Head'n Home

-Up at 4 AM-
-To the airport at 5-
-To Paris at 7, across the Alps with morning sun bringing the earth to life-
-Across the sky blue ocean (the first time we have flown over the Atlantic by day)-
-Across Greenland: what a thrill to see miles and miles of this purported wasteland, so full of peace and beauty-
-To Minneapolis-
-To Bismarck-
-And 23 hours later to the greatest welcoming one can experience as Digby nearly jumped out of his skin to meet us.
-A nap on the floor with our pup, who snuggled very close to his master for a much needed cuddle.

Last Minute Reflections

Now we are in Malpensa Airport on Friday Nov.19, seventeen days since we began this journey. We are bound for Paris, Minneapolis and Bismarck, with scarcely enough Euros left for coffee. When George Mattson came back from a summer of camping in Europe, he said his dominate impressions were of "Christ and War". I (George) might have to use three terms: Power, Money and Art.
In Rome, power, both ecclesiastical and secular
In Florence, Medici money
Art in both places, chasing the money.
It's a paradox; art, which we know is the most interior, private, lonely, driven activity on earth, is sustained by filthy lucre from popes and bankers who want their rooms decorated. I am thinking too of the sermon I might give Sunday, health permitting. I would begin with the BCP, since we are using the 1549 Rite this Sunday, but then move back to the Protestant Reformation, linking the prayer book to the fundamental shift wrought by Luther, from institutional faith to an individual one with people praying and reading scripture daily...scripture alone, grace alone, faith alone. But without the Church, all the Duomos in the world don't mean squat. But behind the Duomos is the vast clunking machinery of the church. Without that, it's hard to see how Luther would have had access even had a scripture.

Effect Of The Drenching

Aside from our personal discomfort, the drenching rain shorted out our guides microphone so we were without her guidance for much of our tour. In addition, after Leonardo, we asked her to call us a taxi, as the thought of walking even one more block was beyond us. Even her i-phone did not work in this down pour, and when she finally got through to a cab company, it was busy, busy, busy. Guess why. Everyone in Milano was seeking a cab. So she sent us towards to a cab stand about 5 blocks away. We stood in the freezing torrent for another ten minutes until, THANKS BE TO GOD a taxi pulled up and we piled in for a very harrowing fourteen Euro ride to the train station, where we hopped on a train headed in the opposite direction. We actually jumped on a wrong train twice. After several angels helped us find the right train, we were then VERY uncertain about when to get off the train, which could have theoretically place us in a dark ally in the cold rain with no phone and no way to ask for help. In a word, panic or (sundowners)! But not life threatening, like walking in Rome without sidewalks and thousands of cars flashing by at 60 mph. Thankfully many kind people (angels) helped us along the way and we did to get off at the right stop. Otherwise, we still might be riding this train.

The three hour walking tour (actually 31/2 hours) was a torture. But we would not trade comfort for this experience. We did see the Duomo and da Vinci's "last Supper". That was the point.

After getting off the train we had another half a mile to walk to our B and B. Here is one minor warning. Bring two pairs of shoes. We each brought one, to save space. We traveled as lite as possible, with only one modest sized suit case each and a carry on. Three blocks from the B and B, Joanne's shoe strap broke and she spent the next day and a half until she reached Minot, limping along, trying to keep from losing the rest of the shoe.

We have never been so delighted to reach our lodging in our life. We then had a fabulous wood fired calzone and margarita pizza (the best in town we were told) and wonderful Italian wine. Then we went to bed until 4 AM. George was still sick, but life is not without its risks.

On to the Last Supper

Our guide was young. We were much older then the other members of this tour. It was cold and raining hard. Dusk approached. We were soaked to the bone. All in the name of art. To make our appointment for "The Last Supper", we walked very very fast and sometimes the keep up, we nearly ran for two hours across town. We had one ten minute stop for coffee. You have to pay extra to sit in Italian coffee shops, but the proprietors had mercy on us and we sat without the extra fee. After a ten minute warm-up, our guide said we had another 15 minutes to walk. It was really 40. We were moving so fast I (Joanne) literally had to trot on what felt like cold bloody stumps to keep up. If we were late, we'd miss the "Last Supper". No exceptions.

