Last Post from Overseas

We arrived in Seoul late afternoon having had some sleep on the plane. We decided to stay near the airport and were accommodated by Korean airline in the Hyatt Regency, utter opulent luxury in comparison to our last accommodation in Seoul at Elm Tree Guest House. We are now at the airport about to board the flight to Auckland and signing off on our travel blog.

However in the days ahead we may come back again with some more reflective thoughts.

In the meantime we hope you have enjoyed following in our footsteps.

Arrivederci Roma

We had a quiet morning checking emails and doing the blog as well as doing our final pack for the homeward journey. Derek Kearney invited us for lunch at the SMA's (Society of Missionaries of Africa) and this time we got there! No strike today and so with our luggage we managed to get a taxi as Derek said he would take us to the airport.

After lunch he drove us down to St Peter's and on the way we stopped at different vantage points along the Gianiculum Hill to get views of the city and beyond including Castle Gandolfo where the Pope is at present.

Derek and Leona

 

The Forum and St John Lateran in the far distance

The roof of the Pantheon

The Vatican State, extends from the tower on the left (see below) and down to St Peters and includes the piazza in front of the basilica.

We went into St Peter's again for our last time. I must say with all the barricades around it seems even more like a tourist place just to go and view and no place to sit down and stop and reflect.

Blessed Pope John XXIII

St Philip Neri

After that we walked to the Chiesa Nuova to remember Philip our ex-rector and pray for him at the tomb of his patron saint, St Philip Neri. We were delighted to hear that he had a good report recently. It is a beautiful church and was not buzzing with too many people and it was also cool!

Tomb of St Philip Neri

Then we're turned to the SMA's place and before going in walked along the Nocetta to see where the John of God Generalate was. After a bite to eat it was off to the airport and farewelling Derek and Rome.

Sacra Conversazione

We had a leisurely start this morning and after breakfast went into St Mark's square. The queue was  long for going into the cathedral and so Steve held my bag and I went in on a short queue of people who had checked in bags in another place. I had my own bag holder! Steve had already been into St Mark's a couple of other times so was happy not to go again. We had seen so many wonderlful buildings St Mark's was just another.  The gold was magnificent but with the dull light it did not show at its best and also I wonder if it needs some cleaning from dust and grime.

The basilica has a separate bell tower that stands 98.6 meters tall. Originally built in the 9th century, the current version was rebuilt in 1912 after the original tower collapsed in 1902.

St Mark's basilica

The clock tower

The 12th century Procuratie Vecchie, buildings that housed the apartments and offices of the procurators;

The Bridge of Sighs - the last view condemned people saw of Venice was out through the small windows as they were led to execution. 

After wandering more alleyways, streets and bridges and encountering more churches and campos we decided we would go back to the hotel for a while to check emails and then to the station to get the train back to Rome which was a four hour trip.

Final encounters with the Grand Canal

Rialto Bridge

Sacra Conversazione or Sacred Conversation - by Bellini at St Zachariah's in Venice... An apt title for our sabbatical

Island Hopping and a Grand Canal Cruise

Today we went to Murano the island that is known for its glass making. There were glass shops everywhere and glass workers as well. We wandered the streets among the other people who were exploring. Steve was patient and I looked in and out of shops with some exquisite glass pieces.

Then it was on the ferry again to Burano which is known for its lace making. Burano is known for its wonderful coloured houses and so we wandered alongside canals and over bridges admiring the brightness of colour and walking past peoples homes and with their doors open you could see behind the curtain at the door way was the dining room. The shops had all kinds of lace, antique and modern as well as a lot of Murano glass. I saw one woman making lace and apparently seven women work on a piece of lace for a month. Each woman specializes and has one area with one technique to work on.

It was quite interesting seeing the mud flats in the lagoon, a reminder of what Venice is built on... and yes, the church tower is on a lean.

We went back to Venice and then got the ferry around the Grand Canal. It stopped along the way to let people on and off but was a good way to see some spectacular buildings from the water at minimal cost because our day ticket covered all these excursions. We did not go on a gondola ride along the little canals. We didn't feel it was a good use of 80 Euro.

A good map helps

On the move again and this time to Venice. From Ravenna we went by train to Ferrera to change to the Venice train. Once again we thought we were going to encounter a strike but thank goodness that did not affect us. We arrived in Venice mid afternoon and getting to the hotel was a good course in orienteering without the proper clues! The map from the web was inadequate and so we walked down alleys over bridges and somewhat round in circles until we knew we were close. Then we followed the numbers. I think Steve will draw a map for the hotel to put on the web. Anyway the place we stayed was away from St Mark's and the tourist centre and an easy walk back to the station as we were leaving.

We got settled and then went exploring. Venice was as I had imagined from photos but bigger and cleaner than I had thought. Gondalas were all around as were all other kinds of transport along the canals. A magical place and so different from anywhere else you could imagine. No wonder Shakespeare used this setting for the Merchant of Venice. Our general exploring took us into St Mark's Square where there were huge crowds. It also continued to be hot.

The Grand Canal

 

Not so grand canals

 

Leona and the view from our hotel

 

Ravenna and its superb Byzantine mosaics

This morning we were off on the train at 8.15 to go to Ravenna. the city of mosaics. We changed trains at Bologna. We arrived in Ravenna just before lunch and had a two minute walk to our hotel. One of the features of Ravenna, besides the wonderful mosaics, is the peacefulness and relaxed atmosphere of the town where people travel around by bicycle. We found out later that we too could have gone around by bicycle which would have been a change from walking. The first church we went to was St John the Evangelist and there were just fragments of frescoes and mosaics left in the reconstructed Church. This Church was originally built in 425 with the oldest mosaics in Ravenna and a number of these were destroyed by the bombing during the second world war.

Then it was on to the spectacular church of St Apollinarius with amazing mosaics and an interesting history. (Before I left Fr Merv Duffy had given me a quick lesson on mosaics in Ravenna accompanied by photographs). Here in the Church we saw a myriad of mosaics depicting many of the miracles of Jesus and well as encounters with his apostles. What is noted is that there is no crucifixion scene as at this stage of history it was something of a scandal. The church at this time was also influenced by the Arian heresy. The Arians held that Jesus the Son of God did not always exist, but was created by — and is therefore distinct from — God the Father. Evidence of the influence of Arianism is seen where mosaics of curtains cover Arian saints but some evidence is left in the hands around the pillars. On one side of the church women martyrs are depicted and on the other the men all very uniform with gold in the background. 

The wise men

The woman at the well

He is not here - he is risen

Glimpses of Arian saints in the mosaics above and below... the hands around the pillar all that remain

Next to Dante's tomb and then on to the baptistry of the Neionian. It portrayed the baptism of Jesus by John in the Jordan.

Our next visit was to the Cathedral and the Cathedral museum. The depictions of the Ascension and the Assumption of Mary in the Duomo, while not mosaics, were still quite amazing.

The Assumption

The Ascension

The next church was St Francis which did not look at all spectacular until we went down stairs in front of the altar and down to the crypt - click on the photo of the crypt below and look between the two pillars on the right hand side to see the difference...

We walked on to another treasure, the Church of St Vitale. On entering the church we encountered the colour of the mosaics that surrounded us and on the floor the mosaic tiles in black and white. And we were not finished.

We went out and into the Mausoleum and again saw spectacular coloured scenes and the Good Shepherd scene above the door is exquisite but hard to photograph because of the light.

Our last stop was the Arian baptistry which was very much modelled on the Baptistry of Neonian...

Our day in this city was amazing.