by Darlene Foster
The ground shakes with the ominous beat of drums. Passing by us are legions of solemn Roman soldiers, animal-skin clad barbarians with painted faces and colourful shields, ferocious gladiators wearing appropriate sandals, dancing maidens, priests, soothsayers and toga covered senators. We find ourselves in the midst of a Romans and Carthaginians Festival. This spectacle is held every year to celebrate the vibrant history of the strategic port city of Cartagena, Spain.
Cartagena has more than 2,000 years of history. The Romans and Carthaginians Festival is a remembrance of the second Punic War, beginning with the foundation of Qart Hadast, the name given to Cartagena by the Phoenicians in 228 BC, and ending with its capture by the Romans in 209 BC. The Romans named the city Carthago Nova (the New Carthage)
Throughout the last ten days of September, battles are re-enacted, ancient ceremonies held and troops in full battle dress march through the streets of Cartagena. The Carthaginian and Roman armies arrive by sea in a dramatic display and then march through town to an encampment set up on the football field. We are fortunate to witness part of this event during an enchanting evening I will never forget.
There are many photo ops at these events. Arriving early affords you an opportunity to wander among the participants as they prepare for the parade. They are only too are happy to pose for you, or with you, as they proudly show off their costumes. It is easy to get caught up in the excitement. I stare in awe at the ultimate gladiator sandals gracing the tanned feet of a well-toned gladiator. Now, where can I get a pair like that?
The ambience makes me feel part of history as it is brought to life.
If You Go:
Cartagena is located on the Mediterranean coast in south-eastern Spain.
Alicante International Airport is 116 kilometers from Cartagena.
The closest airport is Murcia’s San Javier airport, 30 kilometers from Cartagena.
There are no direct buses to Cartagena from the San Javier airport; many hire a car at the airport and drive the 20 minutes into town. A taxi costs around €40.
Once there, inexpensive tour buses are available to take you to see the many historic sites of the city. There are also boat tours of the harbour. It is also a great city to explore by foot.
Check the website for the dates and schedule of the Romans and Carthaginians Festival held at the end of September every year.
Darlene Foster is a dedicated writer and traveler. She is the author of a series of books featuring Amanda, a spunky young girl who loves to travel to interesting places such as the United Arab Emirates, Spain
All photos by Darlene Foster
Over the years we have watched groups gather at twilight for the beginning of their pub crawls. Dividing into teams, they guzzle through drinking games in the piazza while preparing for their evening of revelry. We have observed crowds gather for marches, tours, protests and rallies. From blurry eyed, early morning senior groups touring the Basilica, to high-spirited youth groups assembling to sing and dance in the square, this church is a well celebrated gathering point.
There are over 25 churches in Rome dedicated to Mary, Santa Maria Maggiore is the largest of these Marian churches. This Major Papal Basilica is prominent in the tradition and adulation of the Catholic community worldwide. Many travel blogs rate Santa Maria as one of the ten most beautiful churches in Europe. Walks of Italy tour Major Basilicas of Rome, includes it as one of “the three most important churches in Rome.” Frommer’s rates it #3 in its article; “The Best Churches.” If you are a cathedral buff, Italy is not complete until you have experienced this great lady.
The golden mosaics adorning the triumphal arch date from the 5th century and depict scenes from the early life of Christ and the Virgin Mary. On the left at the top is a panel depicting Christ’s enthronement with a group of angels as his court. Below this is the Epiphany or Adoration of the Magi. The young Christ is seated on a throne with Mary on his right, they are attended by angels.
