We've been very busy the past year--hence no updates. We're approaching our last month in Rome before returning to our long time home in Utah. Flowers here are incredible. Two weeks ago, we were invited to lunch with friends about 45 minutes outside of Rome. Photos of the countryside don't seem to do it justice, but here's a photo of where we ate lunch at our friends' home. Robyn's in the photo to show the size of the patio.
While the flowers were stunning, the sound of hundreds of bees overhead was a little disconcerting. An authentic lunch in Italy is at least four courses and takes two hours. I don't know how Italians eat so much and still remain thinner than many people I know who eat much less. The food was fantastic.Roma is Always a Good Idea (Mostly)
Saturday, April 27, 2024
Tuesday, April 4, 2023
Back to the Rome Temple
The Rome temple has been closed for the past two weeks as usual every 6 months. I think the idea is to deep clean the temple and take care of any maintenance items that require daytime work that would disrupt the normal operation of the temple. It probably gives the workers a chance to recharge their batteries. That doesn't work for us because during the last 3 closures, we've had friends and relatives visiting us. They'd like to see as much of Italy as we can cram into a few days and so it's pretty hectic. We took two trips to the Amalfi Coast--Sorrento and other beautiful cities across the bay of Naples. I love that part of Italy but it takes a toll on this elderly body.
After dinner tonight, I thought I'd have an orange. I cut one in half and squeezed the juice into a glass. It was a "blond" orange and so I cut open another. It was a a perfect specimen of a blood orange, so I squeezed the juice into the same glass and took a photo.
Robyn's sister Genie and her husband are staying with us this week, and when I showed her the juice, she said, "That's not orange juice, that's red juice.Sunday, February 19, 2023
As Translated Correctly
Our hotel in Ravenna left an interesting set of instructions about their efforts to be green. The Italian cognate for sponge is spugna, (pronounced spoon-ya). The Italian version refers to the animal from the ocean that served as the original picker-upper, but also to any number of items for sopping up water. The hotel note was meant to tell us that anything we wanted laundered could be left on the floor. However, the English version said we should leave on the floor, "only the sponges that want to be washed." We weren't quite sure how to determine what they might have wanted so we got 'em all washed.
Even given the syntax of this note and part of the menu in the hotel restaurant (excellent food BTW) that proved to be unintellibible even though it was in English and Italian, I'd go back in a second. It was a great place to stay--which reminds me of their excellent customer service and another little miracle that we've come to expect while working in the temple.
When we checked out of the hotel, we were trying to stay ahead of an incoming snow-storm, there was a massive windstorm as we were loading the car. We got on the road and after about an hour realized I had left my Sunday clothes in the closet in our hotel room. We were too far away to warrant turning around, but I thought that maybe the missionaries in Ravenna could help. I got their number, called them, and they agreed to go get my clothes and then we'd figure out how to get them later on. I called the hotel and they were happy to hold my clothes until the missionaries came to retrieve them.
Then, I couldn't figure out the best way to get them to Rome without inconveniencing people. I got a message that two missionaries from the Milan mission were coming down to Rome and that they had my clothes and would bring them on their trip. Yesterday, Robyn and I went back to the temple after our regular shift because she had agreed to do some baptisms for a friend who couldn't stay to do them. While coming out of the dressing room, I said hello to a young man who turned out to be a missionary. He and his companion had come down from the Milan mission with their branch (he is the branch president.) I mentioned that I had been in their mission last month and had inadvertently left a suit in Ravenna. His face brightened and he said, "We've got your suit in our car! The missionaries who gave it to us forgot your name and we didn't know how to get a hold of you. Isn't this a lucky coincidence?"
We got them dinner and had a great visit and my clothes are safely in my armoire. (I think the only closet I've seen in Italy was in the hotel in Ravenna. Everywhere else they're called armadios.
