Subject: Italy take 4
oops, I didn't mean to send that one yet- but I guess it was a good point to stop at- it was starting to get fairly long!
Oh, that thing that I said must have been a reliquary was a Byzantine ambo (pulpit) and the mosaics represented Jonah the Whale. So I guess I didn't take a picture of the Jonah part!
After the cathedral we made a few more stops in Ravello. The first was to a place called Villa Cimbrone. When we walked in there was a long straight path leading through beautiful gardens and under bridges covered with ivy and plants out to an incredible view of the sea.
It was starting to rain, so we hurried out there to see before we got drenched. I remember there was a whole row of statues of people, so we all stood in between them as Frank took a picture of us. From there we could look down at Amalfi far below us, the big sailboats and yachts anchored off the coastline, and the deep valley I was telling you about before, only this time from above rather than from below.
The water was a beautiful blue, even with the sky becoming so stormy.
We ran back and went into the cloister that was a part of this whole villa, and watercolored while we were waiting for the rain to let up.
The view from here- looking out in the opposite direction, to the next valley cut into the cliff was just as amazing as the last- and the way the clouds went rolling through was crazy- too bad my watercolor didn't show it- from my painting you would never know it was stormy! :S The cloister itself was pretty cool- all these ribbed vaults spinning out in all directions from the massive piers.
Finally the rain stopped and we went to the next villa, Villa Rufolo, which had the most fantastic gardens! It was so thick with red and fuschia, and dense shrubbery.
It also had massive columns around the perimeter, holding up nothing.
They kind of framed the views to the water and the continuing coastline below, but they also seemed to enclose the gardens, which although it seemed to fit, bc everything was so measured and precise, it was certainly not what I would want to do there. The view is so spectacular from there- more like a dream or a movie set than real life- the LAST thing I would want to do would be close it off! I would want everything to feel like it opens up to its surroundings, like you can soar out and touch the next mountain!
Everyone was taking pictures like crazy, setting up the timers to take simultaneous pictures from different locations and everything, and I really had to watch where I was going so I didn't inadvertantly block one!
Frank was wearing his really cool straw hat, which he had bought this summer when he was visiting Jack at home (?)- BIG broad rim, to block out the sun. I asked to try it on, and Jack thought it was really cool, so he wanted to take a picture of me in it- he was so FUNNY about it! He kept looking around for the perfect setting, then had me sit down in front of a bunch of red flowers. He kept moving my head until I had just the right pose, then 3 or 4 people took pictures of me! It was great- I was a model for 15 minutes!! :)
Then a bunch of us decided to head back down the hill to Amalfi. Rather than take the bus, we walked down the road/footpath, which was such a great decision. It meant that we had that much longer to soak in the sights of our surroundings!
Everything was so spectacular- the steep cliffs, the terraces, the little houses sprouting here and there, and every now and then a glimpse between the cliffs to the water, with the buildings of the town spilling a bit into this valley. I had to stop myself from taking more and more pictures- I felt like I could take a thousand and still not describe what I was seeing. At the same time, I didn't think any more pictures would say any more, and I wanted to have some film left for the rest of the day!!
We walked along, now going under a grapevine-covered lattice, now on top of the world.
At one point we did make a wrong turn, which led us to an adorable little stone bridge going over a stream in the woods.
It was so picturesque, just sitting there, like it probably had for a few hundred years.
When we got back up on the main path, we went by a farmers shed, with a whole family there, harvesting their crop of lemons. We said hi and continued along, then someone had the idea that we should go back and ask to get our picture taken with them. Which we did. They were so nice about it- they said sure, come on in! They handed each of us a lemon to hold and we stood there in a group with Mom and Dad, Uncle, Grandma, Baby Brother, the whole family! Then smiling and laughing, they told us to keep the lemons, and we thanked them, waved good bye, and continued on our way. Dumb tourists.....but it was so much fun!!! :D
We were getting lower and lower, ever closer to our destination, and then started getting into the leading edge of the part of town that was spilling into the valley.
Then suddenly we turned the corner around a bright peach house, and my jaw dropped.
I was looking out at an Escher painting! Metamorphosis, the part with the buildings that I PAINTED to be exact! Only in color!
ONLY IN REAL LIFE!!!!!
I couldn't believe it! I remember Anne Marie telling me she had seen this here when she was here last year, but I had forgotten all about it! After spending so many hours painting those buildings onto the wall between the cafeteria and the gym in the high school, there they were, for real, right in front of me! (can you tell I was psyched??) :D
And they are so beautiful in real life! The tall octagonal bell tower was brown stone with creamy white inner surfaces, the church had an orangey-red (rounded) tile roof, but the dome was covered in (flat) yellow tiles, with green ones making a crisscross pattern winding its way to the top! And with the funny low-but-wide-profiled pine trees that I kept seeing in Italy in the foreground and the amazingly blue water of the Mediterranean in the background, it was the most spectacular sight I had seen all day! (And that's really saying something!) I could not believe I was standing there!
"There is no joy in possession without sharing." -Erasmus of Rotterdam
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