Tomb of St Francis

Day 11 St. Francis Basilica
We rode the bus a few minutes up the hill to the basilica built to honor St. Francis, though entirely contrary to his ideals of complete poverty. St. Francis was canonized only two years after he died in 1228. The basilica was started almost immediately. His body was kept in the valley until the basilica was done. It now lies in a simple stone box about eight feet above an alter in the lowest level of the basilica. Quite by luck we stumbled on a mass in English, conducted by a priest who was guiding a group of about 200 college students from a Franciscan college in - are you ready for this - Ohio. They had a guitar and sang many of the same songs we sing, including "You are My All In All". George was thinking Joanne might take the final leap back into "the one true faith", she was so moved by this experience.

St. Francis' little church

As if Orvieto wasn't enough for one day, we take a tram back down the mountain, get on our Mercedes comfortable touring bus, and head for Assisi. Remember, these ancient villages were built on mountain tops to provide security against the barbarian invaders. Thus, the tram.

We arrive before supper time and immediately walk about 3/4 of a mile to a huge church of Santa Maria, on the site of St Francis's original church, built by him from a pile of Roman ruins. That small structure, about the size of a small garage, now sits under the rotunda in Santa Maria.

St. Francis' actual little church appears lit from the inside and transcended. It is deeply moving. Janice, Joanne's friend, was weeping. "I could stay here forever" she said.

A few feet to the right, there is a small shrine with a sign "Qui Morto Francesca" - Francis died here.

Two more pictures in Orvieto

Here are two more pictures of Orvieto. One is looking down the narrow ancient street with the cathedral at our backs and the other is turning around at that spot for a look at the cathedral.

Inside the Cathedral in Orvieto

The exterior walls of the church as well the six foot in diameter columns inside, alternate basalt and travertine layers, so are black and white all the way towards the sky.

Inside the Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary in Orvieto, the apse and two transcepts are each covered on the sides and ceilings in frescos from the 1300 and early 1400s, in the style of Giotto, when painters combined medieval narrative with modeling. Especially lovely was the fresco by Fabriano, near the entrance, done in 1325.

Mosaics at The Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary in Orvieto

Above the bas reliefs on the facade of the Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary in Orvieto, are magnificent colorful mosaics from as late as 1713. These, as well as the marble carvings, have stood the wind and sun and rain for centuries. Every church is thus a "work in progress" both restored and added to over centuries, a living institution.

Bas Relief and Rose Window for the Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary in Orvieto

The Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary in Orvieto is one of the most beautiful churches in all of Italy. The four marble bas reliefs on the front facade each intricately and magnificently tell a story from the bible; Creation, Old Testament, New Testament, and the Last Judgement. Visual representations of these stories were the main method for accessing the bible, because few people could read.

The four bas reliefs were each about 20 feet tall and six feet wide and contained hundreds of carved marble figures, telling the stories. Looking at the devil causing the agony of hundreds of suffering souls in Hell on the bas relief for "the Last Judgement" is quite an education.

Cathedral at Orvieto

Why the ancient villages atop the mountains?

Well, the population of Rome was about one million before the first barbarian invasion (barbarian means guy with hair on his face). After the first invasion, Roman residents scattered into the woods. Later after multiple invasions, they began to build small fortresses on top of mountains for protection. These fortresses remain scattered around Italy today.

One such ancient fortress is Orvieto, in the region of Umbria, in central Italy, north and east of Rome. During the middle ages, in 1290, 20 years before Dante died, the foundation for the Cathedral was laid in Orvieto. It is considered a gem of Italian Gothic, and perhaps my personal highlight of the trip so far.

In keeping with going the extra mile, Grand European Tours arranged dinner for our group with an Italian family. This required special vans, again to transport our group through the very narrow cobble stone streets. Pasquali and Marisa, our hosts, provided us a with a six course home cooked meal complete with wine Pasquali made himself from his vineyard. It was all very warming and delicious.

Pasquali and Marisa live in the home he inherited from his father. Their daughters and eleven grandchildren live in an adjourning complex and they share a courtyard. The family's dining room contained four very large tables where we all were wined and dined. This is probably the room where the family breaks bread together every day. Joanne bought a cookbook prepared by the family. One of our favorite dishes from that cookbook is a cabbage dish. Generally, we are not that fond of cabbage, but this is an exception!

