TALKING ROME, HISTORY, AND PIZZA WITH DARIUS ARYA (VIA ZOOM)

Today I’m talking to modern-day Indiana Jones, Darius Arya!

Darius is an archaeologist, professor, and documentary host, whose work has been seen on CBS, BBC Travel, the Wall Street Journal, the Guardian, Huffington Post, and National Geographic, along with many others. He is the Executive Director of the American Institute for Roman Culture, a non-profit organisation that aims to promote and conserve Rome’s cultural heritage through educational programs, projects, public outreach, and social media.

He has been the face of many TV projects, such as Ancient Invisible Cities, Under Italy, and Ancient Rome Live, and is always creating new content for his social media channels. In summary, he’s a pretty cool guy, and I am very glad to be interviewing him for Wandering Everywhere.

You can follow Darius on his journeys via his Twitter, Instagram and Facebook under his handle @dariusaryadigs, and you can check out his Youtube channel here. To keep up to date with his ventures across the Eternal City, you should follow the Live, from Rome! Youtube channel over at We Dig Rome.

SO FIRST OF ALL, COULD YOU TELL ME A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT HOW YOU INITIALLY GOT INTO ARCHAEOLOGY?

For me, it was several factors. I think a lot of people fall in love with Classical Languages and ancient civilisations through language, but for a lot of people that I know growing up in States it was through stories. It was through art. It was down to the Greek mythology that I was fascinated with back in sixth grade, and museum trips and local bookstores. It was layer upon layer, such as going to the Smithsonian Museums in Washington DC as a child, learning about ancient history which then accelerated into taking Latin in junior high and Latin-Greek in high school.

I continued these studies in college, where I had the opportunity to study abroad and that really opened up a lot of doors. I went on one trip to Europe with the school where we travelled with a Rail Pass, and when we’d made it to Rome it was incredible. Just wow. I mean, it just blew me away particularly see things like the Roman Forum the Colosseum and so things came together like that kind of organically. I didn’t want to be an academic, though, and wasn’t in love with with what I saw in University. It just felt for me kind of restrictive. So I just went off on my own direction, but you know, everyone has to find that happy medium.

FROM THERE, HOW DID YOU MAKE THE LEAP FROM BEING A LECTURER TO BEING THE FACE OF POPULAR SHOWS ON THE HISTORY CHANNEL, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, AND PBS? 

So all of this work became about location, location, location. You know, I studied, I did that one trip back in Junior High, I studied a semester in Rome which was fantastic and inspiring, and then I just kept on coming back every summer since ’92. Then the transition of ‘how can I do this, how can it be there amidst all of this’ came about. I didn’t want to go down the route of being so distant from it all and only coming back occasionally, so I was trying to figure it out.

I created and co-founded a non-profit which has been around since 2002. We’re getting our own programs and excavations and so forth, and just as it got started people began reaching out to me, too. Saying ‘hey, we see that you’re there, your organisation seems interesting. Can you talk?’ I kind of got a sense of where this was heading, and it became successful just because people liked my vibe or my attitude or my delivery. And to be honest with you there really aren’t that many people from the US doing this sort of thing.

SO YOU NEVER REALLY EXPECTED THAT THIS IS WHERE YOU WOULD END UP?

Everyone wants to have a crack at it and to try it. There are different degrees of success, and every audience is different, you know, with very channels, different countries, different expectations. I had done some theatre and drama and things when I was a kid, but no I’d never really thought about doing it at all. 

WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE THING THAT YOU’VE EXPERIENCED WITH ANCIENT INVISIBLE CITIES?

The great things about Ancient Invisible Cities was that we were able to work closely with this fantastic team, Scan Labs, and to work alongside these people was incredible. They were under a lot of pressure whilst we were working on our own narratives, and it was fun, it was intense, and it was another layer of documenting the past. There would be around 15 or 16 people working in different locations simultaneously working with the drones and the helicopters – and I always wanted to ride in one of the helicopters but never did. It was a lot of hard work but it was a lot of fun.

SO HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN IN ROME FOR NOW?

About 20 years. I’ve spent this time as an opportunity to do more research and practise my Italian, and it’s been good to engage people in stuff like this. The people have been very accommodating and with the language they just thought you know, here’s another person giving their take on the history, which is unlike that which I grew up with. You know, my kids are going to school in Italian schools. One of them is finishing up. They have so much exposure to all of this, and in some ways are a little spoiled because of it. But I needed to do this to truly be able to talk to the audience.

HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO LEARN ITALIAN? BECAUSE I WATCHED AN INTERVIEW WHERE YOU WERE SPEAKING IT FLUENTLY AND I HONESTLY HADN’T EXPECTED THAT

I’ve been trying to speak the language for as long as I could have, you know, I’m not just here in an English-speaking bubble. It’s not something that I’ve been able to grow up with, and everyone knows after the first two words that I say that I’m not a native, but it just happens.

