History Buff Aims to Bring Chariot Racing Back to Rome

Travel Blog  •  Elyse Franko  •  07.21.08 | 5:41 PM ET

imageChariot races can be seen in Germany, France and Bulgaria—but not in Rome. Isn’t that where the whole tradition started? Italian film industry worker and history enthusiast Franco Calo is hoping to bring the races back to the Italian capital. As Der Spiegel reports, Calo says the attempts of non-Italians to stage chariot races are “horrifying,” featuring “chariots being pulled by ponies and fake Roman soldiers, all blond and wearing disordered plumes.” What a travesty.

Calo wants to hold races in Rome’s Circus Maxiumus next year and is hoping to use props from the chariot scene in “Ben Hur.”

If that doesn’t work, perhaps he’ll settle for a massive toga party.

Related on World Hum:
* Rome Bans Snacking Near Historical Attractions
* Rome Braces for the ‘Dan Brown Effect’

Photo by edbrambley, via Flickr (Creative Commons)

Tags: Europe, Italy

Elyse Franko is a Long Island native, a graduate of the American University School of Communication in Washington, D.C., and a former World Hum intern. During her time at university, she wrote and edited for several campus publications and fostered her love for traveling by spending time abroad in Istanbul, Turkey, and Berlin, Germany. She currently works as a teaching assistant in Vienna, Austria.


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