Italy from another perspective
Hi everyone, I thought I’d include some highlights from my mother’s emails about Italy (my fave bits in bold). Just so you can hear about the trip in another perspective…
We spent our first part of a day in Rome orienting ourselves and eating fabulous food at a Sicilian-style fish restaurant around the corner from our hotel.
The second day, we “did” the Roman ruins…saw the Forum, the Vestal Virgins’ temple and also their house; the temple of Saturn, the Arches of Constantine (enormously huge! I guess Constantine wanted to prove he was better than the ancient Romans, so he built something much bigger….seems Freudian to me!), and so many more ruins. They litter the ground…duh. Then we went up to the Palatine hill and wandered through gardens, tunnels, the Emperor’s (Augustus’) house, which was huge…and he also had a stadium, no one knows why. Fabulous views from there. We also saw the huts that archeologists are uncovering on top of the hill, that lead them to think perhaps Romulus really did settle on Palatine Hill to found Rome.
We also saw the Colosseum, which was almost unreal. I have seen it in so many movies, and read about it so frequently, and wanted to see it for so many years, that I found it difficult to take in. It seems larger from the inside than from out, although Jessica thought it was just the opposite. There are feral cats EVERYWHERE in Rome…we saw one wandering through the “floor” of the Colosseum where visitors aren’t allowed. (human visitors, obviously!)
There were some ruins we saw our third day (they quite litterally are everywhere…) that took up about one small square block. The whole thing had been given over to the cats as a sanctuary. The SPCA equivalent feeds them, cares for them and spays/fixes them. You can adopt them and take them home.
On the second full day, we went to the Vatican. Saw the Sistene Chapel, which was actually smaller than I had expected, though no less beautiful. The Roman museum guards kept yelling at everyone for talking and taking pictures, neither of which was allowed. What did they think that people were going to do there, for goodness’ sake? We also saw Raphael’s rooms, which were wonderful…his use of light! And since they were closer, I could see them better than the pix on the Sistene Chapel’s ceiling. The Vatican also had more modern art on a religious theme, such as some very bad Italians and a very fabulous Dali! Whose work I love, so that was cool.
St. Peter’s is a little too grand for my taste. It’s like St. Paul’s, in London, except bigger and less beautifully proportioned. In the crypt, they have lots of tombs of Popes, including the one who recently died, and many people were praying, etc. at his tomb. Theoretically, they also have St. Peter’s remains. It’s a nice tomb.
This was cool! They have Bonnie Prince Charlie’s tomb! I didn’t know that he was buried in Rome. There’s also a monument to him in the Cathedral/Bassilica/church. So now I’ve slept at Culloden house near Inverness, where he slept the night before he lost the battle, and also to the battlefield of Culloden, the site of his defeat, as well as the Isle of Skye, where he hid out after his loss. I practically feel as if I know him…
The third full day we went to the catacombs on the Appian Way. Got off at the wrong bus stop, so walked to a place called, if I recall, Antiqua Roma. The restaurant is in a garden, surrounded by antique walls. It was in an old columbarium that was used for Caesar Augustus’ slaves and servants! 2000 years old! So cool. It’s so very hard for me, being from Indiana, to grasp the age of this place. In Indiana, anything from the 19th century has been turned into a museum, it’s so old!
Or, as Eddie Izzard says, making fun of Americans’ view of history: “We have restored this building to how it looked over 50 years ago !” “No — surely not! No one was ALIVE back then!”
