Traveling the world without leaving Italy

Traveling the world without leaving Italy

From the Egipt to the Niagra Falls and Easter Island, a guide illustrates the Belpaese’s destinations that evoke famous icons of the international landscape

The Belpaese is famous for its rich and diverse naturalistic and cultural diversity. Indeed, throughout Italy, some locations strongly remind of interesting places found in other countries. To help us find them all, Isabella Dalla Vecchia and Sergio Succu, creators of luoghimisteriosi.it, published a dedicated guide. “Il Giro del Mondo a km0” (The zero Kilometers World Tour) presents dozens of unusual destinations that you probably wouldn’t expect to find in this country.

Would you like to take a tour of the Egyptian pyramids, you don’t need to travel to Giza. In the heart of Rome, there is the pyramid of Caius Cestius, built between 18 and 12 B.C. as a personal tomb. From the white color on the walls to the gallery to reach the central room, it is a downscale faithful copy of its most famous counterpart. While, in Cividale del Friuli (Udine), there are three pyramids. The particular and mysterious thing is that in the exact midpoint of a 2,570 kilometers long imaginary line connecting Giza to the pyramids of Cividale, there is Mesolongion. In Greek, the name of this city means “halfway”. Dalla Vecchia and Succu wonder if this is a coincidence.

Il Giro del Mondo a km0” (The zero Kilometers World Tour) presents dozens of unusual destinations that you probably wouldn’t expect to find in Italy

Thinking of spectacular waterfalls, the first ones that come to mind to most people are the Niagra Falls on the border between Canada and the U.S. However, the Marmore Falls near Terni are no less impressive. The three jumps were created by the ancient Romans and with their total height of 165m, they make the tallest man-made waterfall in the world. The top jump alone is 83m high, compared with the 51m of the Niagra Falls.

Traveling 60km west from the Marmore Falls, you arrive on Easter Island, or so it seems. In Vitorchiano (Viterbo), you can admire the only original Moai statue outside of their place of origin (apart from the one at the British Museum in London). In 1990, the small town, perched on a bluff above two deep gorges, hosted eleven Maori of the Atan family, who arrived in Italy to start a promotion for the renovation of their statues. During their stay, they noticed that the local rock, peperino, resembled the volcanic rock of their island. Thus they decided to it to sculpt the 20-foot-tall Moai using ancient tools, axes, and stones.

Ilona Catani Scarlett