Italy 2006

"Flooding in St. Mark's Square at High Tide."

 Italy 2006

(For Brendan on his 60th Birthday)

Venice

Out of the darkness, light. Pentecost.

Tongues of painstaking fire.

More telling than the "big bang"

and the complex world in which we live.

Beauty in bronze, still life

unfazed by time and the rising tide.

Balm for the soul.

"Florence. Museum San Marco. St Dominic at the Foot of the Cross, by Fra Angelico"

Florence

I wouldn't want to live there,

It felt like indigestion.

Too much beauty in too small a space,

and the multitude not knowing which way to turn.

Thank God for the Ponte Vecchio, San Marco and Fra Angellico;

for light, air, commerce, and a quiet devotion to

faith and love.

And the cash machine, that at intervals

brought manna from England.

Siena "Climbing La Torre del Mangia"

Sienna

What a scandal it must have been

those Dominicans fighting over her,

so that her head is in one place

and her torso in another.

Objects of veneration, an affront to decency.

And what a shame that her kitchen and bedroom are frescoed.

Much better to see pots and pans and know that they were hers.

But her spirit lives in the durable,

in the muted tints that spring into life in the sunshine.

And in the cathedral, whose inner beauty

surpasses that of Florence.

"Why you can't enjoy the Vatican museum - and this was a quiet period!"

 

Rome

I have "gone off" Italian women young and middle aged

who got up to give me their seat.

I'm only sixty four.

And I have harsh words for the Sistine Chapel:

overrated, overstuffed, and at twelve Euros.

And for the vein and foolish ushers, clapping their hands

and "shushing" the multitude, who, unsuspecting, take up the call.

There are stunningly beautiful "temples" in the suburbs.

Someone said that Christ is disproportionate to the rest of the Pieta.

Strange, I always thought that Mary's shoulders were too broad?

A masterpiece!

Perhaps on the "last day," the Almighty will give it the final touch,

Arteries.

Cormac 24th Oct. 2006
Revised 15th June 2010
_________________
© Cormac McCloskey

Note: This blog, "Italy 2006" was first published on Windows Live Spaces, by me, on 5th November 2006.
Siena: St Catherine of Siena, 1347-1380
All the pictures used in this blog were taken by me