Back to the catacombs. There are many of them — St. Sebastian’s, St. Cecelia’s, and many more. We saw the ones of St. Cecelia. She was an early Christian martyr who was from a wealthy Roman family, and she is there, along with 9 Popes, as I recall, some of whom were also martyrs. So much of the history in Italy is tied to the R.C. church that it’s slightly bewildering for those of us who protested, along with Luther and Calvin and the boys…
Back to the catacombs. There are many of them — St. Sebastian’s, St. Cecelia’s, and many more. We saw the ones of St. Cecelia. She was an early Christian martyr who was from a wealthy Roman family, and she is there, along with 9 Popes, as I recall, some of whom were also martyrs. So much of the history in Italy is tied to the R.C. church that it’s slightly bewildering for those of us who protested, along with Luther and Calvin and the boys…Walked along the Appian Way for awhile…a real Roman road! that still has grooves from ancient wagon wheel ruts! We went into the “Quo Vadis?” church, which was a pretty bad Hollywood movie…and before that, a St. Peter story. I have always found it difficult to think that SP would be speaking Latin, but since he’d been preaching in Rome…maybe. Anyway, the story (for those of you who, like me, are part of the “unfaithful”) is that SP met Jesus on the Appian Way when SP was leaving Rome. One of them said, “Quo Vadis?” (I think, Peter) meaning, “Where are you going?” And Jesus replied that he was going back into Rome to be crucified. So Peter turned around and went back into Rome. Why? To be crucified. Odd decision on his part…but what do I know?
In the church that was built over the supposed site of the above, there are footprints in the stones of the A. Way that are supposed to be Jesus’s. He had bigger feet than I do! And mine are pretty big. I put my feet next to his, to check. John Wayne’s feet are smaller than mine, fyi. I have been to (the former) Grauman’s Chinese Theater!
Went through wonderful countryside, as you might imagine, and arrived in Venice in the early evening. I promptly fell in love, and now want to live there. It’s the most magical place in the world! An old Italian saying goes that everyone at heart is either a Florentine or a Roman (since the cities are so different)…but I think I’m a Venetian. I’m writing this now that I’m in Florence, which would be a very wonderful city, but not after Venice. So if you’re going to Italy, see Venice LAST. It’s the best!
The city was a republic with an interesting form of government from the 1,000s until 1797, when Napolean Bonaparte took it over. They had a Doge, like the mayor/president, a council of 10, a council of 44 (?), a council of 200 (?) etc. Lots of checks and balances on the government…if only Dubya believed in them! The only Doge who tried to take over the whole thing, in 1300-something has been expunged from the City records. Where his picture should be, there’s just a black cloth, saying that his memory has been erased.
Still, until Napolean, the republic lasted for almost 800 years, and was perhaps the wealthiest city in the world; due to trade with the East and the Islam empires across the Mediterranean. Who among us thinks that we’ll last that long?
We took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Doge’s Palace, which I HIGHLY recommend! Our guide was very testy, but still it was great! The place is built like a ship (surprise, surprise!) since all the best carpenters in Venice were shipbuilders. It’s just lovely carpentry, if you like that kind of thing…and I do! I wish my brother Mark could have seen it (he was a carpenter, for those of you who didn’t know him).
The offices of the Doge and his helpers were quite utilitarian and very small (although lovely carpentry, as mentioned). We went up into the attic and saw Casanova’s cell. He had managed to make a sharp file for himself, and was busy burrowing through his floor under his bed to escape when they moved him to another cell! Apparently, he had been complaining b/c he was 6′ tall, and the ceilings were too low for him to stand upright…so they thought that they were doing him a favor by moving him, but it was the day before he planned to escape. The best laid plans, and all that…
When in his new cell, he befriended the prisoner in the next cell. They asked to exchange books, since they were both learned, which the guards allowed; so they exchanged messages and managed to figure out an escape. Although Casanova had been sentenced to four years for his sexual misconduct, he only served one before he took off. Once he was safely in France, Venice forgave him and used him as a spy.
There is one room in the Palace that is enormous, and it has no pillars or anything to hold it up. The entire thing is suspended from the attics on huge beams. Since I love architecture, I found it all fascinating. It’s said to be the largest room in Europe and it also has the largest painting in the world. Not good…just big!
Lots of paintings by Veronese, who was probably the best artist they had there. They only seem to feature Venetian artists, so no Michaelangelos, Raphaels, etc.
We went through the Bridge of Sighs (much prettier on the outside than the in) and all through the prisons, which weren’t really all that grim, considering. Venice abolished capital punishment in the early 1700s or even before….a very enlightened society! Capital punishment used to be saved for truly heinous crimes — namely, littering and polluting the canals! A city after my own heart, didn’t I say? Since I’m the Queen of Recycling, I think I obviously belong there…
Gondolas really are the best way to get the “feel” of this exceptionally lovely city. We saw a John Singer Sargent exhibition in one of the museums, (it was works he did while living in Venice) and most of them were painted from a gondola, giving a wonderful perspective, looking up at the buildings. Also, Sargent is such a wonderful master of painting water!
