Ciao Italia

So we are finally ended our tour of Italy. I’m a little sad the month is over and we’re only one flight and two wonderful nights in Paris away from home. Today we decided to keep the flow of our full days in Italy and go to the Louvre and Notre Dame. Being in the Notre Dame made me think of allthe churches and famous sites we saw in Italy. Pompeii, St. Peter’s basilica and the Colosseum in Rome, and the Duomo in Florence were some of the big ones. But we also were able to visit many of the lesser-known heritages of the country. We stumbled upon a beautiful church in a small town on the Tuscan hillside and explored the baroque villages of Sicily.

Baroque city in Sicily

From cathedrals to ruins all over the country, we got to see much of Italy’s history in its built heritage. And Italy does very well in preserving this history. It’s easy to see, however, that much of this built heritage is slipping away from the lack of conservation efforts. It begs the question that many people have, what is worth keeping and what has to be let go?

Our last article for the month talked about just this. With urbanization and economic change in areas that could be considered built heritage sites, conflict arises about whether or not it is important to save all places that could be considered historically significant. In our article we read about how historians and archeologists will argue for preservation and the use of technology to educate about built heritage, while developers look to the future and advocate for advancement and modernization.

It’s a tough question really. Obviously it’s hard to imagine letting go of priceless artwork for instance, the artwork in theLouvre we would never consider letting go. But an old village settlement in Sicily that may have been forgotten wouldn’t be treated the same. Itwould be nice tosee it all remembered but it is impossible, as Italy is realizing, to see it all saved.

Village/settlement in Sicily

I can only be happy that I got a chance to see some of it before it is forgotten.

Ciao, Italia. See you next time.