January 13, 2012

Have had a big problem getting pictures into this diary...something changed over the break and while I haven't figured it out yet, have found a work around of sorts and will try to get this trip documented and out of the way.  But first...saw this article in the LA Times today about new Chinese mother's and their diet.  To briefly recap, for the first 30 days after giving birth, Chinese mother's are encouraged to eat only hot foods and to not shower. The practice is called Zuo Yue Zi, which translates to "sitting out the month."  They have to eat "special" foods (like like pig's feet and liver), stay in the house for all 30 days (not even opening a window) and should stay in bed for most of that, otherwise the uterus might prolapse (whatever that is, it doesn't sound attractive).  They also are supposed to wear some tightly wound bandage around their bellies to help them regain their original shape.  I have to admit that seems to work as most of the women have a youthful figure...all the way back to 12 years of age.   Of course, the Western health industry thinks it's worthless at best, and possibly harmful, but it is big business here as I have recently noticed bill boards in English advertising post-partum recovery services.  I remember Betty's mom coming up when Paul was born and doing some odd things, but I wasn't aware of the whole tradition and I know I didn't see one of those special bandages.  I do recall she was horrified when I made Betty go to the Mariner game a few days after giving birth, and Betty was getting stinky, but I didn't notice it being that much different than her regular funk (which I love of course).  Hmmm...I better stop there. 

So back to the Church recap...we left off at St. Peter's.  After visiting the cathedral during the day, which was Christmas Eve day, we went back that night to celebrate mass with the Pope in St. Peter's Square.  Tickets to get inside the church itself for the mass were long gone by the time we decided on the trip, but they put up big screens in the Square and broadcast the festivities to the crowd outside.  Must have been a few thousand people total and while we aren't church goin' folk, being at the Vatican on Christmas Eve is like being in Indianapolis for the Indy 500, or in Times Square on New Year's Eve.  They even drop the Baby Jesus at midnight!  They didn't actually drop him, but at one point, they pulled a cover off of him in the manger scene in the Square.  The mass itself was in Latin (I think) and consisted of a bunch of songs, swinging Frankincense, and several readings by assorted clergy.  The readings were given after a short introduction by the Pope and it reminded me of Johnny Ramone introducing each Ramone song by yelling, One, Two, Three, Four.  Do you click on these links by the way?  Imagining the Pope as a Ramone is funny (assuming you don't consider it sacrilege).  The Pope looked old and didn't appear as if he could do the heavy lifting in the mass...just keeping his neck straight with that massive Pope hat has got to be hard for an old guy.  The velvet slippers on the other hand...

 

Earlier that day during our tour of the Vatican, we also went into the Vatican museums and grounds.  As you can imagine, the grounds are immaculately maintained and gorgeous.  And as you can also guess, their museum houses an enormous amount of artifacts from all of history.  (Thankfully for the kids...and me) we saw only a small slice of it and it was magnificent of course.  One of the highlights was the sculpture called The Lacoon.  Actually, learning of the story of the Lacoon while looking at it was what made it a highlight.  Seeing too much of anything can dilute the experience to the point that you don't really appreciate any of it.  If you are into it, you almost need a week just to see their collection alone.  Looking at all the busts of the ancient Romans they had, with my naturally curly hair and Romanesque features, it was like looking at a 3D stone mirror. 

 Of course, my inner 12 year old boy had to get a picture of this goddess of fertility.

And this picture of a camel's head statue was just wrong...Betty took it so she is just as bad as I am.

Smoooooth flavor.  I don't have a picture of it, but the coolest room we saw in the museum was the tapestry map room.  Picture a corridor of about 80-100 yards lined on both sides with 25x25 foot woven tapestries depicting detailed maps of Italy and the Mediterranean.  For a geography nerd, I was geeking out a bit. 

OK...the actual coolest room in the Vatican was the Sistine Chapel.  Even after looking at a million Renaissance paintings, and after studying and writing a paper on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel for a mandatory elective class in the arts in college, it is still just too incredible for me to try and relate the power of actually being below it...it is simply something that can never be properly verbally described.  It did make me go back and relearn who and what the Sibyls were, and the history of ill-advised past, and possibly ill-advised recent, restorations of the painting, was newly interesting.   I know I've previously cited that scene in Good Will Hunting where Robin Williams calls Matt Damon "just a kid" and says that while he knows all there is to know about Michelangelo, he doesn't "know what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel".  I can now say from experience, it smells like tourist BO from all around the world.  The Chapel (unfortunately) was just crammed with moving bodies that made it hard to find a calm niche just to take some moments to absorb.  If I am ever fortunate enough to return (and if you ever get the opportunity), figure out how to get in there at a less busy time of day, preferably so you can lie on your back and just look up.  No pictures allowed.

One final note about churches in Rome...we are all big fans of the book/movie "Angels and Demons", so made a point of catching as many of cites from that work as possible.  The Fountain of the Four Rivers, the Church in the Piazza Del Popolo, the Castel Sant' Angelo and the walled pathway between it and the Vatican.  We all (thankfully) saw a butt load of Bernini as he was pretty incredible...in St. Paul's Plaza (Bernini designed) are two rows of massive columns that ring the square, and if you stand at this one point right in the middle, the two rows are visible as only one.

 And yes, I have already taken a fair amount of heat about letting Carolyn watch Angels and Demons (multiple times), including from the head Sister at her Catholic school, so please save your outrage for another of my poor parenting judgements. 

Tomorrow...ancient Rome.