It never ceases to amaze me how interesting Italy is, and how far back its culture goes. In fact, nearly every region has its share of evidence of man in the earliest days of prehistory, such as the images carved into the bald rock face at the
Parco Nazionale delle Incisioni Rupestri (Incised Rocks National Park) in the alpine Valle Camonica, Lombardy. There you will find prehistoric images of hunters and their game, warriors, a primitive chariot, grass huts and other neolithic symbols.

Valle Camonica was settled by primitive tribes 15,000 years ago, at the end of last Ice Age, after the melting glacier first carved out the valley. It is likely that the first humans visited the valley in epipaleolithic times, and appear to have settled by the Neolithic period. When the Ancient Romans extended their dominions north of the River Po, they encountered a people called the Camunni, of unknown origin, populating the valley. About 300,000 petroglyphs survive from this period.

This was the first Italian archaeological park focusing on the carvings in Valle Camonica, opened in 1955, and is the primary site in a network of similar rock art parks that has grown up since the 1970s in the area. It contains 104 engraved rocks at an altitude of about 1200 feet.  The engravings are seen on exposed outcrops of  purple-grey colored Permian sandstone (Verrucano Lombardo), smoothed and shaped by ancient glaciers. After the glaciers finished their work polishing and exposing the mountaintop, the prehistoric inhabitants who live in the valley, ions before Christ walked the Earth, took over and decorated them with both illustrative and symbolic images, showing their connection to both the natural and spiritual worlds. 

Interestingly, most of the engravings were made by striking the rock surface with a hammer-stone, chipping small pieces out as they carved images into the stone's surface. There are also a smaller number of images made by scraping techniques.

Most of the Naquane engravings date from the Neolithic (5th millennium BC) to the Iron Age (1st millennium BC). The phenomenon was particularly common during the latter period, when the valley was inhabited by the Camunni, although historical-era engravings, Roman and modern, are also present.

The road leading to the park passes by additional rock carving sites of Dos de l’Arca and Le Sante, finds from which may be seen in the Capo di Ponte museum (MUPRE).

As illustrated in the photos below, I'm amazed at how accurate some of the drawings are when compared to their real world counterparts...

Il Parco Archeologico di
Asinino-Anvòia
The Asinino-Anvòia Archaeological Park is located in the heart of the Ossimo-Borno plateau.  The site is characterized by standing stone alignments from the Copper Age (3rd Milennium BC).

Riserva Naturale Incisioni Rupestri
di Ceto, Cimbergo e Paspardo
The Reserve is the largest protected archaeological area of Camonica Valley, extending over 750 acres spanning the three municipalities of Ceto (with Nadro village), Cimbergo and Paspardo. The engraved rocks, some as old as the 5th millennium BC, are nestled in a natural mid-mountainous environment alternating at places with man-made structures. You can spend hours to days exploring this area.

--Jerry Finzi

But what really makes me pazzo is the thousands of tourists who put
Casa di Giulietta (Juliette's House) on their must see list when they visit the beautiful Renaissance city of Verona. Here's a reality check so you don't waste your time
(and € 6.00) on #faketourist stuff when there is so much amazing history and beauty all over Italy:

• Juliette was a character in a play. Not real.
• Juliette never lived. Never loved. Never died.
• Juliette's family never owned the house being marketed as la Casa di Giulietta.
• In 1905, the mayor of Verona, in a tourism marketing campaign bought the house from the Cappello family. He thought the name sounded like Capulet (Juliet's surname) and declared it as the one and only Juliette's House.
• Tourists write letters to Juliet asking for her advice in love, even though she wasn't exactly an expert on the subject herself, and in the play both lovers die.
• The bronze statue of Juliette was placed in the courtyard under the balcony only in 1972 and had to be removed in 2014 and replaced by a replica because of the damage caused by the groping by countless tourists, thinking her right breast might bring them luck in love. Hint: It won't.
• The thousands of love notes stuck with bubble gum are actually doing so much damage to the building (and surrounding structures) that Verona will now fine you 500 euros if they catch you in the act. 
• The "love locks" that young couples lock to the gate at the entrance to the courtyard are periodically cut off and recycled. So much for "eternity".
• Even the balcony is fake: It was made in the 20th century, using parts from a 17th century sarcophagus (coffin), and attached to the wall specifically to create a bogus balcony. 
• The bed and other furniture and costumes in Juliet’s bedroom were used in the making of Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 film--remember, films are fake--so are their props.
• The names of the families—the Montagues and the Capulets--were in fact two real-life  aristocratic families from Verona, but they were first mentioned by Dante Alighieri his Divine Comedy. Shakespeare, like Billy Joel, borrowed a lot from artists that went before him.
• The Tragical Historye of Romeus and Juliet, a poem, was written by Arthur Brooke in 1562--before Shakespeare lifted his pen. 
• William Painter, another writer who predates Shakespeare, wrote The Goodly History of the True and Constant Love of Rhomeo and Julietta.
• The Romeo and Juliette story can be traced back to antiquity in Ovids' Pyramus and Thisbe, who lived as neighbors and professed their love though a crack in the wall shared by their rivaling parents' houses. Agreeing to meet in a secret place, Pyramus arrives first and sees a lion with blood on its mouth. Thinking that Thisbe was killed, he falls on his sword. Thisbe shows up, sees him dead, and kills herself. Sound familiar?
  
