Bija Knowles's blog

Like many people, the offer of food is always enough to tempt me to visit somewhere new – and I suspect that the publicity machine of Pompeii's archaeological site are fully aware of this, as they promise an authentic Roman snack to the 300 randomly selected individuals who will take part in a one-off tour of the site this Sunday.

The event marks the restoration and re-opening of one of the Roman town's thermopolia (cafés), after having undergone an excavation and preservation process.

So you've bagged a seat in your nearest Irish boozer, scrummed your way to the bar and ordered a pint of the black stuff, and your furry shamrock hat is firmly ensconced on the head: congratulations, you are officially ready to start celebrating St Patrick's Day. But who is St Patrick? We trace the history of the brewer's favourite saint back to ancient Roman Britain.

Irish or not, Catholic or not, and whether you actually like Guinness or not – these are small considerations now that the 17th of March is an international day of merry-making and general festivity.

It's an excuse to wear as much green as you like, even if you're blond. But before you go digging that pea-green jumper out of the back of the wardrobe, you might want to ask yourself what on earth you're going to all this trouble for.

The Age of Conquest, an exhibition just opened in the Capitoline Museums, explores the question: how did Rome's conquest of Greece (146 BC) influence Roman art?

The answer is of course that the influence was huge: Roman copies of canonic Greek masterpieces ensued, there were aesthetic influences in the decoration of sanctuaries and funerary monuments, while every-day domestic objects mimicked Greek styles too.

Recent news reports suggest that Britain's north-south divide is still alive and as pronounced as ever. Whether you're talking about heart disease, house prices or teenage pregnancy, statistics show that the invisible line that divides the north of Britain from the south is all too real.

Normally as white as a bleached bone, the Ara Pacis, the emperor Augustus's altar to peace, is being restored to what could have been its original colours for a series of evening openings from tonight, until April.

The famous monument represents the Augustan golden age of the early empire and was excavated from several metres under Rome's busy main shopping street, via del Corso, during Italy's Fascist era in the 1930s. The fragments were reassembled and finally housed in a wooden structure in piazza Augusto Imperatore.

Caravaggio was not a man of his time. As gay icon, father of modern painting and enigmatic artistic rebel, he speaks volumes to 21st century audiences visiting his current exhibition in Rome. The realism and drama that he transmitted onto canvas seem surprisingly fresh, while also connecting us with the feel and detail of life in the early 17th century.

But his portraits of youths - again, not typical of the early 1600s - seem to hark back to an era more than 1,000 years before his time. His sensuous appreciation of the male form, which scandalised his 17th century patrons, had more in common with Roman and Greek artistic traditions, which openly celebrated the male beauty, as well as pederastic relationships.

Roman London is mostly intangible, hidden and largely forgotten. Today it's buried under tons of concrete and glass in the shape of the City of London – London's financial district – with its busy streets, packed offices and underground networks. It's not surprising that getting a peak at the remains of the Roman city founded soon after 43 AD is not easy, but archaeologists have excavated several large areas, often when construction projects and post-war reconstruction have provided opportunities to open up the ground. However, areas remain that have yet to be studied by a professional archaeologist, so what Roman structures could still be lurking under London, waiting for their chance to see the light of day again?

Some 10 miles south-east of Rome, archaeologists have been excavating a site they believe was of great religious importance to the ancient Romans as well as to bronze-age communities. The dig at the sanctuary of Diana and Nemi (also known as Diana Nemorense), overlooking Lake Nemi, has found ceramic pieces dating from the 13th and 12th centuries BC, a stone enclosure and evidence that a large religious complex once existed there.

The archaeologists involved in the excavation, including Filippo Coarelli, a leading expert on ancient Rome and former professor of archaeology at the University of Perugia, believe that the site they've been examining in recent months could even be associated with the legend of the Trojan Aeneas.

When it comes to invading marauders, who had more influence in shaping London? To my mind, the Romans will win this hands down. They came, they saw, and they started building drains, underfloor heating and fancy mosaics. They also had awesome military organisation and ferocious fighting techniques, but I think the Romans should be remembered as the invaders to beat all other invaders for a slightly different reason.

Venice, with its grumpy gondoliers, and Verona, home to Romeo, Juliet and a pink Roman arena, both have formidable reputations as romantic destinations. But Rome too can more than hold its own when it comes to providing entertainment for lovers of all kinds (whether part of a couple or not).