You see so many pictures of Jesus in Italy that it gets on your nerves, even if you did study medieval art for 3 semesters. We needed something else. We were staying at a goofy hotel in Lucca where the three guys at the desk seemed to be Manny, Moe and Jack.
Anyway, I found there was a cave tour somewhere in the mountains and we took a drive, first to the beach at Montereggio, then up a road of many switchbacks to Grotta del Vento, not too far from Castelnuova. When the metal door slammed behind us on the cave tour, I wondered if my claustrophobia was going to kick in, but I remained at ease, and was so surprised by how the cave looked like the inside of someone's stomach. It was wet and oozing.
I've been really wiped out since our return. This morning I woke up suddenly when the bagel in my dream had a baby alligator stuck in the cream cheese. It was not quite 4 am. I meant to blog an orderly trip through Italy but that may never happen.
8 comments:
You studied medieval art for three semesters?
Stray, there was a wondrous art history professor whose specialty was medieval art, Richard Harris. He died at an early age, but after I was at Smith. I took every course he offered. I wasn't very good at art history but I loved the slide presentations.
I considered taking art history classes in college, but my Dad warned me that they were "boring."
Maybe I shouldn't listen- any piece of art is more interesting when you know about the context or its creation, from politics to pigment.
p.s. Any bats or creepy bugs in the cave?
Be careful where you buy your bagels.
So you're at ease as long as you're in somebody's stomach and I'm at ease when there are lots of things inside my stomach. But a baby alligator I'm not so sure about. Well, slathered with cream cheese, probably fine.
The tour you're giving us through Italy is just great. Don't stop.
Namowal, there were no bats or creepy bugs. There was a cave bear skeleton but I couldn't decide if it was a fake or not.
Just as my mother is stuck on her cruise, I get stuck in dreamland with deep pond dreams filled with all kinds of sea monsters and oddities.
Funny RHSteele and Linda!
Oh my! You did all SORTS of 'well, THIS looks interesting' things. (And, from your tweets, it sounded like you have PERFECT weather. Although, I guess weather doesn't matter much when it comes to caves. Except if it was reallllly hot; what a great air conditioning system.)
It reads like you've recovered some state-side focus since you wrote this. Doesn't it just feel like flu, without any of the flu? Ick.
Still, I realize that you could take forever to assemble your recollections and pictures and impressions and stories and they'd still be wonderful. (Which is kind of nice to realize since I still haven't posted anything about a trip we took six months ago!! Eeek.) There's no sell-by date on travel adventures. Yay!!
(How are you loving your new laptop?!?!)
I took 3 quarters of Renaissance art history--Northern (Dutch), Southern (Italian), and Spanish--because the teacher was wonderful (also his world art survey). I was in all his classes with all the same students because we all just wanted to keep taking them. He kept three projectors going to show images from vastly different parts of the world and time periods to show how different artists were doing the same things. A particularly compelling lecture was one about elderly artists making similar images (old men, deluge and destruction). It really showed how connected people are throughout history on an unconscious level.
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