Coincidences here in Rome are so common that they can't be coincidences.Saturday, January 28, 2023
Ravenna Part II
I
mentioned that I'd write more about our trip to Ravenna and now I'm going to
try to explain a little about this city's mosaics and history. Three primary
cathedrals in this area (Sant'Apollinare in Classe, San Vitale, and Sant'Apollinare Nuovo) were built during Byzantine times, under the reign of the Ostrogoths, the rulers of Italy in the end of the 400's and beginning of the
500's. The history of the Goths--Visigoths (western) and Ostrogoths (eastern) is sketchy because
they didn't survive to provide a continuous history.
The primary ruler of the Ostrogoths (the prefix Ostro has the same root as
Austria) was Theodoric the Great, whose tomb is in Ravenna; but not his
body—Justinian had it removed when he was in charge. The most important element
about the Goths is that they were Arian Christians who followed the teachings
of Arius (not Aryans, the racial classification celebrated by Nazis and their
philosophical descendants.)
Arians were heretics (according to those who prevailed) because they rejected
primary elements of Trinitarian theology. (I'll write about that in my personal blog for those who
want more information on the subject.)
When the Ostrogoths were driven out of Italy and into *oblivion,* (which evidently lies to the north) these Gothic cathedrals fell into the hands of the Catholics who preserved their marvelous artwork; which in turn preserved remnants of their ancient theology.
Margaret Barker, a British Bible scholar, author, Methodist, and theologian
included a scene from one of these mosaics on the cover of her book, Temple
Theology. Though her photo only includes the right half of the scene
below, she felt that it displays elements of early Christian theology regarding
the temple.
Her books point out temple themes that have been lost in most of today's Christian theology but that have been retained in the New Testament and in ancient architecture. For example, she notes that the existence of altars in every Christian chapel demonstrates that Christian chapels were an attempt to replicate the temple rather than the Jewish synagogue. No synagogue ever had an altar, which since the time of the Babylonian captivity and until Christian times, had been exclusive to the temple.
Back to Ravenna specifically, it was under the rule of the Ostrogoths until emperor Justinian's forces conquered them in 562 at a cost (according to Wikipedia) to the Byzantine Empire of 300,000 pounds of gold and the lives of 15,000,000 Ostrogoths. As a result of Justinian’s victory, some of the mosaics in the three byzantine cathedrals were modified to replace Theodoric’s image with that of Justinian and members of his court. Other mosaics show signs of incomplete modifications. Consider a close up from one from the newest of the three cathedrals, Sant'Apollinare Nuovo:
Notice that in the
black area above the curtains, there used to be images that have now been
scrubbed. Some think that the hands coming out from behind the curtains reflect evidence of attempts to scrub images; but it's clear that
the hands are supposed to be in the mosaics because the curtain on the one on the right is draped around the forearm. A larger view of the scene shows more hands
and perhaps an idea of what might have been erased from these panels--perhaps
the work involved to remove these items proved to be too costly for the expected
result. The fourth and sixth curtains have floating crowns above the curtains, and perhaps this is what was removed from the three arches on each end of the scene.
Look at the hands coming from behind the
curtains at (counting from left to right) 1, 3, 4, and 9; and the
evidence of scrubbed images is only at 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, and 9.
Looking at the main curtain in the center of the scene, there are decorations on the curtain that are also present on the altar in the scene of Melchizedec in the cathedral of San Vitale:
Notice also that these right-angle designs are on the curtain, the altar cloth on top of the altar, on the front of the altar, and on the altar itself (in gold.)
The same design is on the curtain behind Melchizedec in the oldest cathedral--Sant'Apollinare in Classe, and on the clothing of men dressed in white in Sant'Apollinare Nuovo. The marks in the curtains are harder to see in this photo because there was a light stand on the right of the image--but the design is again repeated on the altar and on the curtain behind Melchizedec:
In this photo, the same marks are on the curtain. They're evidently in each corner of the curtain but since it's drawn open, the marks at the bottom are obscured.
