Anagni and Casamari

Ciao everyone, and good weekend to you all. I've been back from my site visit for almost a day now and have wanted to blog about it for the entire time, but there were some extenuating circumstances (i.e. sleepiness and paper-writing) that needed to be attended to. I have so much I could say about yesterday, but if this turns out to not be the longest post ever, I hope you don't hold it against me; I've already typed 6 pages of papers and read off my computer for about 8 hours today, so know I'll do my best.

Yesterday I had to get up at 2:40 am to schedule for classes, only to go back to bed after doing so for another 3 hours. I got 4 classes picked and they were the ones I wanted, although the pickings were slim for some things, but I'm taking all PoliSci, and they're all on MWF. So I'll have no class on Tu/Th, and this was by design: I'm going to try and get a job or something on Tuesdays and Thursdays (hopefully not the weekend so I can breathe a bit and be able to enjoy some time with my friends / KK without any worries) and earn some money to contribute to my life. I'm adding a bit more every quarter, trying to build up a work tolerance for law school, so we'll see how that all works out. Jobs are not easy to come by right about now.

But yes, at 6:45 on Friday I had to get up to go to a site visit. Friday is my weekend, and I was a little bummed about having to get up that early, but it was alright. Bert and I rolled out to Piazza Repubblica and got on our bus with our class and rolled out to Anagni, or a town to the south of Roma, but still in Lazio. It was about 75 minutes away, and most everyone slept on the bus, but I chatted with some people and our professor as the scenary rolled on by. It was really beautiful, I love seeing Italian countryside.

We arrived in Anagni and got out to see the Crypts there, a medieval site where the Popes used to meet foreign dignitaries and so this little town gets a big time budget for its church and crypts. We had some time to kill beforehand, so I wandered around and took a few pictures and got some local cookies. Yes! I love cookies, and these ones were pretty good. Alicia (one of the girls who lives near me) and I tried our luck at a slot machine style game in the Coffee shop and it was completely in Italian and therefore confusing, but somehow we won money, then proceeded to lose some, all in confusion. It was all in good fun, only about 2 euro lost after 2 gained, but I'm still confused how it was supposed to work.

But Anagni was beautiful, with nice views and old medieval architecture. The church compound was all brick and old; I really like seeing old stuff in good condition (go figure). I hung out with my class as we walked around and into the church itself, which was pretty immaculate, but not nearly as old as some of the other things I've seen recently as far as churches go. I liked the outside better, as it was the original.

The Crypt, however, was a completely different story: it was completely the way it used to be and partially underground, and the restoration effort was in full swing for some of it, but the humidity really took its toll on the second of the two crypt rooms. The first room was beautiful, and you can only be in there for 15 minutes before you're kicked out, and a guide stands there vigilantly making sure you don't take any pictures.

But I did anyway, since I'm a horrible person.

The Crypt has the remains of a Saint inside, named Magnus, or Saint Magni, and the frescoes were completely surrounding you, all over the ceilings, walls, arches, pillars, everything. It was one of the most impressive fresco collections I've ever seen, and man, it was cool to see. Please, click on these pictures and enlarge them, I implore you! They look excellent and they are so amazing to see, they're over 700 years old people. 700 year old paintings in this condition? They're really almost unheard of. The second of the fresco pictures, or the one on the right, shows just how frescoed the place is, it's surreal.

We were in the crypt for the 15 minutes and then escorted out. I really went underground for these photos and I'm pretty satisfied with how they turned out, so please, do look at them up close, it's worth it. Or if nothing else, make my effort feel a little more worth it.

We exited the Crypt after our little excursion up into the main church, which had an old papal throne in it, decorated in a rich fashion. That was kind of cool to see too. We crossed the street and went into Boniface VII (Pope during the first Jubilee in 1300) castle there, which had a lot of old artifacts to see and admire, along with a bunch of old Papal robes and such. Cool to see.

We had a lunch break after that, and Anagni isn't very big, so there weren't many places to eat. We wandered down this really winding road and got to a Trattoria, and as we went in, we saw our professor in there eating by herself. She was so excited we'd come in she ordered all of us food at a good rate and we had some great pasta and chatted with her. She's a mid-50's Italian woman with pretty good English, she can be downright adorable when she starts talking about anything American and wanting to know something about it. Really funny.

We all left later on our bus towards the second place on our trip, but not before I got a video. It's not fantastic, but it shows what it looks like a bit better.

The second place on our excursion was a Monastery another 30 kms away, at a place called Casamari. The monastary is still in use, but you can tour it and check it out, which we certainly did. I really like getting to see things I know I wouldn't see if I was here later in life, and I know this was one of those things. I had no reason to go there, but I'm very glad we did.

The first thing about the Monastery you notice is how awesome the landscaping is. Nice views, lots of trees; I enjoy a good forest setting, and that's what it felt like. There was a cloister with a cistern there as well, which was decorated with tons of little red flowers and a few orange trees in pots around the perimeter; I wanted one of the oranges really bad. They looked to still be quite ripe.

From there, we went into the church, which was austere and beautiful. Very sparse, as we learned, since Bernard Clairvaux's apology called for. He believed monks shouldn't get distracted by the beautiful artwork in a church, and he believed that people were prone to do so. He also believed that highly decorated churches make people donate since they liked the setting, not the actual message.

There were some nice stained glass windows, though, and I FINALLY got a good picture of one. NOT an easy thing to do people, so please, go ahead and appreciate it.

The church was hard to photograph, but very large inside. I'll spare sparse, not-so-clear pictures and instead show some from the outside that were more interesting, at least in my opinion. The outside of the monastery also had a shop, which I went inside, and they brewed their own alcohols, made their own chocolate, collected their own honey, and made their own trappist monk beers (!!!). I had to buy one. I've always wanted to try trappist beer, and it's authentic. I looked online when I got back too on some beer rating websites and apparently this stuff is amongst the best in the world. Lucky me! Haven't had it yet, but I'll report back to you when I do (if you care).

A couple of the people got the chocolate and liquors their, as they were really pretty inexpensive for the most part (my one beer, for 12 ounces, was 4 Euro, but the bottles sell for about 11 bucks online, so I got a bargain if you think about it) and looked pretty good. The chocolate? Awesome. I had a piece.

On the way back to Rome, I didn't feel very good in my stomach, really at all. I started to feel pretty sick and almost got sick on the bus, it must have been so mething I ate. I really don't know what caused it, but it was passing after I got off the bus and got home, so that was a good thing. Then today I've just papered all day long, nothing too exciting there. I made some excellent carbonara that smelled so good I had the whole floor coming by, no joke. It tastes and smells great when it's made right, and I think I must be doing it well. Everyone who had a taste asked me for the recipe, and really I'm just living the dream, as they say. Tomorrow is more papers, but until next time, I'll leave you with a picture I took from the bus that I particularly like. I hope you enjoy it too.

Ciao.