Orvieto: A Resting Place...

At least for a night  After taking in big city after big city, it was time for something different. We had read about a place called Chivita that could only be accessed by foot. A bus can get you within 20 minutes, but then you walk. There you find a medieval hill town that has not been modernized and is similar to how it was in the 1200s.
     We never made it all the way to the town, because we only had booked our place for one night. The train schedule and the fact that you can only catch the bus near Chivita four times a day did not mesh well for our plans.  I guess we will have to go back someday.  Oh well.
     We took the bus up to another small hill town.  It was gorgeous up there overlooking vinyards and other fields.  It was just a little taste of back home in Elmira.  Actually it was better, because there were not any trailers and scary dogs on the loose.
     We ate outside at a little restaraunt.  It was delicious.  Kayla ordered ravioli with spinach and a type of cheese.  I ordered a meal that seemed strange, refreshing, and delicious all at once.  There were no pictures on the menu, but I have been trying to be a little more adventurous when it comes to trying new foods.  That is what you do on vacation, and I knew I liked both of the ingredients; melon and bacon!  It was spectacular.
     Both of our plates came with three of the items we ordered.  Kayla got three massive ravioles, and I got just what I wanted, three big pieces of cantelope with thin sliced meat on top of it.  What a fantastic combo!  I knew meat goes well with bacon, because my sister-in-law once made pears wrapped in bacon, but this combo was so refreshing and nice that we have since ordered it a few other times.  The cantelope, and on a side note, nectarines, are so juicy and sweet here.  They are messy as well, squirting all over the place when you bite them. 
     Afterwards, we got a gelato, because that is one of our staple foods. We got mint which has done well for us in the past, but this time, yikes!  It was like sucking on freezing cold halls menthols.  It was gross,  but in the spirit of not wanting to waste a purchase, I (Aaron) preceded to eat the whole thing.  It was sort of miserable, but it cleared up my nasal passages, and I finished just in time to take the bus back to the hotel. 
     In the morning we were able to go on a walk in the countryside and ended it just in time to catch our train to the next big city, Florence!

Rome wasn't built in two blogs...

O.k... the Vatican City was...vast. I guess that's why they call it a city. We split up the city into two days; one for the incredibly huge museum, and one for St. Peter's Basilica.
The museum was awesome in its rather excessive collection of art and statuary. Though awe-inspiring, the collection is somewhat maddening in that few pieces are labeled, and even fewer, if any, are labeled in English. *Note: if you intend to visit the vatican museum, purchase the audioguide or bring a vatican-specific guidebook or do both. Do not attempt it on your college history course knowledge; you will drown in a puddle of idiocy, frusteration and regret... which is bad, because they don't allow liquids in the museum.* However, with our guide in ear, we managed to bask in the glory of Raphael's Transfiguration (which we saw a copy, though still by Raphael, in the Prado in Madrid). The painting is humongous and vibrant... which is surprising considering the age (though it has undergone restoration).
     In fact, that was a theme we encountered many times when viewing Renaissance art; it's quite sizable and beautifully bright-colored. We saw a few masterfully done Caravaggios, as well as a fascinating statue called Laocoon, which depicts snakes devouring the man (I forget who, sorry) who warns his fellow Trojans to distrust a gift from the Greeks, the gift in this case being the Trojan horse. The gods, angered by his lack of trust (rightfully so) in the Greeks, sentence him and his two sons to death by snake eating.
     Among this art-hoarder's paradise, we were able to find Leonardo's St. Jerome, as well as many, many awesome but unlabeled statues from antiquity, many prudishly outfitted later with fig leaves. But the icing on the cake, of course, was the Sistene Chapel. Everyone always talks about Adam touching God's finger, and while that's certainly moving, there is SO much more to it than that. The entire ceiling, as well as ever square inch of wall is covered in enchantingly beautiful frescoes (though the frescoes on the side walls are not Michelangelo's and they date earlier- still breathtaking in their own right.)
     I (Kayla) was most impressed, and moved to tears, by Mike's Last Judgment on the front wall. It's chock full of allegory, theology, history, humanism, artistic mastery and the artist's own internal struggle. In his terrible depiction of hell, you can see the darkness of doubt that apparently hovered over Michealangelo in his later years. However, in the upper center of this enormous work, is the pinnacle of hope: Jesus and the faithful in their new, glorified (and unnaturally muscular) bodies. Though these are not my original insights, its clear enough through Michealangelo's depictions of demons that he indeed had his own, but just as his painting illustrates, in the end hope and light and the justness of God prevail.
     I (Aaron) also was quite impressed with the Sistine chapel.  Anybody who cares about a project enough to work singlehandedly on it for four years should be given a prize. I was also challenged by these paintings to make sure I put all of my energies into glorifying God.  The artists had such devotion to thier work, and it showed greatly in how their works demonstrated God' greatness.
     The next morning we went to church at St Peter's Basilica.  What an amazing place.  Every inch is covered in one of three things: gold, marble, or mosaics.  Talk about eye-boggling.  Seriously, I had to make up a saying to describe it.  Visually it hurts a little, and your eyeballs get A.D.D. and they aren't sure what to focus on.  A lot of the same feelings about art and dedication to a craft remained, but a new feeling was creeping into me, sadness.
     Let me explain.  The churches are incredible to look at and tell an amazing history.  The only thing is that Jesus was a small portion of what was being displayed.  I missed Jesus.  Sure Kayla's and my favorite paintings were of grace and Jesus conquering death, but there was much more glorifying of old popes and saints then of Jesus.  We still got to see one of the most glorious statues ever, Michaelangelo's Pieta, which is Mary holding a dead Jesus, and that was just as stunning as all of the other things. 
     And that ends our Rome adventure.  A new theme started to develop towards the end: a realization that we really love our family and community that we have around us.  And most of all, we, just like everyone else, need Jesus.