Italian painter and mosaic maker Jacopo Torriti is credited with the adornment of the apse, he crafted it in 1295. The magnificent central work shows the Coronation of the Virgin in which Jesus and Mary are seated on a throne with Jesus placing a jeweled crown on Mary’s head. The sun and moon are under their feet accompanied by a choir of adoring angels. Standing to their left are St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Francis of Assisi and Pope Nicholas IV. Standing on the right is St. John the Baptist, St. John the Evangelist, St. Anthony and Cardinal Colonna. The apse of Santa Maria Maggiore is the most important surviving example of Roman mosaic art from the late middle ages. Descend below the high altar and you enter the burial place of Saint Jerome, this 4th-century saint translated the Bible into the Latin language (the Vulgate). Upstairs, located in the Borghese Chapel, is “Salus Populi Romani,” believed to be the oldest Marian image in Rome. However, on display in this vault is arguably the most important artifact of the Basilica, The Reliquary of the Holy Crib. This crystal shrine, designed by Giuseppe Valadier, is said to contain wood from the Holy Crib of the nativity of Jesus Christ.
Legend has it that an aristocrat named Giovanni, and his barren wife were without child. Seeking divine intervention they committed to build a church to the Virgin Mary. She appeared to them in a dream on the night of August 4, 352 A.D. and told them that a miracle would show them the location on which they were to build the church. That night, Pope Liberius was troubled by the same dream. On the following morning, he travelled to Esquiline Hill and found it miraculously covered in snow. Liberius then traced an outline for the location of the planned church. Although many feel this legend has little basis in fact, to this day the church on Esquiline Hill is often referred to as Our Lady of the Snow.
5 Reasons to visit Santa Maria Maggiore
It was another delightful walk through historic buildings, on a bright sunny day similar to the one I’d enjoyed in Tallinn. Whereas the open-air museum in Tallinn felt like a circular closed community, this one in Helsinki was like a village on an old road, with most of the houses lining the path.
However, it was still early, so I continued walking to the west, emerging onto a main road, that I think was the E12. There was more greenery over the other side, and water too; looking like one of Helsinki’s many fjords. After walking through a little more forest I reached a bridge, not knowing the island on the other side was Seurasaari, or that it housed the open-air museum. I walked around to the right at first, with the museum starting just to the left.
After leaving there, the tarmac path turned to dusty earth, and I encountered four steps with an information placard to their side. It said that one of Finland’s most famous politicians, Urho Kekkonen (1900-1986), used to test himself into old age by jumping up them from a standing start when he walked around the island. Before Kekkonen became a five-time Prime-Minister and five-time President of Finland, he was the Finnish high-jump champion in 1924. He lived at the entrance to the island for thirty years during and after his presidency, and Tamminiemi villa has now been made into a museum. I tried jumping up the steps, after postponing the first time when people appeared out of the forest, and reached the second highest.
The population of Helsinki was only 600 in 1710, after plague killed twice as many of its previous population. The city had been founded in 1550 by King Gustav Vasa of Sweden. Sweden and Russia fought over the territory several times during the 18th century, with Russia taking charge of the whole territory in 1809.
On my first full day I walked out of the city to the north-east for a couple of hours, reaching the Viikki nature reserve without much difficulty. It’s a beautiful big wetlands area, with many bridges linking islands and the mainland. Finland is the most forested country in Europe, with seventy per-cent of land covered, and takes its environmentalism seriously. According to the Finnish Environment Institute, Finland’s forested land is actually growing, and so are the populations of large mammals, such as bears, wolves, wolverines and lynx.
You can reach the Unesco World Heritage Site’s main island on a municipal ferry boat, and then, like the open-air museum on Seurasaari, you just pay for individual displays and rooms. There are still many people living on the Suomenlinna islands, and it is also a popular conference centre. I walked through the village to the embattlements and cannons looking out at the Baltic Sea. It was the only cloudy day of my time in Helsinki, and quite chilly; making it easier to imagine the hardship of winter war there during the 18th century.
I had come to Bavaria for the Oberammergau Passion Play. On the day of my unanticipated detour I woke up planning to explore the picturesque village where I was staying. But dark grey clouds hid the peaks of the nearby mountains threatening rain, and it was obviously a day to head indoors.
