Olympia, Greece – The Original Olympic Games

We set sail for the port of Katakolon on the west side of the Peloponnesian Peninsula.  Doesn’t ring a bell?  Well, this is the closest port to ancient Olympia, the site of the original Olympic Games.  Again dashing to make an early morning assembly call, we left the ship and met our tour guide Giorgio at the tour bus, and were soon on the road for the 30-minute drive to Olympia. 

On the way, Giorgio gave us some background information.  The early history of Greece is really the story of the oldest human civilizations in Europe, the Minoan on the island of Crete and the Mycenaean on the Greek mainland.  These Bronze Age cultures flourished from about 2000 BC, producing art, architecture, and writing in the form of Linear A, thus far un-deciphered, and Linear B, an early form of Greek.  Around 1200 BC these cultures collapsed for reasons not completely understood, ushering in a period of discord and disunity, as evidenced by archaeological finds of grave goods of the period which indicated a reduced standard of living.  By the beginning of the 8^th century BC, conditions had improved, trade resumed, and the buildings of the great city-states began.  With the economic recovery, good civic leadership decreed a series of religious festivals as a means of furthering the interaction and cooperation among the communities.  The two most important of these festivals were the Delphic Games and the Olympic Games.  The Delphic Games were held every two years in honor of Apollo, at Delphi in central Greece north of the Gulf of Corinth.  In addition to hosting the Games, Delphi was one of the most important shrines of the ancient world, home of the famous Delphic Oracle. 

The games at Olympia were held every four years in honor of Zeus, on the site of a much more ancient sanctuary.  The first settlers in this region left evidence of their habitation at the foot of the Hill of Kronos dating back to 3000 BC, including pottery, tools and foundations of houses.  By the end of the 8^th century BC, called the Archaic Period, a building in this sanctuary was dedicated to Zeus and Hera, and the first stadium was laid out.  In this venue, the first games were held, announced by special messengers who were sent out to the far corners of the Greek world three months in advance of the scheduled festivities.  The games were conducted over five days and were held in July or August at the full moon. A “Sacred Truce” lasting for the entire month allowed people to travel safely from home to the shrine without risk.  Cult ceremonies in honor of Zeus and a great fair attracted many thousands of visitors, as well as the athletes.

The athletic events were running, jumping, boxing, wrestling, discus and javelin throwing – all the skills a warrior needed, and horse racing and chariot racing were added later when the Hippodrome was built.  The winner of each event was crowned with a branch of olive leaves cut from a sacred tree with a golden sickle.  The victor attended a great banquet and was celebrated by poets and singers.  Those victorious Olympic athletes were as honored as war heroes, and the more wealthy city-states built small treasuries at Olympia to house votive offerings to honor their Olympic champions.

Over the next 1100 years the games continued, and their success can be judged by the grandiose elegance and size of the temples in the Olympic sanctuary.  The grandest of these was the great Temple of Zeus, built in the 5^th century BC, in the Doric style, of a size large enough to house the statue of the Olympian Zeus.  Nothing remains today, but thanks to the writings of Pausanias, and some coins with an image of the statue stamped on them, we have a description.  The statue of Zeus, enthroned, was over 12 meters (44 feet) high, covered with gold and ivory and other precious materials fixed on a wooden core, a technique called “chryselephantine.”  He is wearing a “himation” an ancient Greek style cloak that left his chest bare and covered his knees, and an olive wreath on his head.  In his left hand he held a scepter topped with an eagle and in his right hand he held a small Nike statue.  His throne was decorated with mythological scenes, carved and painted.  From Pausanias we know the sculptor was Pheidias, and this statue was included among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. 

During the Roman era in Greece, when the Olympic tradition was centuries old, the games were expanded by the Emperor Nero to include music and poetry competitions, so he could participate. Nero, who regarded himself as a brilliant musician and poet, won seven prizes. Astonishing.  Eventually the popularity of the games declined as the religious aspect lost importance, and in the Christian era, they were stopped altogether after 393 AD by the Roman Emperor Theodosius.  The site of Olympus was abandoned and fell into ruin, and a massive earthquake in the 6^th century AD completed the destruction.  Fortunately for antiquarians, over the years the nearby river Alpheios flooded and covered the site with mud and silt, up to five meters deep in places, preserving what was left.  In 1766 the English traveler Richard Chandler identified ancient Olympia by correlating the location as given in ancient texts with what scant remains were visible above ground at the time.  The systematic archaeological excavations began in 1874 by the German Archaeological Institute at Athens.  After many years of work, research, and restoration, we have a view of ancient Olympia as it looked in the final phase of the sanctuary’s history.

We began our tour of the Archaeological Site of Olympia at the visitor’s entrance, walking past the Palaestra and Gymnasium with Giorgio explaining how the athletes trained, lived and worked in these facilities.  There were running tracks, both outdoor and indoor.  Walking through a long path lined with Doric style columns, we came to the ruins of the Great Temple of Zeus, now just a heap of stones.  One of the fluted columns has been restored to give the visitor an idea of the scale.  Giorgio told us this temple was almost as large as the Parthenon in Athens.  He guided us over to the Terrace with Treasuries that had held ex-voto memorials to the champion athletes, and pointed out a section of covered passageway.  This passageway had been used in the opening ceremonies of the games, when 20,000 naked athletes would march into the Stadium through this passage.  What a mental image!

