Genoa for Special

Ecce Homo - You win some....

The last time I passed through Genova I was marshalling a group of students who had managed to evade the sniffer dogs in the customs bays.  We were on our way back to Rome from a crazy trip to Barcelona, when the Sagrada Familia was still a building site, and the sun going down over the Pyrenees couldn't be photographed without flash.....

Anyway, I'm back, and this is my staircase (don't ask, it's too hot.....)

Oh Lordy, things have changed..... The last time I stayed here the only tourist was me, and that was a mistake.  I came to look for traces of Byron and Dickens (I had a thing about literary freaks).  I found them, I think, but I have lost them again.....  It was a good trip, however. I was young, and the city was crumbling - a juxtaposition that has now begun to reverse, but, hey!  Green mould was the flavour of the day and the palazzi on the Via Garibaldi (the Strada Nuova) were sinking into their own drains.  What's wasn't to like?

Now there are Palaces a plenty to explore, by yourself, or, as the majority will have it, with an oh-so-knowledgeable guide who will suck all the art out of every statue or painting counting the minutes before the next bus-load. 

In Via Garibaldi, the Musei di Strada Nuova  connects three important Genoese palaces: Palazzo Doria Tursi (Palazzo Grimaldi Niccolò) which is the seat of the Town Hall; Palazzo Bianco (Palazzo Grimaldi Luca) and Palazzo Rosso (Palazzo Brignole Sale Rodolfo and Francesco), which is decorated with frescoes by the greatest painters of Ligurian Seventeenth century and enriched with precious furnishings.

There's understanding to be had, of course, but it's exhausting.  Once Genova was a great city, importing spices and teas and coffees and chocolates and the smartest set became very very rich, sipping exotic beverages while their servants fought off the rats.....

One thing does stand out in this feast of renovation..... I always knew there was a connection between Jimi Hendrix and Paganini (my theory of karma and rebirth and all that....) and, what do you know, but the outstanding exhibit in this parade of wealth and bad taste is Paganini's guitar? {Niccolò Paganini was born in Genoa (then capital of the Republic of Genoa) on 27 October 1782, the third of the six children of Antonio and Teresa (née Bocciardo) Paganini}. 

If only they could have played together......

Anyway, that's by the way. Genoa (nowadays Genova) is a city with determined links to that outpost of Europeanism, once known as Great Britain. The flag of St George was initially borrowed from Genoa by the English. Earlier on Genoa, once a powerful maritime city, adopted the St George’s Cross as its flag and St George as its patron saint during the Crusades (getting on for a thousand years ago). Then the symbol was adopted by England toward the end of the religious wars, in the 13th century, with English ships flying the flag of Genoa as a deterrent to enemies and for that privilege, the English monarch paid an annual tribute to the doge of Genoa, or ruler of the Republic of Genoa.....

And then, to turn the tables, perhaps, the English founded the Genoa Cricket and Football Club, commonly referred to as Genoa. The club was founded on 7 September 1893 as Genoa Cricket & Athletic Club. In its earliest years, it principally competed in athletics and cricket. Association football was only a secondary concern. The club was set up to represent England abroad, and at first Italians were not permitted to join.

You wouldn't know this on September 7th, 2023, when a vast crowd assembles in Piazza de Ferrari, with fireworks, flags and fierce fanaticism......

I am the only Brit in the throng and I feel discomfited by the demonstrations of mass enjoyment that have elements of something I would rather not recall....

On 10 April 1897 the footballing section of the club became predominant thanks to James Richardson Spensley. Italians were allowed to join and found a new ground in the form of Ponte Carrega. 

James Richardson Spensley (17 May 1867 – 10 November 1915) was an English medical doctor, footballer, manager, Scout Leader and medic from Stoke Newington. He is considered to be one of the "Fathers of Italian Football", due to his association with Genoa CFC and his contribution to the modern day variation of the game in Italy.

There aren't many occasions these days when I feel anything like a spark of pride to be British, but I have to seize the day....

It is quite something to be in a huge crowd and not to be worried, but here the people are genuinely focussed on their sense of community and you cannot help but feel good that they have something to believe in....

The city is older than all of us put together, and GCFC, at exactly 130 years old, is old enough to be all of our great grandfathers, if not greater.  But there is an inclusive zing to the celebrations.

Of course there is much more to the city (at the least that is an opinion) and I take time to ascend the funiculars and the lifts to see the views, including that of the Lanterna di Genova, the main lighthouse for the port. Besides being an important aid to night navigation in the vicinity, the tower serves as a symbol and a landmark for the City of Genoa. Built of masonry, at 76 m (249 ft) it is the world's fifth tallest lighthouse and the second tallest "traditional" one.

And I note the antique beasts that guard the Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint Lawrence.  It is dedicated to San Lorenzo and was consecrated by Pope Gelasius II in 1118 and was built between the twelfth century and the fourteenth century 

Up the 130 (or so) steps to the tower a relaxed guide instructs visitors in his lessons about life and all that......

Back in the port the people are continuing celebrations of the 130th anniversary of their beloved football club, introducing the youth and hopes for the future that form part of the business of the enterprise....  Genoa for Special!

