Logistics, Grief and Gratitude
The past few months has been filled with logistics: airline reservations and cruise reservations. Port tours and transfers and hotels and cabin upgrades. Arranging the schedule for three separate kitty sitters over a two week block of time that included Thanksgiving. Twelve-hour work days to pre-publish six different newsletters. A cab from home to a shuttle to New York City to JFK, and the reverse in return.
By the time we got on the plane I was so exhausted I could hardly keep my eyes open. Twelve hours later we stumbled out of Fiumincino Airport in Rome, found a guy holding an iPad with my name on it in big letters, (much classier than the guys around him with scrps of paper scraweld with the names of other travelers), crawled into his cab and we were OFFICIALLY ON VACATION IN ITALY!
It is a much needed vacation. I'll remember 2012 as a year full of grief and anxiety. Beginning with the death of my beloved Aunt Gloria on Jan. 6, it had been a year full of loss -15 friends, relatives and acquaintances passed from this world to whatever is beyond.
And smack dab in the middle of the year, I learned that the love of my life had to have open heart surgery to replace a heart valve. I was terrified. Not only had I been watching people die every few weeks, so I got the feeling that the Grim Reaper had a sniper rifle pointed at everyone I knew.
Added to that, the three most important men in my whole life- my dad, my brother and my ex-boyfriend Jay all died in their 50s of heart ailments. I was gripped with the fear that I would lose my David.
But he pulled through the surgery like a champ, complete with a new pig valve. Fast forward through three months of recovery on his part, and worry and nursing practice on my part. He's recovered and better than ever.
I realize that we are incredibly fortunate in many ways and I am so very grateful.
And so, with that explanation of why I so needed this vacation, let's get on with it - andiamo!
Roma
Our hotel is the oldest one in Rome. Founded 545 years ago in 1465, it is a young building in comparison to what sits directly across from it - the Pantheon. At 2,000 years old, and remarkably intact, it is a building of such grace and beauty that it never fails to elicit my awe when I see it.
I love how you're walking through the big city of Rome, and turn a corner and come upon an amazing historical treasure...
Walking down Roman cobblestones, and you come upon the Pantheon!
This sign was right in front of our hotel.
The Pantheon was commissioned by Marcus Agrippa as a temple to all the gods of Ancient Rome, and rebuilt by Emperor Hadrian in about 126 AD.
It is David's favorite building, so our stay here is my anniversary gift to him.
The Pantheon as seen from our room.
Our hotel seen from the door of the Pantheon.
Great breakfast..
The inscription across the front of the Pantheon says:
M·AGRIPPA·L·F·COS·TERTIUM·
or in full, "M[arcus] Agrippa L[ucii] f[ilius] co[n] s[ul] tertium fecit," meaning "Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, made this building when consul for the third time."
I love how it is lighted up at night,
One
of the large granite Corinthian columns (eight in the first rank and
two groups of four behind) under a pediment. The columns were quarried
in Egypt. Each was 39 feet tall, five feet in diameter, and 60 tons in
weight.These were dragged more than 62 miles from the quarry to the
river on wooden sledges. They were floated by barge down the Nile River
when the water level was high during the spring floods, and then
transferred to vessels to cross the Mediterranean Sea to the Roman port
of Ostia. There, they were transferred back onto barges and pulled up
the Tiber River to Rome. Almost two thousand years after it was built, the Pantheon's dome is still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome.
Inside the Pantheon.
The oculus (eye) at the dome's apex is a round hole open to the sky. Throughout the day, the light from the oculus moves around this space in a sort of reverse sundial effect. The oculus also serves as a cooling and ventilation method. During storms, a drainage system below the floor handles the rain that falls through the oculus.
Since the Renaissance the Pantheon has been used as a tomb. Among those buried there are the painters Raphael and Annibale Carracci, the composer Arcangelo Corelli, architect Baldassare Peruzzi and Two kings of Italy: Vittorio Emanuele II and Umberto I, as well as Umberto's Queen, Margherita.
The square in front of the Pantheon is called Piazza della Rotonda.
Roman business goes on all around the ancient treasure.
The first evening, we started wandering around the neighborhood and found interesting shops and cafes.
,,, and an interesting reminder of home:
The next morning, we got up early and headed for Basilica di San Pietro (Saint Peter's Basilica).