Emerging from the passageway, we were in the Stadium, the scene of the competitions.  The Stadium track was 213 meters long and almost 35 meters wide, a long, level rectangle of packed dirt with grassy slopes on the sides that could hold up to 45,000 spectators.  Both the starting line and finishing line were marked by a row of marble slabs, and the distance between is 192.27 meters, or one Olympic stade (equal to 600 feet).  Honored visitors and judges sat in the exedra located half-way on the south side, and the north side had a stone altar for the priestess of Demeter, the only woman allowed to attend the games.  There were women’s games, called the Heraia, a festival in honor of Hera, also held every fourth year in Olympia, which were celebrated separately from the men.

Giorgio showed us the smaller temple of Hera, and the altar of Hestia who was the Goddess of the Hearth and whose altar kept an eternal flame.  To the south of the altar of Hestia was a circular building that had been erected by Philip II the Macedonian to give thanks to Zeus for his victory at Chaironeia in 338 BC.  This building (see photo), with three columns standing and a section of the entablature still in place, is called the Philippeion, but was completed by his son, Alexander the Great. 

After a short rest break, we toured the Archaeological Museum, which had on exhibit many priceless artifacts found during the years of excavation.  Presented in chronological order, the various rooms hold glass cases of the prehistoric finds, then Helladic, Mycenaean, and Classic.  One room held the famous statue of Winged Nike from 470 BC, which was the figure inscribed on all the 2004 Olympic medals.  The best displays, and which filled the whole room, include the sculptures from the Temple of Zeus that had been installed in the east and west pediments.  The east pediment sculptures represented a chariot race, and the west pediment told the story of the Battle of the Lapiths and the Centaurs (see photo).  Giorgio made remarks about how we were fortunate in that we did not have to visit the British Museum in London to see these -- a reference to the on-going controversy between Greece and the UK regarding the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon.  One of the most perfect sculptures of antiquity is the Hermes of Praxiteles, displayed in a room dedicated to this one gorgeous statue (see photo).  The virtually intact original marble of Hermes holding the infant Dionysus by the 4^th century BC Athenian sculptor Praxiteles was found in the ruins of the Temple of Hera in 1877.  This is both a masterpiece and a milestone in the history of Greek sculpture, and one can only imagine the influence on Donatello and Michelangelo. 

The tour over, we returned to the bus, foot-sore and head-spinning.  It was amazing to think how the celebrations and traditions of this ancient site inspired the French Baron Pierre de Coubertin to reinstate the modern Olympics in 1896, held appropriately in Athens.  The role and significance of the ancient Olympiads is also enshrined in the ancient Greek method of reckoning dates: the common calendar event all the Greek city-states could agree on was the Olympiad, and was in use into the Christian era.  The contribution of the Olympic Games in the course of civilization was diverse and enduring indeed.

If you are interested in visiting Olympia:

Archaeological Museum of Olympus

Dytiki Ellada, Greece

Phone:  +30 2624 022517

 

 

 

 

 

Corfu – “The stuff dreams are made of”

A childhood dream is about to be realized: to visit the ancient sites of Greece, and the islands and seas that I first read about in Edith Hamilton’s Greek Mythology.  We began our tour of Greece with a visit to the island of Corfu, called Korkyra in Greek, and the original home of the ancient Phaeacians first mentioned in The Odyssey of Homer.  The Greek myth tells the story of how the sea-god Poseidon abducted the lovely nymph Korkyra and took her to an unnamed island where the son of their union was born, and they called him Phaiax.  The island took the name Korkyra and the inhabitants were known as Phaiakes, or in Latin Phaeacians, famous Greek sea-farers.

Sailing to Corfu we crossed into the GMT +2 time zone and lost an hour of time.  Located at the southern tip of Albania, Corfu is an island at the very northwestern edge of Greece in the Ionian Sea.  The ship docked in the harbor about two miles away from the Old Town, and we again made the early morning excursion assembly call.  After leaving the ship we were met at the bus by our tour guide, Zita, and were soon on our way to the Old Town of Corfu.  While on the way, Zita taught us to say “good morning” in Greek --  kalimera -- and gave us an historical overview of Corfu, as opposed to the mythological.

The earliest colonists of Corfu were from Corinth in the 7^th century BC, and they grew to become a trading rival to powerful Corinth.  In fact, the first recorded naval battle in Greek history was between Corinth and Corfu in 664 BC.  Corfu appealed to Athens for aid in its struggle with Corinth, and Athens responded, sparking the Peloponnesian Wars of the 4^th century BC.  When the Roman Republic was embroiled in the last of its civil wars in 31 BC, Octavian used Corfu as a naval base for his operations against Marc Antony and Cleopatra.  The history of Corfu is marked by constant changes of ownership, depending on who controlled maritime trade in the eastern Mediterranean.  In 1386 Corfu asked Venice to provide protection from pirates (always a threat to coastal cities), and from then Venice ruled Corfu until the end of the Venetian Republic in 1797.  After a brief period under the French rule of Napoleon, which ended in 1815, Great Britain established a protectorate over the island, and Corfu became the seat of the British High Commissioner.  When the British withdrew in 1864 Corfu, along with the other Ionian Islands, joined the Kingdom of Greece.  The people of Corfu regard as a point of honor the fact that throughout the long history of Greece, only Corfu remained outside the control of the Ottoman Empire, and no Turkish influence is to be found on the island.

