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These are the three things everyone knows about Chianti: it’s an Italian red, it comes in cute straw-covered bottles that double as candleholders, and, at least according to one movie villain, it pairs well with fava beans and a certain type of organ meat.
We can’t speak to that last assertion, but the first two aren’t as true as you might think. Here’s what is true about the famous, and delicious, wines made under the Tuscan sun.
Click here to read this article, published by Vivino.
The Parthenon gets all the press, but did you know some of the most impressive ruins of ancient Greece are in Sicily? The site is called Selinunte (Sel-ih-nun-tay) and is reachable from the regional capital of Palermo, so well worth a visit if you happen to find yourself in the area.
The ruins are set on a spectacular stretch of coast and in spring, when I visited, the grounds are blooming with poppies and other wild flowers including the wild parsley (selinon) which gives the site its name. There are five temples, although only one, the Temple of Hera has been reconstructed. Here‘s the official site with more information.
Selinunte was founded by the Greeks around 600 BC and was sacked by the Carthaginians in 409 BC. A major earthquake in the Middle Ages reduced the remains of the site to rubble. In the 18th century, archeologists took interest in the site and began working on reconstruction. With the economic crisis, there’s not much money to continue the work, although efforts are being made.
One of the interesting things our guide told us was that the Doric columns were carved in sections and put together on a reinforcing bar. Initially, the bar was round, which meant that when earthquake tremors hit the site, which was not uncommon, the sections would jostle around and the fluting on the columns would get off-center. So, they started making the inner bar square, you can see the square hole in one of the sections below. Smart!
GETTING THERE: If you have a car, Selinunte is about a 90-minute drive from Palermo on A29, take the Castelvetrano exit and follow the signs to Selinunte. For a stress free, but somewhat pricey option, you can book a one-day excursion, try the Think Sicily page for that. It’s also possible to get to Selinunte by taking a train to Castelvetrano and then a bus to the ruins. More info on that here.
THINGS TO KNOW: Admission is 9 euros. Wear comfortable shoes! The site is large and rambling.For 6 euros you can ride a little golf cart shuttle but even with that you will be doing a lot of walking. Plan to spend at least two hours here and bring your own water; there’s not much in the way of things to eat or drink at the site.
When in Rome, it’s fun to tune into ancient history. After all, there are picturesque ruins at every turn, not to mention the layers of unexcavated history that lie beneath the most pedestrian buildings.
For my last morning in Rome, I took a walk past the remains of the gladiators’ locker rooms. I confess I’m more likely to conjure up Russell Crowe than the real deal, but, still, it was a kick to imagine the tumbledown walls ringing with the sound of whatever it is non-Hollywood gladiators did.
Across the street was the Colosseum, so iconic that you have to keep reminding yourself it’s quite real. It helped to take a look at the good seats where the cream of Roman society would watch the bloody doings on the arena floor. It seems you have your 50-yard-line crowd and the nosebleed set in every era.
And then then there is the Forum, where a flower-covered boulder marks the death of Julius Caesar. The killing did not take place here, but this is where an altar was erected after the assassination,
Getting wreaths millenia after your death _ not a bad legacy.
One of my favorite things about Caesar is he was 51 when he crossed the Rubicon. This was a (not very deep) river outside Rome where generals had to disband their armies because crossing with troops was tantamount to declaring war on the sitting government. Caesar made the move as part of a standoff with his former ally Pompey. He emerged the victor and went on to a number of accomplishments including replacing the lunar-based calendar with the Egyptian version based on the sun and adding the leap year. (Now we give him a shout-out every July.)
Unfortunately, everything went south on March 15, 44 BC, but, still, I like to think of Caesar as the patron saint of late-bloomers, proof that as long as you’ve got the will there is a way.
I know what you’re thinking. History is nice and all, but what wine pairs well with a Roman legend? That would be Rubicon, of course, the flagship wine bottled by Francis Ford Coppola. Not only is there the name tie-in, but the wine’s release date each year is the Ides of March.
Like Caesar, and all the middle-aged heroes, this wine ages well.
Cheers, maturely.
For those of you who have vivid images of Emperor Nero laughing maniacally as lions snacked on Christians in the Colosseum, I have bad news.
Nero, it turns out, died before the Colosseum was built in the First Century. In fact, in his day the site of the famous amphitheater was a lake.
This was something of a disappointment to me, since my education on all things Roman mainly comes from the apparently not-always reliable Hollywood School of History. However, I am happy to say the Colosseum is so cool that neither my dashed dreams nor the fact that I shared the visit with about a billion other sightseers dimmed the experience.
I think it may be the sheer scale of the building, which was capable of seating 50,000. Or it might be all the interesting innovations, like staircases dedicated to certain levels to make for quick exits and entrances. People streamed out so fast the passages for the 76 regular entrance arches were called vomitaria. A little gross, sure, but interesting.
As in today’s sports arenas, the best seats were at field level and there’s a small section of marble -covered bleachers in the prime viewing area that were reserved for people so special they had their names engraved on the marble. Luxury boxes, Empire style.
I came away feeling so fired up about spectatorship I almost want to take in an Oakland Raiders’ game this fall. The cheers of the crowd, the smell of the fried meat products, it could be fun.
Of course, I wouldn’t advise going anywhere near the rabid fan section known as the “Black Hole.”
Not even Nero would have been fool enough to fiddle around with those folks.
Cheers.