ITALY JOURNAL
Introduction
Could it have been a
sign? My alarm went off at 6:20 Monday morning.
No more than 20 seconds later as I was sitting up in bed, the power went
out and stayed out for an hour. As soon
as it did, I laid back down for a minute or two. Of course, the fact that I’m writing about
this now says that it wasn’t really a bad sign.
But it did make for an interesting shower with a Maglite
and a fun time making sure everything was packed. In case you are thinking that surely the sun
would come up soon, we just did daylight savings time in Greece (a week earlier than the states) so it was quite
dark outside until about 7 AM. But it was all part of an
interesting experience that actually came before the trip.
This was our first trip to
take our “technology” on. We have FM
receiver units with headphones that receive a signal from our tour guide, or whoever
is wearing the microphone unit. It was
really nice to be able to wonder around and look at different things while
still being able to hear over the crowds around us. On past trips, we haven’t used the equipment
because of rain or threats of rain.
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Monday,
March 31st
The morning was actually
clear outside for a while. It was
another of the string of nice days we’ve had in Porto Rafti
since our trip to Mykonos. As we took off and climbed to cruising
altitude, I was able to see the port of Rafina (where
we took off for Mykonos
last week), the Olympic Park in Athens, the Corinthian Canal, and the Acrocorinth. As we descended over Rome, I was able to see the Colosseum,
Circus Maximus, and several other big landmarks.
Italy is a country of 56 million people in a landmass smaller than Texas. Compared
with Greece, it is much more crowded, but things seem much more
spread out. The boot shaped peninsula
with 9,000 miles of coastline has the Appenies Mountains for a backbone with the Alps forming a
northern border. Three major rivers run
through the country. They are the Po
in the north, the Arno in Florence, and the Tiber in Rome.
Rome is a city of 3.5 million people. It is in the region of Lazio, which is
characterized by some funny looking, umbrella shaped pine trees. I was very impressed with the city as we
walked around it on our first day.
Compared with Athens, there is much more open space and the air is
cleaner. The buildings are taller in Italy as compared with Greece because there are no earthquakes to worry
about. But the rooftops you can see all
have one thing in common: they are littered with TV antennas.
In Rome alone, there are over 440 churches. Paul and Peter are big names here, along with
Mary. According to tradition, Paul was
beheaded and Peter was crucified upside down in the city. Not only did Rome have some Biblical connections, but it has
connections with Egypt as well. Thirteen obelisks were
taken by the Roman Empire along with one pyramid. They still stand as monuments in the city and
are reminders of just how vast and powerful the Roman Empire once was.
From the 6th
century on, Rome was the center of Catholic Christianity. Relics (items associated with the holy
family, apostles, or saints) have been collected and worshipped since the 11th
century. In some cases, these relics
have been considered important enough to build an entire church to house
them. The church of Saint Peter in Chains is one such place.
The tradition says that the two chains once were used to hold Peter
captive, but were separated at the time when the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox
churches split. Later, the chain held by
the Orthodox Church miraculously made its way back to the other and they linked
together. Today these chains are
displayed in a gold case at the St. Peter in Chains church.
The church also contains
another item of interest. The “Moses
Project” was built as part of a series of statues commissioned for Pope Julius II’s tomb. This is
one of the few statues ever completed for this tomb, as Michelangelo grew very
frustrated with the Pope because of a lack of funding. Michelangelo eventually walked out on the
Pope because of his frustration and as punishment was told to do the Sistine
Chapel…ceiling. I’ll say more on that
later.
The Colosseum
was constructed under Vespasian and Titus, the Flavian emperors. It
was a symbol of entertainment and a reminder to us of the only previous civilization
to match the amount of money we spend on entertaining ourselves. It was inaugurated in AD 80 with 100 straight
days of events including gladiatorial games.
The facility could seat 50,000 people, was covered completely with
marble, had a tent to protect from sun and rain, and provided a model for how
our modern stadiums would be constructed.
The Colosseum was made to allow crowds to
enter and exit quickly. It also could be
manipulated and used for many different events from fighting to plays and even
staged naval battles (capacity was reduced to about 25,000 when the facility
was filled with water).
Contrary to what many have
said, it is unlikely that Christians were martyred in the Colosseum,
but rather in the Circus Maximus. This stadium had a capacity of 250,000
people! Unfortunately, only the open
area where it once stood remains today.
The materials used in its construction have been taken away and used in
other buildings just as the marble was taken away from the Colosseum.
The Arch of Titus covers a
walkway between the Roman forum and the Colosseum. It was constructed to commemorate the
suppression of the Hebrew rebellion. It
was the Roman practice to give everyone one chance. As long as you paid taxes and kept the peace,
you were allowed to live life as you pleased in the Roman Empire. But in AD
66, the Jews in Jerusalem started trouble and the Roman’s, led by Titus
destroyed Jerusalem.