Our first stop on the tour was the Achilleion Palace, the elegant 19^th century vacation home of Elisabeth, Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary.  The tragic life of Elisabeth (1837 – 1898), called Sisi by her family, has been told in books, movies and an Austrian television series (Sisi was portrayed by Romy Schnider).  A famous beauty, Sisi was born into the Bavaria royal family of Wittelsbach and married her cousin the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor Franz Joseph in 1854 when she was 16 and he was 24 years old.  Her unhappiness with the responsibilities of imperial life drove her out of Vienna and, after much travelling, she purchased a crumbling villa on a hill overlooking Corfu Town, tore it down, and built the Achilleion, named for Achilles the Greek hero of the Illiad. Because of Sisi’s romantic nature, and fascination with the culture and civilization of Ancient Greece, she had her refuge built in Classical Greek style, from the architecture and the gardens to the interior decorations and furniture. 

Elisabeth’s life, blessed with unimaginable wealth and beauty, was filled with, and ended in tragedy.  Her only son Rudolf committed the murder-suicide of the scandalous Mayerling Incident in 1889, and she herself was murdered by an Italian anarchist in Geneva in 1898.  After her death, the Achilleion was closed for almost ten years until 1907 when it was bought by the German Emperor Wilhelm II.  The Kaiser made some changes to the palace decorations, most notably replacing the statue of the dying Achilles, originally in the garden overlooking the sea, with an enormous bronze status of “Achilles Triumphant.”

Our tour guide Zita led us through the palace, pointing out the numerous portraits of Elisabeth, as well as the neo-classic paintings and frescoes of mythological themes.  We saw the grand staircase, the drawing rooms, and the chapel, Elisabeth’s office with her souvenirs, and Wilhelm’s office and his souvenirs, which included the original flag from the German imperial yacht “Hohenzollern.”  Out in the garden, Zita showed us the various neo-classic statuary lining the courtyard of the Nine Muses, Three Graces, and inside the peristyle gallery surrounding the courtyard were thirteen busts of ancient Greek philosophers.  The original statue of the “Dying Achilles” was placed here on Wilhelm’s orders, representing the Homeric hero trying to pull the Trojan prince Paris’ arrow from his heel, the only vulnerable part of his body. 

On the way back to Old Town we passed under the ruins of the “Kaiser Bridge” built for Wilhelm II to easily move from the Achilleion garden to the port with his private dock, which is still usable.  The Old Town of Corfu is a charming, sleepy place between the Old and New Fortresses, with a garden zone called the Spianada with a cricket pitch leftover from the British.  The Old Citadel sits on a wedge of land jutting into the bay, which had once contained the entire town.  The fortifications have been damaged and repaired over the centuries, and what we see is essentially what the Venetians built in the 16^th century.  The winged lion of St Mark, symbol of Venice, over the gate is a reminder.  Zita told us the layout of the modern town was specifically designed to minimize hostile sieges of the fortress.  The streets are perpendicular to the fortress giving any defenders a clear view of the streets, and the width of the Spianada, the garden zone between the fortress and the town is greater than the range of 17^th century artillery.  The charming arcaded terrace along the western side of the Spianada resembles the Rue de Rivoli in Paris, because the designer was Mathieu de Lesseps, whose son built the Suez Canal.  

On the north side of the Spianada is the neo-classical Palace of St Michael and St George, once the residence of the British High Commissioner.  The statue of the second Commissioner Sir Thomas Maitland stands in front of the building.  Zita told us a story about him:  Maitland came to Corfu a middle-aged man and fell in love with a married woman of Corfu.  The husband was persuaded to divorce the woman, and after she married Maitland she demanded a new villa.  The palatial landmark Mon Repos was the result, eventually becoming the birthplace of Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburgh, in 1921.

The most important cathedral in Old Town Corfu is the Church of St Spyridon.  The 16^th century church, easily identified by its bell tower, holds the silver coffin of the saint who was a bishop-martyr from Cyprus and is now the patron saint of Corfu.  We filed into the church with dozens of Sunday worshippers for a glimpse of the coffin in a small alcove behind the main altar, surrounded by Greek Orthodox icons.  After that we had some free time to explore the narrow streets with small shops of local handicrafts and gifts, and the cafes and ice cream stands.  Many places had small bottles of the orange liqueur made from kumquats, called Kuom Quat, distilled and available only in Corfu.  The walk through Old Town was a treat, a chance to see the narrow, winding streets, the picturesque squares, the high arcaded houses with the brilliant blue sky above, all of us snapping photos as we went.

Easy to understand how Corfu has an exotic reputation.  In addition to its connection with Homer’s The Odyssey, Corfu is the setting for Shakespeare’s play The Tempest, from where we hear Prospero’s line that “We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”

For anyone planning a trip to Corfu, and in need of a wonderful, helpful, knowledgeable, and friendly tour guide:

Zita Jambor, Licensed Tourist Guide (English, Hungarian, Greek)

Mobile:  (+30) 6946 540 431
Email:  jamborz@hotmail.com

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Dubrovnik – Medieval Walled City in Croatia

Our ship was on a south-easterly course in the Adriatic Sea, out of sight of the coastline of Croatia, also called the Dalmatian coast.  Steaming along at about 25 nautical miles per hour, we needed a full day at sea to reach Dubrovnik from Venice.  The day gave us a chance to catch up on sleep, reading, and do a few loads of laundry.  The apartment in Florence had a clothes washer, but no dryer, and we had to take turns hanging our wash out on the drying rack on the terrace.  So by this time we all had need of the ship’s laundry rooms.  I was surprised to see so many other passengers also using the laundry rooms, assuming they had just arrived in Venice for the start of the cruise.  However, quite a few folks had been on the road for a while, as we had been, and had also accumulated laundry. 

