Now, and then.

Sept. 15: I am in Paestum. After I arrived earlier, I explored the Greek and Roman ruins. Tomorrow I will return there to see more.

Thousands (tens of thousands) of American soldiers died landing near here and advancing north into Italy during World War II. By all accounts, it was a disaster, or at least a deadly slog.

Yesterday, on my way from Terracina into Benevento, I passed Monte Cassino. It was rebuilt shortly after WWII — after the Allied forces had pummeled it believing it to be a German stronghold. Its sight is breathtaking, hanging on the edge of the hills.

Livy recounts the Battle of the Caudine Forks near Terracina. His description, though questioned by contemporary historians, seems similar to what the Allied forces faced when they met the determined Germans in 1943.

The Samnites trapped the Romans between two mountain passes, Livy said. The Romans were left to the whims of the Samnites in 321 B.C.E., but took their revenge later. The Italians in 1943 had practically surrendered. But the Germans and the Allied troops fought on well into 1945.

In 82 B.C.E. Sulla brought the Samnites to heel. They had consequentially sided with Pyrrhus in the third century B.C.E., and some with Hannibal a few decades later during the Second Punic War. By the first century B.C.E., their attempts at allying with Roman foes had ended. Rome was in firm control of the peninsula.

321 B.C.E. or 1945. It’s sad to think about how much progress that we have made and that we enjoy. But how much hasn’t — yet. For instance, when the Germans flooded the Pontine marshes in 1943, it seems more like punishment and less like a strategy. Like losers at the poker table kicking the host on the way out the door.

Two nights ago, I was bitten by a few of the Pontine mosquitoes that once caused malaria. Now, a little cognitive dissonance. I’m sitting in my hotel’s cafe, listening to jazz and enjoying a Negroni, noshing. Tonight, I’ll have dinner and plan the next day of my vacation. I know am so lucky.