Monday, May 20, 2013

Pentecost Festivities

Mass in the Duomo filled with kisses, men and boys in sharp blazers, women in high heels and looking fabulous while they rock their babies. Incense and processions.



Coming outside to the Piazza del Duomo to watch the men and women in medieval garb process to the center to celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit. Flag-bearers trotting to the beat of the drummers, regal old men in tights, young children dressed as peasants holding flowers.
Expectantly waiting and thrilled when the box came zooming down the zipline to the altar constructed in front. Cracking fireworks and convinced that the dove/holy spirit inside the box must be dead, and worried that the flames alit above the fake apostles’ heads would spread even farther.

 

The showing of the live dove from the balcony (but convinced that they did some switcheroo to show a different or new dove.)

A picnic with Charley’s pizza and wine in sunset park and a nap of contentment in the sun and wind.

Visiting the Museo del’Opera del Duomo and seeing artwork taken from our own monastery and church. Old and beautiful things. Comparing all of the baby Jesuses. Tiny old man. Chunky stout. Sassy.
Mary’s big eyes and tiny mouth, assuming that she saw much and spoke only what mattered.

Another parade through town with long trumpets, bagpipes, dancing girls, men in tights, and flag bearers leading to the Piazza del Popolo where there would be an archery tournament. Darn distance and sun in my eyes.

Cinque Terre





Peach and yellow and green squares against a hazy pale blue and pink sunset sky.  A calmness INTERRUPTED by monstrous powerful waves.
Hearing more English than Italian, and off-put and unsettled by that.
Greeted at the train station of Riomaggiore by a large jovial boisterous Italian man exclaiming “Mamma Rosa!”---which is also the name of the hostel we booked. We were told to follow Papa Rosa, a short, tough, weathered, old man who only walked as fast as he could breathe in a drag from his cigarette.
A room like a glass box that seemed to be more fit for an airport than a hostel. 



Salmon penne pasta brought to me by the nice waiter in the red pants.
Night swimming and exploring in the rain and feeling like young pirates in the cove. Thunderous smooth rocks being sucked down into the ocean with the pulling tide. Eyes straining to find our footing. Feeling like famous people in a stadium as fireflies flickered on an off in the rocks above us.
The mysterious glowing Duomo-shape at the top of the cliff as tantalizing as Gatsby’s green light across the water.

Forced to sleep in because of rain, but leading to a beautifully clear yet cloudy day.
A morning in the marina and seeing our pirate cove in the light of day.
Conducting the crashing waves in Vernazza, and being the comedic entertainment of several tourists when one giant wave swallowed Tyler.


Picnic by the sea of pesto and tomato pizza and eating an entire apple (Sara Stolarksi style) for lunch.



A gorgeous hike to Monterosso with beyond-the-edges-of-the-postcard views, squishy little plants the color of mentos, archways of trees with yellow flowers, Deep blue sea. Greetings and smiles in every language—Cinque Terre may be a tourist site, but it’s where the happy tourists go. Creeks to put my feet in and make them delightfully numb. Thankful to have gone the way we did so that we would be going down the endless set of slippery stairs instead of up.



Celebrating our arrival to Monterosso with rose and fior di latte gelato. Being reminded that there are always the gutters of beautiful places when we had to change into our swimsuits at the less than sanitary squatty potty bathrooms at the train station.
Laying on the beach and doing a polar plunge into the water once the sun got the courage to burst through the clouds. Skeet-shooting by throwing stones into the air and playing bocce ball with rocks on the beach.
The weight of cool stones on a warm belly. Sea mist on my face and a salty taste that lingers.


A man made out of rock.

Sweet-smelling flowers almost like honeysuckle.

Gnocci pasta like fluffy temper-pedic pillows in four cheeses with red wine. A long walk at night down the twisty stairs from the peak of Corniglia to the train station.

A couple: “That’s lame. Just a bunch of rocks.” Their eyes tuned only to see a blurry mass of stones and won’t see the delicately balanced peace piles. Life is here, but I suppose life is there also.



A different kind of adventure on the way home:

A literal 1-minute stop at the famous leaning tower only to power-walk back to the train station through the dreds and sagging pants and piercings and smells and beers of the weed-fest going on in Pisa that day.


People-watching on the streets of Florence, and feeling just as watched and judged for wearing sandals and beach-wear in Ferragamo fashion town.

Dragging our tired bodies to the door of our monastery. Home.

Friday, May 10, 2013

Happenings of the Days.