That evening was the first of two scheduled formal evenings, with the dress code a dinner jacket or dark business suit for the men and evening gown or cocktail dress for the women.  All passengers, including the four of us, appeared in the dining rooms and the sparkling central atrium dressed to the nines for the special Champagne Waterfall Reception hosted by our commodore to celebrate embarking on the journey.   Actually, I was looking forward to this evening; the ladies in their sequined evening gowns and the men in tuxedos was a scene right out of a 1930’s Hollywood movie (think Dodsworth, or One Way Passage, or Across the Pacific).  It was a bit of a thrill, and dinner was great too.

Early the next morning the ship altered the course to the north-east, approaching the Croatian coastline.  At the harbor north of Dubrovnik the commodore stopped the ship near a modern bridge that spanned one of the harbor inlets, then swung the huge ship around and BACKED INTO our designated berth!   Whoa! I’ll never again complain of the difficulty of parallel parking.  The weather was perfect, sunny blue skies, 78 deg F so we slathered on lots of sunscreen and assembled for the day’s excursion into the ancient walled city of Dubrovnik.

Centuries ago Dubrovnik was called Ragusa, located on the southern coast of the ancient territory called Illyria by Greek and Roman geographers.  It has been suggested that the original Venetians were from Illyria.  When the Romans extended their control over Illyria starting around 200 BC it became known as Provincia Dalmatia and lasted until the 6^th century AD.  Dalmatia was the birthplace of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, and the Croatian city of Split today holds the ruins of Diocletian’s Palace.  With the transition of the Western Roman Empire to the Ostrogothic Kingdom in 476 AD, Dalmatia (with Ragusa) was ruled by the Goths until 535 AD when Justinian I added Illyria to the Byzantine Empire.  In the 7^th century Ragusa was founded (on a rocky island according to legend) by merchants wishing to escape barbarian pirates, a story reminiscent of the founding of Venice.

Control by the Byzantine Greeks lasted until the time of the Fourth Crusade, when Byzantium was sacked by Crusaders led by Venice, and gradually Venice extended its power in the Adriatic.  From 1420 to 1797 the Republic of Venice controlled most of Dalmatia, but the southern city of Ragusa became an independent republic in 1358 as a result of a treaty between Venice and the Kingdom of Hungary.  As a maritime trader Ragusa was a strong competitor to Venice, sending its merchant fleet over the Mediterranean and Black Sea ports, but still managed to maintain a diplomatic balance between the business interests of the powerful Venetian Republic and the Ottoman Empire.  When Venice at last succumbed to Napoleon in 1797, Ragusa also lost its independence and became, in succession, part of Napoleon’s Kingdom of Italy, Illyrian Provinces, and a kingdom of the Holy Roman Empire.  After WWI the new state of Yugoslavia was formed of the old Ottoman Balkan territories, which became satellite states of the Soviet Union after WWII.  When Yugoslavia broke apart in 1991, the violent civil wars of the Balkan states caught Dubrovnik in the cross-fire in spite of the UNESCO World Heritage designation.

After disembarking from the ship, we piled onto the waiting bus with our tour guide and were soon on a road skirting the sea driving south towards Dubrovnik.  I’m always amazed at the skill of the bus drivers with these massive tour buses on narrow European roads.  We passed next to the ruins of a stone wall, which the guide told us was the southern border of Venetian control in Dalmatia, and marked the northern extent of the Republic of Dubrovnik.  The bus pulled up a hill with a wonderful view below of the walled city next to the sparkling sea, and stopped to let us off for photos. Then we descended to a car park and followed the guide through the 15^th century Pile Gate (see photo), telling us the completed walls are a mile and half in circumference and date from the 13^th century.  On entering within the walls, we saw the large Onofrio’s Fountain, the terminal of the aqueduct that provided freshwater to the city.  The fountain and aqueduct were completed by 1440, bringing water from a source 12 km away, and still provides fresh, potable water. 

We walked along the main market street, called the Placa, toward Luza Square with St Blaize’s church, the Rector’s Place and Bell Tower, and the sculpture of Roland (or Orlando in Italian) chiseled into a stone column (see photo).  Dating from 1419, this symbol of freedom for the people of Dubrovnik also is used as a standard of measure.  Roland’s right forearm is the length of a Croatian “cubit” and that length is also inscribed on the column base.  The story of Roland may not be well-known today, but the 11^th century epic poem Chanson de Roland describing Roland’s heroism (one of Charlemagne’s knights) during the battle and defeat at Roncesvalles in 778 AD was a medieval must-read.

After a look inside the 17^th century church of St Blaize, we toured the 14^th century Franciscan monastery, walking through the cloisters with Romanesque style columns mixed in with Gothic, and looked into the Pharmacy.  Also part of the Franciscan monastery, this one of the oldest working pharmacies in Europe, and contains a variety of apothecary jars, medical books, healing recipes, medieval surgical tools, and gold embroidered cloths.  We then walked to the Dominican monastery to see its fine collection of Renaissance frescoes, and toured inside the Cathedral and Treasury, with gold and silver antiquities, including relics of St Blaize, the city’s patron saint. 

