Ita’s World – Page 21 – International Diplomat America

Amalfi and Ravello : Costiera Amalfitana

12/13/2013

Amalfi was one of Italy’s four ancient Maritime Republics, the others being Genoa, Pisa and Venice. Powerful in the middle ages (839-1135) it traded extensively with the Orient long holding the monopoly for commerce in the Tyrrhenian Sea exporting Italian goods to Eastern markets in exchange for spices, perfume, pearls and jewels, textiles and rugs to trade in the West. North African influence is visible in Amalfi’s old traditional dwellings with narrow streets and houses clinging together connected by…

The Eternal City : History and Legend

12/05/2013

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The sayings ‘Rome was not built in a day’, ‘All roads lead to Rome’ or ‘In Rome do as the Romans do’ are popular proverbs indicating a more contemporary association with the ‘eternal city’. Quotations by travellers over the centuries show little, if any, enthusiasm about visits to Rome, rather more disappointment and disillusion of its … insalubrious decadence and ruin. Today Rome provides the same views and sights of ‘grandiose’ or, in the view of some, ‘monstrous’ architecture…