Pandemic Diaries - Italian Interlude 29 Sept and 5 Oct.

 29 September and 5 October – Roman Bridge and Narni

 

Travel during a world-wide pandemic is not always straightforward nor easy.  Edmund, our program director, received word from a number of people from the previous class – something like seven out of nine participants all came down with Covid exactly four days after arriving home from La Romita.  Our current instructor, Keiko, had a bit of a cold.  And current Covid symptoms include those that mimic a basic cold.  (Keiko did a Covid test when she arrived, as well as two days later.  Negativo.)

 

Edmund arrived at breakfast rather grim-faced, Covid tests in hand.  He told the staff, and they all stepped out of the room.  Most of us were given Covid tests with the instructions in Turkish, not exactly helpful since none of us could read nor understand Turkish. 

 

So, we were guided through the steps of swabbing, soaking in the liquid, squeezing, and then putting drops on the test strip.  The next step is to wait 15 minutes.  We had another cup of coffee, and waited.  None of us ever developed that second line, meaning we all tested negative.  After a while, I realized all the staff members were still outside, and looking quite nervous because the wait was longer than the basic 15 minutes!  Uh oh!  I stuck my head out and called, “Tutti negativo!”  (“All negative!”)  There was a huge sigh of relief among the three women, and they all came back to finish whatever they’d been working on prior to all that excitement.  (We had another Covid testing party when the second class began, since some people were coughing and sniffling, and our instructor’s husband was unable to fly with her because he came down with Covid.  Again, tutti negativo.  Whew!)

 

On with our day!

There’s an old Roman bridge not far from the hill town of Narni, and La Romita day trips always stop to admire this 2000+ year old structure.  Well, one arch, anyway.  The second arch collapsed several hundred years after it was originally built, and some of the crumbling remains can still be seen.  But the one arch is an absolutely amazing feat of engineering, at which the ancient Romans really excelled.  

 

I had two chances to visit the bridge, once on a greyish day and once on a sunny day.  Always interesting to see how the weather and light change the way an object looks.  I liked the sunny day, there’s a golden glow to the underside of the white marble arch from the view behind the arch.  

 

There’s also a little footbridge over the river, which once afforded vies of the Roman arch.  But the forest has grown and filled out, and now blocks that view.

 

There's also an informative sign on the bridge, so let me quote this:

 

"The ruins of the Augustus Bridge, where the ancient Via Flaminia passed over, were and still are one of the main elements of attraction for travellers and painters fascinated by this spot, by the magnitude of the Roman structure, by the clear water of the Nera River, by lush evergreen vegetation, holm oaks, and Aleppo pines.

 

So many artists have passed through this place, from Turner to Corot, that they have elected it protagonist of sketches and paintings, describing its uncontaminated fascination.  Searching for a more direct contact with nature and original views, some artists ignored the ruins of the Bridge and represented the surroundings of Narni instead, seduced by the  beauty of the panormamic perspectives and the meandering Nera River at the bottom of the valley."

Not that any of the participants in these groups would hope to achieve the fame of either Corot or Turner, but at least we walked in their footprints through this little Italian landscape!

We drove on to the town of Narni, which once upon a time (in Roman times) was referred to as Narnia.  The town is trying to use the Narnia movies as a way to build their tourism, and revert to the original name.  (Apparently C.S. Lewis really did name Narnia after the town of Narni, finding the name in an atlas when he was a child.)

 

The Via Flaminia, the old Roman road, led to Narni (or Narnia) at the end of a long gorge.  The city was originally built as a fortress, with huge gates leading into the walled city.  The current Ternana Gate was built in the late 1400s, and is gorgeous, looking more like castle towers than a city gate.  But who knows, it may have been used for archers to protect the city, or military lookouts.  Or even dumping boiling oil or water on their enemies – the giant towers and immense gate definitely have that look!  Actually, I just found information saying that the towers have rooms for the soldiers who guarded the city, complete with fire vent slots, the latest ventilation technology at that time.

 

I noticed random metal griffons or dragons on sides of buildings around the town – and being someone who appreciates artistic metal work, I started taking photos.  I finally asked someone about them, whether they were griffons or dragons – turns out they are griffons, and they’re the symbol of the town.  He didn’t give me the story of how the town adopted the griffons as their symbol, but I likely wouldn’t have understood that much Italian anyway.  (I like the alternate spelling “gryphon,” but the Italian is “grifone” so I’ll go with griffon.)

 

On our first visit, I started out with the group, and we visited the large church, the Duomo.  I don’t know what it was about that church, maybe because it was dark and medieval, but it just felt like bad karma in there.  I finally left and sat outside.  It just was one of the creepier churches I’ve ever been in.  Sorry, Narni, but it just was.

 

We wandered up the main street of town, and I visited the theatre with Edmund.  Really gorgeous old building, somewhat similar to the Opera House of Manaus, Brazil, with the separate boxes of seats, the red upholstery, the gold embellishments.  Pretty and peaceful.  But some man came by and told us we weren’t supposed to be inside – he followed us out and locked the door behind us.  (Ha – shouldn’t have left it open in the first place!)

 

I walked off to visit the Chiesa San Francesco, which had a fire a while back but was supposed to have some interesting frescoes. Unfortunately the church was closed, but the sign indicated repair work was in progress.  Oh well.  I walked on, and headed to the former Eroli Palace, now the city’s museum.  (There’s a Roman marble lion in the entrance of the museum, adding to the Narnia feel of the place.)

 

My main reason for visiting this museum was to see an incredible painting by Ghirlandaio, a master Renaissance painter.  This particular altarpiece was painted in tempera on wood panels, which is why it was able to be moved from the artist’s workshop in Florence to Narni, since it was commissioned by Berardo Eroli for the Narni Cathedral.