As it turned out, the tour was absolutely captivating. I had accidentally discovered Schloss Linderhof, built by Bavaria’s “mad” King Ludwig II between 1869 and 1886. I had never heard of King Ludwig but discovered that he was one of history’s great eccentrics. He was a fascinating study in contrasts. He was a shy and sensitive soul trained from birth for a very public royal role. He was a petty vassal owing allegiance to Prussia who, because he was born on the day Louis IX was canonized, felt an almost mystical connection to the great French House of Bourbon. He was also a modern constitutional monarch with very limited powers who wished he could have been one of history’s absolute rulers.
The tour started in the vestibule, an elegant space decorated with rose marble pillars which pays tribute to the Sun King. Our guide then led us through a series of rooms, each more opulent than the last, to Ludwig’s massive bedroom where he slept in an enormous four poster bed covered in royal blue, gold-trimmed velvet.
The grand finale of the house tour was the Hall of Mirrors. Have you ever looked into a mirror that contains a reflection of a mirror behind you, and you see reflections of reflections going off into infinity? Imagine that phenomenon magnified a hundredfold in a room where every inch of wall seems to show a dizzying, mind-blowing reflection of a myriad other reflections. Now combine this vision with another tidbit of information I found on the Linderhof website. King Ludwig slept all day and stayed up all night. This room would therefore have likely been his nocturnal retreat. At night, illuminated by hundreds of flickering candles reflected over and over again in the room’s hundreds of mirrors, it would have presented a truly hypnotic vision. What dreams, I wondered, did the Moon King play out in this magical room?
For King Ludwig, the Venus Grotto was much more than a simple escape from the rain. It was a total escape from reality. The King, it seems, was quite a patron of the arts. He commissioned private theatrical and musical performances in his very own theatre. He was also a great admirer and major sponsor of the great composer Richard Wagner, and the Venus Grotto was a man-made cave, a private retreat where Ludwig could enjoy Wagner’s music in blissful solitude.
Marie-Antoinette was guillotined for the excesses of Bourbon royalty. Ludwig’s end, although more prosaic, was also a consequence of his profligate lifestyle. It also holds a tantalizing element of mystery.
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To create the highest quality olive oil, it is vital to time the harvest perfectly. Unlike in other regions, olives in Tuscany are picked before they are ready to fall from the tree. This produces a fruity and lean extra virgin olive oil, even if the yield is lower. The ideal time to harvest is when the unripe green olives begin to mature and turn black, which is when they contain the highest quality oil. However, this is easier said than done since even olives on the same tree may mature at different rates. The flavours of green and black olives vary but both are needed to make good quality oil. The initial oil is generally more bitter but olives that fall when too ripe make poorer quality oil. Plucked directly from the tree, the fruit is extremely bitter and almost inedible.
The ideal olive picking team consists of as many family members and friends as possible to share the labour. Firstly, huge nets are spread out around the trunk of a tree. Naturally, most olive groves are far from flat so the nets often have to be propped up by sticks or branches pruned from the trees to prevent the precious harvest from rolling away.
After as many olives as possible have been plucked, they are rolled to the centre of the nets, and then “cleaned” by removing most of the leaves and any twigs or debris by hand before being transferred into sacks or crates. The equipment is then all moved to the next tree and the process is started all over again.
Although very light, the nets are rather cumbersome to move around and harvesters often have to stand in uncomfortable positions on steep slopes. It is essential to gather the harvest before the weather becomes too cold, so work needs to take place, rain or shine. It is also essential not to crush the olives that have fallen onto the nets so you need to be careful where you put your feet.
La Raccolta is a wonderful way of bringing together people of all ages and uniting them under the olive branch. Hard work is usually sustained with a hearty picnic in the fields washed down with a little vino. The delicate process from tree to bottle is painstaking and labour intensive but well worth the effort for the first taste of delicious freshly pressed “liquid gold.”
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