• As it turns out, there is no scholarly evidence that Shakespeare ever stepped foot in Verona--or Italy, for that matter.

For me, this pilgrimage is totally bogus and a waste of time. I've been to Clos Lucé in France and stood at the bed where Da Vinci died pondering his death mask made minutes after he passed on. Real. I've been a to a dungeon where Joan of Arc was held prisoner. Real. I've been to see and feel the actual desks where the Framers of the U.S. Constitution penned that great document. Real. I've stood under the great ceiling in the Sistine Chapel where Michelangelo climbed his scaffold for four years. Real. I stood where the Caesars stood in the Colosseum watching blood sports. Real. I visited each room under the Seven Gables in that famous house. Real. I visited the apartment where Victor Hugo penned his Hunchback story. Real. I've even picnicked at the spot where George Washington crossed the Delaware--a few miles from our home. Real.

But Romeo & Juliette in Verona? Go see their amphitheater instead--or re-read the play.    

--Jerry Finzi

Just after the Orange Garden, the Keyhole of the Gate of the Priory of the Knights of Malta offers the most popular and picturesque view of Saint Peter's dome. Looking at it through the ornate keyhole gives a magical view--an alignment, really--of St. Peter's dome framed by hedges of the gardens of the Priory.

The Priory of the Knights of Malta, is a Roman Catholic religious order of crusader knights that originated in Jerusalem in the 11th century. It is the oldest surviving chivalric order in the world and is a sovereign entity under international law. The estate also hosts the embassy of the Order of Malta to Italy.

The property was constructed in the Piazza Cavalieri di Malta, by Giovan Battista Piranesi in 1765. The Aventine Hill, according to legend, represents a sacred ship setting course toward heaven. There are many nautical elements in the design. For example, the ornamental door is the entrance to this ship's deck, the manicured gardens and trees represented the rigging of the ship. 

The property lies in the piazza Cavalieri di Malta, designed by Giovan Battista Piranesi in 1765. According to Roman legend, Aventine Hill was imagined as a sacred ship that would eventually set sail for the heavens, so Piranesi incorporated many nautical elements and symbols into his designs. The ornamental door symbolized the entrance to the ship deck while the manicured gardens within were the ropes and riggings of the ship. Although the position of the door itself and the hedges obviously align with a view of St. Peter's Basilica, the view through the keyhole--although indeed heavenly--was more than likely mere happenstance. Still, some historians claim that Pirasesi purposely aligned the view through the keyhole (curiously, it isn't keyhole shaped at all, but round) to act as a long lens of a sea captain's telescope, foreshortening the view of the dome of St. Peters to look as if it was right at the end of the allée of trees and not miles away, as it really is. Perhaps inferring that the Voyage to Heaven isn't as long as one would think?

While up on the Aventine Hill, pay a visit to the Giardino degli Aranci (Orange Gardens). There you'll find a wonderful park with more amazing views of Rome. Before you enter the gardens, look for a beautiful mask fountain to the left of the gate.

