Civita di Bagnoregio

Civita di Bagnoregio 30 December 2007

Civita di Bagnoregio is Rick Steves's favorite Italian hill town. It was just a hop from San Francesco (and our landlady owns a shop there), so we just HAD to take a trip. It was way cool. Civita is the old town. It had been used in the era of the Barbarian invasions as a place for Italians to hide from Barbarians (mainly Lombards). Eventually, it was conquered (more or less) by Lombards and the Lombardian King liked the natural springs so much that he named the town "Bath of Kings," or Bagnoregio. As the danger of attack decreased over the centuries, the town expanded down the slope and up to another mesa, which became the main part of the town. Since the terrain is comprised mainly of soft sandstone (-like stuff), erosion is a constant problem. Several centuries ago, the land bridge connecting the old part of Bagnoregio to the new part collapsed, permanently separating the two. The old town became the Civita di Bagnoregio. The new town is just "Bagnoregio" (and is much larger). We went to the Civita.

Civita di Bagnoregio is in serious danger of erosion. Every few decades, another building falls off the edge. Nowadays, only 15 people live here year-round. Indeed, the only way to even get up there is by the footbridge. Yes, one can take a small motorized vehicle (like a Vespa) across, but there is no large (even as small as a Smart Car) motorized traffic. It was quite a hike, but it was also one of my favorite parts of the trip.

Judy, Doug, Katie, and Maggie Montanaro; Aaron Maurer; Civita di Bagnoregio

About half of the buildings were in ruins. Bo loves History.

Some of the vistas are not for the feint of heart.

La Chiesa. I think that this thing was a genuine cathedral (seat of a Bishop) back in the day. It's kinda small, now. Oh well. It gets the job done, I suppose.

Katie in front of the valley.

Picturesque courtyard.

Window overlooking the valley.

I love looking down on the farms. You can see the patterns of the land division. Sadly, this photo is low enough in resolution that you cannot easily see the herd of sheep. Look for little white dots.

Old architecture.

Sike! THIS is old architecture. This is the olive and wine cellar that is beneath the shop owned by our landlady. This was excavated by Etruscans. Evidently, the Etruscans were expert burrowers. Their structures are so good that they are still in use, today (albeit, with electric lighting installed). This space was so humid, that my camera rapidly fogged up. This was my only "keeper" from the bunch.

Picturesque alleyway.

Civita di Bagnoregio, departing view.

Okay, fine. This is neither in Civita di Bagnoregio nor regular Bagnoregio. I snapped this photo in Viterbo, though it was the only one in the bunch. I just thought that this cute little Fiat in a typical Medieval Italian lane was worth preserving. Take note of how greet the plants are. It's frakkin' December! There are succulents. SUCCULENTS!!! The Mediterranean climate rules.

Alex 1992-2008

Alex

aka:
Walex
Woo
Willy Woo
Buddy
Boo
Billy Boo
Silly Sue
Killy Koo
Alex the Kitty
Alex P. Kitty

Alex has been suffering from Diabetes for several years. His kidneys have been weakening over the past several months. The confluence of these conditions made keeping his healthy a delicate balance. Our struggle came to an end earlier this evening. I knew that the end was near, but I did not know how long it would be. My worst nightmare would have been needing to take him to the vet to be put to sleep. He hated going to the vet. I didn't want our last moments together to be his least favorite thing in the world. My last moments with Stampy were dropping her off at the animal emergency room. I hated that.

Instead, Alex's last moments were doing his favorite thing in the world: cuddling with me on the couch. After lying together for about a half an hour, Alex seemed to want to get down off the couch. I carried him down to the litter box. He did his business. I then brought him back up. Several times he tried to get away, so I set him down. Was was so weak that he could barely move. After carrying him back to his blanket on the couch (and cuddling a little), he seemed to seize up. I tried to make him comfortable. I could still hear his heart. After a while he was no longer moving. I could no longer hear his heart. He died in my arms.

I named Alex after Alex from A Clockwork Orange. When he was a kitten, he used to stand up on his back paws. I liked to say that he was evolving. He also liked to play rough. I trained him to kill. He particularly liked to kill this one shoestring. I was very reluctant to have him neutered, worrying that he would stop being as fun to play with. When he got back from the vet, instead of being boring (or even groggy from the anaesthesia), he was more playful and more fun. It was like losing his nuts freed him to have fun.

