The Ancient and Classical Worlds - Part Two

Welcome to the Western Mediterranean, welcome to the land that you’ve often read about and dreamed of in Condé Nast  Traveller. Here life is slow and relaxed, the drinks are superb and the food  is beyond comparison.

Should you wonder about the scene on my cover art, then no, it is not a screenshot taken from the futuristic motion picture, 2001, A Space Odyssey. Rather, it is from contemporary Valencia and its City of Arts and Sciences. 

What about the unusual dish seen to the side, just what id it? Were you to guess its neither Spanish nor Italian pizza. then I’ll provide the details later.

In Valencia, we were fortunate to arrive at the beginning of the La Fallas Festival, where residents make paper statues, of of the politically prominent and set the amaze on the final night.

On the autonomous islands of Sardinia and Sicily, we will marvel Neolithic and Greek ruins, while in Italy’s Sorrento Peninsula, we would master the world’s most treacherous highway.

When arriving in Roma, we would run into my old friend, Dino, and he would show us the town. When talking about the ancient and classical, it all begins here in the Eternal City, with the Flavian Coliseum, the Ancient Forum, Palatine Hill, the Pantheon and a ghost tour by night. On our final day in Roma, we will experience the four major basilicas of all Catholicism.

The songs, That’s Amore, Everybody Loves Somebody, On An Evening In Roma and Arrivederci Roma were legally purchased and downloaded from the iTunes Store for the express purpose of inclusion in this publication.

The outstanding performance of Ave Maria on Page 1018 is courtesy of Ms. Celine Dion and I cannot think of anyone who could have sang it with more angelic harmony.