Saturday,
August 11, 2007
The
ANNOTICO Report
The Gruppo Storico is one of a dozen
amateur groups in
Lend Me Your Swords
TO visit
After stumbling
into several abandoned yards, I spot a dimly lit paddock full of
promising-looking debris, including a full-sized catapult and sinister items
such as tridents, nets and helmets. As the door to a corrugated shed creaks open, I am relieved to see six students in tunics,
ready for blood.
"Salve,"
roars the teacher, Carmelo Canzaro, a burly figure
with a close-shaven head. (The Latin greeting is still commonly used by
Italians.) By day, Canzaro runs a clothing store, he
explains, but by night his name is changed to Spiculus
and he teaches the cut and thrust of the arena.
The Gruppo Storico is one of a dozen
amateur groups in
"There's
nothing in ancient texts that describes gladiators' training techniques, so we
have to improvise, using later information," Spiculus
admits as he presents me with my wooden training sword. The school offers
occasional theory lessons on hand-to-hand combat, but I have arrived for the
more practical training, so I dash into a back room to change into my tunic (a
fetching little number in rough white cotton). As I begin to go through the
combat routine we move through a
dance-like set of movements, chanting Spiculus adds ominously: "You have to pay attention. One lapse and
you can be caught off balance."
He is sitting the
evening out, since he's recovering from a broken ankle. (The injury occurred
while battling with an iron sword, Spiculus tells us;
even so, I hope my fellow students won't become overly enthusiastic with their
wooden versions.)
During the rest
period, a wiry young computer programmer, Massimo Carnevali,
whose gladiatorial name is Kyros, explains the
school's appeal.
"It combines
history with physical exercise," he enthuses. "I love the
discipline." An American Latin student living in
I spend a good 1=
hours swinging away with my toy weapon and feel as if I am getting the hang of
it, although my co-ordination leaves something to be desired. "None of us
is Russell Crowe," one of my sparring partners admits, as we down weapons.
As the group disbands, I slip out into the darkness and pass Spiculus constructing a large wooden box. "The
difficulty with modern students is to convey the mentality of the gladiator,
the idea of fighting to the death," he says. "Many students start off
with a casual attitude, but they soon learn what it was like to be in the
arena."
I ask Spiculus what he's building: a gruesome battle device from antiquity? He shakes his head. "No, this is where we're
putting the Nativity scene."
THE enthusiasm of
the bank-clerk gladiators may be a little extreme, but it is hardly rare in
Arguably, Roman
museums are now among the most elegantly designed, and its archeological sites
the most user-friendly in the world.
"Compared to
The popular
enthusiasm is such that
So, on a sunny
Saturday morning, I found myself the only foreigner in a crowd of 50 Italians
standing outside one of
There was a heady
sense of privilege inside the humid inner chamber as we gazed at frescos of
four winged figures on the ceiling and one enigmatic piece of graffito from the
1600s: Antonio.
Meanwhile, all
across
Equally effective
is the
Meanwhile, the
dark corridors inside the Colosseum have been turned
into an exhibition space using the latest modern audiovisual techniques,
projecting films on to scrims, while the nearby Crypta
Balbi Museum uses sleek chrome and glass passageways
to allow visitors into the bowels of a building that has been occupied almost
continuously for 2000 years, tracing Rome's layered history back to 100BC on
this one spot. There are even vaguely sci-fi plans for transparent walkways to
link the various forums in the city's heart.
Other adventures
into the ancient-meets-modern design world have been more contentious. In
April, Italian officials unveiled a new museum pavilion designed by US
architect Richard Meier to house the magnificent 9m-high Ara
Pacis, or altar of peace, a sacrificial altar
dedicated by the emperor Augustus in 9BC to celebrate the advent of Pax Romana.
The first new
edifice in Rome's historic centre since the days of Mussolini, it has been criticised for its starkly angular travertine and glass
design, which many Romans feel violates the traditional ambience of the old
city. In one notorious attack, the vocal undersecretary to the Ministry of
Culture, Vittorio Sgarbi,
compared its boxlike form with a petrol station in
ON my last night
in
That ancient
euphoria is not hard to recapture. Emerging on to the expansive cafe terrace at
dusk, cradling a glass of prosecco, I gaze across
Tony Perrottet is the author of Route 66AD: On the Trail
of Ancient Roman Tourists (Random House).
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