At the conclusion of the tours, we went to an auditorium near the city hall for a singing and dancing performance by the Lindo Folklore Ensemble of Dubrovnik.  These artists in authentic national costumes performed traditional Croatian songs and dances on authentic instruments, giving us a short description of each. It was very cool!  This talented group of young Croatian performers can be reached at:

Lindo Folklorni Ansambl

Tel:  +385 20 324 03   mobile:  +385 91 571 7963

www.lindjo.hr

lindjo.dubrovnik@du.t-com.hr

 

 

Venice Excursions

Awoke to the alarm clock to quickly dress and meet the excursion assembly point on Deck 5 by 8:00am.  No time for breakfast, but L & G got a cup of coffee on the way.  We were escorted off the ship, showing our badges for a head count of who had embarked, and made a short walk to the waiting water transport boats and met our tour guide.  First destination was San Giorgio, the small island off the eastern tip of Giudecca, which is the southernmost island of the group called the “Islands of Rialto” that make up historical Venice.  Looking on a map of the Venetian Lagoon, the Islands of Rialto sit snugly protected from the Adriatic Sea by the Lido, an elongated sandbar.  The shuttle boat chugged through the narrow Giudecca Canal while our tour guide explained that the island of Giudecca was the home of an early Jewish merchant community (remember Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice?) and that the word “ghetto” was derived from “Borghetto” the Jewish Quarter in the NW of Venice. 

We approached the dock to see the church of San Giorgio Maggiore, with its west-facing white marble façade in shadows of the morning light.  The Campanile did remind me of the one in Piazza San Marco, and also was not the original one from the 1400’s; the original bell tower had collapsed and was rebuilt in 1797 in the Neo-Classical style of Palladio.  The monastery that stretched on the eastern side of the church was founded at the end of the 10^th century, and had once hosted the conclave for the election of Pope Pius VII in 1799 because Rome was under occupation by French troops.  The tour guide reminded us the Pope John XXIII, born Angelo Roncalli, was a native Venetian.

The church was founded in the mid-9^th century, dedicated to St George, and Benedictine monks established the monastery by the late 10^th.  However, the island’s buildings were destroyed by an earthquake in the 1200’s, and the present church was re-built from 1560 to 1610.  When I first stepped into the church the interior seemed to be sparsely decorated and designed in the baroque style, but when the tour guide told us the architect was Andrea Palladio, I realized I was wrong.  Palladio (born 1508 and died 1580) was probably the most influential Late-Renaissance, Neo-Classical architect -- ever -- in that his stamp was left on such architects as Sir Christopher Wren, Inigo Jones, and Thomas Jefferson.  Most of Palladio’s buildings are in the Veneto region, but what became known as the Palladio Style was spread throughout Europe and the young USA because of the publication of his book I Quarttro Libri dell’Architettura, “The Four Books of Architecture” which became the primer of study for subsequent young architects.  The interior of San Giorgio Maggiore has few frescoes, but two famous paintings by Tintoretto, The Last Supper and the Gathering of the Manna, are both on display near the high altar.  We had enough time to wander around and take photos, before the shuttle boat was scheduled to leave. 

Next stop, the island of Murano, home of the famous Venetian glassworks factories.  Of course, glass objects have been made since the time of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, and the use of glass for window coverings, drinking vessels, and fine perfumes and oil storage has been around for centuries, with Venice one of many glass suppliers.  Murano Island became a glass manufacturing center in 1291 when Venetian city officials ordered all the glass furnaces out of Venice to protect the city’s predominately wood buildings from the potential for fire.  Our tour gave us a look into an age-old craft, with a demonstration of glass making at the Vetreria Estevan Rosseto 1950 factory.  We were ushered into an observation area of the furnace room where two mighty furnaces glowed orange-red hot.  The master craftsman pulled a long rod from the furnace with a glob of molten glass hanging on the end and proceeded to manipulate it with tongs, rods and scissors.  Soon he had the form of a rearing horse, nicely balanced on hind legs and long tail, and we all applauded.  Another master took a glob of molten glass and blew into it and shaped it into a delicate vase.  Just to demonstrate that this was still super-hot glass, the man dropped a piece of paper into the clear vase and the paper burst into flame. 

We were given a chance to wander through the showroom with the finished glass objects on display for sale.  What a variety of objects!  It seemed there was no limit to the articles, artwork, and home décor items these masters could turn out.  There were sets of wine glasses and decanters, lampshades, fountains, every shape and color of bowls and vases, earrings and necklaces, signs and symbols including the Blue Evil Eye.  I selected a small (can’t fit much into my luggage) blue owl with a transparent tummy displaying a small goldfish, with tiny air bubbles emerging from the fish’s mouth.  Incredible!

The final stop of the day was to San Marco for more shopping and a gondola ride.  Even after what I had read about the training and skill of the gondoliers, I was still amazed at how we could float through the very narrow waterways with tight corners, never touching walls or other gondolas, gliding effortlessly under bridges.  The professional gondoliers of Venice are members of an exclusive guild and must pass a rigorous exam, including Venetian history, foreign language skills, and practical oaring maneuvers. Our gondolier did not choose to wear his traditional striped shirt or straw hat that day, but plenty others did.  And there were requests from other tourists in gondolas nearby to hear “O Solo Mio” but our gondolier did not comply. 

The shore excursion time was at a close, and we found our way back to the water shuttle dock.  Back on the cruise ship, we freshened up for a nice buffet lunch, and relaxed around the pool in the afternoon.  Around 6:00pm almost all the passengers lined the decks to watch the commodore slowly pull the ship away from the port of Venice to start our journey.  We sailed past the beautiful city, the landmark buildings reflecting the warm glow of the evening light, watching flashes on shore from people snapping photos of the massive ship gliding by.  What a great start!

