Ravenna

Sometimes when you are traveling you have to admit that as much as you want to, you cannot see everything. You have to make choices. We both wanted to go to Urbino, the most historically significant town in The Marches, but we also wanted to see Ravenna, home to be oldest and best preserved Byzantine mosaics in the world. Urbino sounded fascinating in the guidebooks. But I had heard about Ravenna ever since I was a sophomore at the University of Michigan taking art history. John and I talked it over, and 1500 hundred year old mosaics won. After having a lovely breakfast at the Castello di Monterado, we took the car and drove 90 minutes north to Ravenna. We found a place to park near the train station, and following the suggestion in one of our guidebooks we rented two bicycles there. We first looked at Ravenna’s historic piazza. It may have been 600 hundred years old, but it was not that fascinating. We went off in search of much older stuff. 

Our first stop was the Arian baptistry.  Now, I will not get into too much detail about theological matters, but the Arians were people who more or less believed that Jesus was something just a little less than completely divine. The whole business in the Nicene Creed about “begotten not made” is a response to Arianism. But even after most of Christendom had rejected Arianism in the fourth century, the barbarian invaders who overran Italy embraced it, particularly Theodoric, the king of the Goths. This was the baptistry of his fifth century church at Ravenna. Although most Arian art was later destroyed or just allowed to deteriorate, this one, for some reason, was preserved. Notice a couple things. First, Jesus is so totally naked that you can see his privates. That was never in my Sunday School materials. Second, notice the really buff guy on the left? He is the personification of the River Jordan depicted more or less as any pagan god might be in antiquity. 

We went next to look at a baptistry mosaic in the Church of San Francesco. But just as we arrived, siesta began and it would be closed for the next four hours or so. We biked on. Just around the corner we found the tomb of Dante Alighieri. There was a large group of German teenagers there, and I am confident that the poet would have assigned all of them to hell. When they cleared out, I snapped a quick picture of John. 

Right around the corner was a large mound covered with ivy. The interpretive material told us that during World War II the Italians had hid Dante’s body there — to protect him from the Germans! Maybe they should try that again. 

The most important site in Ravenna is the Church of San Vitale. It was built by the Emperor Justinian after he defeated the Goths and annexed Ravenna to the Byzantine empire in 540. This was the period of Ravenna’s greatest splendor. Notice the octagonal design. San Vitale does not look like much on the outside. Probably the brick was once covered with plater and painted brightly. 

But inside is where it really comes alive. These are the largest of Ravenna’s mosaics. Look at the image in the apse below. This is the traditional Byzantine image of Christ as Pantocrator or “All Ruling”. Notice that Jesus is depicted much as a young Roman nobleman. As was typical of the Romans, he has no beard. 

 Flanking the imperial Jesus on his right is the Emperor Justinian. 

Facing Justinian is the Empress Theodora. A former actress and courtesan — that is the kindest description — Theodora became one of the most powerful and sometimes despised women in antiquity. 

There are also biblical scenes. Here we have Jeremiah on the right and Moses on the left. Under the angels are two key scenes in the life of Abraham:  on the left and in the middle is the visit by the three young men to Abraham at the oak of Mamre, and on the right is the binding of Isaac. 

The images in the arch above the altar depict Jesus and the twelve apostles. These are were done about 20 years after the others, and frankly they not quite as good. But in this later mosaic Jesus sports a beard. This marks the beginning of medieval Christian iconography. 

I noticed the labyrinth on the floor in front of the altar. This is a shockingly new addition to the church dating from about 1500. 

Near San Vitale is the tomb of Galla Placidia (386-452), sister of the Roman emperor Honorius. I am not quite sure why they call it her tomb because she is not buried here, and never was buried here. Nevertheless, it is a small but stunning mausoleum. The ceiling, featuring a golden cross and stars on a field of azure, is the most famous part of the tomb. I did not particularly interest John or me. We did like the image of Saint Laurence shown below. He was martyred by being roasted over a slow fire. At one point in his torture he is supposed to have joked, “I’m done on this side. You can turn me over.” 

 Also impressive is the depiction of Christ the Good Shepherd. Images of the crucified Jesus are medieval:  the most common early depiction of Jesus is as shepherd. 

