Chronicles of Old Rome Exploring Italy's Eternal City by Tamara Thiessen

Chronicles of Old Rome Exploring Italy's Eternal City by Tamara

Thiessen is a great and stunning homage to a city that is immensely wonderful. I miss Rome so badly. When I was little it was the city where I spent my summer-times and where with my aunt Nena we loved to visit the most. Rome is romantic, but at the same time is like a matron, a big mom for everyone who wants to join her. She is liek the warmest hug of a mom, she is tender and she invites you at eating, enjoying life and what it offers.

This new guide by Museyon Books starts the long trip of Rome from its foundation and the so-called Lupa di Roma, Romulus, the seven hills, the creation of the city on april 21 753 BC.

The story of Caesar, veni vidi vici: “I came, I saw, I conquered"; seems he conquered 300 nations and 800 cities, and defeated 3 million men; then you will meet Cicero and later Caligula with the Vatican Obelisk.

I am more than sure that you will fall captivated by the story of Nero and the big fire of Rome and shocked by the history and beauty of Caracalla at that time the thermae of the city.

Personally, I watched there Il Barbiere di Siviglia directed by Carlo Verdone many summers ago. You breath a sensation of freedom, of peace when you are there. At the moment Caracalla is known for his shows during the summer-time where ballets and opera are mixed together for the joy of local people and tourists of all the world.

You will discover the story of the Colusseum with a special story; the book will define the portrait of Lucrezia Borgia, the last name says all, but you'll also discover the genial magnificence of the Sistine Chapel and Michelangelo.

It's impossible to forget the enchanting Villa Farnesina and what the post-Renaissance period brought to us: Caravaggio with his torments and paintings sometimes brutals.

For a long long time Rome was one of the favorite cities visited by foreigners during the Grand Tour. I remember Goethe, the romantic writer, a real estimator of Italy. My beloved poet John Keats spent in Rome the final days of his young, tormented and brief existence.

Rome has also been the theater, the set, of a famous opera by Giacomo Puccini, Tosca. The Tiber-side Castel Sant’Angelo, Church of Sant’Andrea della Valle, and Palazzo Farnese the locations.

Mussolini meant 20 and more years of regime. There are still traces and buildings that you can visit where he shared his ideology with folk, but also monuments erected while still in power.

If you want to live your days in Rome romantically why not visiting all the places of the set with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in the movie Vacanze Romane or The Fountain of Trevi remembering Three Coins in a Fountain or La Dolce Vita?

The book ends with a lot of interesting walks for all tastes!

Highly recommended.

I thank Myseyon Books for the copy of this book.

Anna Maria Polidori