We paused for a moment at a museum along the way that contained another Michelangelo masterpiece, only to be told it was closed, though we would have had no time to enter anyway.

And then: after what seemed to be an interminable period of misery...there it was. The reason for the day. In a non-descript unmarked building housing "The Last Supper"!

It was common to paint "Last Suppers in dining rooms in monasteries. There are other "Last Suppers" painted by other artists in dining rooms in many monasteries. I hear there is a beautiful one inf Florence. This "Last Supper" was in an empty room with an ungainly fresco by an unknown artist on the opposite wall.

Leonardo's work is a triumph in restoration as much as a triumph of art. One could spend a lifetime looking at it. Every square inch is perfect. Leonardo was a master at recreating facial expressions that provide a viewer with an interior reality. Each apostle's reaction to Jesus' statement that "one among us will betray me" betrays the quality of a personal relationship with Christ. The perfect position of each apostle's hand also tells a story in itself.

The right bottom corner of the table cloth is tied in a knot, because da Vinci knew that the last name he assumed (da Vinci) could be interpreted etymologically to mean "knot". As noted earlier, Leonardo was illegitimate and his father never let him use the family name, though he did see that Leonardo was brought up and apprenticed. His mother was a chambermaid, presumably a bright one.

The problem is that Leonardo painted in this masterpiece with oil on plaster rather than a doing a fresco, which would have mixed the paint into the plaster, like in the Sistine Chapel. A fresco would have been more lasting. "The Last Supper" began deteriorating within 20 years after it was finished in 1497. By 1799 it was so far gone, Napoleon used the room as a stable. Over the centuries, there have been many "refurbishings", most of them producing nothing less than a disaster. An amazing door was literally cut into the painting's wall, to make the kitchen more accessible, thus destroying "Jesus's feet" for Heaven's sake.

What is more amazing is that we have this"Last Supper" at all.

This masterpiece was restored in 1996 by a new method unknown to our guide, but the colors appear faded. But this restoration is a major blessing. It is truly a masterpiece, well worth the trepidation and suffering to get here.

Movin' On

The Duomo is filled with history but we are scheduled to see "The Last Supper" in two hours and if we are late, we miss it. So out into the rain. Around the corner, we see a statue of Leonardo and across the street is the world's most famous opera house, La Scala. Outside, La Scala is one of those "common" unmarked buildings.

There are only three disappointments on the tour, minor compared to its magnificence: not being able to spend more time with Giotto at Assisi, missing "The Pieta'" in Florence, and not being able to go inside La Scala. But life is not without its imperfections.

Inside the Duomo

During WWII, Milano was particularly hit by the bombing. Italian faithful removed the 1000s of beautiful stained glass windows to place in safe keeping. In putting the windows back in place after the war, occasionally they were placed in the wrong order. So the stories from the OT and NT are occasionally out of sequence.

Our guide was fervent and informed, and very devoted to her faith. She told us, in all seriousness about how privileged we were to be able to come into the Duomo at a very special time when the body of archbishop Borromeo was brought up from the basement and elevated above a side alter, encased in a crystal see-through coffin, surrounded by candles, wrapped in white cloth, except for the face which is covered by a silver mask. Well over a hundred faithful sitting in adoration in benches in front of this alter. This saint spends all but one week of each year below. Borromeo became Archbishop in 1571 and was responsible, more than any other single figure, for the final design of the Duomo.

Nearby was an exquisite statue of St Bartholomew, who was skinned alive. It is amazingly anatomically correct (no skin and all). Nearby our guide points to a memorial to St Pius IV done by Michelangelo's friend because Michelangelo told the Pope he was too busy to do the work himself.

At least 100 feet above the main altar is a cross with a red light casting a faint light onto the darkened ceiling. This cross is said to contain one of the original nails from the Cross of Christ. Our guide's broke with emotion as she told us that once a year the bishop rises in a hydraulic bucket ("like an angel") attached to cables to obtain the nail for display. One week later he retrieves the nail and rises again to return it. Interesting.

The Duomo In Milano

The Duomo in Milano is the third largest christian church in the world. Construction began in 1386 and took 200 years to complete. It is 1577 meters long. There are two acres of church, 3400 statues and thousands of beautiful stained glass windows. The church is said to hold 40,000.

