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Tuesday 7 October 2008

DIA 333-340 - Musings on Italy

Siena-Pisa-La Spezia-Chiavari-Genova-Imperia-Ventimiglia-Cannes Dt = 13525 Km

As we ride along in Italy, Tuscan hills dressed with vineyards and sprinkled with young forest give way to the Arvo Valley between Florence and Pisa. The coast to Genoa is extremely hilly - the Alps are starting to take hold. We go over a mountain pass to get to the sea. From Genoa to the French border the Alps are so close you can almost reach out and touch them, and every piece of even vaguely flat land along the coast is taken. But it is all beautiful. The only day in Italy which has not been a delight on the eyes was the day between Siena and Pisa - the valley looked very industrialised. The two cities we stop at are Siena and Genoa. Siena reminds Angel of Florence to the extent that he thought he may have actually been confused about the name of the city! I like knowing there is such similarity. The old buildings give me an idea of the urban landscape of 15th century Florence - my current fascination.

15th century Florence is synonymous with the Renaissance. But it is the Medici family rather than the painters which fascinates me. The famous bankers, politicians, patrons of the (religious) arts. These three aspects of the Medici are interconnected. Ursury (lending money at interest) was such a grave sin in medieval Christianity that if you wanted to be a banker, you had to make sure that you were relatively untouchable and were in a position to influence laws regarding money (politician),and also that your eternal soul would be saved by giving liberally to the Church and having paintings commisioned where your name saint is a star player (see Dante for what happens to bankers down in hell). The Catholic Church was not adverse to bankers; in fact, successive popes were the Medicis' biggest clients, but still one had to be careful.

The Renaissance, or rediscovery of ancient Greek and Roman knowledge seemed to have a lot to do with working out how one could build up riches on earth and still make it into the kingdom of heaven. Christianity did not fulfil the needs of the people who wanted to have fun in this life, and they needed to construct their moral base in a different way...all the time remaining staunchly Christian!

There is a possible reason why a little room to manoeuvre opened up in the Catholic world (apart from the obviously covetous nature of the Vatican). Everybody was dying. People started dying in Europe in 1348 when the Genovese brought the Black Death to Sicily. Apparently, Genovese merchants had been in a town in the Crimea, and invading Mongols began throwing plague-ridden corpses over the city walls to infect the general populace.Genoa had a fruitful alliance with the Byzantines and, therefore, access to the East and the Crimea. (Genoa is also located on what used to be an extremely important trade route. Trade routes changed in the end, and the Genovese also lost territories such as Sardinia, which they had acquisitioned as a result of power generated by successful trade. Trade routes changed and they lost all their territories in the end, but it was good while it lasted, and Genoa remains an elegant city with lofty arcades, palaces and finely turned out old buildings...although some are badly in need of a clean...)

Back to the Genovese merchants fleeing the city in the Crimea. They tried to return home, but only made it as far as Sicily. All the sailors in the merchants' fleet died of the Plague, and people looting the ghost ships had no idea what was in store. Nor did Europe. It is estimated that Europe lost around a third of its population, and in many cities, this statistic was closer to a half. The priest and monks were among the first to go since it was their duty to care for the sick. So all of this was fertile ground for social upheaval. It is extremely difficult to imagine the horror and trauma and fear that the Black Death (considered now to be the Bubonic Plague) must have produced. It was not until the 1700s that outbreaks ceased altogether.

So the Medici were banking away in a very insecure world. Good directors of banks were hard to find and, once found, they may suddenly die. However, the Medici did manage to find a few directors who lived for long enough to prove lucrative. The bank had branches in Florence, Rome, Venice, Genoa and Ancona, not to mention their internationhal branches in cities such as London and Bruges. The Medici would be extremely proud of today's world.

All in all, we would have liked to learn more, to explore Florence and Venice in particular. But that will have to wait for another trip...



4 comments:

superpedaletos said...

Ruben y Sabrina! internet cada vez es mas caro asi aue hay q repartir tareas; a darle al ingles!!!

Aurora y Ruben! gracias otra vez por vuestro comentario, os imaginamos pedaleando en direccion contraria... ya casi estamos!!!

besos para todos

Angel y Marianne

Anonymous said...

Hola amiguetes. Ya casi estáis en casa, a ver si cuando lleguéis podemos vernos. Yo estaré en Zaragoza el fin de semana del 15 y 16 de noviembre, ¿creéis que ya habréis llegado?

Ángel, al final me voy con Fernando al Perú en diciembre. Supongo que estarás cansado todavía para entonces, pero ya sabes que te puedo hacer un hueco en el avión.

Por lo demás, pocas cosas nuevas por aquí. EL otoño en Europa es una estación que normalmente me deja adormecido, pero últimamente de cuando en cuando hay ruidos que me despiertan por la noche. Dices, ¿qué habrá pasado? y te despiertas y es otro banco que se ha caído. Como en Luxemburgo hay tantos...

Besos a los dos

Aitor

superpedaletos said...

Aitor!
En principio, si los pirineos y el cierzo nos lo permiten, tenemos prevista la llegada para el 26 de octubre. Atacaremos Zaragoza por el noreste, desde la sierra de Alcubierre. Asi que el 15 de noviembre me imagino que todavia andaremos por alli, y ademas bien limpios y con ropa nueva.

Nos vemos pronto!! y espero que no haya un banco debajo de tu casa...

Anonymous said...

No es que haya un banco debajo de mi casa, ¡es que mi casa pertenece al banco!

Cuando crucéis la sierra de Alcubierre, párate en el punto en el que se pasa de Huesca a Zaragoza. Desde allí hay una carretera que lleva a la derecha y, en muy poco, llegaréis a unas trincheras de la guerra civil, reconstruidas. Si quieres, desde esas trincheras, le puedes contar a Marianne que ahí mismito estuvo el frente durante mucho tiempo. Leciñena era ya zona nacional y Alcubierre republicana. Le puedes contar lo que pasó el 12 de octubre del 36 en Leciñena. Las tropas del POUM (sí, los de Tierra y Libertad, de Ken Loach), que habían metido a un montón de personas que consideraban simpatizantes del alzamiento en los calabozos del ayuntamiento los sacaron al ver que los nacionales se aproximaban y los fusilaron. Cuando éstos vieron lo que pasaba, echaron a correr. Muchos se salvaron. Murieron veintipico personas (entre ellos el hermano de mi abuelo, con 16 años) y otros escaparon con heridas y mucho miedo, saltando por los tejados de las casas mientras les baleaban(entre ellos el gemelo de mi abuelo, con 14 años). Los nacionales entraron en el pueblo, se encontraron con ese espectáculo en plena plaza y quisieron venganza. Como los responsables habían huído, fusilaron a personas más o menos relacionadas con ellos, entre los cuales una novia embarazada. No sé si en total fueron otros veinte, pero anduvieron cerca. Así que, en una sóla tarde de un día del Pilar, un pueblo como Leciñena, vio morir a casi cincuenta vecinos no en combates, sino a manos de otros vecinos. Si miráis el pueblo desde allí, es casi increíble que pudiera pasar.

Si subís un poco más arriba, llegaréis a un puesto, creo que se llama San Simón, y un mirador, desde donde se ve bastante bosque, los Pirineos al otro lado y un paisaje que no te esperas en mitad de los monegros. Para ir al pueblo andad por la carretera vieja. Y si te apetece, para en la ermita, que no sé si reconocerás.

Nos vemos entonces el 15 de noviembre. hasta luego!

Aitor