Subject: Italy, take3
Hi again!
I'm kind of in the mood to write some more about everything, so I'll catch you up a bit more on Italy. So I told you already about everything leading up to us staying overnight in Amalfi. The whole next day we spent there......
The next thing in my sketch book is the cloisters of a church....
ok, first we went into the town of Amalfi itself, off the main winding road I was telling you about before. I'm looking through the photos that I thought were in the right order, but maybe not, and my sketchbook and notes, trying to figure it out a bit so I can describe it to you. It's amazing- and somewhat scary- how much my memory is dictated by the pictures I have. It's like if it doesn't make it into a photo, sketch, or story, a memory ceases to exist. uhhh... I guess I should start doing some more sketching, then!!
Oh- I do remember something about breakfast, though- it was the first time I had ever seen (let alone eaten) a fresh fig! At first I had no idea what it was- there was a whole table of buffet stuff for us to take, and there was a plate of these funny looking green fruits. About the size that would fit well in my hand if I held the tips of all five fingers together. And about that shape, too- big and bulging at one end, and squished really small at the other, like a water drop. Some of them were so ripe the skin was splitting open. I took a couple, and sat down and carefully dissected one. The inside was a deep red, filled with seeds. I ate the inside, but didn't know if I could eat the skin. It was really sweet. Allison thought it tasted like "bug juice," though! I had to ask Fran what it was, and she explained it to me. Pretty cool- I think I had only seen them in Newtons before! Oh, and we squeezed our own orange &/or lemon juice, too! On a big orange press-very yummy!
OK, so we went into the town of Amalfi, which is absolutely beautiful in itself, even if it didn't have the fantastic view of the sea! All the buildings are brightly colored, many of them pastels, with either flat roofs, like terraces, (terrasses? sp?) or red-orange tile roofs. And they were so crammed together, as if they were either blocks glued together, or all carved out of the mountain side!
And the town cut into a steep valley, inbetween tall hills that were completely terraced and covered with grapevines, fig trees, lemon trees, simply green! It was as if the terraced hillside just continued into the town and somewhere along the line changed into buildings.
We met at the foot of this massive staircase, then went up it into the Byzantine-looking church at the top. I think this was Sant'Andrea. The facade was a whole row of pointed arches, striped with dark and light stone, ending in round columns with intricate capitals.
Inside some of the arches the stone continued making smaller crisscrossing arches in a very intricate, lacy pattern.
There was a whole arcade just inside these arches, with a vaulted ceiling filled with paintings and the stripes on the arches.
To the left was the entrance to the courtyard. In the middle was a beautiful garden, filled with palm trees other plants, and it was just so quiet and peaceful.
The perimeter was a vaulted arcade, plastered white, very simple, but serene. It also made the carved pattern on the garden-side wall that much more prominent. This wall was pierced and supported by a row of tiny little columns- in fact, to deal with the thickness of the wall, two of these little columns were needed! The wall above them was carved to form a series of overlapping pointed arches, which formed the same pattern as those filled-in arches on the front. (As if every meter another arch spanning 4 was started.)
Only the bottom part of this overlap was cut through completely, so they formed VERY slender, tall arches between the columns. The actual opening was at just the height you would need to see out- the wall was solid until about a meter high or so, then it opened up with these columns and arches so you could see the garden and the sky above you.
From the far side of this perimeter arcade when you look out you can see the bell tower, which is decorated at the top with yellow and green tiles, forming the same arches and zebra-stripe pattern as below.
We went into the cathedral itself, which was breathtaking- so ornate, so colorful.
It was filled with marbles of so many different colors, all cut in intricate patterns. If you imagine making a picture with construction paper- no pencil lines showing, no overlap of the paper, just edges meeting up exactly so that the image is made from the different colors, that is what this was like, only with marble. I was amazed at how exactly all the pieces were cut- the negatives AND the positives of the images- so that they formed such smooth surfaces in the end. And the colors themselves were brilliant! It's amazing that stone exists in so many colors!
Afterwards we took a bus up to the top of the hill, to the town of Ravello. It was pretty up there, but if I remember right a lot of the view was cut off from there- buildings in the way. We went into the cathedral there, which I don't remember much of except for this big statue/box sitting in the middle- I think it might have been a reliquary.
It was all of stone, so incredibly intricately carved, and covered with mosiac of gold and bright clear colors- reds and blues and whites. The whole thing was propped up on columns, which I think were sitting on the backs of lions. The columns all had a twisted fluting wrapping around them, filled with this mosaic, forming stars and pinwheels, and things you would almost expect to see on a patchwork
quilt.
And the capitals were so incredibly floral, and deeply carved.
I have a sketch of one, showing how each blossom stands probably an inch or two away from the column itself- so there is so much airspace in there, but in such tiny bits, I am still wondering how exactly it was carved- they must have had curved tools or something, and a TON of patience!
"There is no joy in possession without sharing." -Erasmus of Rotterdam
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