Concerto, Piazza de Minerva, Roma, 2019

Rome, 12 January 2019

I may be abandoning tumblr as none of my submitted posts have been published. I think this one did show up, but the others have disappeared into the ether.

The scene is a kind of pilgrimage destination. On the right margin is the Pantheon, one of the world’s greatest buildings, while not seen behind the photographer is the only major church in Rome in the gothic style, decorated with a Michaelangelo sculpture of the risen Christ and the burial place of St. Catherine of Siena, the patroness of Italy. Oh yes, it also has some works by painters including Filipino Lippi and is the burial place of Fra Angelico and several popes. 

Pilgrimages to Evil Sites

Eingangstunnel zu Aufzügen, Khelsteinhaus, Berchtesgaden, Bayern, 1991.

©EOP

7 January 2019

The large and grandiose entrance tunnel and elevators inside look as if they might lead to some immense and secret underground military facility (think Colorado Springs NORAD headquarters). Instead one steps off the large elevators at a gemütliches Bergchalet, a kind of lodge one might have expected at a posh Alpine ski resort in the 1930s. The building and the operatically dramatic road and elevator entrance to it were built by enthusiastic Nazis as a gift to Adolph Hitler. In English-language publications Kehlsteinhaus is often called “Hitler’s Eagles Nest,” though Hitler himself apparently did not like it and only used it a few times. It is now a major tourist attraction in the Obersalzberg region. Sadly, some of those tourists may be "making a pilgrimage" to this site not for its stunning view of the Alps or as a historical curiosity but rather to honor its Nazi connections. In all too much of the world, including Germany and the United States, the racist ideology which was the foundation of Nazism remains a formidable and execrable element of politics and popular culture.

Epiphany

Peinture murale de la crèche, L'isle sur la Sorgue, Vaucluse, 2016

©EOP

Today is the traditional end of the holiday season in Southern Europe and celebrates the arrival of the three kings at the cradle. This wall mural of the nativity in the Provençal market town of L'isle-sur-la-Sorgue does not include the three kings (trois rois), but I rather like it. It seems an appropriate thing to post on Epiphany,

Forthcoming Trip

Galleria di sculture, Musei Capitolini, Roma, 2009
©EOP

6 January 2019

I have to admit ignorance of the names or the sculptors of most of these pieces, but the gallery illustrates some of the incomparable richness of Rome. The Capitoline Museums, atop what may be the most historically important piece of real estate in the Eternal City, are an incredible collection of works from pre-historic times onward. I am looking forward to a visit, maybe more than one, when I am in Rome beginning a few days from now.

2018 was not a good year. While I remain free from major diseases and medical problems, not so my wife who spent 6 weeks out of the first 6 months in hospital. She has recovered somewhat, enough to take a cruise from Bali to Sydney with her sister at the end of the year. For me, 2018 was a year totally without travel. I spent every night from early November 2017 up to last night in the same bed, and our car has put on less than 10,000 km, almost entirely accumulated by travel to the hospital and medical facilities, to visit nearby relatives and friends, and for necessary errands. That makes my forthcoming trip to Rome especially exciting.

I have rented an apartment for almost a month and will have the leisure to see all kinds of things either missed or hurriedly visited on past trips. I plan a couple of overnight excursions, one to south of Naples to see the Greek-era ruins at Paestum and perhaps to visit Pompeii again. The second excursion is yet to be determined, but the city of Ravenna seems to be calling loudest. As with Rome itself, Italy, the large country in Western Europe I know least well, has a very long list of places worth seeing, and except for the headlines (Milan, Venice, Florence) I have not seen them. I plan also to go to Tivoli, to Ostia, and to one or another of the Etruscan sites a day trip out of the Italian Capital. 

Stay tuned for future posts on the great pilgrimage center of Rome.

Abandoning Tumblr?

Forum Romanum, 2009
©EOP

5 January 2019


After 7 years, I am returning to this blog, expanding its purview a little, and making new posts. For a number of years I had been using Tumblr, but its recent change of policy and apparently arbitrary censorship of posts suggested a search for a new place to post my photos and comments. While the blog I have maintained there, Randomness, is mostly my pictures of buildings, streetscapes, landscapes, architectural elements and works of art, with few photographs of people and none which would fit even the most prudish defitions of pornography, my photos of ancient monuments, statues from classical antiquity and even landscapes have been marked as violating standards. Disgusted, I am considering joining a number of those whose posts I follow and abandoning Tumblr. I have not firmly decided to do so, but in the meantime I am reactivating this blog in order to post my photos and commentary.

Initally this blog was started as a supplement for a course I was teaching on the subject of pilgrimage. That was followed by some postings about pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain and my walks on several of those routes. I am now preparing to spend almost a month in Rome (along with Santiago de Compostela and Jerusalem one of the three great pilgrimage destinations of the Middle Ages). Over the next few weeks, Roman sites and topics will dominate. More to come.

Codex Calixtinus Recovered!

Santiago (St. James), doorway frame, Collegio Fonseca, Santiago de Compostela

©EOP 2012

After a long dry spell, over the next few weeks I hope to post several things, none of which are ready as yet. I am posting today because of excellent news received this morning, the Codex Calixtinus stolen from the Cathedral archive in Santiago de Compostela has been located and four persons, including an electrician who is an employee of the cathedral, have been arrested in a suburb of the city in relation to the theft. La Voz de Galicia the major local newspaper has a good overview of the recovery as does El Pais.

Hospitalero!

Camino Francés descending into Santo Domingo de la Calzada, La Rioja

©eop

Thinking about repaying a little of my debt to those who make walking the Camino de Santiago feasible and enjoyable, I had considered for several years the possibility of being a volunteer hospitalero in one of the albergues which offer inexpensive accommodation to peregrinos. In March I took the training course for potential hospitaleros offered by American Pilgrims on the Camino at its annual gathering, this year in Winter Park, Florida. I applied for a 2 week assignment (the usual term) shortly thereafter, and a few days ago I received an assignment: I shall be serving at the "Casa del Santo" Albergue, operated by the Cofradía del Santo in the town of Santo Domingo de la Calzada (St. Dominic of the Causeway, about whom I shall have something to say in future postings: he was sainted following a life of serving pilgrims) in La Rioja. My hospitalero term extends from 16 May to 31 May.

After hospitalero duties, I plan to walk for a bit more than a week on one of the routes to Santiago de Compostela, though I have not yet decided where.  My current thinking is the Camino Inglés from Ferrol to Santiago in extreme northwest Galicia, though I may opt for the Camino Portuguése from Tui in southern Galicia to Santiago, or perhaps I may simply revisit one or another section of the Camino Francés. The hospitalero assignment came only a few days more than 2 weeks before my duties begin, and I leave for Madrid in a bit more than a week, so I have to make lots of arrangements in a hurry! In the meantime, I may not have time to write much until late June.

If you should be on the Camino Francés through Santo Domingo in the last half of May, please stop by at least to say hello, if not to spend the night.