We also went to the Guggenheim, which was Peggy Guggenheim’s Palazzo on the Grand Canal. She was a lousy artist but was married (I think) to Max Ernst, and was friends/a patron of Picasso, Klee, Kandinsky, etc., etc. A truly FABULOUS collection of modern (which is to say, early 20th century) art. Goes through Jackson Pollock, or about the 1950s. Peggy is buried in the garden, along with her Lhaso Apso dogs, which she called her “beloved babies”….honestly! Right on the tombstone! She names them all, and the dates of their births and deaths.
One of the first things we did in Venice was go to the top of the clock tower. It was originally built in 1300 something (sorry! I forget). The point is, it’s quite old, just like everything else! It was a 24 hour clock, and the when it began to have problems after 200 years or so, the more modern clockmakers couldn’t figure out how to fix it…the guy who made it in 1300 whatever was such a good clockmaker. I found that interesting.
If you’re interested in machinery, it’s VERY cool! We saw the original wooden magi and angel, and a guy on the tour with us almost broke the angel’s trumpet with his backpack. Practically gave me a heart attack everytime he turned around!
The church of San Marco is very Byzantine, and not my style at all. Turns out (I need to bone up on ancient Christian history) that a group of guys went to Jerusalem in 600 or something ancient and stole St. Mark’s body and brought it back to Venice and entombed it there, then built a church around it. This is the St. Mark who wrote the Gospel according to…. I guess he was preaching in Jerusalem when he died, and the Muslims refused to give up his body/remains to the Christians when they asked nicely, so they just stole it. Hmm…isn’t there a commandment about that?
In any case, almost every square inch in Venice has a picture of a lion that is St. Mark’s symbol.
The clock tower is on the Plaza San Marco along with the church of San Marco and also a more modern bell tower and the Doge’s Palace. You can buy seed to feed the JILLIONS of pidgeons, and they will perch all over you for a photo op, if you think that’s fun. I say, ick on pidgeon poop.
One of the BEST things to do is get a table on the Plaza and have a cocktail. Jessica had an Italian version of Irish coffee that would surprise the Buena Vista in San Franciso, but that was quite tasty [ed note: it was okay- I’d stick with the chocolate ones and leave the Irish coffees to the Buena Vista]. I had a cold chocolate yummy alcoholic concoction in a very large martini glass. Highly recommended!
Did I mention that Italians adore chocolate? There are many “bars” dedicated to cocoa…some 32 varieties. Beats Baskin Robbins! Honestly! A place that adores chocolate? This is SO my spiritual home!
Venice has wonderful restaurants, mostly seafood (what else?) and fabulous desserts. Jessica had the best cheesecake in the entire world, and that includes the Carnegie Deli in NYC, and I had the best Tiramisu. We also had really amazingly good spider crab….everything was good!
And you can walk everywhere…no cars! We didn’t even see a bicycle! Modern, fashionable boutiques, if you like that sort of thing.
We saw a concert of Vivaldi (of course — he’s Venetian!) that was performed by a quartet that was VERY good. There was also a soprano and a tenor (both rather B+ artists, but not at all bad, except in the very high notes, which were a little scary) singing various arias from famous operas. All the expected…Nessun Dorma for the tenor, Sempre Libera for the soprano, etc.
To wrap up Venice, imagine a very small city (you can walk from one end to the other in less than an hour) that is exquisetely beautiful, and that hangs, suspended like a jewel (over the water, of course!) between the 18th century and now. It’s as if its history just STOPPED when Napolean took over, and just recently started up again. Sort of like Brigadoon, but without bad costumes and Gene Kelly! (OK, just joking…I LOVE Gene Kelly!)