Though
during biblical times, Rome was an empire, at one time, Rome was a republic. SPQR (Senatus Populusque Quiritum Romanorum), meaning the "Senate and People of
Rome" was their symbol. This symbol
can still be found on monuments, old and new.
Members of the Senate killed Julius Caesar, considered by some to be the
first emperor of Rome, after he appointed himself
dictator for life. Octavian would not
make the same mistakes of Julius Caesar, and would become the actual first
emperor of Rome.
This took Roman power to new heights, but over time the empire
declined. As always seems to be the
case, empires cannot be controlled after they reach a certain size.
The
Romans made great use of their military early in their history. When soldiers were not fighting, they built
infrastructure such as roads and aqueducts.
Obviously they were very good at it because their roads still exist
today. The expression, “All roads lead
to Rome,” was really true. We have the evidence of it.
Several
other sites of the day were the Church of Saint Joseph of the Carpenters where
tradition holds that Peter and Paul were imprisoned, the Piazza del Campidoglio, and the Monument of Vittorio Emanuele
II who was the first king of united Italy.
The
Catacombs were our last stop as a group for the day. The Catacombs (down hollow) are systems of
tunnels outside of the old city walls where Christians buried their dead. Over 40 different systems of tunnels have
been found and there were possibly around 5 million bodies buried here during
their usage up until the 4th century when Constantine legalized Christianity. Apparently there was a misunderstanding among
Christians that the body must be preserved for the afterlife. Roman law required cremation though because
of health reasons. This forced burial in
underground tunnels that were originally used by criminals. Contrary to what many say, Christians never
lived in the Catacombs and the Romans did know about the tunnels. They simply tolerated it, like many other
things. Those buried in an arch shaped
grave were likely martyrs. Also,
Catholics believe that there are many of the early popes buried there. These men would probably have never claimed
this status though they were likely elders or deacons in the church.
After
returning to our hotel, we were released to walk the streets of Rome.
I went with Brandon and others to at least have someone with some
knowledge of the city. We found a nice
pizza place and a small, family owned gelato place. Brandon talked with the owner for quite
some time about soccer and all sorts of other stuff. Then Kiley and I
went back to the Colosseum to see it lit up at night
and also returned to some of the other spots we visited near the Colosseum. It was a
long day and my feet were killing me by the end, but it was worth it.
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Tuesday,
April 1st
Today
we did nothing…April fools! Haha! Actually,
today we took the metro to the Vatican. That was one crazy experience because we were
trying to get on the metro along with every other person in the city who were going to work. A
little pushing fight broke out between some older business man who was trying
to get off the train and a younger person trying to get on the train. I guess the guy thought we all weren’t
allowing a wide enough lane for him to get off.
It was really crazy having to watch for pickpockets and make sure a
crazy person didn’t attack you for invading their personal space. Oh, and Jonathan Galloway came on one of
later trains and he had an interesting story to tell. A little lady started to hit him because he
apparently wasn’t moving fast enough.
Jonathan is deathly afraid of public transportation and avoids it at all
costs. To see the look on his face when
he got off the metro was so funny though.
Anyway, after 4 or 5 metros came through, we all made it to the Ottaviano stop near the Vatican.
The
Vatican is independent of Italy. It has sovereignty like other nations, but
its power and control over land is not what it once was. Currently the Vatican is 102 hectares and will
likely remain that way. They have their
own daily newspaper and sell their own stamps and such. To those of you reading this, I did not send
any post cards your way from the city so don’t be expecting them. J After walking through a gate and some
pillars, we were standing before St. Peter’s Basilica—the largest
Catholic/Christian church in the world.
When you stand in the middle of the courtyard though, it doesn’t seem to
be so huge. That is only because
everything around it matches its magnificent size to keep the church from
seeming out of place. However, when it
was built, that was the effect they were going for. It was meant to be the biggest ever made and
remain that way; which it has. Pope
Julius II commissioned the current building although it wasn’t begun until
after his death.
St. Peters is 610 feet in length and
from the floor to the top of the dome is 448 feet tall. This is only 30 feet short of the tallest
pyramid, but there is a difference. It
is much easier to support stone upon stone that it is to support a dome over
air. The engineering of Michelangelo and
others before him to construct this church is truly amazing. Another thing about St. Peter’s is that the
church is on a slight hill. Once again,
because the building and everything around the square of St. Peter’s is so large, you simply
do not notice…until you start to walk towards it.