For anyone interested in a tour of a Murano glass factory, here is the contact information for ours:

Vetreria Estevan Rossetto 1950

Fondamenta Navagero, 50-30141 Murano Venezia

Tel. 041.739329   Fax. 041.5274367
Email:   rossetto1950@gmail.com

 

Onward to Venice!

On the last morning in Florence we packed up our stuff, emptied the fridge, took out the refuse, and were outside the apartment building waiting for the taxi by 9:00 am.  Our kind proprietor came out to say goodbye, and wish us a pleasant journey to Venice.  The only reason we were not so sad leaving Florence was because we were embarking on the second phase of adventures – the Cruise!

The Santa Maria Novella train station is fairly easy to navigate, and we found our train car without much trouble.  Again, our hero G. hoisted all our heavy luggage into the overhead bins (he might be regretting travelling with three females at this point), and we settled in for a relaxed trip across the Apennines.  Not much to see out the windows, mostly tunnels through the mountains, until we were out on the open fields of the Po River valley.  The first glimpse of the Adriatic was soon followed by the sight of our cruise ship moored in the port of Venice.  Whoa, it is massive -- a floating hotel!  We dragged our bags over the cobblestones to the vaporetti, the water-taxis, and were soon crossing the water toward the ship at Marittima Pier. 

Travelling on these super-cruisers was a new experience for me, and I quickly got used to the care and feeding of the cruise ship staff.  Friendly, relaxed, yet with professionalism and attention to detail, I could see they were highly experienced in herding 3000+ people onto the huge ship with little trouble.  Once we had stowed our stuff in our assigned cabins, we were free to take the ship’s motor launch service to the main island of San Marco, to walk around Piazza San Marco, and see the Doges’ Palace, the Basilica of St Mark, and the famous Campanile.

The traditional (and un-verifiable) date of the founding of Venice is 25 March 421, by businessmen from the provinces of Istria and Venetia in NE Italy escaping the Goths who, led by Alaric, had sacked Rome eleven years before.  Yes, fear drove the people to start a city in a lagoon, safe from the non-seafaring barbarians. At the start of his brilliant book A History of Venice, author John Julius Norwich states that Venice, alone of the still-great Italian cities, was born and matured Greek, and that it has the greatest Byzantine basilica in the world that is still used for Christian worship.  The facts that Venice was an independent republic for over 1000 years, that its combination of commerce and sea-power made it great, that it was never conquered by invaders until Napoleon abolished the republic in 1797, in addition to being one of the most beautiful of cities, continue to fascinate.  I expect to see signs of Venetian influence in subsequent stops on our cruise, in Croatia, Greece, and Turkey.  Venice had been “Queen of the Adriatic” and, as an ally of the Eastern Byzantine Empire, its fingerprints were all over the history of this region.

We reached the Riva degli Schiavone dock area of the island, took careful note of the times that the water shuttle would be leaving for the ship, and set off amongst the crowds of tourists to get a quick look at St Mark’s Square.  This area is loaded with vendors’ carts selling papier-mâché carnival masks, gondolier straw hats, shirts and other Venetian trinkets, knock-off Prada purses, food, and gondola rides. We crossed over the Rio di Palazzo and got a view of the Ponte dei Sospiri, the “Bridge of Sighs” that connects the Doges’ Palace prison to the inquisition rooms, the name inspired by the signs of the condemned prisoners as they get their last glimpse of Venice.  The magnificent façade of the Basilica de San Marco was half-covered with scaffolding, and we were disappointed for our friend C. who had never been to Venice and would not see the un-obscured façade on this trip.  We did the best we could, walking around getting photos.  I got a nice pic of the Winged Lion of St Mark over the entrance to the Doges' Palace -- the symbol of St Mark is everywhere (see photo).  Over the doors to the Basilica an enormous mosaic tells the story of when the city acquired the relics of St Mark, giving the city the prestige of a shrine and destination for pilgrims.  I made a request to my companions to find the statues of the four Tetrarchs, a sculpture group made of porphyry and, from what I had read, had been built into the walls of St Mark’s. The Tetrarchs, dating from about the early 4th century AD, represent the two Augusti and two Caesars from the Latin West Roman Empire and the Greek Eastern Roman Empire (see photo).  This lesser-known sculpture was acquired as war-booty after Venice led the horrible sacking of Constantinople in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade.  The famous four bronze horses now above the main door of the Basilica once dominated the Hippodrome in Constantinople, and were briefly carried off by the French in 1797, examples of war plundering and re-plundering.

The prominent and still impressive landmark is the Campanile, a 325-foot bell tower, which soars over the square (see photo).  However, this is not the original which stood for nearly 1000 years.  In 1902 it collapsed, miraculously without loss of life, and was rebuilt.  We recognized it as the model of the Daniels & Fisher Tower in Denver.  Since we were running out of time we could only describe the interior of the Doges’ Palace to C. based on what we could remember from when L., G. and I toured it two years ago.

Headed back to the drop-off location on the Riva degli Schiavoni to catch the return water shuttle to the ship.  Tomorrow we were scheduled for a tour of San Giorgio Island with the beautiful church by the Baroque architect Andrea Palladio, and a visit to the Murano glass works.  And tonight would be our first night of twelve on the great cruise ship, with a wonderful dinner awaiting us, and all the shipboard entertainment imaginable. Ciao!

Florence – Art and Architecture Paradise

We had the morning open so we decided to walk over to the Museum of the Medici Chapels near the Santa Maria Novella train station. In the fresh morning air, we shared the streets with people going to work and a few tourists.  After stopping for morning coffee, pastries, and fruit in a restaurant in the Piazza Santa Maria Novella, we bought our tickets for the museum.  Since it is a good practice to arrive at museums at opening time to avoid crowds, we got in without standing in a queue.