 

The painting represents the coronation of Mary, I guess after her death?  Anyway, Mary and I guess G-d the Father (or maybe Jesus, which is even more confusing) are painted on a glowing gold field, surrounded by angelic orchestras and choirs.  There are all sorts of saints on the bottom, somehow looking up into the heavens.  Despite the confusing imagery, it really is a gorgeous painting, with all the peaceful beauty and detail of Renaissance artwork.  I sat and drank it in for a while, sitting in a darkened room with spotlights on the painting’s key figures.  (I'm just adding one small image here, so that I can save the extra large images for the photos-only portion.)

 

It’s too bad this painting is no longer in the cathedral, it might have dispelled that feeling of bad karma. 

             

I eventually wandered on, heading uphill to the north end of town.  There were great viewpoints along the way, overlooking that gorge and the hills.  Somehow, I ended up walking on little streets that were more like low stairs, with flat stones along the sides for cars to straddle the steps.  I wound around heading vaguely south and downhill, because that seemed like the direction I needed to go to return to the car.

 

Well, I became hopelessly lost.  It was interesting to see the homes, the urban gardens, and the occasional cat or dog or person.  But it started to rain, and it seemed like maybe it was cappuccino time instead of lost in the rain on side pedestrian streets time.

 

I asked a woman for directions back to Piazza Garibaldi, the meeting place.  She said to continue to the end of the street and it would go there.  Well, the end of the street came and went with no piazza.  So I found a trash collector and asked him, figuring that would be someone who would know the streets.  He said to walk down another street, go to the end, then turn left.  That was specific enough to actually get me back to Piazza Garibaldi.

 

By now it was raining fairly heavily – I was damp, though my rain jacket kept me dry, but it didn’t cover my legs nor my art supplies in by little bag.  I found a little café for my cappuccino.  Except, well, they had gelato.  Hmmm, what a choice, right?  Cappuccino or gelato.  (Like there really is any question.)  Yeah, I had my cioccolata fondante e caffe gelato.

 

This café had tables out front under an awning, so I sat outside and watched the rain, sheltering in place, feeling protected by the griffons on the wall.  The rain started coming down hard enough to splash all over the tables, so I finally tilted the table away from me to prevent being splattered.  And listened to the conversations in various Italian dialects, pretending I understood more than occasional random words.

 

Eventually the rain let up, and I wandered a bit more.  I explored the Roman arch that is part of a few buildings in downtown old Narni.  Met up with our other La Romita people, and we headed back to a nice warm lunch!

 

Okay, Ghirlandaio's paintings:

 

 

On our second trip to Narni, I wandered along a similar route, but that Chiesa di San Francesco was closing – the man just locking the door saw us, and re-opened the church so we could explore a bit inside.  The frescoes and pillars were worth the visit – construction on this church began in the 1220s, and it was finally completed in the early 1400s, so it was an OLD church!  I didn’t take any photos, since I figured this sweet man who opened the church for us was on his way home for lunch – but we all dropped some coins in the offering box, and thanked him.  He gave me some folder and said “inglese, inglese” – though I couldn’t find the English portion.  But oh well, at least we saw the inside.

 

This time, I knew that when we walked northward, we should turn around and take the same road back to the plaza.  I ended up walking south outside the Ternana gate for photos, and wandered back up to the main piazza.  Had some amazing views of the town, maybe a monastery in the valley.  And I think it's always interesting to see the homes in other nations, because architecture is so varied!

 

So between the rain, getting lost, and all the exploring, I never did end up doing any drawing or painting in Narni.  Oh well, sometimes travel prevails, sometimes it’s art that wins out.

I nearly forgot the best thing that happened during the visit to Narni with Nancie’s class!  We started the day with a demo, the class gathered around the fountain in Piazza Garibaldi.  Nancie chose the side of the church (the church of bad karma) because the shadows were dramatic, there was a bit of the piazza, a few people on a bench, and a newspaper kiosk - so good visual contrast plus some human activity.  

So she started with the darks, did her alcohol wash, and continued with the mid-tones.  As the painting took form, she began to add more details, such as the newspapers and the people.  After a while, one of the men on the bench realized our group kept looking at him, so he came over to see what was going on.  He looked at her painting, and realized that HE was being drawn!  But that he wasn’t fully drawn, that Nancie wasn’t finished!  We all told him, in English and bad Italian, to please go back to sitting.  So he ran back across the street and took his place on the bench once again.

Don’t you love friendly people who will happily pose for an art class?  He was just so jovial about the whole thing!  He came back to see the final painting, and gave it a “bellissima!”

 

I'm adding one painting that I completed in Keiko's class, pretty sure I painted this the afternoon we returned from Narni.  It stopped raining, I dried out, and there was a wonderful scene in the garden behind the La Romita art studio, the former chapel.  The "pompom sunflowers" were drying out and hanging upside down, and I really liked the odd view of the sunflower.  Plus the rest of the garden behind this particular sunflower sort of blurred in the photo I took.  I took my watercolor block and a chair out into the garden to do my initial sketch en plein air.  Eventually it became drizzly again, forcing me back into the studio for painting this piece.  Oh well, I'm adaptable and not too worried about all my artwork being directly from the scene.  I'm fine with studio work.

 

So that was my painting of the day, a realistic dying sunflower with a very Impressionist garden behind it.  I had fun, and I always enjoy drawing and painting sunflowers.  They're such happy flowers, but more assertive than things like, oh, petunias.  Somehow even a drying out sunflower still portrays their inner personality. 

 

More large photos to enjoy: