We have been quite active since the last posting!The last time I sent something, Gay and I were enjoying the sights, sounds, and food of Venice.We have since taken the train to Frankfurt, rented a car, and driven to Eisenach and Erfurt.I will post a number of photos to show you some of what we have been doing and what we have seen.
This is a photo showing a building with the inscription showing Murano. It is an island in the Venetian lagoon. For centuries, it has had a creative and thriving glass making industry. The art that is produced is amazing.
There were a number of exhibits of glass art to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Italy becoming a nation. This is the one we liked the best.
After Murano, we visited the island of Burano. It is known both for it lace making industry (Again, incredible.) and for the pastel color scheme of the houses.
On August 13th, we were back exploring Venice itself. The picture above is of the Doge's palace. The Doge was one of the important leaders in the Venetian republic.
The Venetian leadership often used intrigue and anonymous denunciations to keep control within the republic. This photo shows the slot someone could use to slip through such a secret written denunciation.
Here is a bit of irony. This painting showing the Doge paying homage to Mary and the Christ Child is the room into which the secret denunciations would come. So, the official presentation was that the leadership was following Christ while it was actually using secret means to condemn a number of its citizens.
One of the striking experiences we have had was just how strong the veneration of Mary is in this part of the world. This painting shows the bodily assumption of Mary into heaven.
Here are a couple of photos of us enjoying Venice.
August 14th was our long travel day by train to Frankfurt. This photo is in the morning as we are leaving Venice.
This is from the train as we are passing through northern Itlay.
We have made it into Germany. Do you think that this is a special welcoming gift?
After we picked up the rental car, our first stop was Eisenach. This is a photo of Luther house. Luther stayed here while he was studying in upper grammar school.
One of the exhibits in the Luther House had to do with Lutheran parsonage life. No longer was it a celibate priest but a married pastor. The parsonage became a place for meetings, discussion, and a source of social action. When Gay saw this, she gave words to the woman, "You invited how many to dinner?"
Just outside of Eisenach is the Wartburg Castle. This is where Luther was taken, for his safety, after the Diet of Worms at which he had refused to recant his beliefs.
This is the room in the Warburg where Luther stayed. It was this room in which he translated the New Testament into German in the space of eight months.
This is a view of Eisenach from the front gate of the Wartburg.
It is now August 15th and we have made it to Erfurt which is another center of activity for Martin Luther. This is a picture of the Predigerkirche (Preachers Church). It became a Lutheran church in the Reformation.
Though it is hard to see, I am including this photo. It comes from the Predigerkirche and the painting is one of the oldest in Erfurt. It depicts the death of Mary. This is in contrast to the doctrine and paintings of Mary's assumption into heaven. This painting which comes from the 14th century shows a time before the doctrine of her assumption became universal in the Roman Catholic church.
This photo shows the Augustinian cloister which Luther joined as a monk.
This is the sole remaining building of the University of Erfurt where Luther studied.
This is the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Erfurt. This is where Luther was ordained into the priesthood.
This picture shows the altar area of the cathedral. It was here that Luther was so paralyzed by fright that he almost was not able to say his first Mass.
This brings us up to the present. As you can see, we have been experiencing much in our travels.We now have less than a week left in Europe.It has been a rich experience.
We have made it to Venice!The train ride from Florence to Venice went without a problem.After getting in, we got three day “Vaporetti” passes.These are the water buses and are the way to get around.
This was our first view of the Grand Canal which is the "main street" of Venice.
After checking in and getting great help from the clerk at our hotel, we headed out to explore.Our first stop was to Piazza San Marco.This is probably the place most people want to get to when they come to Venice.The following are several photos of the church and the piazza.
Gay and I enjoyed our time inside San Marco/St. Mark's. A striking piece was the overwhelming Byzantine influence. As the church was built before the Great Schism, east and west were not split. Indeed, the eastern influence in art would go on in the west for another couple hundred years. The following photos are from St. Mark's.
This is the main dome. It shows a classic Byzantine theme of Christ as pantocrator- ruler of the world.
A view of the chancel from the balcony
These horses were cast in the time of Alexander the Great and came to Venice as booty from the Crusade which sacked Christian Constinople.
This next link is to a video showing one of the nightly forms of entertainment.There are a number of combos which play most nights.I took this video in the late afternoon.They were still playing when we were back at 9:00 p.m. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UgTk4DuGDI
Today we had reservations to go to the Accademia which is the museum housing Michelangelo’s David.We toured the museum which also has quite a collection of Florentine religious art from the 13th century through the 16th century.It was very well done and gave a good understanding of the changes which were made throughout the period.The way I would describe it is that it goes from a Byzantine icon style to an increasingly realistic style.The museum allows people to get quite close to David which is a tremendous gift.I was happy to take a photo of this masterpiece.