He also liked to eat. Who am I kidding, he was morbidly obese at times. The thing about his eating was that he only really craved dry cat food. He never tried to get people food. He didn't care for wet cat food, either. Plain, dry cat food. He knew how to open doors. He liked to repetitively rub his paws on things just to make sound. He and I talked to each other - call and response. When Stampy was a kitten, when all of the other cats were mean to her, he cuddled with her and protected her like he was her mother. When Azrael would lie on her back, Alex would perform cunnilingus on her. He didn't really get along with Hawkeye or Klinger, but they tolerated one another. He had a cordial relationship with both his sister, Alexsis (aka Alex's sister), and Bunsen Honeydew (his roommate), both of whom survive him. He loved catnip. He hated the laser pointer. He would attack my hair, when I had long hair, and lick my hair when I had short hair. He liked to lick my beard.

I miss you, Buddy.

Caves and Corpses

San Francesco 30 December 2007

Have I mentioned my quest? I am certain that I have. In case you need reminded (or have yet to read my earlier posts), I have made it my quest to reach the valley below San Francesco. Today, we will be traveling to Civita di Bagnoregio, a short jaunt away. I have plenty of time to attempt my quest. A hiking I will go.

The Valley: My Quest! I reason that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. I'm just gonna go straight down the hill. Sure, I'm gonna have to hop some fences, but it should be doable. I have hiking boots.

Again, the Dungeons and Dragons nerd in me REALLY wants this to be a dungeon. I want to find, like, a secret entrance to the dungeon beneath San Francesco, or at least the lair of some kind of monster (dragon, werewolf, beholder, etc.). From the side, this clearly looks like a D&D style dungeon entrance.

But, NOOOOOO! It has to only be about two meters deep. No self respecting monster would make a lair, here. Or would it...

Perhaps some kind of terrifying adventure is in order! Inside the cave, I located the desicated remains of some sort of porcine creature. Perhaps it is a Wild Boar (Cingiale) that was killed and eaten by a Werewolf! I'm in the werewolf's lair! Adventure!!! I look for secret entrances... No luck. I need an Elf or Half-Elf in my party. Shit. No more adventure. At least for an instant, I felt like I had stepped through the gate into another world, one filled with action and adventure. This trip is really feeding my imagination. Anywho, I still have a quest to complete, so I return to my journey down the cliff face. Onward!

What is this? Another dungeon entrance? Yet again, my hopes for that sort of discovery are stifled, however, this one has a delightful surprise...

This cave seems to be adapted to human use. Around Orvieto and Bagnoregio there are caves, such as these, with niches dug to serve as burial sites for Etruscans. As we have already covered, San Francesco is located on a site occupied by the Etruscan Acquarossa community. These niches are too small to serve as burial niches. They look more like shelves. I'm inclined to think that these caves served as living quarters, or at least some old Etruscan dude's garage.

So, here's why I didn't complete my quest, today. After adventuring in the caves, facing down a werewolf and an undead, headless wild boar zombie/vampire (or something like that), I discovered that the ground between the caves and The Valley was particularly wet. To make matters worse, there was a very wide stream, surrounded by brush, that stood between me and The Valley. I was not properly equipped to ford the stream, nor did I have enough time to explore a better crossing point. My quest would need to wait for another day. After turning around back toward San Francesco, I did snap this photo depicting one of the cave entrances. That looks like Shelob's lair, right? RIGHT?!?

So, on my way back up, I found the skeleton of a cow. I then thought to myself, "The dead porcine makes sense, there are tons of wild boar running around, but why would there be a cow skeleton out here... ...Oh." Yeah, apparently I was still in the cow pasture. This is a bad thing, 'cause these cows are assholes. Anywho, for shits and giggles, I carried the skull back with me. I suppose I can do some Georgia O'Keefe-style photos. Now, to find some flowers that look like vaginas...

Guillermina sure likes the skull. Isn't that cute?

My quest will need to wait for another day. At least I can photograph The Valley. This is my favorite capture of The Valley, by the way. The stream that blocked my way is just out of frame below the frame. I had trekked a long distance.

I did manage to capture another super cute photo of Guillermina. She is sitting on a light fixture. At night, she sits on the light (while it's lit... duh) in order to keep warm. Isn't that cute? Actually it's a little disturbing. Fortunately, it doesn't get all that cold at San Francesco. Still, I was seriously tempted to let Guillermina (and her mother) in the house. I was good. Why do I feel guilty for being good?

Roman Night

Roma 29 Dec 2007

So, this last blog from Roma will be sadly devoid of many photos. My super awesome camera is not all that great in low light situations. Let me take that back. It does GREAT in low light, provided I am using a tripod. Since all of my tripods were in Columbus at the time, I had to make due. Rome was amazing, at night, btw. We stopped by the Piazza Navonna, which was having an Xmas market. I ate roasted chesnuts. The others got something akin to an elephant ear lathered with Nutella. The alleys of Medieval Rome were pretty cool in the dark.