SWEET AND SOUR SAVORY CABBAGE
1 cabbage
1 garlic
12 glass olive oil
100 g raisins
10 g pine nuts
salt
parmesan
2 spoons cream
50 g butter

Boil cabbage. Drain well. Heat olive oil and garlic in a frying pan. Add cabbage and handfuls of raisins and pine seeds. Season with salt and continue to cook 30 minutes.

Coast of Capri

Day 9: Thursday, Nov. 11, Veterans' Day in the US
(from George's journal)This morning we took a jet foil to Capri, a graceful rocky pile of limestone off the southern arm of the Sorrento Peninsula, which encloses the Bay of Napoli. Naples is across the bay. We are now just above the instep of the boot, in an area colonized by the Greeks as early as 600 BC. The whole effect is different, full of space and light and playfulness that put me in mind of the Greek islands we visited in 2003, where I actually went into a real estate office to enquire about renting an apartment, and where, of all the places we've been, the one I would most willingly return. No wonder Augustus came here to relax and Tiberias spent his last 11 years here, increasingly isolated and ineffective. There would have been time to walk to Tiberias' villa, but the tour guide did not make that clear. Their first gaffe' that I can see. We did walk with the guide through the village to the south side, to a beautiful view of the bay and some gardens originally owned by the Krups, makers of the German armaments and in sight of a pink building where Churchill and Eisenhower met during WW II. We had a nice lunch with Janice in the town square (a margarita pizza- nothing to do with tequilla. It means plain).

Looking up at Sorrento from the bay.

What a grand and beautiful place to vacation. Thousands do every year.

From our balcony in Sorrento

Can you believe we are surrounded by such luxury?

Beautiful Sorrento

From Pompeii we meander through the Italian countryside to Sorrento, where we bunk down in a hotel with our own individual marble balcony overlooking palm trees, and a huge piazza with a marble floor and a very large swimming pool. Talk about luxury. In the horizon, at sunset, we can see the shoreline of Naples, across a bay of the Mediterranean.

The streets of Sorrento are so narrow that our bus, which is amazingly versatile, was exchanged for smaller vans so we could be transported to our hotel and later to our six course Italian extravaganza. The restaurant where we dined overlooks a small fishingf port with dozens of small fishing boats waiting for their owners to brave the dangerous sea to supply people like us with a catch of the day.

We can't praise our tour company enough. Grand European Tours really goes the extra mile for our comfort and for a reasonable price. Case in point: hiring special buses in Sorrento so we can be transported through wonderful narrow cobblestone streets to our hotel and to our six course Italian extravaganza. .

We dine on six course Italian meal and are serenaded at oceanside, with plenty of Italian wine. Later, we then sleep soundly.

Vesuvius

Vesuvius is one of the most dangerous active volcanos in the world and last erupted in 1948. It is only 1/10th of it former size. Its remains lie 100 miles from the mountain, supplying soil on top of limestone that provides a rich base for olive orchards, kiwis, artichokes persimmons and dozens of vegetables grown in layered gardens and used in the fabulous Mediterranean cuisine.

City street in Pompeii

Pompeii continued-
In this picture, notice the narrow width of the bricks. The narrower, the older, we were told. This is a picture of a road in the village of Pompeii, leading past the brothel. The area seems to be so well planned and preserved.

Smaller arena near "home" for the gladiators

This picture is a smaller arena, near the larger one, where gladiators may also have practiced their trade. Adjacent, but not visible in this picture is the area where they lived and where they were put in chains for any perceived infraction.

Shopping in Pompeii

Shops in Pompeii-
The shops were mostly the same size, about the size of a small garage. Many shops once had a second story where the owners lived. In larger villas, there were cisterns to collect rain until a 90 mile aquaduct from the Apiennes Mountains was built and supplied water to 80 villages Including Pompeii. Water was distributed into private homes of the rich through lead pipes which are still visible.

Wood fired oven

One of seventeen wood fired bakeries discovered at Pompeii. Yummm.

In background: Colosseum in Pompeii where gladiators shed their blood for the sport of it

Whores in Pompeii??
Slabs of volcanic stones formed streets that clearly contained imprints from chariot tracks. Those ruts in the roads were deepest near the famous brothel with its well preserved one foot square frescos advertising the various positions available for about the cost of a half liter of wine at today's prices. The positions advertised were not all that imaginative but if you are interested, google whorehouse in ancient Pompeii and pictures of these restored frescos will appear. For the sake of keeping this blog "R" rated, I will not show them here.