The basilica was built between 1506-1626.
The dome is 448 feet from the floor of the basilica to the top of the external cross.It is the tallest dome in the world.
Right inside is Michelangelo's famous "Pieta." I first saw it at the 1964 World's Fair in New York City, and I've never forgotten that. It was the first time I recall appreciating art.
The
central feature is a baldachin, or canopy over the Papal Altar,
designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. It is 98 feet tall and claimed to be
the largest piece of bronze in the world. Saint Peter's tomb is directly
below the altar-we got a special ticket from the Vatican to see it.Special visits to the necropolis underneath the Basilica, where the tomb of St. Peter is located, are only possible following special permission granted from time to time by the “Fabbrica di San Pietro”.
I applied in February for the right to go on a tour of the Vatican Necropolis, which is referred to as the Scavi.I've applied 3 times before and never got in. I was thrilled to get these tickets.
This 90 min. tour into the Excavations of the Necropolis (City of the Dead) underneath St. Peter's, is one of the most interesting in all of Rome, but you must book well in advance.
Only about 250 people go through the Scavi each day in different language groups of about 12.
The guide led us into the basement of the Basilica, pushed past tourists and opened one of the doors that said “No Public Access.“ Cool. We walked down a staircase, past an oddly modern electronic glass sliding door and suddenly we were there. In the Vatican Necropolis. It was one of those travel moments that at the time you realize just how privileged you are to be in that particular place at that particular time.
History
After being crucified, Peter was buried in a hillside necropolis, a city of the dead. It was a place, fashioned to look like a city in miniature, where wealthy pagan families entombed their dead in houses where they could continue their new lives. Mausoleum F was probably created during the reign of Antoninus Pius (138–161 CE).
Emperor Constantine eventually became a Christian and, in the 4th century, ordered the construction of a church over the tomb of St. Peter. The church also covered the other mausoleums in the ancient cemetery.
In the 16th century, the present basilica was built on the site. Donato Bramante designed the basilica; Raphael, Frea Giocondo da Verona, and Antionio da Sangallo continued the design after Bramante's death. When the last of the new architects, da Sangallo died, Michelangelo was commissioned to complete the design. He designed most of the apse and the main dome before dying. The dome was completed by Domenico Fontana in 1589, and inaugurated in 1593.
As the centuries passed, so did the memory of the necropolis beneath the basilica. In 1939 workers digging a tomb for the deceased Pope Pius XI, broke through a wall beneath the church and rediscovered the necropolis. Pope Pius XII ordered the excavation of the necropolis, but kept the work secret in case Peter's tomb was not found. Since the necropolis acts as the foundation for St. Peter's Basilica, the entire area could not be uncovered without the possibility of having the Basilica collapse. Work continued for a decade and on December 23, 1950, Pius XII announced the discovery of St. Peter's tomb. On June 26th 1968, Pope Paul VI announced that the remains of St. Peter had also been discovered.
It's a little claustophobic inside the Scavi. The air is humid and warm, but the ground is dry. The lighting is dim, and you walk on uneven ground as you look inside the various tombs. Some of the objects can only be viewed one at a time.
We wandered through all of the various levels of excavation, navigated uneven ground previously trod upon by Roman nobles. Included in the tour is an entire Roman city street and necropolis complex. It was incredible to peer through doorways and imagine the city two thousand years earlier.
Finally, we reached the highlight of the trip: a small hole in a wall (at this point, we were 33 feet under the floor of St. Peter's). One by one, we peered into a small hole in a wall and saw two plastic boxes, holding 18 small bones of a man somewhere between 60 and 80 years old. The feet were missing, having been broken off at the ankles. St. Peter was crucified upside down, the guide explained, and missing feet are typical because the body is chopped free before burial. She also noted that we were 33 feet below the floor of St. Peter's Basilica, directly beneath Michelangelo's dome.
Photos are not allowed. St. Peter's makes information available, including photos. Visit http://www.saintpetersbasilica.org/ and look for "Scavi" and "Necropolis". The most impressive site we have found: take an armchair tour on the Vatican website
The Today Show visited: Today goes to Scavi
After our fascinating tout of St. Peter's, we headed off for the Spanish Steps.
The next morning we headed for the port of Civitiveccia, about an hour from Rome, and boarded the Norwegian Jade.
No comments:
Post a Comment