We went on our bikes across town where we saw baptistry. This one was done by the Orthodox, that is, those who agreed with the Nicene Creed. I could not see a whole lot of difference between this and the Arian baptistry, but apparently there are subtle but important differences in the imagery. 

Our final stop was the church of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo. It was built between 493 and 500. Most tours of churches in Italy begin with the words, “This church is in the shape of a Latin cross.” John was happy to discover that this one is not. It has the classic Roman basilica form of a long colonnaded hall with a semi-circular apse at one end. 

Apparently the Pope told Charlemagne he could take whatever he liked from this church and he walked off with just about everything he could. Only the mosaics were left behind. I loved this depiction of the three wise men. Notice that they are wearing pants. Persians, or Pathians as the Romans called them, were just about the only people in antiquity to wear pants. The Romans thought pants were really weird and frankly sort of unmanly. 

After a few hours we had seen enough and decided to get back on the motorway and return to Monterado. We love our palazzo! John went straight for the pool. 

After spending a couple happy hours at the pool (which had a great wifi signal, so I was happy), we dressed and walked once again around our castle. 

We went back to restaurant where we had eaten the previous evening. On a Monday night only a fraction of Sunday’s crowd was there. But the food was still great. On the advice of a German couple, we ordered the tiramasu for dessert. It was amazing, and very different from the usual glop that passes for this dish in the United States. 

Tomorrow we will start out trip to Venice. 

A Castle on a Hill

We woke up in our little bed and breakfast - and discovered another car in the parking lot! Apparently we were not the only guests, though we had no idea when the other people had arrived. The other couple were Italian, and I have never noticed them doing anything quietly, particularly at night. 

We had the usual Italian breakfast. I like almost all of the pastries, and the espresso is good as long as I can put some milk in it. But offerings like strawberry yoghurt with Coco Puffs for a topping — I’ll never figure that one out. 

After we packed up our first stop was Ascoli Picena. It has a charming Renaissance square. 

There was not much of interest in the churches there, and it was hard to visit them because it was a Sunday and people were actually using them for prayer. We were particularly disappointed that we could not see the cross in the Chiesa di San Francesco that supposedly has bled twice! We went to the local museum instead. The collection was not large, thigh it had a few decent pieces, particularly from the fifteenth century.

The prize piece of the collection, a stunning embroidered papal cope, turned out to be out of loan to one of the museums in Milan. After having an overpriced espresso and some gelato on the Piazza del Populo, we returned to the car and started north again.

On our way, John insisted that I stop the car so he could photograph the endless fields of sunflowers.

Our destination today is less a town than a hotel. Researching The Marches, John read about the Castello di Monterado, a grand palazzo in the Italian countryside. Here is the history of the place from the hotel website:

The castle building rises above the perimeter walls of an ancient parish church from the year one thousand, belonging to the monks of the Fonte Avellana hermitage.

Once owned by the Duke of Urbino, it passed on to the College of the Jesuit Fathers, to whom the present shape of the palace is owed, built in the early 1700’s to the designs of the architect Luigi Vanvitelli. Preserved from the period are the Jesuit style chapel, the immense cellars, some of the monastic cells and the crest of Pope Gregory XIII over the entrance door.

During Napoleonic occupation, the Castle and lands became an appanage of the viceroy of Italy, son of Giuseppina Beauharnais wife of the emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, Prince Eugène, who remained in possession of it even after the Congress of Vienna.

In 1824, it was inherited by his son Maximilian who, charmed by the place, turned it into a princely residence, having the nobility floor decorated with mythological frescoes, nearly all of which are preserved.

In 1846 the assets were acquired by the Papal State and then sold. Monterado was acquired by Count Cerasi, who arranged the park as it is still today. During World War II, the building was bombed and occupied by both of the warring parties.

The present owners have seen to careful restoration and reinstatement of the structure.

And all of this for a whole lot less than the Best Western in Rome. He had to book it.

We found it without much difficulty. The house dominates a hillside.

And the entrance, on a bridge above what must have once been a moat, is certainly impressive.

Our room is really a suite. There is a sitting room, a bathroom, a bedroom, and large balcony. Any one of these rooms, including the bathroom, is bigger than most of our accommodations so far. And who can complain about this panorama from your bedroom window?

The bedroom has an antique ceramic stove. 

And when you lie in bed, you look up at this marvelous trompe l’oeil ceiling.