Celebrating a birthday at Vin Café or Barrique with wine and aperitivo snacks a-la-casa. Sharing wild stories of burning couches and eating hostess snacks off the road. Birthday Unicorn cake putting my taste buds into a state of ecstasy.

A pizza parade for dinner, and our ever-able waiter Valentino smiling at our excitement about a festa di pizza.

A worship service in our private chapel lit by candlelight for a wonderful balance of warm faces in a cool light blue room. Be Thou My Vision, personal poems, French philosophers, and a meditative saxophone and guitar duet by Philippe and Federico.

Hands oily in Burnt Siena and Prussian blue or dirty with wet clay. Floating on a cloud of paint thinner fumes. Visions of Dante’s hell in the midst of visions of life and community, good conversation, and beautiful music in the studio.

Unpracticed muscles sore from planting tomatoes all day in Roberta’s farm and stooping to pet Nina, Roxy, or Polo.




Chapter meetings ranging from ant problems to excursion details to planning a princess party to introductions of our lives.

FULLY enjoying a 5-day gelato festival and branching out to try flavors like olive, fig, wine and cinnamon and orange, hazelnut, licorice, lavender. The winner definitely being a cherry fior di latte with graham cracker crumbles--- enjoyed more than once on the final day of the festival… nothing wrong with 4 gelati in one day.



Passing Clandestino and the man with the tiny table and chairs offering to tell fortunes. A woman pushing a baby in a carriage and two men stopping to look at it. The man in the leather jacket with the bulldog. Rachele telling me our plans to make pizza at her house. The old man with the wiener dog with a beard. The cat that always lurks in that alley. The man who sings outside his kebab cafeteria.

The unwanted sound of middle school boys whistling at the “inglese.”


Pre- and post-dinner dance parties. Nn-sta Nn-sta Nn-sta.

A 50 year anniversary of Lamborghini which included Orvieto as a stop on their journey from Milan. So many millions of dollars in one piazza.



Being granted free access to roam and draw and enjoy the caves of Orvieto underground in order to draw inspiration for our Dante paintings.



The biggest party this neighborhood has even seen spewing from our monastery. Wands, face paint, princess crowns, dancing and music, soccer, crafts, cake and cookies, pizza, the works. And our neighbor Grumpy Gramps even accepted our invitation and dressed up to come watch from the gate. Finishing up the night with a little jazz from our Italian friends and my professor on the saxophone. A reading of Paradiso and scat echoes with the spoken word.


A run in the rain around the city walls and wondering what motions to take. Do I burrow into a nook in the warm porous tufa, becoming a caryatid helping hold up this beautiful precious ancient stone? Or do I, “filled with rapture, [my] soul yearning for freedom, space, vastness” (Brothers Karamazov) fly out to the hills in the distance never to touch down; enjoying my moment with the hilltops who bask in their shining instance of being spotlighted by the sun among the attention-hogging Italian countryside. Neither for now. Happy cat waits for me at the monastery.



Assisi: City of Peace



I've seen the place of the man who started a revolution in the Church without even knowing it.
Francis, who continually misunderstood God’s calling of what he was actually asking him to do. Who appeared to be crazy when he threw off his clothing in the center of town and said that he would only refer to God as his Father from then on. Naked before God in order to become fully clothed in Christ.
Who truly loved his fratelli, of which everyone is included in that brotherhood.
Who was called to rebuild God’s church: San Damiano, the children of God, and their encounter with the gospel.
Who was not too proud or embarrassed to come face to face with bunny rabbits preach to the birds.
Who was a marvel, but for all the right reasons. Who took the path just as Christ did towards weakness instead of towards the extraordinary and exalted---who imitated Christ in everthing down to the Stigmata found on his hands and feet and side.


 "He saw everything as dramatic, distinct from its setting, not all of a piece like a picture but in action like a play. A bird went by him like an arrow; something with a story and purpose, though it was a purpose of life and not a purpose of death. St. Francis was a man who did not want to see the wood for the trees. He wanted to see each tree as a separate and almost sacred thing, being a child of God and therefore a brother or sister of man. . . It is even more true that he deliberately did not see the mob for the men. He only saw the image of God multiplied but never monotonous. He honoured all men; that is, he not only loved but respected them all. What gave him this extraordinary personal power was this; that from the Pope to the beggar, from the sultan of Syria in his pavilian to the ragged robbers crawling out of the wood, there was never a man who looked into those brown burning eyes without being certain that Francis Bernardone was really interested in him" (G. K. Chesterton).


We “found Mimo” at San Damiano in the form of a kind man in a brown tunic who gave us a blessing.

Fixing my eyes upon the rare crucifix of a divine and awake Christ ---not the normal withering and dark---that St. Francis also looked upon and heard the voice of God.