Florence! We took the train from Venice, dropped off our bags at the hotel (Florence Old Bridge, right near the Ponte Vecchio….AKA famous bridge). We then hopped back on a train and went to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower of. 267 steps! (or so…I don’t remember exactly. More than 250, less than 300.) Since you go up in a circle, it’s very discombobulating, b/c you keep leaning left…then right…then left….it’s like being on a boat. The views are entirely spectacular at the top, so it was worth the muscle aches. There is also a church there and a Baptistry, which is a beautiful round building. They say that when the choir sings in the Baptistry, the accoustics are so good, that the sound travels for up to 2 kilometers!
We ate dinner in Pisa, and had a “Rustico” plate, which was meats and cheeses and paté. Very delicious. Everywhere we go I can get vino rosso, and it’s almost always good-to-excellent, and it’s always inexpensive. In Napoli (Naples) a bottle was 7 euros, or less than $10.
Back to Florence. The next day, we did the dorkiest thing that was so much fun! We went to the Palazzo Vecchio, which is now a museum, and painted our own frescoes! It’s an activity designed for children (to keep them amused while Mom and Dad go see yet more art) but it was really fun! We learned all about the Medici family, that ruled Florence for 400+ years; plus more about how frescoes are made than I ever knew. I knew that it was painting on wet plaster, but I hadn’t realized that they have to use both a rough and a smooth layer, and that they have to make special templates of the planned picture. If you make a mistake, you can’t change it! It’s a very unforgiving medium. I now have much more respect for Michaelangelo than I did…and my former respect was enormous!
Afterward, we went to the Brancacchi (sp?) chapel, which is famous for its frescoes, particularly those by an artist whose name escapes me, but who was one of the earliest of the Renaissance painters. He began to use perspective, and moved art from that weird, two-dimensional gold-background ickiness of midieval painting. You know…the stuff that looks like icons in Byzantine art? I know that it’s supposed to have its own merits, but frankly, I don’t like painting before the Renaissance.
Of course, we had to go see David by Michaelangelo. It’s in the Galleria del Accedemia, and TOTALLY worth the price of admission! (Most museums charge about 6 euros per person. Sometimes, my kids got a reduced fare b/c they were under 25, but generally, the only reduced fares are for members of the European Union.) David is probably 15 feet tall, and so beautiful, and so beautifully made — like everything by Michaelangelo — that it’s another thing that’s hard to take in. Many years ago, when I worked at Hambrecht & Quist in San Francisco (late 1970s) a friend sent me a postcard of David. I hung it on the wall above my desk. In those days, it was considered a little shocking for a young woman (I was very, VERY young in the 1970s!) to have a picture of a naked man above her desk — particularly at a fairly conservative investment banking house. When co-workers asked me why I had it there, I always replied that looking at it made me know that there was a God…
Both in the beauty of the man, and the brilliance of the man who made it…
There are other sculptures by M. in the Galleria. There are four that are partially finished. They are figures of men emerging from the rough blocks of marble. They’re supposed to represent the soul trying to free itself from its bodily prison. Very effective.
Then we decided that we hadn’t climbed enough stairs in Pisa, so we went to see Brunelleschi’s dome (the Duomo). I saw a PBS special about it (or maybe History International). What happened was, the Romans invented the arch, as you no doubt know. They also invented domes. During the dark ages, people forgot how to make them. So in Florence, they built a big church and left the top off. They figured that someday, someone would be clever enough to make a dome for the roof. After a couple of hundred years, Brunelleschi figured it out. The dome he made is so extraordinary…and it’s so huge! So Ross and I walked to the top…480 (?) steps! More than Pisa, slightly less than 500. At about 250, there’s a terrace, where you can stop to catch your breath and to admire the ceiling paintings.
I must say, before I came to Italy, I thought that the Sistene Chapel was supposed to be so remarkable b/c it was an elaborate painting on a ceiling…I had no idea that EVERY SINGLE CEILING in Italy is painted! OK, a slight exageration…but I think that every church we’ve been in has had one…and even some hotels. Or at least some kind of decoration….cherubs, frescos, carvings, solid gold (remember the Doge’s palace?) etc.
Sorry if I’m boring all the non-museum goers among you, but hanging out in museums and reading plaques is my favorite hobby. My kids always tease me b/c it takes all day for me to go through a museum…I have to read every single plaque!
