Mom slept pretty well all night. I was up from 3 until 6 and then was really sound asleep when the alarm went off at 8. I guess I’m still struggling with jet lag and it seems she’s worked through it. Oh well!
We were up and out by 9 because we had tickets to the Scrovengni Chapel at 10:15. We had breakfast, fresh orange juice and a croissant, at a little local coffee shop. Then we walked over to the Scrovengi chapel. Here’s a picture of the outside of the chapel, unfortunately it’s somewhat obscured by scaffolding.
We had trouble finding our way into the chapel and met a woman who is from Wisconsin, living for a year in Florence and working on her Ph.D in Islamic art studies. Her dissertation is on Turkish tents. I am only including it because she showed us an amazing picture of a Turkish tent.
Eventually we found our way in. We watched a short video about the chapel and then were allowed to enter the chapel for 15 minutes.
It contains a fresco cycle by Giotto which was completed about 1305 and is considered an important masterpiece of Western art. Giotto and his team covered all the internal surfaces of chapel with frescos, including the walls and the ceiling. The largest elements are two extensive cycles showing the Life of Christ and the Life of the Virgin. The wall at the rear of the church, through which the chapel is entered, has a large fresco of the Last Judgement. There are also panels in grisaille (monochrome) showing the Vices and Virtues. It was beautiful. Here are pictures.
Then we walked through the pinacoteca, the painting museum, and went to the multimedia room to watch another video about the chapel. By this time we were hungry for lunch so we had sandwiches at the museum cafe.
After lunch mom rested on a bench in the park and I tried to go to the ATM (no luck so we are still working on getting some Euros for mom) and I brought her purchases back to the apartment which was right around the corner from the chapel.
Then we walked down to the Basilica of Saint Anthony. The original structure was built between 1233 and 1310. Saint Anthony is buried here and therefore the basilica attracts a lot of pilgrims. We walked around following Rick Steves’ tour which included the relic room. The most prized relic in the glass case at center stage was Anthony’s tongue. When Anthony’s remains were exhumed 32 years after his death (in 1263), his body had decayed to dust, but his tongue was found miraculously unspoiled and red in color. Other relics included his lower jaw with all his teeth impressively intact and his vocal chords, discovered intact when his remains were examined in 1981. How appropriate for the great preacher who, full of the Spirit, couldn’t stop talking about God. Pictures were not allowed inside (sorry no picture of the tongue) but here are some pictures from outside.
Here are several pictures of his tomb that I downloaded from the internet.
And here’s a picture of the relic room.
We walked back from the basilica and returned to the apartment. I worked on figuring out the train for our trip to Ravenna tomorrow as well as blogging. At about 7, we went out for some dinner. In the square there were lots of stalls set up selling various types of food, some vegetable stands and some speciality food stands.
We found a restaurant, had a lovely pasta dinner and then came back to the room and went to bed!