Meditating in a forest of peace and prayer (olive and cyprus) looking out onto the Cittá della Pace. The sounds of Alessandro's voice and guitar, the smells of Sister Mint and the warmth of Brother Sun.

Crawling into the caves where Francis and his two dear friends retreated into silence and solitude in order to gain better language and better commune with people. “In silence we learn how to speak.” Three friends with each different gifts and abilities--- in gazing at the stars, one in careful calculation and recording in order to mark the distances, one in estimation of constellations for basic teaching to the people, and one in reckless abandon, shoes off and staring up at the work of God’s hands.


 Giotto’s Frescoes of the Life of Saint St. Francis:
“Shhh. Silencio. Non foto.”
Compositional rooms like dollhouses, ready to be interacted with even if I can’t make the birds flutter around Saint Francis or raise the sick in their beds. My hand can’t make it move, but the instinct to reach into that life is what counts.
Polenta yellow, Orvieto sky blue, Assisi stone pink, amarena deep red, and white like the skin under my arm that is never touched by Brother Sun.



Treated to peach gelato and people sauntering in medieval costumes.



Seeing a house in the middle of the fog on the van trip and being commanded to “Remember that.”

Monday, April 22, 2013

La Vie en Rose: Paris


The unexpected meeting on the metro of a kindred soul of a decade, now. Long-lacking joyful embrace and caresses of a dear dear friend and the curious, confused, and amused looks of the Parisians around us.

First sight of Paris: Moulin Rouge. Darker, a bloody redder, and much ickier than Toulouse-Lautrec led me to believe in his pastel paintings. Hokier, smaller, and more realistic than Baz Luhrmann led me to believe in his Bohemian passionate film. But a long line of people just as curious (but bound to be disappointed) as to what it really looks like on the inside.



Crepes, croissants, baguettes, french onion soup, duck, fish, beef bourguignon, crème brulee, raspberry cake, wine, macaroons.

Saint Chappelle: oldest fresco in France sitting unassuming under the breathtaking nave of wall made out of stained glass.



Walking in the prison where Marie Antoinette was held before she went to the guillotine. Wondering what happened to her children while she was there.

Finding sanctuary in the motherly Notre Dame, posing as a gargoyle, and enjoying the less populated park behind her with sweet flowers, trees, and views of her flying buttresses.




Wishing I could settle in to a nook of Shakespeare and Company and never leave. Singing along to “How High the Moon” while fingering through a Lucian Freud book and thinking about all the starving writers who found refuge in this place.



Magical sea-foam green Laduree and their spectrum of colorful, precious, delicious macaroons.

Escaping the Parisian rain showers by having a cool-kid picnic under the bridge by the Seine instead of a chic feast on the lawns of the Eiffel tower.
----The sight of a one-legged pigeon just as interesting as the giant famous triangular structure. I don’t know what that says about us.



The Louvre:
            Disillusioned by the hundreds of visitors who do not view the art except apathetically through their camera lens, attentive to only what people have told them is important.
            Redeemed by the Winged Victory of Samothrace standing isolated in a round cream apse with a skylight, apart from the overwhelming concentration of still life’s, portraits, naked nymphs, and babies riding on lions and staring at rainbows.
                        ----but still enraged by the way that people did not walk around. They took a picture directly in front and immediately took a right to see the Mona Lisa.


see if you can spot Mona.


            Amazed by the globe of Vermeer’s Astronomer, Corot’s natural arches in the landscape, and the technique  Fayum portraits despite being so ancient.
            Satisfied by catching the small detail of a dog pooping in a painting.

The view of blue and white Paris reflecting the sky from the top of the steps of Sacre Coeur and from our window on the fifth floor in Montmartre.



Listening to the two young men playing the piano and guitar at our restaurant (after the uncomfortable karaoke singing of an old man in a silky white shirt and belt-buckle that said “Danny”) that turned into forty minute jam session with them singing Ray Charles, Coldplay, Beatles, and ending the night with “Everybody Wants to Be a Cat” ---not even my request.

Opulence on opulence at Versailles. Escaping the herds of tourists inside the palace to frolic in the extensive gardens with classical music blasting. Resting in the grass of the Marie Antoinette’s Petit Trianon where gold and red and crystal were replaced with simpler greens and whites.