Since my daughter Jessica has been travelling, she keeps taking pictures of plaques and posting them with the title, “Look, Ma! A plaque!”
My friend Michael from SF asked for pictures, and I’m trying to post them on my daughter’s Webshots site. The address is http://community.webshots.com/user/jwdmeow . You can view as a slide show and see them large…but wait a day or so until I get them all posted.
The second full day in Florence we went to the holy-of-holies (in the art world) the Uffizi Gallery. In a Palace, of course, owned by the Medicis — of course! I ponied up the extra bucks for a private-ish (10 people) tour of the Vasari Corridor. This is difficult to get into, and is the private corridor/ hallway/ tunnel that leads from the Uffizi Palace to the Pitti Palace (I hope I’m spelling that correctly.) It comes out in the gardens of the latter.
Cosimo de Medici (the first) married Eleanor of Toledo (whose Dad was King of Naples, b/c Spain ruled southern Italy). She must have brought some big bucks (OK, lire) to the union, b/c she purchased the Pitti Palace for them just so their nine (!) kids could have a really big yard to play in! That yard is called the Boboli Gardens, and if you care anything about gardening, or lovely exteriors, this is a MUST SEE. It’s insanely huge…I hadn’t realized that Florence itself was quite this large…it’s filled with statuary and grottoes (including the Michaelangelo statues I mentioned before…the souls escaping the bodily prison ones. I don’t know which are the originals — the ones in the Garden or the ones in the Academy.) Really great gardens!
The Vasari Corridor goes on top of / over the Ponte Vecchio, so the Medici could look out the windows and see what the townsfolk were up to, down below. The secret way was installed so that Cosimo didn’t have to walk through town, exposing himself to assassins. Oh, the problems of the rich and powerful!
[complete sidebar: I used to run into Danielle Steel (the author of trashy novels) at Burke’s, my daughter’s school, b/c her daughters went there, too. She travelled everywhere with bodyguards and used to cringe when someone came near, b/c she was convinced that people were out to get her. I tried to take her coat for her once, b/c I was working coat check for a parent function, and you would have thought I’d offered to stab her grandmother! Sheesh…”sech airs”, as Herb Caen used to say…]
Back to the Vasari Corridor. It’s lined with paintings, but not many masterpieces. Some very good and/or famous ones, though, and they run through the 19th and 20th century, which was a relief, b/c quite frankly, I was getting overloaded with the Renaissance!
After the Corridor, we saw the actual Uffizi Gallery, which has more masterpieces in one spot than I’ve ever seen. I would expect that only the Louvre has more. You know how in most art museums they have A Botticelli or A Raphael? In the Uffizi, they have entire rooms! Each room is named after an artist…the Giotto room, the Raphael room, the Botticelli room…
I learned something I hadn’t known about Giotto (early Renaissance). He had been a shepherd, and hadn’t gone to art school, so didn’t know how he was supposed to paint. Therefore, instead of painting in that awful two-dimensional medieval style, where Mary always looks like a wooden doll and baby Jesus looks demented, he actually painted From Life (what a concept!) and gave Mary a bosom, and a normal face, and revolutionized not only the art world, but the rest of the world, too.
They had the original Venus rising from the waves, or whatever that Botticelli picture is called. We’ve always called it, “Venus on the half shell”, b/c I come from a long line of smart alecs. Florentines say that she’s still the most beloved and well-known woman in town. The Gallery also had Botticelli’s Springtime picture, which was completely lovely.
They had a very rare Michaelangelo painting…and his paintings look like sculpture…really wonderful drapery! Plus, there are those extremely masculine women. Of course, he was gay, so that may be why, but our guide also pointed out that it was very hard to get women models in those days.
I asked why all the women were blondes, and she said that women in Florence were historically blonde, and women in Venice were red-heads. Apparently, they died their hair in the middle ages!
