it is home to the oldest university in Europe. This was no little University; by the Thirteenth Century its student body numbered more than ten thousand served by 150 taverns. Laura Bassi was its first female professor, in fact the first woman to teach officially at a European University, appointed professor of anatomy in 1732 at the ripe old age of 21. Bassi spent most of her academic career teaching physics, but managed to have eight children along the way. A super woman in a super town.

The Basilica di San Petronio Cathedral was started in the Fourteenth Century and is still unfinished, perhaps because of the university expansion next door over four hundred years ago. Don’t wait until its finished to take a look. The Piazza di Porta Ravegnana is the site of two towers worthy of a reference in Dante’s Inferno. The Torre degli Asinelli is available for climbing. This tower leans less than the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but a lot more than it should.

Other sights include the Palazzo Comunale (Communal Palace) the seat of Bologna’s government for the last seven hundred years or so. The Palazzo contains two museums and a library, a few palaces, the Pinacoteca Nazionale art gallery and the Museo del Patrimonio Industriale (Museum of Industry). With so many university students Bologna is the place to go for a very active night life.

We will finish our tour of Emilia with a look at the UNESCO world heritage site of Ferrara, this article’s only city off the main road. Ferrara was featured in the famous movie The Garden of the Finzi-Continis. The famous filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni was born in Ferrara.

Start your tour at the Castello Estense (Estense Castle) the seat of power of the Este dynasty who for hundreds of years ruled the area with an iron fist. Among its numerous features are a hanging garden, and moat, and a drawbridge. While its artwork is magnificent, the castle was a site of unbridled cruelty. Its dungeons were filled with prisoners for centuries, up until the middle of World War II. Don’t miss the nearby Gothic Duomo (Cathedral). Ferrara was an important Jewish center from 1492 until the Second World War. You can visit the ghetto and the Museo Ebraico (Jewish Museum), which was once a synagogue.

The Palazzo dei Diamanti (Palace of the Diamonds) owes its name to the thousands of pink and white little decorations that cover the building. Go inside to see the Pinacoteca Nazionale art gallery. The mile long Via delle Volte running parallel to the Po River is one of the most ancient streets in Europe. There are many other palaces to see. Finish your tour of the city with a nightcap in Osteria Al Brindisi, Europe’s oldest wine bar dating back to 1435. The famous scientist Copernicus once lived and drank here.

What about food? Emilia-Romagna, in particular Emilia is a true favorite among gourmets. As good as Parma ham is, many prefer the rare, expensive Culatello di Zibello ham aged for at least eleven months. Certified foods include balsamic vinegars, cured meats, cheese, fruits, vegetables, and even bread, Copia Ferrarese from Ferrara.

Let’s suggest a sample menu, one of many. Start with Prosciutto con melone (Parma Ham with Melon). Then try Vitello Bolognese (Veal with Ham and Parmesan Cheese). For dessert indulge yourself with Zuppa Inglese (Italian Trifle). Be sure to increase your dining pleasure by including local wines with your meal.

We conclude with a quick look at Emilian wine. Emilia-Romagna ranks 5th among the 20 Italian regions for acreage devoted to wine grapes and 4th for total annual wine production. The region produces about 57% red and 43% white wine. The Emilia-Romagna region produces about twenty DOC wines about half of which come from Emilia. DOC stands for Denominazione di Origine Controllata, which may be translated as Denomination of Controlled Origin, presumably a high-quality wine. Try some Lambrusco DOC red wines, which are often fizzy or frothy. Frankly in Emilia-Romagna the wine isn’t as good as the food.

About the Author

Levi Reiss has authored or co-authored ten books on computers and the Internet, but between you and me, he prefers drinking fine German, Italian, or other wine, accompanied by the right foods and the right people. He teaches various classes in computers at an Ontario French-language community college. His global wine website is www.theworldwidewine.com and his Italian travel website is www.travelitalytravel.com .