Following our time in the museum, we walked over to the Piazzale Michelangiolo.This is a park on a small bluff south of the Arno River which overlooks Florence.The day was gorgeous and the scene beautiful.
This is a view of the old city wall.
The following video link gives a panorama of Florence.
Following that we walked over to Santo Spirito basilica.Though it was not open, this is where the priests allowed Michelangelo to do dissections which at the time were forbidden.
As we were walking following that, Gay noticed a sign for a Lutheran church!It was fun to have an outpost of the Reformation in Florence.
You may be able to read the German above the door- "Ein Feste Burg ist Unser Gott"- "A Mighty Fortress is our God."
The following photo is of the church's founding plaque. The verse is from 1Peter 1:25 and translated says, "The Word of the Lord remains forever."
We then walked over to the Santa Croce Basilica.As a basilica, it is very large and is the burial place of many famous people from the region.
This is the tomb of Galileo.
This is the tomb of Michelangelo.
But, the most important one for Italians is the following. Take a guess before you look at the caption.
This is the tomb of Dante who by his work fathered the modern Italian language.
Gay and I will be going out for dinner after I send this and though we have already had gelato (a recurring theme of our time in Italy), we may have it again.
It has been awhile since my last blog owing to several things. 1. It is good to spend time with Gay and less time on the computer. 2. Our schedule has been very full. 3. I have had limited Wi-Fi access. I ask your understanding for all of this.
Today, there is an opening in the schedule and I will be glad to fill you in.
Monday, August 1st- Gay and I met at the DaVinci airport on Monday. We were able to connect without any trouble even without either of us having a cell phone!
We took the bus into Rome and enjoyed seeing the city as we drove by. The bus dropped up off close to the Termini train station. We had picked a hotel a few blocks away from it. We got a bit lost (This would be a recurring theme.) but we found our hotel. The room was ready and we dropped off our bags to explore the area. I was concerned that Gay would be tired from all the travel and jet lag but she was ready to go.
We started walking and headed for sites in which we were interested. We used a map and I regularly asked police officers about directions. They were all friendly and helpful. That first day, the first landmark we saw was a column to the Roman Emporer Trajan but now topped by St. Peter. After that we stumbled onto a large monument to the founding of the Italian republic. After that, we wandered around and found the Trevi fountain.
Here is proof that Gay made it to Rome!
As we walked around looking for other sites, we stumbled onto a number of churches. It seems that Rome has more churches than just about any other place on earth.
This is a picture of a "local, neighborhood" church. It was quite amazing.
An interesting point from a Lutheran perspective, we came across two churches which expressly dealt with indulgences.
This photo is from the Church of Mary Magdalene. We were simply walking by and decided to go in. It had a museum which was only open for an hour and a half on Mondays. We happened to hit that time and went in. This is a "papal bull" from Leo X authorizing the sale of indulgences for the "fabbricia" of St. Peter's. It is dated January 10, 1517. Luther would post the 95 theses later that year.
A little later that afternoon, we came across a church of the 12 apostles. At least two are said to have their tombs in a crypt in the building. The photo which follows is of the lintel above the front door.
Though my Latin is not good, I interprest the words to say that plenary indulgences (These are the ones which cover all sins for all time.) are here for the living and the dead. Here, one of the causes of the Reformation is literaly "written in stone". It made my head swim.
We continued our walking tour and found the Spanish Steps and the Borghese Park. In addition, we made our way to the Pantheon and went in to this ancient temple to the gods which was later turned into a church.
That was plenty for the first day. We found a place for dinner and eventually found our way back to the hotel to drop into bed.
Tuesday, August 2nd- This is the day we had reserved for the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum. We walked there from our hotel and did not get lost! It is amazing what one day can do to help with getting a feel for things. (This is not to say we did not get lost again but we were better able to orient ourselves.)
The Colosseum as its name suggests is huge and we spent a couple of hours there. We had purchased Roma passes which enabled us to by pass the very long entrance line. It was a purchase well worth it.
After touring the Colosseum and the many exhibits, we headed for the nearby Palatine Hill on the way grabbing lunch. The Palatine Hill was where many emperors had their palaces and is the site where many decisions involving all of the Roman Empire were made.
We then went down into the adjacent Roman Forum. This was the "main street" of ancient Rome. Among the many items there was the Arch of Titus.
This arch celebrates Titus' victory over the Jews in their revolt which ran from 66-70 AD. (It also ties together parts of my sabbatical with my time in Israel and our time in Italy.)
Once again, we found a place for dinner. It was a fun, family style one in which there seemed to be few other tourists. We left, had our obligatory gelato, and crashed into bed.