The museum is really part of a complex that includes San Lorenzo Basilica, the Laurentian Library, and the Princes Chapel and New Sacristy.  And this complex is like nothing else in Florence in that it owes its existence to the Medici.  The basilica was the favored parish church of the Medici family for over three hundred years.  It was here that the dukes of Florence and Tuscany held their weddings, baptisms, and funerals, and buried their dead in the crypt.  The library is filled with ancient books and codices that started with the collections of the earliest Medici. This site represents the perfect synthesis of Florentine artistic civilization.

San Lorenzo Basilica is a must-see to experience the purest Renaissance interior architecture.  Don’t be fooled by the austere exterior of rough stone – the grandiose plan for the marble façade designed by Michelangelo was never carried out.  The original church was consecrated in 393 by Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, and dedicated to the martyred Saint Lawrence.  In those days Florence was called Florentia, its inhabitants spoke Latin and were only partly Christianized, and the church was located on the outskirts of the Roman city.  About 1000 years later Giovanni di Bicci de’Medici, the founder of the dynasty, had the church renovated and enlarged for his family, whose house was a short walk away.

The beauty and harmony of the interior of San Lorenzo is breathtaking.  Designed by the early 15^th century architect Filippo Brunelleschi, the interior gives the impression of a vast, luminous, orderly expanse.  The proportions of this basilica are so pleasing the vastness is not overpowering.  The eye is led from the grey and white checkerboard marble floor, up the grey Corinthian columns supporting arches framed in the grey granite known as pietra serena, and the whitewashed walls, to the white and gold ceiling.  Stretching out in the distance is the neo-classical altar, and flanking the main aisle are two bronze pulpits by Donatello elevated on Ionic columns, celebrated works of art.  At the end of the left transept a door leads to the Old Sacristy which holds Andrea del Verrocchio’s Funerary Monument to Piero il Gottoso (the Gouty) and Giovanni de’ Medici from 1472.  Piero was the son of Cosimo de’ Medici, called Pater Patriae, and was the father of Lorenzo the Magnificent.  

 We moved on to the museum entrance, which is through the crypt, after going through security.  The first monument we saw was of Anna Maria Luisa the “Last Medici,” sister of the last Grand Duke of Tuscany Gian Gastone who died childless in 1737. Anna Maria Luisa stipulated in her will that the immense artistic Medici patrimony was to remain in Tuscany, protected and defended by the State, for the benefit of the people of Florence.  Moving up into the Chapel of Princes, we entered a grandiose, octagonal, domed mausoleum with the tombs of all the grand dukes, except Gian Gastone, made of polychrome marble and semi-precious stones. Life-sized statues of Grand Duke Cosimo II and Ferdinando I stand in two niches, but the other six are empty.  This overwhelming monument, the product of immense wealth and artistic genius, has to be seen to be believed.

The high-point was in the New Sacristy, entered through the Chapel of Princes, with the world-famous Michelangelo sculptures.  This relatively small space designed by Michelangelo contains the tombs of Lorenzo the Magnificent, his murdered brother Giuliano (the victim of the Pazzi Conspiracy of 1478), and the brother and nephew of Pope Leo X de’ Medici.  The funerary sculptures done by Michelangelo glorifying the tombs were a marvel to behold.

We were not allowed to enter the Laurentian Library but had a glimpse into the vestibule, again designed by Michelangelo.  Still denied me is a visit to the Reading Room, completely conceived by Michelangelo, from the white and grey walls, the carved wooden ceiling, to the wooden benches and reading tables, to the terracotta floor.  This is “sculptured architecture.”

An obscure item in the complex, not accessible to the public, is a basement room with charcoal drawings on the walls.   After the discovery of this room in 1978 the drawings were attributed to Michelangelo, done while he was in temporary hiding from the Grand Duke Alessandro after the fall of the Florentine Republic in 1530.  Michelangelo finally left Florence for good in 1534, moving to Rome to work his genius in the Sistine Chapel.

After a wonderful lunch at the Florentine home of a work colleague of Dr. G, we again met with our art tour guide, Maurizio Tocchione, for a tour of the Duomo and the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo.  The Duomo, officially known as Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, is a landmark in Florence, a masterpiece of Gothic and neo-Gothic architecture.  The façade of stripes of white, green and pink marble give an inkling of what the San Lorenzo might have become.  I was surprised to learn from Maurizio that the façade was actually finished in the 19^th century, not the 15^th as I had assumed for years.  We spent some time outside listening to Maurizio tell us the history of the building complex and point out the architectural features, including a Roman sarcophagus that had been built into a wall of the Baptistery.  He gave us a careful look at the famous doors of the Baptistery, made by Lorenzo Ghiberti and called “worthy of the Gates of Paradise” by Michelangelo, showing us the panel with a small self-portrait of Ghiberti himself.  Of course these were only a copy – the original doors are in the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, which we would be seeing shortly.  Maurizio took us inside the baptistery, explaining that this building had eight sides to signify eternity, as in -- after the seven days of creation, the eighth was the attainment of eternity.  One side of the octagon had been cut with a rectangular apse which held an altar for Masses.  The mosaic marble floor still retained the octagonal pattern where the original baptismal font was, large enough for immersion.  Maurizio told us almost all Florentines throughout history were baptized here, including his son!  The mosaic ceiling was particularly interesting, with a huge figure of Christ Pantocrator surrounded by figures of the Last Judgment.  The frightening scenes of the damned reminded me of something out of Hieronymus Bosch. 