Rome wasn't built in a day...

Probably my (Kayla) favorite sight in Rome was Ostia Antica. After taking the sweltering, graffiti clad tram 30 minutes outside of Rome, we arrived at the miles and miles of Roman ruins. These ruins dated as far back as 700 B.C. The ruins are said to be better for understanding Roman life than Pompey. The craziest thing was that these ruins are not roped off, policed or crowded. We walked along the rims of ancient and crumbled walls, stood in the middle of exquisite, centuries-old mosaic floors, and explored weed infested alleys and rooms. It was simply fantastic! To touch the same brick and mortar that people painstakingly placed centuries before Christ, is unbelievable. Even as I write this, its hard to believe I was there, walking among the ghost homes and shops of a once bustling and pivotal part of Rome. Anyway, enough of my gushing. The highlights of Ostia were the "snack bar" with a bar still in place, the latrine room with rows of holes over a once-open sewer, and a bath house with mostly intact mosaics of body-builders. The mosaics were not labeled or roped off with any decorum, but just found in different "shops". They were mostly of people swimming, but some of our favorites were dolphins and horses being attacked by panthers (why? We don't know. Apparently nobody does... nothing was marked... note to self: buy the audio tour). We mostly enjoyed just walking through the old homes, sitting on the staircases leading to nowhere, and "exploring" among the rocks and bricks and weeds covering a good portion of Ostia. It's remarkable how little is actually uncovered and well-preserved looking. That about covers ancient pagan Rome. More to come on St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican!

When in Rome!

First off followers: sorry for not posting more frequently. "When in Rome, update your bog frequently," is not the saying.  Instead we did as the Romans did: visit ancient sights and eat lots of pizza and gelato. Wait, thats not right either. 
     We had a very full four days in Rome.  I'll try and get the order right to coincide with the pictures. There are huge old churches and buildings every direction you turn, very much like Madrid.  in the evenings everyone hangs out in plazas.  They are super crowded but still very worth it. The fountains and statues were created centuries ago by Bernini and his peers.  They are incredible and huge. The size of all of the things are so much bigger then you think they are when you research and see pictures about them.
    We started at the Roman forum next to the Colosseum. This place had acres of crumbled buildings that were originally shrines and dedications to the Greek gods.  It was neat to see there are still many archaeologists digging around discovering new revelations about how the people lived back then.  After a wonderful picnic on the hill where Romulus fought Remus which led to Rome being named Rome, we walked a short distance to where Russell Crowe intertained us all.
     What do you say about the Colosseum?  It is stunning. It also gave me the heebee jeebees a bit.  When you look down and see all of the little rooms that stored the fighters and animals, you realize that it was not all glorious fun and games. It was quite gruesome.  Only around one hundred of the gladiators fighting for their freedom ever got it.  Hundreds of thousands tried and failed.  To look where all of the fighting took place and think of those numbers gets to you a bit.  It was also chilling to realize that the structure in which we stood was the prime location for grusome executions of christians. Then you add in the cheering of thousands of fans and it makes you think humans are gross.
    All of that aside, it was still marvelous to look at, and again, the size of it could not be understood unless you have seen it in person.  What a truly memorable experience.