Michelangelo’s
first Pietà is one of the first pieces we were able
to see inside the basilica. It is now
behind glass because several years ago, a student attacked the sculpture with a
hammer. Until then, you could still walk
around the sculpture, which is what Michelangelo intended. This piece of Mary holding the body of her
son is perfect. And it was apparently a
piece that Michelangelo really loved because he did it 4 times including the
final one which he was still working on at his death. At age 24, he had completed this first Pietà. Because of
his pride and someone daring to call its creator a Roman, he went during the
night and added “Michelangelo of Florence” to across a piece of Mary’s
garment. This was at a time when works
were not signed by artists, but he allowed his big head to get in the way.
The
rest of the basilica contains other sculptures and paintings. These had a significant purpose in their time
because the majority of the church was illiterate. Placing the Bible in pictures allowed it to
be understood. Over time, however, these
things have become more than just illustrations of scripture and have gone so
far as to add to or manipulate it. We
must be careful in our churches today not to allow these things to cause us to break
the 1st and 2nd commandments (Exodus
20:1-6).
The
construction of St. Peter’s was one of the main reasons for the Protestant
Reformation led by Martin Luther. This
project required massive amounts of funding and led to the selling of
indulgences, among other things.
Although this was just one of the points in Luther’s thesis, it is an
important one and a point at which someone tried to get the church back on the
right track.
A
couple centuries ago, an effort began to collect early artifacts and relics of
the Catholic Church and assemble them at the Vatican. They are now displayed in the Vatican
Museums. Our trip through the museums
was hurried, but Dr. Edwards stopped to explain various pieces of importance as
we headed towards our focal point—the Sistine Chapel. The chapel is named after Sixto
IV who became pope in the 1470s. It was
meant to be a private chapel for those who were part of the Catholic
hierarchy.
Meanwhile,
Michelangelo was developing in his skill as an artist. At age 13, he approached Ghirlandaio
(spelling according to Brandon) and asked to be a paid
apprentice. After seeing some of his
work, he agreed to teach him, but Michelangelo would eventually surpass his
teacher. At the time, ceilings were only
starry scenes but after Michelangelo walked out on Pope Julius II’s job and was caught, the Pope asked him to do the
unthinkable…a ceiling. On top of that,
Michelangelo was not a painter. He
preferred sculpture and had great debates with Leonardo over which the better
of the two arts. Michelangelo didn’t
like the job, but he did it over the course of 4 years without any help. In order to paint on the concave ceiling, he
first had to design a grid and develop the scenes for each one. He chose scenes from creation with the
creation of man in the center. He then
chose some other scenes from Genesis and some of the prophets. Intermingled with the prophets though, he
placed some pagan figures. This is
something that could only happen during this part of the renaissance. After 4 years of work, his masterpiece was
complete and people flocked to see this private chapel.
Twenty-two
years later, he was asked to paint the back wall of the chapel. For this scene, he chose to paint his view of
Dante’s Hell scene. At this point, he
was in a different stage of his life and was struggling with his own salvation
because of his bad attitude earlier in life.
In his separation of the sheep and the goats, he placed himself in the
painting with the goats.
During
the afternoon, we were allowed to explore on our own or continue with Dr.
Edwards to several other sites. Rachel
and I took off to visit the Capitoline Museums, the
Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, the Church of Santa
Maria of the Concezione (which contains the “Church
of the Bones”), and the Church of Santa Maria of the Vittoria.
The
“Church of the Bones” was probably my favorite of our stops. In the rooms, everything is designed with
bones, even the light fixtures. Because
pictures were not allowed, the pictures on the website were scanned from
postcards.
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Wednesday,
April 2nd
After
a morning drive to Florence, we set out on a walking
tour of Florence. The Church
of the Holy Cross was our first stop of the day. It is gothic in style except for the façade
which was done during the renaissance out of marble. The gothic style is characterized by pointed
arches and was a symbol of the people trying to reach greater heights. The walls of gothic churches are also thinner
than previous churches. Today the church
serves to house several items of cultural significance. The tombs of Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564),
Nicolo Machiaveli (1469-1527), and Galileo
Galilei (1564-1642) are there along with others.
Roman
squares come from the concept of the Greek forums and were the centers of
business, religion, and politics. The
Piazza della Signoria
(Square of the Lordships) was created by the Medici family of Florence. They became very powerful, ruling the city
for three centuries. Their unpopularity
with the people caused them to build a passageway from their office building to
their palace so that they did not have to walk on the streets.
The
Ponte Vecchaio (Old Bridge) has stood since
1345. It is the oldest bridge in Florence and has survived two
close calls in recent years. During the
German retreat in World War II, all bridges except for the Ponte Vecchaio were destroyed in order to slow down the American
advance. The Germans were counting on
the old bridge collapsing under the weight of the heavy equipment of US
forces. They were wrong, and the US was able to replace the
destroyed bridges within several hours anyway.
