My travel year: a look back and a look forward

So here we are on the penultimate day of 2009. It was a pretty good travel year for me. I spent six months in Oxford and made a lot of friends there and got to hike the length of Hadrian's Wall. I also spent some time in Missouri and spent a long weekend in Amsterdam, doing some research in Delft and a couple of Dutch castles.

The year 2010 is shaping up to be even better. In fact, it will be the best year since my big Kumbh Mela year of 2001! I'll be spending seven weeks in Ethiopia, and Almudena will be joining me for three weeks so we can celebrate our anniversary. I'll also be headed to Rome for some research, doing the usual stop in Missouri, a couple of months in Oxford, and another long weekend in Amsterdam. I can't miss Amsterdam, after all! I'm also hoping to meet my friend Thomas somewhere in North Africa as he's on his final leg of his trip across Africa as part of the Africa Heart Beat Project. If we can't make our schedules jive, I'll probably end up spending a week in The Gambia.

What will 2011 bring?

Hiking a Roman Highway

I'm way late posting this, but a month ago a friend of mine named Shawn (known locally as Shawn Numero Dos) and I went hiking in the mountains north of Madrid. For one long stretch we followed an old Roman highway built by the Emperor Vespasian, who reined from 69 to 79 AD. We started at the town of Cercedilla, checking out the old Roman bridge pictured above. This thing is two thousand years old and still takes traffic it wasn't even designed to support! Judging from the architecture it looks like it was reinforced in the late Medieval or Renaissance period, but still. . .

Then it was on to the Roman highway. Much of it was repaved in the 16th century, but I'm sure some of these worn old stones are original. It was a thrill to be walking the same route the Romans did, seeing the same landscape and possibly stepping on the same stones.

It was a beautiful day but the heat of summer was already starting, so we were glad to get further up into the mountains. We went across a long exposed stretch and then descended into a nice lush forest. We'd left the Roman road by this time, but enjoyed the coolness of the forest.

Then we came across this little waterfall, and right next to it a stone that had naturally weathered into a perfect chair. In England these are called "Druid's Thrones" and some do, indeed, look like they've been altered to make them more comfortable. I don't think this one had been altered, but I could easily see some wandering holy man taking up residence next to this little stream, sitting on his natural throne and making prophecies to the local yokels. So of course, that's just what I did.
I predict I'll go back sometime. . .
If you want to go yourself, there are maps here and here.

A Tour of Roman London

One of my favorite free online magazines, Timetravel-Britain, has just published an article I wrote that gives A Tour of Roman London. It was a fun article to write. The City, which is the heart of London's financial district, stands directly atop the old Roman city of Londinium. Sections of the old city wall and even the temple of Mithras can still be seen today. I've always been fascinated by bits of the past sticking out in the modern world.

Sadly, Madrid is a relatively new city. It didn't become capital until Philip II made it so in 1561. Before that it wasn't much of anything, but successive kings built palaces and churches and made it an important city. Later kings tried to imitate Paris, and tore down a lot of the older buildings to make way for wide avenues and parks, so there's not much left of those early centuries. Ah well, I can always go to London for Roman remains, or Segovia, which is much closer!

Book Review: A Journey into Michelangelo's Rome

For travelers who like art, there's a new series out from Roaring Forties Press called ArtPlace, which looks at popular destinations through the eyes of their greatest artists. A couple of days ago on my other blog, Midlist Writer, I interviewed Angela K. Nickerson about how she landed a job writing A Journey into Michelangelo's Rome. Today I'm reviewing the book itself.

First off, the book is beautiful. There are high-quality color photos on every page, many being the talented work of Nickerson herself, and the layout is clean, well-presented, and friendly to the eye. The whole project shows the typical love of the book you get from the small press. There are also readable maps showing all the major sites where you can see Michelangelo's art in Florence and Rome.

The text is well-written, lively without being pat, informative without being burdensome, and at 163 pages, it's easily readable on the plane as you head to Italy. It is not a comprehensive guide to Rome, but rather a supplementary book for a visitor who already has a guidebook but would like to know more.

There were a couple of rocky bits in the first chapter, where Nickerson is talking about the world into which Michelangelo was born. Christopher Columbus did not land on the coast of North America, but on various Caribbean islands and the coasts of South and Central America. The Portuguese, not Spain, conquered Brazil. But once she gets to her main topic Nickerson hits her stride. She leads us through the master's early work in Florence, to his first commissions in Rome. She's especially good at putting him in the political and religious context of the time, where popes and powerful merchants tried to prove their worth through patronizing art. Sidebars fill us in on such things as Renaissance manners, some of Michelangelo's sonnets, and the Bella Figura of the Italian woman.

Even avid history readers will discover something new here. I had no idea the ruinous cost of expanding St. Peters was a major cause in the selling of indulgences (forgiveness for sins), which in turn was an important impetus for the Reformation.

In all, A Journey into Michelangelo's Rome is a worthy addition to your luggage.

Cover shot courtesy of Roaring Forties Press. Other images courtesy Angela K. Nickerson.

Travel Through Time: Rome Reborn

The University of Virginia's Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities has created an amazing 3D walk through of ancient Rome. Ten years in the making, it recreates what Rome looked like in 320 AD, at the time of the great Emperor Constantine. Parts of Rome Reborn version 1.0 are now available online, including views of the Colosseum, Forum, Basilica Maxentius, and panoramic views of the city.

Maybe they'll put in on Second Life so people can have their avatars walk through ancient Rome and get in gladiator fights. But don't expect to see me on there. My First Life is interesting enough for me.