Mysterious Lazio , Cities Of The Dead

On a lonely hill just outside the town of Tarquinia in northern Lazio, a dedicated group of people keep watch over one of the most important Pre-Roman archaeological sites in Italy. Here, in a melancholy echo of a distant past, some 6000 graves bear evidence to the existence of a highly advanced civilization dating back hundreds of years before the founding of Rome.

Today there is little trace left of the people known as Etruscans who inhabited an area including parts of Lazio, Tuscany and Umbria from around 900 BC. Italy at the time was divided in regions whose loose borders were occupied and fiercely contested by a variety of ethnic groups. Wars were commonplace and often brutal. The nascent Roman military, which would later go on to enjoy unprecedented success and create the greatest Empire in history, dealt ruthlessly with opponents and things un-Roman. Often not content with killing adversaries, it deliberately set out to eradicate all traces of their culture and identity and it seems to have dealt particularly ferociously with the Etruscans.

Of the diverse groups who populated Italy in that period the Etruscans stand out. They were culturally distinct and far more advanced than any other. It is widely believed that the Etruscans were not indigenous but originated in Asia Minor in an area that is part of modern day Turkey.

From archaeological sites like Tarquinia and Cerveteri, and references by Greek and Roman writers, we know they were technically and culturally advanced but sadly there are no remaining written works, no history or literature, left by the Etruscans themselves to allow us a glimpse of their world from within. The scarcity of reference material has added to the air of mystery surrounding the Etruscans making these sites all the more precious.

Thanks to the Etruscan tradition of wall painting their tombs, the necropolises at Tarquinia and Cerveteri are home to some of the finest examples of Etruscan art in the world today. Perhaps it was for superstitious reasons that the Romans didn’t destroy the artwork of these graves. Whatever their motives they appear to have respected Etruscan burial rites and what insights we do have into Etruscan lifestyle we owe in large part to their cemeteries.

Of the 6000 tombs in Tarquinia, 200 have wall paintings that are considered of major interest. Although some have suffered the effects of aging down through the centuries it is still possible to view and marvel at the splendour of Etruscan art. Delicately crafted and rich in symbolism, these frescoes portray a range of everyday scenes providing a sense of what life was like in ancient Etruria. Typical themes include dancing accompanied by musicians playing instruments like the flute and lyre and sporting scenes depicting athletes, horsemen and wrestlers.

To distinguish the tombs archaeologists have given each one a name. In the Tomb of the Leopards we witness a magnificent banquet with reclining couples enjoying a great feast. One man, probably the deceased, is seen holding up an egg between thumb and forefinger. The egg is thought to represent rebirth or the afterlife.

In the Tomb of Hunting and Fishing which dates to the sixth century BC, beautifully coloured scenes depict a hunter with a slingshot stalking a flock of birds who give flight against a hazy sky while fishermen in a boat below cast their net into a blue-green sea as dolphins leap playfully from the waves. One man dives into the sea from a rock while another is climbing the rock after him. Diving into water is thought to be another symbol of rebirth.

The Necropolis at Cerveteri is astonishingly elaborate. Tombs consisting of chambers connected by corridors, like rooms in houses, are arranged along streets as in any urban development. In their day these rooms would have contained furniture and ornamental decorations, precious metals, utensils and in some cases even pets, anything that might be considered necessary or useful in the after life. It is an eerie experience walking the streets of this city of the dead and one which takes us to the very soul of Etruscan culture.

The sites at Tarquinia and Cerveteri were considered important enough to be assigned World Heritage status by UNESCO in 2004. In assigning this status the artworks in the necropolises of Tarquinia and Cerveteri were deemed ‘masterpieces of creative genius’.

To read more about Etruscan history and see some examples of Etruscan Art visit http://www.EtruscanVilla.com/history_of_tarquinia_and_the_maremma . Visit the area to explore the world of the mysterious Etrsucans further. Plenty of useful information including accommodation is available on http://www.EtruscanVilla.com .

This article appears on the authors website at www.EtruscanVilla.com/articles_and_further_reading

About the Author

Finbar Fitzgerald moved to Italy in 2001 where he lives with his wife Piera and daughter Emma. To escape the hussle and bussle of Rome they are frequent visitors this part of north Lazio.