The actual cubicles were hardly larger than 6 x 6, with a stone bed with a pillow against the back wall of each room, covered, presumably with blankets. On the streets nearby were phallic symbols carved into the paving stones with the business ends pointing towards the brothel. The guide explained that such symbols did not signal widespread decadence, but rather a healthy respect for the principle of fertility. Ya, right. But I suspect Rome was no more or less sex-soaked than any other time. If you were to suddenly bury in ash any given city of 20,000, on any given age, you might well preserve such a place. The explosion of pornography on the internet may, however, be a quantum leap (or quantum fall) in human degeneration. Certainly what troubled me more than the activities of sailors in Pompeii in 79 AD was the training center for gladiators who submitted themselves to rigorous discipline of their guilds, where even a slight infraction was punished by time in chains. On the day of the eruption in 79 AD, 30 gladiators died in chains.

Excavations of the dead

On to Pompeii-
Our visit to Pompeii was a huge surprise. We perhaps would not have even put this on our itinerary, but went along for the ride, since Grand European Tours did most the planning for this tour. Thank goodness. Pompeii was one of the most stunning stops on our trip.

Mt Vesuvius erupted on August 24, 79 AD, between 1:00 and 1:30 PM. Titus, the 8th Emperor, sent troops to Pompeii after the eruption, but there was not much they could do. A town of 20,000 souls had been buried in 20 feet of ash. The site disappeared from memory until the 18th century when Italian kings decided to begin taking treasures discovered in this ancient city for personal recycling. One-third of the ancient city is still buried. Yet much has been uncovered. The result is a unique snapshot of ancient Roman life. Only 1100 bodies were recovered. Half a dozen of those were captured in the act of dying a sudden and horrible death by suffocation. They were preserved by pouring plaster into the hollow mold formed when the bodies, encased in ash, decayed. We saw five such plaster corpses, their faces twisted in the agony of suffocation. One corpse is the famous dog.

On the bus ride, George continued to read Robert Payne's "Ancient Rome". Lots of good stuff. Payne's chapter on Roman legacy is not so organized as it might have been, but one can extract six items. The following is from George's journal.

1. The gift of Engineering- arches and domes and roads- known before but never used so extensively and variously.
2. Governance- a sense of hierarchy and order that ruled the known world and kept the longest period of peace in history.
3. Governance based on a deep sense of law- Drawing from stoicism, articulated by Cicero and later by the church, the Romans believed in principles of justice that transcended time, place and power. This vision produced a sense of the world brought together by unbreakable bonds of rights and obligations (p 175).
4. Republican Virtues- based on a mostly legendary time when men were instinctively drawn to frugality, honesty, simplicity and courage (174). That we should live within our means, drawing our happiness not from material satisfactions acquired on borrowed money but on our sense of honor and courage and duty. This vision can be seen, if you dig deep enough, glimmering even amid the angry rhetoric of the Tea Party. ("I question this." says Joanne.)
5. The Latin Language- which turned so easily into Spanish, French, Italian, and other Romance languages.
6. Finally the Dream of a Commonwealth- something like an empire, but more than an empire, a sense of human brotherhood and shared destiny and mutual concern, still alive in the universal church and our recurrent dream we embody in institutions like the United Nations.

Benedictine Abbey rebuilt after its destruction in WW II

Day 8: Cassino, Pompei, Sorrento
'hopped on the Mercedes bus and in utter comfort we ride south, though a beautiful mountainous region toward Monte Cassino. Most of Italy is hilly or mountainous.

For the past six days we had been in Rome. We had been surrounded by 1st and second century ruins, and a Vatican Museum with 1400 rooms filled to the brim with art from the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque periods.

Now, as we were headed towards Monte Cassino, through the mist, casting a blue light on the mountains on either side. We listened to Ricardo telling us about devastation suffered by the Italians during WW II. Arriving at Monte Cassino, we see nothing old. No ancient ruins. No Baroque buildings. Why? Because the town and the Abbey on the hillside above were destroyed during WW II. High above the city, St Benedict, along with his sister, St. Scholastica, founded the original Abbey in 529. The "Benedictine" Abbey was originally the site of a small temple to Apollo. St. Benedict recycled it. Over the years, the abbey was built up into a large basilica with three court yards and a beautiful Baroque church. In 1943, the Germans seized the Abbey and dug in, using it as their fortress because they were protected by mountains and could see any armies moving their way through the valley below.

