THE REGION OF TOSCANA

Tuscany

 

Toscana is a region in Italy that lies one-hundred and seventy miles north of Rome and overlooks the Tyrrhenian Sea and backs up to the Apennine Mountains; it has a population close to four million. It is the most visited region in Italy, and in the world. Upwards to ten million people visit each year. Tuscany contains six localities designated as World Heritage Sites. They are the historical centers of Siena, San Gimignano, Pienza, and Florence (the capital and the most visited locality within the region). The other two are the Leaning Tower and Cathedral of Pisa, and Val d’Orcia, known for its landscape.

The region is the true birthplace of the Italian Renaissance and a number of notable people in the arts and sciences were born there. They are: Dante Allegheri, Francesco Petrarch, Sandro Botticelli, Niccoló Macchiavelli, Luca Pacioli, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarotti Simoni, and Giacomo Puccini. The region has several museums, containing works of these great artists, scientists, and others. They are: the Uffizi, the Palazzo Vecchio, the Pitti Palace, the Chianciano Museum of Art, and the Academia di Belle Arti, where in the Tribuna stands the original statue of David by Michelangelo. The region also contains many loggias, piazzas, fountains, buildings, churches and cathedrals that are impressive works of art and architecture.

When Italy became a country in 1861, one of its first tasks was to select a language, since the peninsula of Italy consisted of many principalities, and autonomous regions, it did not have a unifying language. They may all have derived from Latin but they were dialects and not uniform. Thus, due to the impact of the arts and sciences written and spoken in the Tuscan dialect, the new government selected it as the national tongue. However, the full standardization of the Italian language occurred in the decade of 1950-1960 with the rise of mass media and television.  Nevertheless, a modern Italian can read the works of many of the great artist of the renaissance with ease.

Tuscany is also famous for its wine region of Chianti.  Many wineries exist throughout the area producing varied wines, some are Chianti, Chianti Classico, and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Tenuto Tignanello, Barone Ricasoli ‘Brolio’ and Ruffino, some of these are blends of Sangiovese and Cabernet.  It can’t go without mentioning that Tuscany is famous for its cuisine too.  Some popular dishes are: crostini di fegato, liver paté on toast, ribollita, boiled again vegetable soup with hard bread, panzanella, bread soaked in balsamic vinegar topped with onions, tomatoes, basil, and olive oil. Another favorite dish is fagioli con salsiccia, cannellini beans with sausage. An interesting baking aspect is the Tuscans bake their bread senza sale, without salt.

Below are photographs of the statue of Perseus by Cellini  and the Kidnapping of the Sabine Women by Giambologna (Jean Boulogne, a Flemish) that stand in the Loggia degli Lanzi in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, and of David in the Academia di Belle Arti. For a gallery of photographs see www.florencepictures.com/historical-center/paiazzo-della-signoria-vecchio.

THE SCAVI OF ST. PETER’S CATHEDRAL

 

The Excavations of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome

 

Nero Augustus Caesar had St. Peter, the apostle of Jesus Christ and whom Catholics recognize as the first Pope, crucified in his Circus (race track) that he had built where the Vatican stands today. After the crucifixion, St. Peter’s followers buried him in a nearby hillside necropolis, a city of the dead. It was a place fashioned to look like a city in miniature. Wealthy pagan families entombed their dead in houses where they could continue their new lives.

Some two hundred years later, the Roman Emperor Constantine became a Christian and, in the fourth century, ordered the construction of a church over the tomb of St. Peter. He had the roofs of all of the mausoleums removed and filled them and the streets with soil; thereby, creating a flat surface on which to build.  A thousand years later, the Catholics dismantled the original church, leaving the floor, and built the present St. Peter’s Basilica. It sits above the floor of the original church. Thus they built the “new” Basilica without any systematic excavation of what lie underneath. Consequently, the graveyard remained untouched since the time of Constantine. Beneath the main floor of the present church is the catacomb of the Popes, the floor of which is of the original building. Tourist can freely visit this area.

The primary artist involved in the designing of the Basilica was Donato Bramante, who died on the eleventh of March 1514. After his death, a number of architects continued his work; however, the Vatican later commissioned Michelangelo to complete it. He designed most of the apses and the main dome before dying. Domenico Fontana completed the dome in 1589. Its dedication was in 1593.

As the centuries passed, so did the memory of the necropolis beneath the Basilica. In 1939 workers digging a tomb for the deceased Pope Pius XI, broke through a wall beneath the church and rediscovered this small city of the dead. Pope Pius XII ordered the excavation, but kept the work secret in case they didn’t find St. Peter’s tomb. Since the necropolis acts as the foundation for St. Peter’s Basilica, the entire area could not be uncovered without the possibility of having the Basilica experience damage. Work continued for a decade and on the twenty-third of December 1950, Pope Pius XII announced the discovery of St. Peter’s tomb.

On the twenty-sixth of June 1968, Pope Paul VI announced that they discovered the remains of St. Peter. His remains are encased in an altar-shrine (The Trophy of Gaius) built sometime around 200 AD. 

Amid the fragments of St. Peter’s bones, the skull, vertebrae, arms, hands, pelvis, and legs, there is nothing from the ankles down. Theory has it that if a man was crucified upside down, as tradition says Peter was, the easiest way to remove what was left of his body would have been to chop off the feet and remove the rest of the corpse from the cross. I doubt his followers did that. Most likely the assistants to the persecutions did it.

I Scavi, pronounced ee scahvee, are the Italian plural words meaning the excavations.  Public tours are available; however, in order to visit these excavations reservations are necessary and need to be made months in advance of one’s visit and can be made via the internet. When one tours I Scavi it is an exceptional visit back in time to when one can “feel” the presence of those who may have been the followers of Christ. A walk through them is a walk into some important truths concerning early Christianity. Information is also available under the subject of the Trophy of Gaius.

On my visit, I was able to get a distant view of Gaius Trophy, which contain St. Peter’s relics. I say distant since, the closest they allow you to approach is about twenty feet. Because of the other tombs, it is not a very good see. Nevertheless, there is a light over the trophy which helps in viewing. The tour is intriguing since you walk along narrow passage ways past the facades of tombs. A guide leads the way while you listen to a hand held electronic device describing in selective language what you are viewing.  For more photos go to www.holidaze.com, www.culturaltravelguide.com ..under St. Peter’s Basilica,