L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 www.italoamericano.org 15 L'Italo-Americano FRANCESCA BEZZONI TRAVEL TRAVEL TIPS DESTINATIONS ACTIVITIES Y es, indeed. Italian cities in the world. But not the way you think. The next paragraphs are not dedicated to the many cities a r o u n d t h e g l o b e w i t h l a r g e Italian communities, but rather to those founded by Italians out- side of Italy's borders through- o u t h i s t o r y , a n d w h i c h s t i l l maintain distinctive signs of their origin in the way they look or in the habits and customs of their inhabitants. From the glorious vestiges of Rome, to the luxurious excesses of Venice, all the way through the elegant flair of the Savoias, these cities hold within a wealth of history which compete in greatness with their beauty. If the "Italian connection" of some of them may not be new to you, others could come as a surprise. Did you know, for instance, that … P a r i s a n d L o n d o n a r e Roman in their essence L u t e t i a a n d L o n d i n i u m : these were, respectively, their original names. To be fair, the area were the Romans founded Lutetia had been already home t o p r e v i o u s s e t t l e m e n t s , b u t London was borne off the will and work of Rome only, initial- ly simply as a castrum, a mili- t a r y c a m p , l a t e r a s a p r o p e r town. Its strategic location at the estuary of the Thames made it essential to connect Britain to the continent and the rest of the Empire. In the first century AD Boudica, the legendary queen who rebelled against imperial d o m i n a t i o n , r a z e d i t t o t h e ground, but soon after the town thrived again. Strategy and the safeguard- ing of the Empire's borders are behind the expansion of Lutetia, too. The town was used by the Romans of the fourth century AD as a stronghold against bar- baric invasions. It is in the same period that its name changed from Lutetia to Paris. Today, visitors of London and Paris can still witness the presence and influence of Rome in more than one historical loca- t i o n : t h e R o m a n b a t h s o f Cluny can be visited as part of t h e C l u n y M u s e u m o f t h e Middle Ages, just off Boulevard Saint Michel, in the quartier Latin. In London, remains of a Roman amphitheatre can be f o u n d a t t h e G u i l d h a l l a n d t h o s e o f L o n d o n o r i g i n a l Roman walls are still visible near the Museum of London, at Barbican Estate, and in proximi- ty of Tower Hill. Nice and Chambéry carry the imprint of the Italian royal family In fact, both cities, once upon a time, were within Italian bor- ders. They were important cen- t e r s o f t h e R e g n o d i Sardegna, the Savoias' own kingdom. Nice (Nicea to the Romans) was very likely found- ed by the people of Marseilles more than 2000 years before Christ and remained a crucial maritime and commercial junc- t i o n f o r m o s t o f i t s h i s t o r y . History which saw it passing between Italy and France sever- al times until 1814, when the c i t y b e c a m e o f f i c i a l l y Sabaudian. In 1860, just a hand- ful of months before the unifica- tion of Italy, Nice returned to France, with much dismay of its people: in spite of it, Nice is today one of the most beautiful cities of, well… France. Chambéry is a magnificent g e m s e t w i t h i n t h e I t a l i a n - French Alps, with a carefully preserved historical town centre, where the Castle of the Dukes of Savoia and its gothic cathe- dral stand out for their archi- tectural appeal. Just as Nice, Chambéry has often changed nationality, finding itself – just like the whole region it belongs to, la Savoie – on the opposite side of the Italian-French bor- d e r . T h i s t o w n o f 6 0 . 0 0 0 remained, however, profoundly attached to the Savoias, who chose it as the capital of their Duchy before moving to Turin. The Holy Shroud, today kept in the Piedmontese city, was once kept in Chambéry. Why? Because it belonged for cen- turies to the Savoias. B o t h N i c e a n d C h a m b é r y have been French since 1860 (Nice was occupied and admin- istered by Italian forces during W W I I , b u t n e v e r o f f i c i a l l y a n n e x e d a g a i n ) y e t t h e y ' r e home to large Italian communi- ties. Nice's own dialect, nizzar- do, is a variation of Genoa's idiom, Genoese, which is wide- ly spoken. Architecturally, the c i t y s h o w s i t s I t a l i a n r o o t s everywhere in the historical city centre, built almost entirely f o l l o w i n g t h e r u l e s o f Piedmontese Baroque. Dubrovnik and Hvar are children of La Serenissima Bath, UK - The Roman Terms complex is a site of historical interest in the English city of Bath. The Baths are a major tourist attraction — Photo by JJFarquitectos For centuries, Venice domi- nated the Adriatic sea, as well as all main trade routes joining t h e W e s t t o t h e E a s t . L a Serenissima (the "great serene," literally) shows clearly, in its architecture and art, its acquain- tance with eastern delights, but many may not know V enice itself left beautifully shaped marks of her presence in many t o w n s a n d c i t i e s o u t s i d e o f Italy, especially in Istria and Dalmatia, today both part of C r o a t i a . I n f a c t , t h e y w e r e annexed to former Yugoslavia only after the end of the Second World War, and were effective- ly controlled by Venice up until the first half of the 19th centu- ry. D u b r o v n i k ( R a g u s a , i n Italian) and Hvar (Lesina) both carry signs of Venetian pres- ence especially in their archi- tecture. Dubrovnik was, actual- ly, Venetian only for about 150 years between the 13th and 14th century, but that was enough to give to the city a clearly Italian a r t i s t i c a l l u r e . B o t h t o w n s developed large Italian commu- n i t i e s t h r o u g h t h e c e n t u r i e s a l s o b e c a u s e , a s m e n t i o n e d , Dalmatia remained Italian for long spells of time. Italian cities around the world

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