Day of the Dead

Before we completely leave Day of the Dead and All Soul's Day celebrations behind, I thought it would be apropos to post a few applicable pictures from my venture to Italy last spring:

The churches there were filled with allusions to the dead - from skeletal sculptures on the walls to displayed reliquaries complete with bones -

-and tombs underneath the chapel floors (for some reason I really got a kick out of all the skulls and crossbones included in the church decor.)

But my *favorite* church we visited was the Chiesa Dei Morti (The Church of the Dead). (I think my mother believes me particularly morbid - she wouldn't go in. I loved it!)

In the little town of Urbania is the Church of the Dead, which displays the 'Cemetery of Mummies'. There are 18 mummified bodies which were found in 1833 when Napoleon ordered all local cemeteries be relocated out of town. In this area was a unique mold which naturally desiccated the bodies buried there, leading to spontaneous mummification. So what do you do when you find mummified remains? Put them on display, in lovely glass cases, inside your church of course!

One of the side-effects of this natural mummification was that the DNA of these bodies (also hair, fingernails, etc...) was still viable, so science has been able to test any number of things, getting a more direct view into the lives of those people hundreds of years ago. The enthusiastic guide, in partial English, told the known or projected story behind each figure's death and circumstances. If their name was known, it was written on paper in lovely calligraphy and then attached to the brow of the skull.

In the center of this glassed room hung a chandelier made of human bones. It was amazing. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of batteries just as I was photographing it! Argh! That will have to remain a memory...

Church and Castle day -

One afternoon we drove up to a hilltop church to enjoy a picnic and its panoramic view.

(This is the view of church seen from the castle in the following post).

The church had special status - its well was used by Saint Francis in healing a child, and proclaimed a miracle.

Norman climbed up the wall and used the view to sketch the gorgeous view.

The bell tower was full of character. And pigeons.

It took all the fairy-niece's muscles and weight to pull the bell-rope and send its peals throughout the country side.

Church and Castle day -

From our panoramic view from the church hill top...

...we could just see the remains of 'castle ruins'... We *had* to go explore more closely!

Up close, it was difficult to view - being fenced off and completely covered in thick blankets of ivy - which was covering every uncleared surface on the hill...

Ivy *had* been cleared from the paths and walls. It was fun finding old bits of structure and architecture peeking out from under the sheets of ivy.

Fountains of ivy...

Someone had taken tree roots and various pieces of wood and stacked them rather sculpturally. The ground had been cleared around it, except for the ivy continuing to grow up the trees. It was a lovely location.

Church and Castle day -

Just below the 'castle' ruins were some very old and nearly dilapidated houses.

OK, so I have a thing for windows, doors AND chimneys!

Despite looking like it had not been inhabited for decades, there was the ever-present house-number tile.

I loved the layers of stone and brick and mortar evidencing time and repairs...

Detail...

Here as well, everything was covered with thick ropes of ivy.

Green things - Italian fields

While the villages, towns and cities were beautiful and fascinating, the countryside was gorgeous on every side.

There were fields and fields of ripening grain - like this one in front of a small abandoned church, kind of in the middle of nowhere.

Wild poppies were blooming everywhere - from lining the train tracks in town to fields and fields of them in the countryside.


Add blue skies and puffy white clouds, and could it have been more idyllic?


Red poppies weren't the only things blooming in the fields - there were also strips, patches and swaths of bright yellow and white - that only became more effusive as our time went on. My brother-in-law informed me that none of these peaked until after we left - when the field would be solid color...


Wild flowers and fairy nieces. Good combination!

Green things - on the hillsides...

The hillsides were invariably beautiful -

- be it in the bright light at noon,

Or the golden light of late afternoon.


(I loved the alternating shapes of fields, hills and treelines...)

Or the cooler light of late day- (Look at all the shapes one can see from this tiny courtyard all the way to the horizon. It's like one big, undulating, organic, patchwork quilt.)

To the blue-greens just before twilight...

Green things - in town

Attempts were made to incorporate nature even in the towns-of-stone.

Most commonly you could find pots and pots of geraniums.

But sometimes there would be older, more permanent plantings, like this wisteria.

Or this rose.

You could also find vegetable gardens tucked in the most unlikely of places.

And flowering trees lining the river. We saw lots of this type of tree - with the clusters of small, purple blossoms, and green heart-shaped leaves. I've never seen it before. Anyone know what it is?

Tiny, tiny towns - Monterone

One of my favorite things about my Italy-adventure were the itsy-bitsy, still-inhabited, medieval hill-top towns.

Monterone was one of the closest to the mulino, and was collection of steeply stacked, stone buildings and streets (more like wide alleys) clustered within large stone walls encircling the top of a hill. It dates from the 1300s and is still lived in.


One of the things I always found surprising about the building methods of this time period is that *everything* is bricked or stoned over. There is no 'green' or earth showing anywhere. With the exception of a few potted geraniums.


Also, these connective walkways? bridges? what would you call these? seem to be a popular feature in these old, narrow-streeted places. Hugely atmospheric - but I'd be a bit leary actually utilizing one that looks this old, I believe.


You can see how steeply narrow the streets are here - straddling either side of the wedge-shaped building and angling uncomfortably up or down... Although this is officially a village and these are 'public' streets, they are all so close together that it felt more like trespassing in people's front or back yards...

I was always amused by the jarring juxtaposition of modern-day life and technology imposing itself on these very old locations...

Tiny, tiny towns - Monterone

Monterone was not the best town for windows (they were mostly quite small and non-descript) - but it did have cool doors!


The door frames were many times more interesting than the door itself.


I also loved seeing the multiplicity of building materials in the walls. You could kind of follow the evolution of repairs - from stone to brick to cement - many times all jumbled up together.


(Sorry the photos are kind of off-kilter - we were on steep, narrow roads and it was difficult in some places to get 'square' to the subject).


Near to bottom of the village you could start to see 'green' in places and there were even some way cool, ancient stone steps! With a much less romantic and more contemporary bricklike addition built on top...


If you look carefully at this door to the left and above fairy-niece's head, you can see the imprint of a horseshoe and several heavy keys.... How did that happen? Sun exposure over long periods of time?

Tiny, tiny towns - Monterone

Details....

Loved the various stone outcroppings - be they stairways, arches or chimneys...


The older the walls, the more things seem to have taken root therein...


The house-numbers were one of the few more modern looking additions visible on the walls. Lovely blue accented tile imbedded in stone.


We saw few occupants during our stroll, but we did run into this cutest, little-old-Italian-lady ever out walking with her cane....


She was actually quite chatty when we caught up with her (although I couldn't follow anything she said). She walked to the side of the road and pulled a few weeds - which my brother-in-law loosely translated that she was out looking for plants to feed her chickens. I kind of wanted to hug her.