The history of northern Italy is complex. It's a constant back and forth between different political and religious forces, between different cultures and ideals, between different interests. Guelphs and Ghibellins are two factions that developed in the 11th and 12th century. Their names originated from different opposing families in Germany. Guelphs ist the Italian form of the House of Welf, a family of dukes in Bavaria, a part of northern Germany. Their constant opponents were the Ghibellins originating in the family of Hohenstaufen. read more…
blog: trip
Thousand miles through northern Italy, a round trip from Brescia down to Rome and back up to Brescia again. Vintage cars, old towns and cities, curvy roads and a lot of history. That's Mille Miglia.
In a way I like cars. Cars are wonderful design objects telling a lot about the history and the paradigms of a certain period of time. On the other hand I don't exactly love cars like others do. To me cars are often noisy, too big and too fast for densely populated environments. But certainly I agree, cars are not only convenient, they are defining objects of our time. Still. So it's hard to not like cars. read more…
There's something eternal about all these Roman ruins, artifacts and buildings all over Europe. Still today it's hard to imagine how an empire could operate on such a huge territory and in such high precision. The Romans really have been planers, builders and organizers. I wonder how much of that legacy is still present within the tribes, rites and morals of today. Europe is still full of Roman artifacts, but nonetheless you need to have a closer look on the map in order to find them. One of the best preserved aqueduct bridges is for sure the Pont du Gard in southern France. It was build in the first century AD and carried water over 50 km from the area of Uzes (Ucetia) to the Roman colony of Nimes (Nemausus). Near the town Vers Pont du Gard it crosses the river Gardon. Here the bridge needed to be exactly 48.8 m high in order to transport water from one end to the other without losing too much height. read more…
Recently I had the chance to visit Arles, the tiny city in the south of France, in the heart of the Provence region. Arles had a rather important place on any ancient map since Julius Caesar established a colony there back in 46BC. Its ideal location next to the Rhone made it a very important commercial center to transport goods from the Mediterranean sea up the river up to the northern regions of the empire. A lot of historical venues and buildings are present until this day, among them the Roman theatre, the baths of Constantine, a cryptoporticus, the Roman Barbegal aqueduct with its mills and, very impressive even today, the Roman amphitheatre in the very center of the old city. At the time it was hosting up to 21.000 spectators watching the gladiators fighting their combats of life and death. Today the amphitheatre is still in use for regular bullfights, hence the people just call it "les arenes" (the arena). read more…
Have you ever been to Mallorca? No? You definitely should plan a visit there in the years to come. Recent political changes how to treat and possibly limit the enormous amount of visitors each year makes it an even more desirable place to visit. What an irony. Sure Mallorca is still famous for endless parties and possibly a lot of alcohol, but this is not what I want to talk about here. There's so much else to discover and the Spanish island is just too beautiful to recover in bed from your last night's adventures all day long. At least this time this was not part of my plan. read more…