Letters to the Listeners: Aventine Hill #italy #rome #italianhistory

Music by, Giacomo Puccini
(from Act One of “Tosca”)

https://youtu.be/QGL23p5iXW4?si=01NMrdfrZfAUokDq

https://youtu.be/jiNQXoqWyx4?si=Ad9XCsQ09FTqywfR

#roma #italia #art #history #historyfacts #mazzini #garibaldi #mussolini #puccini #romanhistory #palatine #romulus #remus

Produced by Vibe Farmer Studios
Dear listener,

Overlooking the Circus Maximus,
The Palatine Hill poses historical
Opulence in ruins across the street…
It was what cost Romulus his brother,
It was what cast a shadow over plebs,
It was what patricians held as grandeur.
Behind me, the hill of another stage…
Aventine Hill, which I’ve to go beyond,
Yet antiquity’s radiance, l felt.
And it all began with a monument.
How appropriate to celebrate him—
Giuseppe Mazzini— how suitable…
Where on Romulus’ Palatine Hill
Stand remnants of Italy’s ancient days,
It is Remus’ Aventine Hill that
Commemorates Italy’s destiny.
After the fall of the Roman Empire,
There had been dreams that the peninsula
Would be united under one culture
That would engender an identity.

All of Rome’s other territories changed,
As kingdoms or empires, but Italy?
A palette of states, principalities,
Weak republics, duchies, and one kingdom.
Was there any leader to unite them?
Emperors have tried it, and so have kings.
Alas, even popes have even attempted it,
Albeit it was not dreams that drove them,
But control over Italy, that’s all…
One large vassal peninsula to rule.
Dreams are roads envisioned by the artists,
Yet they are realized by the ambitious.
Dante wrote more than once this dream,
And all that was achieved was a language.
Mazzini’s fellow Carbonari fought
For the Italian dream to smolder,
And Mazzini pushed to inspire the flames…
Flames that matched Garibaldi’s ambition,
Flames that mirrored Count Cavour’s strategy,
Flames that spread revolutionary thoughts
Of Italian unification.
In 1861, the dream was met,
And while the statue of Garibaldi
Stands gloriously on Janiculum Hill,
Giuseppe Mazzini has the honor
Of having a place on Aventine Hill…
The same founding hill for which Remus died,
The same founding hill where the plebeians
Protested for representation in
The Senate of Rome’s brand new Republic,
Thus the creation of Roman tribunes.
I wonder if Mazzini agrees with
The historical irony therein;
I wonder how far into the future
Giuseppe Mazzini contemplated
As to a united Italy’s fate:
Of regaining northern territories
From its old rival that is Austria…
Of economic hardships that led to
The decline of the nobility, and
The rise of a new regime, called Fascists.
There Mazzini sits on Aventine Hill,
Where old-regime Parliamentarians,
United by protest against Fascists,
Went to this same hill to stage a boycott:
That this modern, political faction
Led by a former journalist with dreams
Of building a Neo-Roman Empire,
Had crossed the line when violent tactics
On their own political opponents
Were associated with said party…
On Aventine Hill a boycott took place
Against Prime Minister Mussolini.
Yet, it bore no following, no success…
It only backfired, with support surging
For Minister Mussolini’s Party;
Alas, this was an event when good men
Tried something that, in essence, was nothing;
Inadvertently they had only paved
Mussolini’s road to dictatorship
Ushering Italy’s Fascist era.



What would Mazzini have thought of this stunt?
Well, he’s sitting on Aventine Hill,
Where over two millennia before
His birth, an ancient republic yielded
To change government representation
Then slowly succumb to autocracy…
And over fifty years after his death,
Modern representative government
Swiftly replaced by brief autocracy.
Without a doubt, that is some irony.
So it is fitting that the monument
Of the philosopher, the idealist,
Sits on a hill of life-changing events.
You might say, “Plenty of places have that,”
In which you would certainly be correct…
But when the irony of it all shines
On our conversation, there’s a pause…
A man of knowledge who dreams, who teaches,
Sits on a reminder of humankind’s
Unpredictable, yet classic nature.
That’s some irony to think about…
One of Italy’s founding fathers sits
On an old hill of coincidences
Between protests, one ancient and one modern;
The ancient worked, the modern did not— why?
Now THAT is a treat of a discussion
At the next coffee shop or brewery chat—
It’s the precious truth behind irony:
Human development’s ambiguous
Link to chance…the odd, unforeseen gamble.
Or, you can just swing by Aventine Hill
Whenever you’re in Rome, and take pictures…
But if you’re NOT thinking of ironies,
Or just how hot the summer day has been,
And that you’ll take your chances with Rome’s
Public fountains than spend countless Euros
On the eternal tourist trap’s bottles,
Think of appreciation for this man
And the unified nation, the culture,
He and Garibaldi helped realize.

Видео Letters to the Listeners: Aventine Hill #italy #rome #italianhistory канала ModernSophist
Rome, Roma, Italy, Italia, Ancient Rome, Modern Rome, Puccini, Giacomo Puccini, Aventine Hill, Garibaldi, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Giuseppe Mazzini, Mazzini, Count Cavor, Carbonari, Benito Mussolini, Mussolini