The Pantheon is the oldest continually used building in Rome (the world?). Originally dedicated as a temple to ALL the gods, silly Christians later turned it into a temple for just ONE God (if you can call a god that has a son who is also, somehow, a part of the same god ONE god).

The dome of the Pantheon is also among the largest domes in existence. It is certainly the largest dome (in diameter) until modern times. The dome, itself, is constructed of poured concrete. Coffered frames reduce the amount of weight contained in the dome. An oculus at the top allows Natural Light to spill down onto the interior (I think I've attended parties where the same was true). By the way, the space contained beneath the dome forms a perfect sphere.

Tis photo provides a better sense of the interior space. I wish it had been less crowded and better lit. Both of these factors inhibited my photography. :(

Someone let go of a helium balloon in the shape of a horse. Now it is stuck in one of the coffers. Ha ha!
La Fontana di Trevi, or the Trevi Fountain. This grand design is also the work of Bernini. Like was the case with the Pantheon, the darkness combined with the crowd made this a difficult place to photograph. To top things off, this place is polluted with pan handlers and scam artists. A dude selling flowers walked up to Katie and tried to hand her a flower. She said "no thank you." He said, it's my last one, I'm giving it away. She said "thank you." He then turned to me and said "how 'bout a little something for the flower." I reached in my pocket and pulled out the change that I got to throw in the fountain. It was, like, .25 Euro. He got mad, gave it back to me, and took back the flower. We're Americans from the big city, dammit! I know better than to get out my wallet near a pan handler in a crowd. The way I see it, he's out .25 cents! Anywho, here endeth our day trip into Rome. We would hoof it back to the Termini Station to catch the late train back to Orte. Next up: Civita de Bagniareggio.

Il Duomo sopra la Basilica di San Pietro

Citta del Vaticano 29 Dec 2007

So, when's the next time I'm gonna be in Rome, right? Using this logic, Aaron and I decided to head up to the top of the dome. Katie and Maggie (who had done it at some point in the past) did not want to accompany us, so it was dudes time! Our glance at the line indicated that it would be short trip. We tell the ladies to sit tight. We'd be right back.

What we discover was that the line we saw was the line to get into the holding area before the line to pay before the line to get in the elevator before the line for the stairs (actually, the waiting area had multiple separate lines, itself). The "best" line was the one before the payment kiosk. That line had neat little mosaics to gaze upon. The above image is one such mosaic. I don't speak Latin. Consequently, I do not precisely know what the caption says. However, I do recognize the word "passionum" and the word "Christi." That's "passion" and "Christ." The first word is an English word. "Testis" is the singular form of "testes." Christ has a passion for balls?

Ah, now we're on the roof. This is the side of Michelangelo's dome. This is just the beginning. On to the inside...

Okay, so the fig leaf is covering this person's testes and schlong, but that vegetation below looks like the fig leaf is not doing its job. I have a fig tree back home, by the way. I can always cover up, if need be.

"Peter is Super!" Hey! My (given) name is Peter! I'm SUPER!!! Incidentally, these are the 6 foot tall letters, mentioned in the previous blog.

Okay. Now, we're actually up on top of the cupola. This is one of the panoramic vistas of Rome. I am gazing southeast. Bernini's colonnade can be seen on the left.

This is the tip of the cupola. If you look at my first photo of the dome (again, last blog), this is the "reservoir tip" at the very top of the dome.

Radio Free The Vatican. This hilltop broadcasting station intrigues me, for some reason. This is the view toward the north.

La Piazza San Pietro seen from il duomo sopra la Basilica di San Pietro. Notice how the arms of the colonnade seem to reach out, welcoming all the people into the Roman Catholic Church. Alternately, the colonnade arms can be seen as pincers attempting to grasp all of the souls that it can, in a desperate effort to combat the mass exodus from the Church at the time of the Reformation. It's both, actually. One is literal, the other figurative. Great view, though, huh?

The dome is an eggshell dome: two thin, concentric domes that support one another. The stairs to the top go between the two shells. Needless to say, the dome is not handicapped accessible (there were signs warning the old, weak, and "cardiopatics" to avoid taking the trip up). Heck, I kinda had difficulty fitting my shoulders through some of the space. It was very surreal, actually. Claustrophobes would be in hell.

One final view of the dome (from the roof). Katie and Maggie will be very pissed. They called asking how long we would be back about the time we were standing in front of the Icon of Christ, Teabagger. It took a LONG time to get from there to the top and back down, again. It's almost dark, too. The rest of our pedestrian (literal, not metaphorical) trip through Rome would be in the dark!