The blessed Orsay, the train station turned museum:
            Much needed distortion of idealized youthful figures in the caricatured clay heads of Daumier.
            The luminous, sorrowful, dirty peasants of Miller. Sacred in the simple.
            Paint on Cezanne’s hands like scales.
            Boldini’s Madame Charles Max with her feathery skin and dress, posed to soon lift up and fly away.
            Butterflies in my stomach and wanting to cry at getting to be so intimately close to the work of Van Gogh’s hands that I have been acquainted with for so long but never so close. 
            Experiencing the seasons with Monet
            Degas’ menagerie of ballerinas made out of airy lines and lava-like bronze dancing ignorant of his defeated woman with her absinthe at the cafe.
            Luce’s rainbow beard of Henri Edmund Cross and the unanswered questions of Whistler’s mother.


           

Camoflaged with Monet’s water lilies and willows in the oval rooms of the Orangerie museum with my turquoise dress and maroon tights. He never got to see the paintings installed in the place specifically built for them, and he never got to see me swimming in his pond.
           
Resting in the portable green chairs with crepes in hand alongside the other men in a row sleeping in the sun in the Tuileries Gardens. Well done, Paris, with those chairs. They lean back and everything.

Looking up at the Opera Garnier and imagining the Phantom standing on top and singing with a rose in his hand.

Blending into the familiar crowd at Closiere de Lilas, one of Ernest Hemingway’s favorite bars and doing some people watching. Which made it ironic when the cute old black man in a cardigan sat down next to us and made a gesture with his hands like he was zooming in with binoculars towards us and took an imaginary picture. If only we knew French and could have extended the gesture of a conversation with him. We walked out greeted with several “good-evenings” only to run back at the faint sounds of La Vie en Rose being played by the man at the piano.



Excited to come to this magical place with friends old and new, and just as excited to return back to my lovely roots in Orvieto---where a woman holding her baby will wave and blow kisses at me as I see her through her window whether I know her or not.

The Necropolis



A beautiful path with cherry blossomed trees leading up to the grassy oasis that is hardly a city of the dead. 6th Century BC in 21st century AD. Death and life, growth and decay, fresh beauty and ancient ruins all coexisting.
Empty tombs with only prehistoric looking plants growing around the stone benches under the spider webs---we take nothing with us, and we took their amphora vases out of their tufa graves too late for them to know that.
A ghost town for the sorrows carried by those of us in our community to sojourn: the draining of life of loved ones of our professors, death of friends and grandfathers, distance from familiarity, old burdens and struggles that remain despite the Italian sun and gelato.
Henry Nouwen told us that because a tree is useless, that is how it can grow tall and give shade and beauty. Life is not a possession to be defended, but a gift to be given. Take the world seriously, but not too seriously.




Dante Purgatorio Canto X:
 “In just this way, the smoke of incense
sculpted there put eyes and nose
in discord, caught between yes and no.
There the humble psalmist leaped in dance
Before the blessed vessel with his robe hitched up---
And was at once both more and less than a king.”




A Room with a View - E.M. Forster




“About old Mr. Emerson—I hardly know. No, he is not tactful; yet, have you ever noticed that there are people who do things which are most indelicate, and yet at the same time---beautiful?”

“Tut, tut! Miss Lucy! I hope we shall soon emancipate you form Baedecker. He does but touch the surface of things. As to the true Italy---he does not even dream of it. The true Italy is only to be found by patient observation.”



"You are inclined to get muddled, if I may judge from last night. Let yourself go. Pull out from the depths those thoughts that you do not understand, and spread them out in the sunlight and know the meaning of them. By understanding George you may learn to understand yourself. It will be good for both of you.”

“There is at times a magic in identity of position; it is one of the things that have suggested to us eternal comradeship.”

“’I shall want to live, I say.’
Leaning on her elbows on the parapet, she contemplated the River Arno, whose roar was suggesting some unexpected melody to her ears.”



“That day she had seemed a typical tourist-shrill, crude, and gaunt with travel. But Italy worked some marvel in her. It gave her light, and---which he held more precious---it gave her shadow. Soon he detected in her a wonderful reticence. She was like a woman of Leonardo Da Vinci’s, whom we love not so much for herself as for the things that she will not tell us. The things are assuredly not of this life, no woman of Leonardo’s could have anything so vulgar as a “story.”
………..…….“He looked at her, instead of through her, for the first time since they were engaged. From a Leonardo she had become a living woman, with mysteries and forces of her own, with qualities that even eluded art.”

“’There is a certain amount of kindness, just as there is a certain amount of light,’ he continued in measured tones. ‘We cast a shadow on something wherever we stand, and it is no good moving from place to place to save things because the shadow always follows. Choose a place where you won’t do harm---yes, choose a place where you won’t do very much harm, and stand in it for all you are worth, facing the sunshine.’”