Ancient Italy

[Regions of Italy]

Classical (or ancient) Italy basically includes four eras: prehistoric, Etruscan, Greek and Roman. A few of these sites - Pompeii, the Coliseum, the Roman Forum - are so famous as to be household words. Others are equally illustrious, fascinating, evocative and educational, but not quite as well known. Those are the ones we've concentrated on in our roadmap to classical Italy.

• All over Italy, there are prehistoric relics going back as far as 14,000 BC.

• Always a historic goldmine, Sicily has some of the oldest traces of human inhabitance.

• Scholars still know practically nothing about the Etruscans, who left their masterful tombs all over central Italy.

• Some of the most beautiful classical Greek temples and art in the world are actually to be found in Italy.

• Walk a few feet in any direction almost anywhere in Italy and you'll soon trip over something left behind by the ancient Romans.

• Rosemary Torigian was on her way to visit the exquisite Greek temples of Paestum, but Ravello Flakes and Pompeii Erotica got in the way.

• Parents take note! A novel way to keep your young kids interested in the relics of Rome is to start them out on a scavenger hunt for obelisks. The city has thirteen bona fide exemplars.

• Here's a great idea for a day trip from Rome: pack a picnic lunch and head off for Sutri, an Etruscan settlement just an hour away.

• Sims Brannon proposes a recipe the Roman legionnaires were likely to have eaten on the road: orange and fennel salad.

• Most people don't know it, but you can actually walk along one stretch of the ancient Roman walls, and it's quite an impressive sight.

• Believe it or not, there are some wonderful ancient sites in Rome you may not have heard of, and we think they're all worth paying a visit to.

• Get the most out of a visit to ancient sites with your own private guide.

• Useful WWW links.