Also in 1966, a human mistake led to the worst flood Florence has ever seen. Much of the art work in the city was damaged
and some was destroyed. But the bridge
withstood the wall of water.
The
Church of Saint Mary of the Flower, the
baptistery, and the bell tower make up the Duomo of
Florence. The dome of the church was
constructed by Brunelleschi without the help of formwork as was always
necessary before. This was amazing for
the man who was once a goldsmith, but left his profession after losing a
contest. Instead of capping his dome by
rounding it off, he placed the equivalent of a cherry on top. His feat of engineering is still marveled at
today.
After visiting the Church of Santa Maria Novella, we were allowed to roam the city of Florence. I wandered
through the San
Lorenzo street market attempting to stay warm and keep dry. It was fun bargaining with the vendors for
leather and other things.
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Thursday, April 3rd
Today we spent a couple
hours in the Uffizi Gallery which was once the office building of the Medici
family. It also served as a personal art
gallery of the family who collected art from many different sources. Because Vasari used
iron in the construction of the building, the upper floor had many windows
allowing for natural lighting on the artwork.
Dr. Edwards chose several pieces to tell us about. I thought it was neat to see the progression
as we passed through rooms with works from the end of the middle ages and moved
forward into the Renaissance. Realism
and depth perception were two of the advances during this time period. Also there was an effort to bring the divine
to the human.
One example of advancement
in realism was Fillipino Lippi’s
adoration scene. The Madonna was always
painted with an uncomfortable looking tilted head, but he took the Madonna and
placed her in a renaissance garden and a more natural position with the Christ
child.
I enjoyed taking the time
to admire this art work though I am not good at reading paintings. Dr. Edwards made the day time worth it though
by sharing his knowledge with us (And since you’re reading this Dr. Edwards,
Thank you! You brought Italy to life for us.).
After a short walk, we
arrived at the museum that houses the David.
This marble statue of Michelangelo took a dedicated 2 and a half years to complete.
It stands 14 feet tall and upon completion, was claimed as the symbol of
Florence.
Michelangelo had taken on a new way of presenting David. Until this time, David was shown after
defeating Goliath, but this statue shows David going out to meet Goliath. He is confident of himself with his slingshot
in his left hand and a stone in his right.
Florence liked this as a symbol because it characterized
their desire to stand up to Rome
and the authority of the Pope.
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Friday,
April 4th
We
were given the final morning as free time.
I took advantage of the opportunity to walk south of the Arno River and see the Pitti Palace and another church
(although it was closed because of morning mass). There was also a street named for Saint Iacopo which I wanted a picture of. I revisited the Duomo
and also climbed to Michelangelo’s Square which offers great views from above
the city.
Around
1 PM, we boarded a bus and headed back to Rome to catch our flight. Three of our group had to stay behind
though. Jim and Amy both had food
poisoning from something in Rome. Vikki stayed behind to take care of
them. Several others also had problems
with food poisoning but were able to return with us to Porto Rafti.
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Final
Thoughts
Our guide in the catacombs
referred to the day a martyr died as the “Dias natalles”
or Day of Birth. I think that is a neat
idea or way to think about death, although in many ways, that is how I already
thought about it, at least in terms of baptism.
Baptism represents our death to self and our birth in Christ. That’s why in my head I often think of the
happy birthday song when people are baptized.
Though the Papacy is
something I disagree with, it was interesting to learn about its history. Catholics find roots of the Papacy in Matthew
16:18 when Jesus figuratively assigns the keys of heaven to Peter. This happens after Peter’s confession of
Christ as the Son of the living God which is something I as a Christian have
done and because of that, I am able to receive the same gift of eternal life in
heaven. Though Catholics say Peter was
the first pope, there are 3 lists which trace the pope from Peter until a later
time when the position in the hierarchy was actually established.
One thing that bothered me
about Florence was that every museum and many churches wanted 3 or
4 euros even for a student ticket. The Duomo was free to enter, but to ascend the 400+ steps to
the top would cost you 6 euro. And in
addition, pictures were not supposed to be taken in most of these places. It seems to me that it’s not about the art or
the appreciation of it. It’s about
making money off of it by charging excessively to see it or selling overpriced
prints of the art because you won’t allow pictures. The no flash rule I can understand, but
anything beyond that seems unwarranted.
Florence and Rome and the amount of free time we had in each place
wet my appetite for free travel. In only
2 week’s time, I will be wandering all over Europe with a group of 4 other friends.
How cool is that!?!
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