Wednesday, August 3rd- We headed for St. Peter's and the Vatican. We were warned in our Rick Steves' guidebook not to go until mid afternoon if we did not reservations which we did not. So, the day began by taking the bus to a little farmers' market area known as Campo de Fiore. We had a good time looking at the various offerings and bought some pasta spice mixes which were in bulk.
When we got done there, we caught a bus back to our hotel and dropped off our purchases. Then we took the metro/subway to the area by the Vatican. Our first stop was to Castle Sant' Angelo. Though begun as a burial tomb for Emperor Hadrian, it was later used by many popes as a fortress in times of trouble. We walked up and down its many stairs and made it to the top which affords a great view of Rome.
With that accomplished, we walked over to the Vatican. The line was long to get into St. Peter's so we headed for the Vatican Museum whose crown jewel is the Sistine Chapel. The line moved well and we were soon in. According to Rick Steves (He is a new great friend!), the museum has four miles of floor and he suggests to walk quickly through the collections in order to get to the Sistine Chapel. We followed his advice and we were still in the museum for over two hours. (My irreverent take on it, is that is like a museum based on an IKEA floor plan. One cannot get in and simply get what one wants. Instead, one must go through the whole place.)
The iconic center of the ceiling.
Then, we went over to St. Peter's. It is nothing if not huge! Directly to the right of the front doors is the Pieta by Michelangelo. It is such a beautiful piece.
The following video shows various scenes from the Colosseum, the top of Castle Sant' Angelo, and the chancel at St. Peter's.
We ended our day by taking the bus to the Trastevere area of Rome for a meal at a great little restaurant followed by gelato.
Thursday, August 4th- After having three long days of walking and taking in, we thought a more relaxed day would be good. Our only scheduled activity was to go to the Borghese Museum. This is a gem filled with painting and sculpture. Unfortunately, photos were not allowed so I cannot share with you some of the terrific pieces we saw. The rest of the day was spent "hanging out" in the park, reading, and finally scouting out the train station for leaving the next day.
Friday, August 5th- We got up early and got packed. We headed to the Termini station and were at the platform we thought was the one for our train. A "local" asked us which train and I showed him our tickets. He told us we were at the wrong platform and took my bag. He also took Gay's and we followed him to the right train. He evidently makes a living this way and wanted a hefty reward. I did give him some Euros though not as much as he wanted.
In our compartment, there were two other couples, one from Australia and one from California. All of us were headed for Cinque Terre on the Tusan seacoast though to different villages. We enjoyed one another's company for the trip. Gay and I changed trains at La Spezia and made it to our destination, Riomaggiori.
This is a view looking north from Riomaggiori.
Saturday, August 6th- There is a hiking trail which links the five villages of the Cinque Terre. We took a local train to the northern most village and hiked south.
This is a view of Monterosso (the northern most village) from the hiking trail.
We ate lunch at the next village, Vernazza. While we ate, the church bells began to ring announcing a wedding. It was fun to see the fesitivities. As we were about to leave to continue our hike, we saw a local custom "up close". The bride and groom went to a balcony and threw out a lot of candy to the crowd below. It was a lot of fun.
We closed our day with another fun meal at a little restaurant. We have enjoyed almost all of our meals here and the people have been most welcoming. Again, we ended with gelato.
Sunday, August 7th- We had our personal devotions and then headed into the day. We took the train to Monterosso once again. This time it was to spend a little time at the beach. Monterosso has the best beach of the five.
We did get into the Mediterranean at least a bit!
Once again we ate lunch in Vernazza and took the train bach to Riomaggiori. When we got back, we took a shuttle to the trail head for a 13th century sanctuary. We hiked up about 30 minutes and got to the sanctuary which is the top of the headlands.
This is a view from the sanctuary.
For dinner, we went back to the same restaurant as we had such a great time the evening before. It was just as much fun the second time. And again, we ended the evening with gelato.
Monday, August 8th- We got up early and once again, it was time to take the train. We got the 8:37 to La Spezia and then the 9:15 to Viareggio. We got in there and the train to Florence was just about to leave. I put my arm into the closing doors and then put my back into opening them. Thankfully that worked and Gay and I were on our way to Florence.
We got in at noon and found our hotel without too much trouble. We stowed our bags and went exploring. We found a few landmarks and enjoyed lunch and dinner at places suggested once again by Rick Steves.
The Duomo is one of the striking churches in Florence.
Tuesday, August 9th- We have finally made it to today! Our major excursion was to go to the Uffizi Gallery. It has many incredible pieces but once again, no photos were permitted.
So, I shall simply sign off for now. It is a rich experience which Gay and I are greatly enjoying together.
