Weekend

At the end of my first week at school, and to begin my weekend, I headed back over to Monti on Friday night to watch a Paolo Sorrentino-directed film, ‘Le Conseguenze dell’Amore’ with fellow classmates.  Sorrentino has just won the Golden Globe for best foreign film “La Grande Bellezza”.  The school showed the ‘Le Consequenze’ film (produced in 2004) in-house, with Italian subtitles to help us along in our comprehension and it was a great opportunity to listen and madly try to read subtitles for those bits of the dialogue that were just too difficult to follow.  I’m now a great fan of Toni Servillo, the Italian actor who has starred in both films in the major role.  La Grande Bellezza opens in Aust on January 23, so go and see it – it’s a marvellous story of excess, lost opportunity and reflection.  And Rome sparkles beautifully throughout.  And if you don’t get to see it, you can borrow my DVD J

See the link to the trailer here.

 

On Saturday, our teacher Claudio took us on a tour of ancient Rome, leading us through the history of the Colosseum, showing us the Gladiator School in the environs of the Colosseum (half exposed, and half buried under a modern road), and on to the church of San Clemente.  I visited this church with Claudio this time last year when he also led a tour, and it was fantastic to see how far my language has progressed – now I understood most, if not all, of the dialogue.  And of course, the three-level church is a wonderful place to visit: first century houses, and a Roman Mint, on the first level; a fourth-century church, complete with frescoes, on the second; and the ‘modern’ 11^th century church at ground level.  It’s thought that the first century houses were destroyed partially by Nero’s fire, the one that enabled him to build his Golden House on the Equiline Hill. 

 

So after what has felt like a fairly-intense week, with lots of language study and conversation (but not too much homework), I wrapped myself up in many layers (see selfie below, taken in my apartment!) and ventured out today to visit San Pietro in Vincoli, in Monti.  Vincoli because this church holds the double set of chains (vincolo = tie or bond) : believed to be those sets that bound Saint Peter during his imprisonment in Palestine, and later, in Rome.  And according to legend, when these chains were brought together, they fused miraculously. 

 

The church is also famous for Michelangelo’s sculpture of Moses, intended for a much larger memorial to Pope Julius II (40 statues for the Pope’s mausoleum!).  Julius II dragged Michelangelo off to work on the Sistine Chapel for some years, and the project was partially abandoned.  However, the Moses statue is an incredible work of sculpture, completed when Michelangelo was a young man.  I’m amazed at how muscle, the drape of cloth, and the texture of skin and hair can be reproduced in marble.

On the climb up to the Church of San Pietro in Vincoli, your walk takes you through the arch below the house of the Cesarini, where the mother of Lucrezia Borgia lived, and where her brother Giovanni set out after dinner with his mother, subsequently to be found murdered near the Tiber.  At this time of the year, the vines that cover the façade are bare but it must be spectacular when they are in leaf in the Spring.

I finished today with a walk through the Jewish Ghetto, past the lovely Piazza Margana, where relics of old Rome are imbedded in the wall of an 18^th century palazzo.  And where a 21^st century scooter is parked today, naturally.