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Here at the eCool Compound we’re aware that not every traveler to Rome is equally enticed by the bountiful remains of antiquity strewn across the Eternal City. Looking at fallen-down temples, collapsed columns, and foundation walls can get old — we’ll be the first to admit it.

But, that doesn’t make us any more sympathetic to the city of Rome’s announcement that they’re planning an ancient Roman theme park.  Here’s what Reuters has to say:

 With the ruins of ancient Rome, the splendor of Vatican City and countless Renaissance art treasures, what does Italy’s capital lack to attract tourists?

The answer, according to the mayor’s office, is a Disneyland-style theme park.

“The model is Euro-Disney in Paris,” said Deputy Mayor Mauro Cutrufo, announcing plans to build a vast ancient Rome theme park just outside the city which he says could be up and running within three to four years.

The park would provide family-friendly attractions to show visitors what life was like in the Rome of 2,000 years ago.

“You would relive scenes from the Colosseum, from ancient Rome, gladiators or maybe Julius Caesar or other things,” a Rome city official said.

In a city that’s chock-full of amazing experiences — from walking on ancient roads to gazing at Michelangelo’s frescoes on the Sistine Ceiling — do we really need to offer visitors an fabricated alternative to seeing Rome’s amazing art and architecture? Why build a fake Colosseum in a fake ancient Rome when the real thing is there for the taking?

We’re troubled by this, as are some city officials:

The government of the Lazio region, of which Rome is the capital, is run by the centre left and they are hostile to the proposal from the city council which is in the hands of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s centre right.

“I say no to Americanization,” said Claudio Mancini, a member of the Lazio council, who hopes the project will be stopped at the planning stage.

To our eye the project seems to be nothing more than a way to remove a few more euro from the pockets of tourists. Why not invest the same money to make Rome’s already-fabulous tourist attractions a bit more enjoyable? There’s certainly no end to things that could be done to enhance visitor experience at the Forum, the Colosseum, and the myriad of museums that are jam-packed with stunning art works. Read on. And let us know what you think.

Great excitement spread through the worldwide press last week when the city of Rome announced that a fireworks display designed by Michelangelo would be staged at 10:30pm on Saturday 24 May in commemoration of the 500th anniversary of Michelangelo’s work on the Sistine Chapel Ceiling (Michelangelo signed the contract that bound him to paint the Sistine Ceiling on May 10, 1508).

The plan–as reported by websites and newspapers worldwide–was to reproduce Michelangelo’s Girandola, an elaborate fireworks display created by the artist for Pope Julius II, which was first staged from the heights of Castel Sant’Angelo in the early 16th century and repeated annually until 1834.

As many of our readers might imagine, we at the eCool Compound were extremely excited about the recreation of the Girandola. We did a bit of research. We discovered the color-washed etchings of the event (above) created by Francesco Piranesi and Louis-Jean Desprez in the 1780s (now in the New York Public Library and the Metropolitan Museum of Art), and we cleared our Saturday evening calendars in preparation for a fireworks extravaganza.

We were excited to see how Michelangelo’s fireworks display would differ from the modern fireworks that so often light up the Roman sky at night. And we were interested to hear that an historic fireworks expert, Giuseppe Passeri, had spent years studying ancient documents and finding ways to reproduce the fireworks-making materials of Michelangelo’s era.

In article after article, Passeri explained that unlike modern firework shows, the Girandola used few explosives and focused on transparency and color definition:

The Girandola was an unmistakably baroque event, an astounding play of colors wedded to its surroundings. It was a kind of elaborate game, like a fountain transformed into fire.

Yes! This would be interesting! And it would be made even more so by the fact that Renaissance fireworks production techniques were vastly different from modern ones, using entirely natural materials and relying heavily on the location to enhance the effect. According to Passeri, his team would do its best to reproduce the original shape of Michelangelo’s fireworks, which were meant to mimic a volcanic eruption on the island of Stromboli, off the coast of Sicily.

And so, on Saturday evening, we took ourselves to Castel Sant’Angelo. We arrived about 10:20pm and found an excellent vantage point on a nearby bridge. We stood there amongst Romans, tourists, and any number of lederhausen-clad oom-pah-pah bands (we can’t explain their enthusiasm for the event). We waited. And we waited. And we waited some more. But the Girandola never happened.

ADDENDUM:  Since we first published this article some days ago, Jennifer and Hande, two intrepid residents of Rome, have written to tell us that Girandola DID take place.  Despite being scheduled for 10:30pm, the fireworks actually went off early, about 9:45 or 10:00pm.  We must not have been the only ones foiled in our efforts to photograph the event, for no images have appeared in the press.

Some information via ANSA