Another sidebar: We heard about the “Bonfire of the Vanities” that happened when a Church person (pope?) thought that the Florentines were too worldly and insisted that all jewelry, toys for the children, fancy clothes, art, etc. had to be burned in a big bonfire in town. Of course, the wealthy and powerful saved some stuff, but quite a few masterpieces were destroyed. I won’t bother to point out the obvious….
BTW, that’s why all the gondolas in Venice are black. Another church person got all cranky that the rich people in town were decorating their gondolas and trying to out-do each other in ostentation (good thing that guy didn’t live in modern LA!).
And guess who lives in one of the towers of the Ponte Vecchio now? Giorgio Armani! We went past his house/condo in the Vasari Corridor. Our guide thought it was cool to touch the wall, and be that close to him…pretty amusing!
If you like New York — the energy, the urgency, the dirt, the people, the bustle — you’ll like Napoli. I said to Ross that I thought Naples was like New York, and he said that it was probably the other way around. If you only like the NY of the upper East Side, you will find Naples dirty and maybe scary (beggars, potential thieves, etc.) Since I’m a big city girl, I had no problem, and since my kids were reared in a city, they were fine, too.
Naples does have the best pizza and maybe gelato in the world — but then, they invented them! Naples was also the only place where we saw many overweight people (who weren’t Americans!) Not at all surprising, with the fabulous food. I read the book, “Eat, Pray, Love” before I went, and the author states that the best pizza is at Pizzeria da Michelle, about 10 blocks or so from the train station (up Via Corso Umberto), but I beg to differ. It was good, but we had some that was as good or better a couple of blocks from the National Museum. We were walking back to our hotel, and just stopped in some place on the street that had a brick oven (very important for pizza making).
We stayed at the Hotel Garden in the Piazza Garibaldi, which is right at the train station, so therefore quite busy and bustling. However, the hotel has very good windows to shut out the traffic noise. Traffic is INSANE in Naples! “Death by Vespa” became a real concern of ours. Like in NY, drivers don’t pay any attention to the concept of lanes. In fact, they don’t even bother painting lines on the streets, since it w/b a waste of time. Vespas and bigger motorcycles/scooters come right up on the sidewalk when they want to, and my foot was almost run over by a CAR that did the same thing!
Of course, screaming and gesticulating goes on quite frequently, too.
BTW, if you aren’t ready to puke already from my endless e-mails about Italy, here’s the link to my daughter’s:
You’ll notice that her main things are looking at or for, interesting creatures, and eating. Jessica took to the 2+ hour Italian lunch like a duck to water, and I thought she was going to do a Meg Ryan (When Harry Met Sally) over the bread in one restaurant. Ross and I had to convince her that the bread wouldn’t love her back…. [Ed: Can you tell I was raised in a snarky family? And besides, the food was the best thing about Italy, so why not enjoy it?]
The only reason we were really in Naples (besides eating pizza) was to go to Pompeii and Herculaneum. There’s a train that leaves from next to the main terminal that is called the Circumvesuviana. It goes from Naples to Sorrento, and around Mt. Vesuvius.
We went to Herculaneum first, and it was really impressive. They’re still excavating parts (many parts lie under the current town, which is called, “Ercolano”). You can see the ash from the volcano in the cliff where they’re digging, and it was about 4 stories high! Incredible. This poor town had suffered from an earthquake in the year 65 or so, and so it had just been re-built when the volcano wiped it out. Everything was therefore new-ish, and there was a real sense of a place stopped in an instant. There were amphoras in the shops, jars full of volcanic “hail” in the restaurants — that you could pick up and run your hands through — etc. The lintels over the doors had carbonized, as had the wooden stairs, so you could see where some person had lived above his shop….it was quite eerie and very cool…but sad, too.
The original mosaics were on the floors, which they let you walk all over (surprised me! Once I was at Westminster Abbey, and I had to don special slippers to walk on the mosaics in the Chapter House…) The frescos still look newly painted! There are still intact statues, although many of them had been moved to the National Archeological museum in Naples, which we’d seen the day before.
It seemed like a working-class city. The “big” houses weren’t overly grand, and it’s situated on the ocean, so I got the idea that it was a fishing village / port. I haven’t actually looked into its history, so I could just be romanticizing here….
