A trip to Europe is always a delight and for history lovers the joy is unparalleled. Italy in particular was the birthplace of Roman civilisation, the Renaissance and the home of the Catholic Church. The First and Second World Wars ravaged the country so if you’re a traveller seeking to learn about the history of the land, here are our top picks of its unforgettable sights.
Visit the Colosseum, the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built and the largest standing amphitheatre in the world today. It was used for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles including animal hunts, executions, re-enactments of famous battles and dramas based on Roman mythology.
Other must-visit stops in the Italian capital are the Pantheon, Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, the Baths of Caracalla, the Mausoleum of Augustus and the ruins of Aqua Virgo, to name a few.
When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD the volcanic ash, soot and pumic completely buried the city of Pompeii. Subsequent excavations unearthed the well-preserved remains of Roman life, frozen at the exact moment it was buried. The city had fine public buildings and luxurious private houses with lavish decorations, furnishings and artworks. Visitors today can spot numerous graffiti carved on outside walls and inside rooms—the only remaining links to the lost language of Colloquial Latin, which was spoken at the time. The UNESCO World Heritage Site is 241km from Rome, near Naples.
Turning our attention to the Second World War, this memorial symbolises Italian Resistance to the German Reich. On March 23, 1944 a group of partisans killed 33 Nazi soldiers and wounded another 38 in Via Rasella in Rome. The Germans exacted their revenge by slaughtering 10 Italians for each of their killed compatriots. Some 335 men were randomly chosen by the German occupation troops from the Via Tasso prison along with Jews and civilians. The victims were thrown into the old pozzolana quarries near Via Ardeatina, which was then blown up on German official Herbert Kappler's orders.
The mausoleum is the work of the post-liberation Italian government to commemorate the tragic event and offer proper burial to the martyrs.
German artist Gunter Demnig installed brass-plated cobblestones in the meandering alleys of the Trastevere neighbourhood with the name of a Holocaust victim and details of their death. These “stumbling stones” (Stolpersteine in German) personalise the tragedy of the Shoah and mark the specific place where the victim lived or worked before being forced from their home and sent to extermination camps.
There are more than 200 of these mini memorials in Rome, called pietri d’inciampo in Italian. You’ll find most of them in the old Jewish Quarter, sometimes grouped together with one stone for each member of a family. There are more than 30,000 of these brass squares around Europe.
The Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele was inaugurated in 1911 as a tribute to Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of Italy after the country's unification. This massive structures sits at the foot of Capitoline Hill.
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was added to the site after the First World War. The monument was used as a setting for military parades by Benito Mussolini but was stripped of its added Fascist symbols after the end of the Second World War.
There are direct flights from New Delhi to Rome and Milan. Flights from other Indian cities will have to transit through the Gulf countries or Turkey.