Inside the Duomo, Maurizio showed us the marvelous decorations, including the 24-hour clock on the back wall, the fresco of the English mercenary Sir John Hawkwood, the stained glass windows, and the painting of Dante Alighieri and scenes from the Divine Comedy with the city of Florence as it looked in 1465. We pushed through the crowds to the front of the church to view the interior of the miraculous dome, with the frescos of Giorgio Vasari, yet another Last Judgment.

What has not been said of the enormous dome, the largest brick dome in the world?  The crowning achievement of the Florentine architect Filippo Brunelleschi was to complete the original design of an octagonal dome to cover a space larger than had ever been attempted since the Pantheon in Rome.  The story of how this was done, a task that had been judged impossible, is absolutely fascinating, and I will not attempt to recount.  There are many books and videos on how Brunelleschi created this marvel of engineering, which impressed even Leonardo da Vinci.  When we again went outside, Maurizio showed us the memorial statue of Brunelleschi looking up at his dome.

We were a bit disappointed that most of the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo was closed for renovation, but Maurizio made up for it by giving a thorough explanation of the original Gates of Paradise of Ghiberti.  Also on view was a video of the terrible Arno River flood of 1966, showing scenes of torrents of muddy water gushing through the streets.  [There are markers on a few buildings showing the height of the water.] Maurizio took us to see the last and most mysterious Pietà statue by Michelangelo, made when he was almost eighty years old.  Maurizio pointed out that the top figure holding the crucified body of Jesus was Michelangelo himself, portrayed as the figure of Nicodemus, and gave us a theory that linked this statue to the growing Reformation sympathies Michelangelo was harboring -- sympathies which would have put him in conflict with his patrons the Medici and the Church.

We had run out of time to visit the crypt and climb the bell tower, the Campanile designed by Giotto.  Too much to see, too little time.  I cannot help but think I will come back to Florence, having rubbed the snout of the bronze boar of Florence, which is supposed to ensure my return.

Again, our native Florentine tour guide was wonderful, and I highly recommend him to anyone visiting Florence:

Maurizio Tocchioni

Art Tours in Florence Tuscany

www.florencepass.com    email:   tours@florencepass.com

 

 

 

Fiesole, the sky above Florence

On Sunday afternoon we caught the #12 bus from Florence for Fiesole, not as easy as it sounds.  We’re discovering that when the bus information posted online says “bus stop at Santa Maria Novelle Train Station” it could mean any one of about two dozen bus stops either on or across the street.  We know enough by now to purchase the bus tickets at a Tabacchi (a tobacconist’s shop), but were told we were waiting at the wrong #12 bus stop (“Fermata”).  So after a mad dash across the street, we caught the bus labelled “Fiesole”, and were soon at the Etruscan hilltop city. 

First stop was the Archaeological Park, containing Etruscan temple ruins dating back to 600 BC, and the lovely Roman theatre and bath complex, dating from the 1^st century BC.  The modern Museum building (modern meaning dating from the 19^th century) of the Museo Archeologico adjacent to the Roman theatre is filled with artifacts from the site after it was excavated in the mid-1800s.  Along with Etruscan and Roman artifacts, the excavators uncovered a grave of a “Lombardic” warrior dating from the 8^th century AD, which they left in situ within the building.  The Etruscan human figurines, most of them made of bronze, I found particularly fascinating.  The exaggerated thinness, very long, slender figures cast in bronze, with the dull, dark green patina of age, made a peculiar, almost modern-art impression.  I remember reading a story of an amateur treasure-hunter who found an Etruscan bronze statue (an elongated figure of a man), and, without realizing what it was, used it as a fire-poker!  A friend later recognized it as a priceless antiquity, and it is now in the Etruscan Museum in Volterra, called L’ombra della sera - The Shadow of the Night.” 

To the east of the Etruscan Temple complex, and skipping ahead about 500 years, we found the Roman-era Theatre and Baths.  I think Roman theatres and baths always are found together, combining their favorite and most social cultural activities.  The baths were more than for just bathing, they were the gathering places for discussions and gossip, for physical exercise, as well as for health and grooming.  And the theatre was for reading poetry, speeches by famous orators, watching the latest plays, or enjoying the classics.  The Theatre in Fiesole had been restored several years so that it can now be used for plays and summer concerts under the stars.  The baths are like so many other Roman baths, with swimming pool, exercise court, hot, tepid, and cold rooms.  The hot room, the caldarium, is always easy to find because it is next to the furnaces and has the raised floor held up by pillars of red brick, allowing the super-heated air to flow under the floors. 

The afternoon rain shower did not dampen our spirits, and after climbing around the ruins and the museum, we found a lovely tavern on the side of the hill overlooking Florence for a chilled white wine and margharita pizza.  We were sorry we didn’t have enough time to visit the Bandini Museum, reportedly containing a fine collection of Florentine paintings from the 12^th to the 14^th centuries and several Della Robbias.  In addition, the town’s favorite son, Giovanni da Fiesole, known as Fra Angelico, lived and worked at the nearby convent of San Domenico, where some of his artwork is on display.  We will need another day in Fiesole. 

If you would like to visit Fiesole, contact

Ufficio Informazioni Turistiche, Tourist Information

Via Portigiani, 3

5014 Fiesole, Italy

www.comune.fiesole.fi.it

www.fiesoleforyou.it