Orlando, the home’s owner, offered us a choice of suites. John picked this one because of the balcony. It has one unusual feature - the now unused servants stairway would have once opened into the bathroom. The door has been replaced with a piece of glass. 

Nevertheless, when you are lying nakied in the tub, it is a little unnerving to be looking at a staircase. And, as John points out, the has all that beautiful Italian plumbing — so you are never quite sure how to turn the water off or on!

Guests are free to use any of the public rooms like this drawing room

or the library. 

There is a large pool. From the knoll on which the pool sits you can see the Adriatic about 20 miles away. 

But our favorite place in the castle is still our balcony. We pulled out two big armchairs from the sitting room and we still had enough space to park a Honda Civic.

In the evening we had to tear ourselves away from our roost to go get some dinner. The local taverna was crowded with people, all locals, mostly families, having those long Italian dinners. There were so many people they had to set up a separate tent to accommodate everybody. 

Up the Airy Mountain

We woke up this to discover that our neighborhood had been invaded. Villetta Barrea calls itself the “borgo di cervi” or “town of deer.” These animals have free reign of the town and each morning they come down to check things out and perhaps have a bit of somebody’s flowers to eat. 

They showed no fear whatsoever of John. In fact, I think this one was posing for a picture. 

And this doe was insistent that she wanted the cookies in John’s pocket. 

We had been told the previous day that our fellow hikers were two women from The Netherlands. They were staying in our hotel, and we met them at breakfast. Their names were Diana and Sybil. We learned that they were both born and raised in East Germany when it was still under Soviet domination. After university they both had moved to Holland and married Dutch men. After the usual Italian breakfast, we all went to the park office, paid our tour fee, and set off with Emmanuel, our guide, and Laura, his friend.

Diana is just to my left and Laura, just to my right. Sybil is the one in the pink shirt and Emmanuel, not surprisingly, is wearing his uniform. Our goal was to hike to the top of Mount Amaro. This is not the tallest peak in the Apennines, but it is perhaps the most accessible to hikers, and at 2793 meters - a little over 9000 feet - it is a relatively high peak for Italy. 

It started out quite easy. But it quickly became and relatively steep ascent, and before long we were scrambling over rocks when we passed the tree line. About this point, I was tempted to say, “I think I’ll meet you all on your way downhill.” But I kept going, and so did John.

We saw some interesting things along the way. The park is a refuge for two critically endangered species, the Marsican Bear and the Abruzzo Chamois. We did not see any of the bear, but we did have a chance, from a distance, to observe the chamois.

We also saw some tiny but stunningly beautiful alpine flowers

and butterflies. 

We finally made it to the top - 9,163 feet!

As we ate our lunch, we admired the panoramic vista

and the view of Villetta Barrea and Barrea.

Going downhill was actually harder for most of us. The Apennine Mountains are basically limestone, and most of the path of the mountain was marked by broken limestone. This made going down quite tough because you were never sure if you had a good foothold or not on the gravel. 

We made it down hill and back to the park office by about four o’clock. John and I would have loved to rest, but we knew we had about three hours of driving ahead of us to make it up the the town of Ascoli Picena in The Marches. So, we just put our stuff in the car and took off. We found our bed and breakfast without too much difficulty. 

Unfortunately, there was nobody there. We did have our phones, and I called the number. A man promised he would be there in about ten minutes. While we waited, we looked around. The building looked like it was old, but have been completely renovated in the past few months. It was at the end of a street in a tiny village about five kilometers outside of Ascoli Picena. One one side of the house was a newly planted grove of some kind of fruit tree; on the other side was the town cemetery. 

At least you know the neighbors will not be keeping you up at night!

Bruno arrived and showed us our room. As far as we can figure out, we are the only guests here. There is a pool in the back, and our smallish room opens up to the pool. Bruno told us that the only restaurant that would be open tonight in the area was in the medieval section of the village across the street. We unpacked, and as the sun began to set we went over to the old town. It was quite small, but beautifully restored. 

The restaurant had a weird kitschy feel. It was in a fourteenth century building, but it still seemed sort of fake at the same time. But the service was friendly and the food was decent enough. They actually had salad and we devoured the leafy greens along with our pizza. 

We came back, exhausted from our travels, but happy.