Of course, the ocean now has a completely different coastline, b/c there was enough ash to move the ENTIRE COAST back by 400 meters! It’s really hard (for me) to grasp the enormity of the calamity…
We then went to Pompeii, which was very different in feeling. It’s a much larger city, for one thing, and it was obviously much more wealthy. It has an amphitheater, and huge houses, and large public baths, etc. It’s also much more crowded with tourists. The best part was a lovely garden that grows native plants. Jessica and I got some perfume made from flowers there. It was nice to see something living and growing amid all that death.
Pompeii still has two of the bodies (there may be more, but we didn’t cover the whole city). These are the only things that made me understand the tragedy. Otherwise, walking around Pompeii is just like walking around the Roman ruins…you realize, intellectually, that real people walked here a couple of thousand years ago, but it’s not a visceral understanding. Or at least, it wasn’t to me.
The actual bodies, however, made it real. One old man had curled up on his side, as if to sleep…perhaps realizing that death was imminent. He looked almost as if he was gently smiling. Another man was contorted, and looked as if he had been screaming before his mouth was filled with ash. It was pretty horrible. You could see his sandal straps and cloth of his toga, etc. All preserved like a plaster cast…except it wasn’t a cast, it was real. We also went to a villa nearby that had two more bodies…one of a child and another adult.
Otherwise, Pompeii was “looted” so long ago by the un-scientific archaelogists of the 18th and 19th centuries that there’s very little there. Most of the frescos and mosaics have been removed or covered up (in the case of the floors, by grass). We did see a brothel, which was sort of a hoot. Tiny rooms with stone beds (one hopes that they originally had softer mattresses!) with frescos of sexual positions around the walls….in case the clients had no imagination, I guess…or maybe to give the women some variety in their work….
We were back in Rome just for a day, but rushed off to see St. Theresa of Avilla (statue) at Santa Maria Vittoria church. Ross had heard that it was wonderful. According to St. T’s autobiography, she was dreaming and was gripped with religious ecstasy. She dreamed that an angel shot a dart of love into her, and she was filled with love. So the statue looks like a woman having an orgasm while cupid shoots an arrow at her. Really very weird.
Good sculpture, though. It’s by Bernini.
Went to the Spanish Steps, which we’d missed before. There was some kind of rally going on, with lots of yelling. Jessica thought that it was sports-related, and it probably was. Then we went to Keats’ house! at the base of the steps! So very, very cool. He is still one of my very favorite poets. They had a wonderful exhibit about Shelley and Byron, too, who had lived in Italy. And we went past a plaque at one point that said Elizabeth Barrett Browning lived there. I love these plaques! They’re all over, and state, in the most prosaic way, things that to me seem so amazing! In Venice, there was one where Robert Browning died. I started to get the idea that all 19th century intellectuals moved to Italy…and why not? I want to….
Had a cocktail on the Via Veneto at an outdoor cafe and watched the world go by…what a wonderful way to live!
Got up at the crack of dawn the next day b/c my children are both insane and think it’s necessary to get to an airport 4 or 5 hours before one’s flight. They inherited this insanity from their father. Even before 9-11, he used to get to airports a minimum of two hours early. I like to saunter in as the plane’s closing its doors….
And a final word about Italian guides and receptionists. We often found that the main qualification for being a guide or a receptionist was to be really nasty! The funniest one was at the Uffizi, where there is a door marked, “Information” and the woman yelled at us for disturbing her, before she threw us out. Our guide at the Doge’s Palace in Venice was comically cranky…but I suppose if you had to deal with tourists all day, it might color your outlook.
Generally, the Italian people were wonderfully friendly and helpful. All the mean ones get jobs helping tourists….
Tags: Travel
jwdmeow
I love how you left off the part where I said that you were a sissy for not climbing to the top of Brunelleschi’s Dome!
(Mama Snark — doo, doo, doodly-do; Mama Snark — doo, doo, doodly-do)
Paragraph separaters might have helped…but thanks for posting, sweetie! I hope your readers don’t fall over dead from boredom…
snarky!
I did put in paragraphs, but I occasionally have problems formatting in bootsnall – let’s see if I can fix it.