My Mini Grand Tour: Italy

I haven't posted anything on my blog for the past three weeks because I was traveling abroad with my wife. Our destination was Italy — the center of the Greco-Roman world and the birthplace of the Renaissance. Having been inspired by the great works of Italian literature — the Aeneid, the Metamorphoses, and the Divine Comedy — I took this long-awaited trip, imagining I was undertaking a Grand Tour like the upper-class young people did in the 19th century as part of their coming-of-age ritual. Unlike the months- or even years-long Grand Tours of the old days, however, our trip lasted only two weeks, so it was a mini Grand Tour — and also a short annual leave from blogging.

This was my first trip to Italy, and it turned out to be easier than I expected, thanks to modern technology and the abundance of online information that allowed me to plan the trip well in advance and fine-tune our daily itineraries at the last minute. After arriving in Rome on October 17, we took trains, subways, buses, and trams to get around, visiting ten cities across six of Italy’s twenty administrative regions.

We first took a train from Rome to Milan, where we had our first stay in Italy. We spent three nights there and made a day trip to Turin. Our second lodging was in Venice; during our train journey from Milan to Venice, we stopped in Verona for a three-hour city walk. We stayed in Venice for three nights and made a day trip to Padua. Then we moved to our next destination, Florence, by train, stopping in Bologna for a two-hour city walk. We stayed in Florence for three nights and made a day trip to Pisa and Livorno. Finally, we arrived at our hostel in Rome, where we stayed for three nights before flying home.

What I experienced on this Grand Tour — though short in duration — was far beyond what I can cover in a single post. But as a blogger, I tried to jot down some of my discoveries. To start with, as a history enthusiast, I was overjoyed to finally understand the complex history of Italy, dating back to the founding of Rome in 753 BC. Having been to those places, I now fully understand terms like the Investiture Controversy, the Signoria, city-states, maritime republics, and the Italian Wars (1494–1559), which largely shaped medieval Italy.

In terms of politics, during the trip I witnessed firsthand the concepts and systems of the Ancient Romans that are still in use today — the republic, the senate, and Capitoline Hill, to name a few. I was also fascinated by the guild system, which was the backbone of politics during the Signoria period, particularly in Florence, where the Medici family rose to power as leading members of the Signoria and ruled the city for centuries.

The guild system integrated politics and commerce. Through the latter, the Medici family amassed immense wealth and became arguably the greatest patrons of the Italian Renaissance. Similarly, the Italian maritime republics prospered through Mediterranean trade and sponsored explorers who left indelible marks on history — among them Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus.

Religion was inseparable from politics as well. By visiting Vatican City and the Lateran Palace, I learned about the 1929 Lateran Treaty, the so-called Roman Question, and the powerful Papal States that had existed for over a millennium. I can now vividly imagine the famous Investiture Controversy between the Holy Roman Empire and the Papal States, and I was particularly intrigued by the story known as the Road to Canossa (the Humiliation of Canossa).

On the cultural side, our short stay allowed us to barely scratch the surface, yet I could still see why people say Italy remains one of the world’s centers — if not the sole leader — in so many fields: natural science, fine arts, architecture, literature, music and opera, and fashion, among others. Interestingly, Italians also created the so-called “spaghetti Western,” a subgenre of Western films that achieved international box-office success in the 1960s, followed by the Godfather series starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, both of Italian descent.

Cuisine is an integral part of Italian culture. Though I am not a foodie, traveling with my wife — who is one — allowed me to taste Italian dishes I would otherwise have missed. During this trip, I particularly enjoyed the Italian aperitivi: cicchetti in Venice and taglieri elsewhere, always served with beer, my one and only favorite drink.

Overall, I learned and enjoyed so much from this trip that it was truly worth every moment. I hope to make at least one more mini Grand Tour of Italy, while my wife and I are still healthy enough to travel on our own — this time to explore the southern part of the Italian Peninsula, including Sicily.