Real Roma tomatoes!

http://instagr.am/p/NQOomVD5qE/
These are from a fruit and veggie stand in Rome. Quite spectacular!

New Blessings Every Morning

      It is interesting to be referring to our current situation as a blessing. We are laying on a slate floor in a small train station in Montpelier, France.  You are probably thinking, "BLESSINGS! They must have had too much of the wine in France!" It just got a little wackier. Now they are cleaning the floors.
     Here is the back story:  While in Barcelona, we found there was a night train to Milan. Since we are on a budget, these are great options, because you travel and you don't have to get a hotel.  After standing in line for an hour at the station, we learned that train only runs on select days.  Still wondering about the blessings part of this blog?
     We ended up getting tickets to Montpelier and were hoping to make it onto one more train in the Eastern direction.  This also gave us one more chance to see some sights we hadn't gotten in yet since the train did not leave until four.  The sights were great: Parc Gruel designed by Gaudi. Nature and architecture blended in a masterful way.  We got a little turned around and ended up rushing and worrying back to the station to find our ride was delayed,  Just a bit though.
     Our train was going as planned, stopping and going, letting people off and on until one stop.  We didn't go.  A translation of a loudspeaker message told us we had a two hour delay due to excruciating circumstances.
     After exploring the train station, a five minute task revealing only a gross bathroom and a ticket counter, we decided to try the cafe car on the train.  We have found good food for cheap on this trip so far, as well as a few bad expensive meals, and we decided this prepackaged food wasn't worth the cost.  In the way back to our car was the first clear blessing you have all been waiting for. A free meal provided by the train company.  Now it was pre packaged as well, but free is free.
     This meal led us into conversations with some youngish people from England who had never had applesauce.  We convinced them that it was not baby food, and that started many questions and answers about each other's culture.  This was a treat, because we got to learn a little bit about England without traveling there.  On a side note, we would love to travel there someday, but with the Olympics there shortly, it would be too hectic for this trip.
     The next part of our journey went quickly due to fun conversations, and we arrived at our destination just as the clock showed four zeros.
    There was one huge problem: We didn't have anywhere to stay.  Here come some blessings.  A man on the train promised some other people that since we missed our next train there would be a hotel nearby that would be comped.  This obviously did not happen, but by them arguing the point, the people who worked there changed their policy from locking the train station after kicking everyone out to locking the station with only travelers inside.  We are now safe which is huge deal.  A policeman with a big German shepherd keeps walking by to make sure we are on our best behavior.  We are also under a roof for free.  I guess the saying "you get what you pay for" is true.  We get a slate floor.  The thing that saying doesn't account for is that it is safe, it's clean, and the janitor driving a floor cleaner around making the perfect white noise to put us to sleep for the night.  Or for the morning I guess.  The clock now says two and we leave at 5:40.  The neat thing in all of this is that we are still being blessed.  As always, these posts are typed on a cell phone and this one is especially early in the morning, so please excuse any misspelled words or bad punctuation as just typos.
  Aaron

Barcelona

Barcelona, pronounced Barthelona by the locals, was certainly full of some surprises. After getting to the train station in Madrid, we discovered that our eurail pass and the train system are a bit more complicated then we thought. Well, we made it on the train, albeit four or five hours later than we anticipated. After arriving in downtown Barcelona and getting terribly and hopelessly lost, a kind old man (who didn't speak a lick of English) walked us a good 15 blocks to our BnB. It was past 9 when we arrived, hot, hungry,achy and sweaty from walking miles with our packs on. Our hostess suggested we eat at a little tapperia down the street. Mind you, we were definitely not in a tourist area. We went, expecting to eat and crash. While we were ordering, a couple next to us overheard and offered their help. A side note: many barcelonians speak catalunyan mixed with spanish, which is obviously why our
Waitress didn't understand our perfect spanish :). Anyway, we got to talking to the Spanish couple about many things... soccer, culture, politics, Bruce Springsteen... they eventually invited us to their table where we talked more and drank sangria (the best I have ever had...by far). Then they walked us to a little bar a couple of blocks away. It was mojito Friday so they bought our drinks and at midnight they sang me "happy birthday" in Catalunyan. What a wonderful treat. We had hoped to meet locals and get to know them, and whatya know? It happened on my birthday! God sent me some friends to spend my birthday with.
More to come on the sights.
-Kayla