 Aventine Hill, Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta, 3 Rome

From the Ponte Palatino on the Tiber River, walk up the Via della Greca, the turn rightand continue up the Clivio dei Publicii. You can visit the rose gardens of Roseto di Roma Capitale on the left. A bit further on, bear right onto Via di Santa Sabina, to a small park on the right filled with orange trees, the Giardino degli Aranci. Enjoy the views of Rome. The Church of Santa Savina (next to the park) dates back to 450AD. Continue further along the road to the Piazza Dei Cavalieri di Malta--on the right hand side you will see an old green door with paint is peeling off. If you look through its keyhole, you will see a beautiful tree-lined path and at the end of the path is a framed view of St, Peters Basilica. Plan your visit on a clear, sunny day with blue sky for the best view.

When I first wrote about this odd looking Crosswalk to Nowhere, I thought it was just that--a crosswalk that came from nowhere and went nowhere. There was an older house on the other side of the old wall. On the other side of the road was an impenetrable hedge with a field beyond. This whole installation must have cost tens of thousands of Euros. It has its own solar powered street lamp, signs on posts, speed bump and fancy reflective painting. There are no intersections here. A straight road behind and the curve up ahead. Vineyards and farmland. The location was just outside of San Gimignano.

But recently I discovered (while looking around on Google Earth) that I was all wrong about what this was. You see, this is a speed bump, usually installed in pairs in the rural countryside to warn drivers that they are coming into a tiny hamlet--of which there are many in Italy. One is installed on either boundary of the hamlet warning drivers to be alert for the possibility of pedestrians (farm workers, mostly) crossing the road ahead. In other installations, only one is in the middle, with wide white bars painted on the roadway from either direction leading toward the speed bump.

I thought this was a waste of money, but now that I know their real use, I think it's a sensible idea. If I lived in a tiny borgo like this, I wouldn't want drivers speeding through at full speed, either.

--Jerry Finzi

Learning Italian should be easy for me. After all, I'm full blooded Italian. Well, my parents never spoke Italian at home. I remember them telling me that when they got married back in the Thirties, they wanted an "American house"--English speaking. So I never learned my mother's tongue--Neapolitan--or my father's tongue, southern dialect from Molfetta. Sure, I learned a few words here and there... mostly slurred curse words or Americanized words used by Italian-Americas, like bakhous, meaning outhouse or bathroom or moppine, meaning dishcloth. But I was determined I would learn some real Italian before I left for Italy. We all needed to learn some. Initially, we had two options. Lisa picked up the Italian Rosetta Stone software and we already had Pimsleur CDs.

Rosetta was expensive--when we purchased the disc set it was nearly $400! For that money I expected to do the whole course, whether on the computer or on my android device. And consider that the mobile version is often dumbed down. It really made it impossible to use the mobile version of Rosetta while I was taking my weekend baths. (A great place to practice a language).
Another small annoyance was that Rosetta at times had trouble recognizing words as we spoke (on the PC we used a headset with microphone). I mean, I know that I'm saying something simple like "bambino" correctly, but sometimes it asked me to repeat 2-3 times until it understood what I was saying. I had a very good headset on a high end computer with decent sound card, so that wasn't the problem.

There was also a third way we studied Italian: Google Translate.
As long as you are signed into your Google account (Gmail) you're good to go, with a phrasebook (the favorites Star needs to be clicked) to save all you're more important words and phrases. There is a small star that when pressed will save the translation to your very own custom phrasebook. I kept adding phrases that I thought I would need. For instance, I did sections on cursing and fending off potential crooks, health, food, and general conversational stuff. etc. Lisa and I would sit with our Kindles at night and test each other from the phrasebook lists. You can even have Translate speak to you so you can hear how the word or phase is pronounced, although the voice is always the same woman, albeit a bit over-enunciated.

You can get a translation either way... English to Italian or the other way around in case you've come across some Italian that you needed translated (click the reversing arrows in the center). In fact, often I would research Italian web sites that Google didn't list a "translate this page" link (a pretty handy thing by itself), or when the translation tool wasn't functioning. I'd copy the full text from an article, paste it into the Italian side of Translate and presto! English. Ok, so the translations for full bodies of text were not that great, but at least I got the gist of the article I was reading. The best thing about Google Translate is the price. Free.

In the last year or so, I've been using yet another tool to hone my Italian skills... Duolingo. This is a fantastic online tool to help learn many languages--not just Italian. You can set your level when you begin, then take a quick test before you sign up for an account so you--and Duolingo--can track your progress.