SO I WAS GOING TO ASK WHY YOU’D CHOSEN TO LIVE IN ROME RATHER THAN ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD, BUT YOUR PASSION AND YOUR LOVE FOR ROME IS PRETTY OBVIOUS

Yeah, I mean when we spoke about this before you were like why Rome and not Athens, but really, it’s just a place that struck me. Ostensibly, you know, when I looking at study abroad programs and my Classics Department asked if I’d rather go to Rome or Athens, I was like, is this a trick question? 

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO PEOPLE THAT VISIT ROME BUT ONLY SEE THE TREVI FOUNTAIN OR THE COLISEUM – WHAT GEMS DO THEY MISS? 

It’s tough. I mean everyone have varying amounts of time here, with limited budgets. I think that there are a lot of variables, especially now with Covid-19, it’s going to be more difficult to even visit places like the Vatican or the Colosseum because they’re going to have to reduce their numbers. It’s going to be very difficult, but they’re re-opening all the museums tomorrow and I have a timed reservation for the Capitoline museums.

Now everything’s going to be with timed entrances, spacing everybody out, and so forth. But I think that the best thing you can do in the city is just to wander about, and you know, just take a look at 10, 20, 30 sites, and just see them because they’re there, all so close to one another. Just go and take them in and experience it. The light changes and the hours go past so you need to experience everything that you can, as slowly as you can.

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IS THE BEST PIZZA IN ROME?

Oh God. Classics you know? But ultimately, the best pizza in Rome is in Naples. But in Rome,  I’d say pizzas like Baffetto and the Monte Carlo.

WHAT’S A FUN FACT YOU KNOW ABOUT ANY ASPECT OF LESSER-KNOWN HISTORY? 

There’s actually a massive comprehensive plan around the entire area of what we call the Valley of the Coliseum. It’s currently undergoing a lot of cleaning and in five years time will be radically different. Let’s all hope it’s for the best. You’re going to have a third entrance line that’s going to be have a huge underground space and you’re going to have this new kind of Centre which culminates all of the information about the Coliseum, and there’s even a rotating exhibit space. That’s happening. But yeah, there’s just going to be a lot more going on with Coliseum. I think it’ll enhance people’s experience of the Coliseum for the future. It’s pretty cool.

WHAT’S YOUR DREAM PROJECT?

You know, we are currently working on our publications for previous excavations and that’s a dream to get done. It’s a huge responsibility and we are making a lot of progress right now. And then, with this kind of work that we are doing, I would like it to all make a greater reach and impact. I want it to be much more present as a resource, on a more sustainable level. It would be great if a lot of the institutions and academic associations would lend us more support, but we’re getting some great partnerships with Museum Week and so forth, which is fantastic. The end game is for a lot of people to discover and use our resources, because no one else is giving this stuff, you know, for free.

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO PEOPLE THAT WANT TO PRODUCE THEIR OWN SHOWS, AND BE ON THE HISTORY CHANNEL AND NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC? 

Good luck. It’s all very fickle business, and it’s hard to get acknowledged. It usually comes from a lucky break or by being a scientist or a biologist. You should be creative and voice what you believe in, and try to ignore the hate. Don’t be political, don’t insult anyone, be very careful. Stand up for what you believe in. So if you’re going out there to make a brand, decide what your values are and what you want to convey.

Also, make sure that you’re working on several platforms, not just Twitter or Instagram but also YouTube and anything else you can use. Try to be flexible and use this time to be experimental – but remember that once this stuff is out there, it’s out there forever. Be consistent and be honest.

SO, LAST THING, DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING ELSE YOU’D LIKE TO MENTION, SUCH AS A PARTICULAR YOUTUBE CHANNEL..?

For sure! So I direct the American Institute for Roman Culture, a non-profit organisation. We’ve been in Rome working away teaching University programs and we really focus on that online stuff. This is the main webpage with our weekly blog and so forth, and  the website where we now have a learning program is now ancientromelive.org.

You can also follow my weekly seminars from Rome, sometimes on location; Wednesday is geared for kids, Sundays for everyone, always 7pm Rome time. The YouTube channel is We Dig Rome.

Across all media channels, we are @saverome, because we are into saving and preserving this ongoing legacy of Rome. And then for me, I’m all @dariusaryadigs, Facebook, Twitter, and on the website. And then there’s my own YouTube at Darius Arya, it’s a lot of fun Rome content. So check it out. It’s a lot of fun and we are always up for collaboration and, you know, just getting the message out about history.

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And so, there it is! This interview was a lot of fun, and I hope that you guys enjoyed it just as much as I did.

Hopefully, you’ve learnt a little more about the Eternal City, Italian pizza, and the ups and downs of being an archaeologist and documentary host! If you have any more questions for Darius Arya, let me know in the comments below!

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