And special Genoa is.... through there are times when things don't go quite right and the other team may win.... OK. Good luck to them. Antonello da Messina (Messina, 1426 circa - 1479) understood this and in his picture, Ecce Homo (Behold the Man), one version of which is on display in the Spinola picture gallery in Palazzo di Pellicceria. The scourged and mocked Christ is shown wearing a crown of thorns placed on him by the Roman soldiers. In some versions of this his wrists are tied and a rope is knotted around his neck; scourge marks are frequently emphasised, and his face expresses compassion toward his accusers. 

It is the picture of a man. A man in agony. Someone whose team has lost. But, given faith, someone whose team may one day win the cup....

One day.  

We must live in hope.....

Genoa for Special.....

TESSERAE - 9 - Viterbo

Viva Viterbo!   City of the Popes!

A vast hand stretches out from the ground below the Papal Palace of Viterbo.  A bearded head gapes nearby.  Feet emerge, or are they disappearing?  Is this the risen Christ?  Or is He being buried? 

The city of Viterbo is not well known to tourists.  It straddles the Via Cassia, some eighty kilometres north of Rome, clinging to the foothills of the volcanic Monti Cimini.  Traces of Etruscans walls can be seen, though the medieval walls are almost entirely intact, pierced by seven gates, and the San Pellegrino Quarter is virtually unchanged since the thirteenth century, the best preserved such contrada in Lazio..

 

Today, Viterbo is a busy place, seat of the Università Statale degli Studi della Tuscia, with approximately 9,000 students, which grew out of the Libera Universita della Tuscia in 1979.  It is also home to the Italian Air Force, which has a school there, with an airport, founded in 1936, which was until recently going to be developed as Rome's third commercial hub.

 

Apart from that, this is a busy city, with metal and stone industries and plenty of agricultural activity.   

In the past it was great and glorious.  It became a free commune in the eleventh century and in 1164 Emperor Frederick I (aka Barbarossa) gave it the title of City.  Having a powerful position on the Via Cassia, the main road north from Rome, gave it influence, and before long it was noticed by the papacy.  In 1261, Pope Alexander IV died there, having taken refuge in the Prior's Palace, and it became the place for papal elections, with Urban IV being the first of several to make it his home.

The Cathedral, dedicated to San Lorenzo, is a plain but elegant building just next to the great Papal Palace.  It was erected in the 12th century, with Romanesque columns and a fine cosmatesque floor and the Palace, in Gothic style, was constructed a century later.  It was here in 1271, prior to the election of Pope Gregory X, that, due to long and inconsequential deliberations, the townspeople locked the cardinals in and deprived them of food, to force them to come to a decision.  Thus started the tradition of the papal conclave (which comes from the Italian, con chiave - with the keys).

The cobbled streets and squares of Viterbo bustle with life, but are stained with blood.  It was here, on March 13th, 1271, after mass in the Church of San Silvestro, that two sons of Simon de Montfort, Simon the Younger and Guy, discovered and murdered Henry Almain, or Henry of Cornwall, crowned King of the Romans.  This was an act of revenge for the death of their father, recorded by Dante Alighieri in Canto VII of his Inferno.  

 

Nowadays, though, under the watchful eyes of the local police, Viterbo is tranquil.  Old men take the shade in the courtyard of the Palazzo Communale, 

And  citizens meet or relax in the Gran Caffè Schenardi. This wonderful building started life as one of the Chigi family's banks, in the fifteenth century.  It then became a private residence until being transformed into the Albergo Reale (Royal Hotel) for travellers on the Grand Tour.  Then, in 1818, Raffaele Schenardi had the bright idea of creating a Café, right here, on the ground floor of the Hotel.  It was an idea that caught on.

With its elegant décor, and refined menus, this has been a favourite place of Popes (especially Gregory XVI) and Kings (Vittorio Emanuele III dined here), adventurers (Giuseppe Garibaldi) and Film Stars (Orson Welles was here to make his film of Othello), not to mention the grand and the great of Italy (such as Fellini, who filmed I VItelloni with Alberto Sordi in Viterbo).  It is such an iconic part of Italy, that in 1980 the Ministero dei Beni Culturali e Ambientali declared it a place of especial cultural and historic interest.  And it is still a great place for an ice cream.

And not many doors away, a famous jeweller and goldsmith's shop sold wedding rings, or so it did in 1984!

Viterbo is a fascinating place.  With the exception of Rome, Lazio, unlike Tuscany and Umbria, is not so well known for its medieval towns, nor for its spas, nor for its religious festivals.  But Viterbo has it all.  You can stroll in the shade of the thirteenth century here, or swim in sulphurous hot water here all year round, or, on September 3rd every year you can join in the celebrations of Santa Rosa, a local girl who died at the age of 18 in 1251.  She is venerated for her stoicism and for her mystical gifts, and on the eve of her Feast Day, La Macchina di Santa Rosa, a vast tower, illuminated with 3,000 tiny electric lights and 880 candles, and with a statue of her on the top, is carried by a hundred men for almost a mile round the medieval streets of the city.

And life, Italian life, goes on in its inimitable way, with its celebrations of the sausage,  

 

And its feasts of longhorn beef,

And its celebration of Football,

And, at the end of the road, its celebration of life, in death..... As paper death notices advertise the passing of a generation, colour coded as the rosettes that announce the birth of a baby.  

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.