This blood drenched land holds the memory of thousands of young men, in their teens and early twenties, struggling up the steep hillside towards their imminent death. The Allied Forces' attempt to take the Abbey began on Feb. 15, 1943. By May 1944, 15,000 soldiers from the Allied forces had died. Then, the decision was made to bomb the Benedictine Abbey to the ground. There is controversy now about the strategic usefulness of this destruction. In any case, donations were given from around the world to rebuild this abbey into something more lavish then Benedict might have approved.

Bernini was a busy guy

Our walking tour ended at the Piazza Navona with the 16th century fountain designed by Bernini. Lights reflecting in the mist from the fountain and the Piazza Navona cast a magical spell. We had dinner at a outdoor cafe with Janice which included a huge glass of wine. Italian wine, in my humble experience, is the best in the world.

George in front of the Pantheon

The high point of this walking tour was the visit to the Pantheon. Inside we see Fra Angelico's Annunciation which moved George particularly and which we missed on the first visit.

The Pantheon is free - and magnificent. The stone in front of the building was laid in 26 BC and it took well over a century and a half to complete the building. Most of the Pantheon was built during Hadrian’s leadership and completed in 125 AD, though he gave Maximus credit for its completion and had his name carved over the door. The Pantheon was originally dedicated to a plethora of Roman Gods. The building is essentially in tact and unrenovated since its completion nearly 2000 years ago, yet it looks somehow modern. Some of the marble facades on its octagonal walls have been “recycled” or transferred to other sites, exposing original bricks which are about an inch thick. The marble floor is a magnificent design of yellow and reds whose colors are enhanced when the rain drifts in from the open center of the intact dome.

Walking tour in Rome on a rainy evening

Ulysse leads us past many government buildings including where the president lives, where the prime minister lives, the senate office building, and the parliament building designed by Michelangelo. All of these buildings were unmarked and blend in with the common sites of this beautiful city. Who would know that the prime minister lives where he did. Ulysse asked us to peer into the prime minister's apartment through the drawn curtains and see the design on the ceiling. Amazing. There it was; flowers and gold filigree. Nice digs for the number one embarrassment to Ulysse's country now.

It is dusk and raining. The cobbled streets are wet and beautifully lit from the light cast by the high end fashion district. We see clothing in the display window from Gucchi and Prada, similar to what we had seen of Fifth Avenue in NYC two weeks earlier. Small world.

James Joyce lived here

Along the walking tour, we passed an apartment where James Joyce lived in 1905.

Pure water from over 300 fountains in Rome

Evening Tour: Ulysse noted that there were over 310 fountains in Rome, fed by artesian wells. You can refill your water bottle from this pure water. Here is a fountain that uses a sarcophagus to hold the life giving water.

320 Spanish Steps

Evening of Day 7: We took an evening stroll with Ulysse, our fabulous tour guide. We descended the 132 Spanish steps. Ulysse explained that there were 132 steps because that is a multiple of three. And because the Holy Trinity Church stands at the top of the steps. Adjacent to the Spanish Steps is an apartment where Keats died of tuberculosis at age 26 and where Byron also lived.

Remming in Rome

Day 7 (Nov. 9) I forgot to mention that on our way to the Vatican this morning, our bus driver was going into rem on red lights. It was amazing and disturbing. He seemed to be able to become remarkably semiconscious when it was time to start moving in traffic, but immediately would catch a few zzzzzzzzs when stopped for red lights. He hardly seemed awake, even when driving in the very busy Roman traffic. At times he would stop at a bus stop, but not open the door in a reasonable amount of time for people waiting to enter or depart from the bus. He was a beautiful young Italian. One can only speculate how he got into that condition and where it will lead him.

Obelesk in Vatican City

We had a "free morning". We went to the Vatican for souvenirs and seeking our lost phone. Here's a fountain in the Vatican Square and an Obelisk, with a nail for the Cross said to be on top.

Ruins Where Julius Caesar Was Murdered

Ulysse showed us the ruins where Julius Caesar was murdered. We had walked past these ruins several times, but were unaware of this. Again, no signs. No boasting about these Roman treasures. They are incorporated into the landscape and perhaps taken for granted. We also were told where Nero's palace was built, adjacent to the Colosseum. As noted, much of the marble from Nero's palace and the Colosseum was "recycled 14 centuries later to build the Vatican. Ulysse also told us why it was profitable to provide free entertainment and food to families whose sons were conquering the world in the first century AD. Thus the Colosseum. Later, of coarse, it was "Christianized". Now there is a wooden cross positioned on the main floor and the Stations of the Cross are said here every Good Friday.