I just love this program--especially the mobile app. I love the way I can work on lessons on my PC and switch to my tablet or phone and never lose track of the progress I've made. It helps if you have a microphone on your PC, or you have the option of skipping the pronunciation questions if your mic isn't hooked up. There are photos to match to words and vice versa. There are English words and phrases to translate to Italian, and also in reverse. When Italian is spoken to you, you can click to have it repeated. When you have to speak a phrase or word, it will give several tries for you to say it correctly. There are so many types of methods used, you never get bored. I can't recommend Duolingo enough... and get this: It's FREE.

In the end we all learned some Italian--enough to get by in restaurants, while traveling by train, and even enough to have basic conversations with people we met during our Voyage.  Lucas was a bit shy but spoke perfectly when he did speak Italian. Lisa remembered a lot but face to face had a hard time coming up with the right Italian words. I did better, perhaps because I had learned some French years ago and wasn't afraid to dive in and sound Italian (I think my accent is pretty decent. Pat pat, on my own back.) Of course there were times it was difficult to have in depth conversations but I still managed to talk to a lot of different kinds of people... young, old, shopkeepers, artisans, etc. Learning a language is a skill that I wish they would push a bit more in our schools. Many Europeans know some English, but very few Americans know enough practical French, Italian or German. In fact, I was disappointed when I discovered that our school district doesn't even offer French or Italian--both were options when I went to high school. Too bad... Dommage... Peccato.

--Jerry Finzi

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OK, tutti... See if you can guess where this is...

In Sardinia, the Carnival of the Mamuthones is a pre-Christian traditional ritual  dating back more than 2,000 years. Monstrous characters boast thick hair, black faces and are burdened with the weight of 60 pounds of cattle bells hanging around their body. Still today, they frighten babies, old men and Nonnas as they rhythmically stomp and grunt through villages, yet this tradition thousands of years old goes on...

The precise meaning of the name, Mamuthones is lost in time and a subject of discussion and debate, but you can think of it as an ancient pagan God of the changing seasons, from winter to spring, and sacrificing for the new year of growth, good rains and successful harvests.

These monsters show themselves first time in the town of Mamoiada and also in Ottana on the 17th of January, the saint day of Sant’Antonio Abate, with forty bonfires lighting up piazze, while the Mamuthones dance throughout the night. Again in February, Mamuthones appear on Carnival Sunday and on .

Other characters, called Issohadore are in charge of the ritual and their tethered Mamuthones, protecting their beasts from harm or evil spirits--or the curious onlookers during the procession through the village. With their rope lassos they will often wrangle the pretty women in the crowd boasting health and fertility. The Issohadore wears a colorful headdress, white mask, a bright red waistcoat, white shirt, trousers, gold buttons, a band of bells in bronze, shawl, woolen leggings, leather boots and their lasso.

This area of Sardinia is an interesting place to visit, often with surprising things to see and experience, unique in all the world. For instance, all around the countryside you might feel like you are in a Celtic region once you see all the monolithic stones standing guard with their carved concentric stones--looking very much like similar stone alignments in Brittany or the British Isles. You will also come across many conical shaped ruins of castles and other structures left behind from the precursors of the Sardinian people... the Nuraghe. Their chopped-top cones and spiraled, organic patterns and shapes made by the layout of their settlement walls makes one ponder how scary it must have been so many thousands of years ago when their own Mamuthones were lassoed and pulled through their tight passageways...

If you travel to these villages other times of the year, don't worry... the locals live with the Mamuthunes all year long, with museums displaying their best costumes and masks, statues in piazze and frescoes on walls in the villages.

To be honest, they really freak me out!

--Jerry Finzi

From Italy Magazine:


Thanks to the opening of areas previously closed to the public, the visit of Castel Sant’Angelo is now longer and more complete, turning into a trip through Rome’s history.  

One of the most popular sights in Italy, with approximately 1.2 million visitors a year, Castel Sant’Angelo is one of Rome’s most iconic monuments. It was built by emperor Hadrian in the second century as a mausoleum for himself and his family (in fact it also goes by the name of Mausoleum of Hadrian). Through the centuries, it underwent a series of transformations, from monumental tomb to inaccessible fortress, from prison and torture chamber to papal residence in the Renaissance, from military barracks to national museum.  

Read More at Italy Magazine...