There is a statue of Mary covered with gold on the outside of this Duomo of St. Mary. Our guide told us that the "virgin" protected the city.

Chaos and Trepidation Begin

After becoming accustomed to being led by professional guides and seeing much of the most beautiful art in the world, the tour officially ended at the Malpensa Airport and we then spent a day on our own in Milan, with the goal of placing making Leonardo DaVinci's"Last Supper" as our capstone event.

We fumbled unsuccessfully to crack the code to operate the pay phone to call our B and B for a ride from the airport. We were on a deadline to arrive in Milan by 2:00 for a tour through the worlds third largest church and to DaVinci's masterpiece, "The Last Supper". (We'd lost our cell phone in Rome.) We finally hailed a taxi, who thought the trip was too minimal for him and HE called the B and B host, who came and got us. Using the B and B's host's instructions into Milan, we navigated to the train station, 26 miles from Milan but almost took a train going the wrong way. We were saved at the last minute by a frail Italian boy whose dream was to come to America and work as a taxi driver. "I love America", he repeated over and over again. Taking the taxi from Garabaldi Station to the Duomo, we joined our three hour walking tour at the last minute in the drenching cold rain. We were already going in hyperthermia and George was feeling rotten.

This adventure felt like one of our famous canoe trips where I (Joanne) feel in danger of being perpetually lost. The walking tour was a torture. With all that said, we wouldn't trade comfort for this experience.

Lake Maggiore

There IS heaven on earth.


Looking out our balcony at Las Palmas



Las Palmas at Stressa


After Como, we continued our journey to our last stop of the tour, to Stressa, a quiet village on Lake Maggiore, in the Italian Alps. The long body of water extends to Switzerland. This is the lake Hemingway's protagonist, Fredrick, and his pregnant lover used to escape by boat from their responsibilities in Farewell to Arms.

The Hotel Palma on the lakeshore, was most comfortable. Our tour concluded with a first class dinner complimented with excellent wine. There were many interesting people on this tour, including a physicist, Peter, who help develop the MRI, an engineer and his wife from Salt Lake and an extended family from Texas, including a mother daughter pair. All together there were no real jackasses in the group, which really helped to make the tour so successful.

At dawn, before we took the bus to the Malpensa Airport in Milan we scambled to the lakeshore for one last picture. We are very happy as you can see.

To lake Como

We did not take the optional cruise on Lake Como, opting out for a lunch and stroll through the village and along the lake's edge. We opted out of seeing several villas owned by billionaires including Steve Jobs, George Clooney, and sheiks from Arabia. We also missed seeing the place where Mussolini was shot as he impersonated a soldier among a German infantry as they were trying to escaped the country.

Wow. The damage a deranged power monger can do. The people in Italy suffered perhaps as much or more than any other country in WWII from the decimations of towns, beloved churches, and art, due to that awful man's striving to build an Empire.

Observations:

We left Venice under a shroud of cloud. We rode in our Mercedes bus, a huge vehicle driven by Marisio, a very handsome Italian who resembled a young Mussolini. ( I imagine that before Mussolini practically ruined the country, he probably had a certain sex appeal.)

It was comforting watching Marisio driving this bus with the maneuvering capability of a sports car in tight places. It was also interesting watching Marisio and our guide Ricardo chatting en-route. Of note: these guys talked a lot, almost constantly at times and always passionately, when Ricardo wasn't giving us one of his magnificent mini lectures over a comfortable sound system.

It was fun watching these two guys, noting the difference between Italian males and most US males. I have never heard a group of guys in North Dakota chat passionately. Ricardo and Mariso obviously know each other and were very comfortable together. Their Italian hands were always a part of the conversation.

Another observation by Joanne: Italians seem to be petite. Small hands, very small feet. I only saw one obese person on the trip. Italians are slim and petite, for the most part. Pasta portions with their six course meals must be far less than those served at a Ground Round.

Death In Venice

George developed a nasty cold in Venice, which led him to describe it as "a pestilential city." It can have that appearance, especially when the fog is thick and the rain heavy, as it has been. George went on to recall Tomas Mann's "Death In Venice," where the protagonist, exhausted, yet with one great work still in him, comes to Venice and falls in love with a beautiful boy. Smitten, he lingers as the seasonal fever advances and all sensible tourists flee. He finishes the book (it is implied) and dies, looking at the boy, who is standing ankle-deep in the water at the beach. (At least that's George's memory of the book.)

