This book is about a little European history. In the summer vacation of 2010, we walked through a series of cities in historical order, which are the centers of civilization in different historical stages.Along the way, we traveled through most of Europe and experienced three thousand years of time.This little book is about their history. I call this trip "Walking European History".Its origin is double, it is not only interest and dream, but also from economy and reality.Last year, Zhou Jie was an exchange student in Germany for a period of one year.I went to visit him during the summer vacation. We pondered for a long time how to grasp this rare opportunity, and finally thought that it would be better to take a trip to European history.We chose these ancient capitals of European civilization, on the one hand, because of our interest, and on the other hand, because we are two poor students. The travel expenses come from the support of our parents and the scholarships we save a little bit. With these funds, it is impossible to choose the destination arbitrarily. , In the case of not being able to drive by yourself, if you want to travel fully, you must choose places with many cheap airlines and well-developed public transportation, and these places happen to be the capitals—the ancient capitals of civilization.

It's a delicate blend of dream and reality: the only place we can go is where we dream of going. European civilization is quite different from Chinese civilization. Europe has never been truly unified, so there is no fixed center of civilization.The first half of the Chinese civilization only rotated between the two cities of Chang'an and Luoyang, and the second half of the journey arrived in Beijing. There was only a short section of Lin'an in the middle, which is today's Hangzhou, and at most Bianliang, that is, Kaifeng.Even though there have been many economically developed areas, there are only a few centers of civilization.However, European civilization has actually passed through many countries, from the Mediterranean Sea where it first originated, to the Apennine Peninsula, to the Christian Empire, to Western Europe, which first broke through the Middle Ages, to the maritime empire, and then to the rise of Germania. It rises alternately among many ethnic groups and many regions.In every period of history, geniuses tend to appear concentrated in the same area at the same time, like a lighthouse on a map.This kind of history has a clear context, from south to north, from classical to religious, and each time period has a city as the center.What we want to find out is the route of this lighthouse.As we walk through each city, a period of history emerges.This makes the taste of travel rich.

The process on the road should be said to be not easy at all.To save money, hotels and air tickets have to be booked many days in advance, so as to get special discounts, but the disadvantage is that they are non-refundable and non-exchangeable.On the way, I found that the location of the hotel was not good, so I had to take the subway all the way back to the suburbs every day.The plane is a low-cost airline, and there is nothing lacking in comfort, but I can't bring any big luggage, I can only bring a small cabin case, and all the supplies for the 40-day journey have to be stuffed in, so I have to save all the energy. reduced items.There is a fixed budget every day, which is not enough to go to restaurants. The most common way to buy things in the supermarket is to eat on the roadside. Every few days, I can go to a decent restaurant. The degree of distress after eating is often greater than the enjoyment of appetite.Hunger is a memory that runs through.Occasionally saving money for meals and drinking a glass of wine is our greatest and most extravagant enjoyment.In order to save money on the subway, if the city is not big, you can use walking from the north to the south of the city in Rome, and from the east to the west in Paris.Sometimes it's dark as soon as you walk.

After these, we had unexpected gains.The first is to have a more pleasant discovery of the corners of the city. I passed by a small street occasionally and bought extremely cheap and sweet peaches. I feel very happy in my heart.The other point is losing weight. In the first two weeks of the crazy trip, we all dropped to the lowest point of our body weight.After returning from Europe, we can no longer find the healthy body that was dark and thin at that time. There are many places to go, and many places to go.It's just that the tickets add up to a lot of money. Sometimes it is inevitable to weigh between the stomach and the eyes, and the eyes lose to the stomach.When I was in Florence, I really wanted to walk up to the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore, but the price of 8 euros made people hesitate-8 euros can have two simple lunches.So I stood in the church and looked up at the beautiful dome for a long time before leaving.Along the way, this left a lot of gaps.

There are regrets about these places that I couldn't visit, but they are not too regretful.Those dream cities are already satisfying to be able to reach them. To see those places that I only saw in books and paintings before makes my heart very excited. Whether I can enter or not is secondary.Standing outside some legendary buildings, there will be an unreal illusion: Am I really here?did i actually see itThis feeling is enough to fill the pit of desire in the heart, and it is not necessary to walk into it.The ancients said that Wang Zizhi came here in a happy mood and returned when he was exhausted. Driven by our shy pockets and strong desires, we have also staged this kind of returning home many times.

The harvest is really incredible.What can be written down is far less than what the eye can receive.Seeing is believing, classic things are really classic.One day in the Vatican, my body was very uncomfortable, my stomach hurt so much that I couldn’t walk, but what I saw in my eyes was enough to make me forget all the pain, and I was reluctant to leave in a state of near numbness. I wanted to see more, and more.If I hadn't seen these masterpieces, I would never have known that the human spiritual world had reached such heights.At the Prado in Madrid and the Louvre in Paris, there is a feeling in the end that the separation and reunion of political kingdoms will eventually become a passing phenomenon. In the alternation of history, only the kingdom of art is truly left and is eternal. exist.

The final historical series, telling the stories and backgrounds of these cities, mainly hopes to give you some travel information.Free travel in Europe has been open for several years, visas are getting easier and easier, and travel packages from travel agencies are also increasing. Everyone has the opportunity to visit Europe.At this time, I really want to write some auxiliary materials for you.They are not guidebooks. There are plenty of guidebooks on the Internet with complete details, and you can find any kind of journey.They are just some background information, hoping to draw the roughest outline for tourists and draw a picture of what a city looks like in history.When we all have the opportunity to see, what we see matters.In the fragments of the old building, the shadows of swords and swords are engraved, and the corners of the skirts are flying.

Ultimately it is stories that mark a city.All cities would appear alike if it weren't for the people in them that make them different.Cities and people always overlap, people light up the city, and the city remembers people.Man is the ultimate landscape of the world.