As you enter the cathedral of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo inside Ravenna (as opposed to Sant'Apollinare in Classe just outside of town), the main area facing the chapel and altar has men on the right, and women on the left. Each is holding a royal crown. I'll discuss that element later, but a view of the men and women standing on each side of the chapel is also interesting.One other item about these cathedrals interests me greatly: There are no crucifixion scenes in any of the artwork; and every depiction of the Savior (except one as an infant in Mary's arms) is as a resurrected personage. I have heard varying opinions--some have said that due to the plague in the middle ages, the emphasis in Catholicism changed from victory over death to that of suffering, and since the artwork in these cathedrals antedated the black death, the idea of overwhelming suffering and sadness had not yet taken hold.
From my perspective, these mosaics of the prophets and apostles have the same function as photos and paintings that we have in our meetinghouses and temples.
This mosaic has the bearded Savior holding a book, just as the other depiction of the clean shaven Lord of the universe has a book in his left hand.
Tuesday, January 24, 2023
Italic Standard Time
I learned
something new yesterday when I saw the above clock on the city's main Cathedral in Loreto, Italy. The clock face has only six hours and one hand. (There's a lateral crack in the stone face as well that makes it look like another hand.) Apparently, clocks
of this type can be found in various places throughout Italy showing “Italic
hours,” but this is the first time I’ve ever noticed such a clock.
(Consequently, this post will be written entirely in italics.)
Italic Solar hour
clocks first appeared in Italy in the mid 1300’s. In this system the new day
began a half hour after sunset. In the 1600’s, the Catholic Church adopted the
system as its standard.
In these six-hour
clocks, four complete revolutions of the hand were required to reach
twenty-four hours.
When the sun set
it was the twenty-fourth hour; eighteen o'clock indicated that it was six hours
before sunset, and coincided with the closing of the gates of the city or of
the castle.
It seems to me
that this would have been an untenable system as the length of days varies throughout
the year, and someone would have to have adjusted the clock as the daylight
hours changed. It would have been hilarious to have seen the Church implement
this in the land of the midnight sun.
Traces of this ancient
system can be found in literature and some idiomatic expressions and understanding
the clock helps to explain some enigmatic passages in the Italian romance, I
Promessi Sposi,--one, where a man returns at 11 pm, “just before sunset.”
The days weren’t really that long—they were just using what I’d call IST
(Italic Standard Time).
Napoleon’s invasion into Italy ended the Italic time zone as it was replaced by the one we currently use--when the
new day begins at midnight. After the French had been expelled, the Papal State
attempted to restore the Italic clocks, but couldn’t fight what
had become a universal system.
Monday, January 23, 2023
Ravenna--the City I Dream About
I think I have the tenderest feelings for this city of all of Italy. There were things that happened to me here that changed the trajectory of my whole life. I cried all the way through sacrament meeting yesterday. When I was here during the last century, my companion and I were the only members of the Church here. Now, there is a very strong branch.
There are 3 cathedrals in this city that are very much like temples--with startling differences from typical Italian cathedrals.
We left Rome Saturday after our shift at the temple ended around noon. The night before, we went out with Alberto Albanese and his wife Domenica, and at the end of the night he asked if we had snow chains for our car. I hadn't even thought about getting them. He noted that if you're on the freeway between November and March without either chains or snow tires you are subject to significant fines. Sometimes I think we're watched over to keep us safe. Eric purchased some chains while we were in the temple.
We needed to go over a mountain range to get here, and one of the other temple workers told us to be careful driving in the snow. We thought he was being overly dramatic because Italians wear heavy parkas, scarves, gloves and stocking caps when the temperature drops into the 50's. That is, until we were going through the mountains in a driving snow storm. We made it here safely with only a few brown alerts; but Robyn thought it was great fun and was gleefully taking photos while I tried not to cry.
It's now time to get dressed and check out of our hotel for the trip home. I'll continue this later.
Monday, January 16, 2023
Update on Travels, Food, and Friends
I told him a day or two later that I didn't find it to be particularly "good eating" and that it was as sour as most lemons I've tasted. He was a little puzzled by my comment, and a day or so later asked me how I had eaten it.