Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Rome: DAYS 99-100 STILL LEANING

STILL LEANING
December 21-22

We are on the train to Pisa on our way to Lucca to visit our friends Roberto and San Donato.  They are having us to their place in Lucca for the Christmas Holiday.  A lovely invitation gratefully accepted. Because we have never taken the train from Rome, we leave early for the Terminal.  It is a simple process that I have mentally turned into getting on the space shuttle.  Because we are early, I am able to check on trains returning from Florence and how to get to Naples.  My first information clerk is an older woman who claims to speak no Italian.  I must reenter the line and wait for the clerk who does speak English.  He immediately tells me that in fact the other clerk does speak English and just didn’t want to bother with me. I knew that.  No matter, the clerk gets me sorted out right away.  We enter the train portion of the Station to wait for our track and train.  It is late; I thought Mussolini had taken care of that kind of thing. When the track is announced there is a general rush for the platform.  I join the rush and we move quickly to the correct place. In my rush to get to our seats, I actually helped push some other older woman up the stairs by her bottom, which seems to have been appreciated.  When you book an Italian train, you are given a seat number no matter whether you go First or Second Class.  I think they forgot to tell the passengers that they all had seats.  It was a guerilla warfare scene with people pushing toward the doors as if there were only a few seats left.  I instantly became part of the crowd.  We got to our cabin where we took the seats that we had reserved. As we waited a guy in our car was obviously in the wrong seat, but he seemed not to be moving.  There was some conversation, mostly not unpleasant and finally this old guy went to where he was probably supposed to go in the first place. The last placeholders arrived.  They were a beautifully dressed elderly Roman couple.  He was very dapper with handsome clothes and she wore some very large diamonds and a mink coat.  They had enough luggage to be away for 3 years.  It was piled in the corridor and heavy. The train was old but comfortable.  As to food, bring your lunch at least on Trenitalia.  We will take the Eurostar home from Florence and maybe it will all be different.  The train does go fast and we landed in Pisa late about the same amount of time, as we were when we left Rome.  My learning curve continues to lengthen.  Still that old problem of not speaking Italian for me. Kim is fantastic at speaking, it’s just when people answer when we have our problem.  Apparently, this is a common issue for all Italian language students; they speak and then have problems with the conversational answer.  Anyway, Kim sounds fantastic.  I try to listen hard. 

Last night in Rome every street seemed to be having a party.  For some reason the weather turned warmer as the sun went down.  Our evening passagiata was a wonderful circle from our place to the Campo de Fiori and on around to Piazza Navona and finished with a late viewing of the Pantheon.  Piazza Navona is filled with Christmas junk and crèche items.  However, a brief stop in the Borromini church that faces Bernini’s magnificent 4 rivers fountain made me look away from the junk and think about the genius of these two architects who competed to build the most intricate fountains, villas and opulent churches.  It is widely acknowledged that Bernini has won the popularity contest although the architectural fellows at the Academy disagree, savoring the classical purity of Borromini. But who cares?  We are the winners.  I am hoping that Kim has kept track of all the churches she has entered.  When she gets to the pearly gates I can only hope that some Catholic monk who is keeping track of such things has her list. She is the clear winner in the most churches visited in Rome contest.  She must be close to 100.  I wait outside and will go in if she tells me about something good.

We have been told that Pisa is just another old Italian town.  My first view of the leaning tower proves that wrong.  It is stunning next to the Duomo and the old baptistry.  Even I did not object going into the delightfully Romanesque church.  A fine combination of old and older, it was started in the 1100’s and only took 250 years to finish.  Above the main altar Cimibue’s last work, a sensational Christ in mosaic beams down to us.  The strength and spirituality of the Italian artists leaves most onlookers breathless, even me.  You are now able to walk to the top of the tower, but I limit myself to taking pictures from all angles.  I sort of lost it and may have overdone the pix.  Oh well, we have a delete button.  The entire setting is really well done, lots of grass and open space to view the lean. I am glad we didn’t miss it. 


Packages are wrapped, we are in an ok place in Pisa, weather cold but fine, and we are looking forward to the Holiday time.

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