Stone and stone. Blood and blood. We cannot escape.

The purpose of the Colosseum was for people to watch people and animals killing other people and animals. "We who are about to die salute you" the gladiator shouted to the emperor. The Colosseum is a monument to death. It's demonic. I wanted to run screaming, like the figure in the Edward Munch painting. No. No. No. This is a low point in human architecture, not a high point. It's all about death. Yet, get this. Across the river is another structure, roughly the same size, souring to the Roman sky, also about death, the sacrificial death of the Son of God, the death that ended death, and produced the Pieta, the Sistine Chapel and the soaring graceful Dome. Shall we say it is time to free ourselves from all obsession with death? Or shall we acknowledge that every human activity comes in two forms: redeemed and unredeemed. That which is connected to the Son of God or unconnected. Does that pile of yellow bones in that crypt across the Tiber, which may be the bones of the man who denied and was chosen to serve our Lord somehow redeem this pile of blood soaked stones? Stone and stone. Blood and blood. We cannot escape. We can only transform; we can only redeem, or better yet, say we can only accept redemption and be grateful.

Eighty exits allowed for hasty retreats

Ulysse reported that there were 80 exit arches, which allowed 55,000 spectators to get out quickly. The labryinth underneath, where the lions and gladiators were kept, is all now exposed, though part of it has been covered over again. As you walk around the lower corridor, there are places you can step on the original marble from 72 AD, when the building was inaugurated by sacrificing 5000 animals.

Travertine and volcanic clay

The Colosseum was built with huge blocks of either travertine or softer volcanic clay, both ful of holes, where valuable copper and brass clamps have been scavenged.

Arches of Triumph and Arch of Titus

The approach to the Colosseum was wonderful, with Ulysse's guidance along the Appian Way, past the Arch of Constantine
(Arch of Triumph) past the more graceful and modest Arch of Titus and dozens of other first century structures. Then you are inside and overwhelmed by the size and engineering.

The Colosseum

The itinerary for Day 6 included the Vatican museum, the Sistine Chapel, St Peter's AND the Colosseum. Ulysse, the Roman version of Floyd Fairweather, was our exceptional guide. His insightful comments were laced with wisdom and wit...very enjoyable!
We had been skirting the Colosseum for four days, as it dominates the eastern skyline as the Vatican does the west. If you don't think about it, you can call it beautiful, perhaps because 2/3s of it was cannibalized (Ulysse says recycled) to build other things, including the Vatican and even buildings across the street. That only stopped in 1739. The Colosseum has that peculiar bite taken out of one side and that makes the shape more interesting than if it were just a round drum, like say, Hadrians Tomb, which squats near the river by the Bridge of Angels. The Colosseum has hundreds, of arches, cleverly lit from the inside at night.

A Circle of red marble and the kneeling Charlemagne

The Red Porphyry and Charlemagne-
At the end of the long arm of the church is a circle of inlaid red porphyry, maybe seven feet in diameter. Our guide, Ulysse, told us the story about Charlemagne kneeling on Christmas Eve in 800 AD and accepting the crown from the pope. To dramatize this, Ulysse knelt on one knee. I happened to be the one standing nearest to him, so I gave him the sign of the cross, just to play along. When Joanne later told him I was an Episcopal priest, he laughed, (remember the thorn in the toe) but I think he was moved and confused. His own religious feelings were well concealed.

To the left of the main altar is a sculpture produced, again, by Bernini. Our picture of it is inadequate, but it is interesting to mention. The sculpture is honoring the pope's attempt to reunite Anglican and Catholic Church. To the right in this sculpture is a figure, representing the Catholic Church, with her foot resting on a globe of the earth. A THORN is positioned under her toe, which is resting upon the United Kingdom. Yes, the Anglican Church was quite a thorn in the foot of the Catholic Church at that time. The monument is very beautiful.

There are NO stained glass window in Saint Peter's. This starburst window above the main alter is, again designed by Bernini and is made of amber.

The dome of Saint Peter's rises above all of Rome. No building within the city is allowed to be taller than this dome.

Dome Rising Above the Skyline

Here is the stunning dome, designed by Michelangelo. It rises above the main alter, where the two arms of the crosses meet.