I (George) wrote a conference paper about it, picking up on the dense, perhaps incomprehensible Apollonian / Dionysian themes and relating them to Neitsche's Birth of Tragedy". Of that paper, you could say I was in over my head.

Venice at Night

Walking through Venice at night, through the mist, past Guicci and Prada shops, past a high end art shop with a 4' by 4' portrait of a woman's face done in black and white blown glass, past the Rialto Bridge, and past St. Marcs, to the waiting water taxi at the edge of the Canal, was like encountering a fairy-tale world.

Perhaps the dog, sitting on the edge of the bow in the boat traveling behind us on our way back to our hotel knew something we didn't, but the etherial quality of the evening generated a peace that passeth understanding.

The Rialto Bridge

After our gondola ride, Ricardo led us to St. Marc's in the heavy heavy mist and then through winding streets and up narrow stairways to the unmatchable Rialto Bridge. Built in the late 1500s, the marble bridge has defied its critics to become one of the architectural icons of Venice. Compare the sturdy Rialto to a new bridge that was built recently for tourists to walk across. The new bridge separates the tour bus’ parking lot and the Grand Canal. It is serviceable but already sinking. The 500 year old Rialto is beautiful and remains in tact.

Lovers in Venice

On the first day in Venice, Ricardo took us on a wonderful walking tour after our serenade on the gondolas , as I mentioned earlier. Here is a very sweet couple on our tour, who had actually met in Venice four years ago. She is a Spanish teacher in a univerisity and he teaches in an alternative school. The magic of Venice continues to work in their hearts.

Recuperating From Hypothermia

Damp to the bone, exhausted, and fighting a respiratory virus, we took a water bus back to the Hotel Bellini and spent the afternoon reading "Tale of Two Cities" (which complimented the theme of massacring the masses we had just heard about at the Doge palace) and journaling.

The Doge Palace

Next to St. Marc's Cathedral is the Doge Palace. It was built later than the cathedral, between the 14th and 16th centuries. Notice the two pink columns among all the other white columns. Our guide told us that this is where the sentencing was proclaimed, during another bloody time in Western history. He said after the names of the condemned were read from the balcony above the symbolically red columns, the condemned were then hanged between two pillars about a 100 yards from the palace. He said locals are aware of this history, so they do not walk between these pillars, choosing instead to go around them.

We were reading "Tale of Two Cities" at the time...good companion piece.

Bridge of Sighs

We saw the Bridge of Sighs, from which Casanova spectacularly escaped in 1756, aided by a monk and a woman, a winning combination. The Bridge of Sighs connects the Doge Palace to the prison. The condemned had to cross this bridge usually after being tortured in the "Room of Torments", an adjacent prison. On the prison walls, you can still see the prisoner's dramatic messages.

Gold Mosaics

Saint Mark is said to be buried behind the main alter. The church holds 2 acres and five domes of magnificent gold Byzantine mosaic art. During Venice's prime time, as shippers of goods and soldiers to the Holy Land, she was amassing lots of gold and she used it, in part to build this cathedral over 350 years. There is more gold here than at St. Peter's. Above the entry to the main altar are twelve stunning statues, possibly of wood, of the twelve apostles it was a stunning combination of Middle Eastern and Roman architecture.

The mosaic marble floor was buckling into waves of marble mosaics under the swelling ocean tide over the last nine centuries, but there is not a crack in the marble.

Last weeks high tide caused pilgrims to stand in clod water eighteen inches deep as they waited to enter the church. Venice is in BIG trouble as a result of global warming and rising tides. I don't think pilgrims will even be blest to see St. Marc's in a hundred years.

Inside St.Marc's Cathedral

The marble floor inside St. Marc's is literally upheaving and sinking into the mud and undulates like waves in the surrounding ocean. Joanne was so affected by this undulation that she undulated for a week, "seeing" the mirage of floors rising to meet her in airports, along cobbled streets, and even in the cathedral in Milan, rising and falling with rhythm of the sea.