Rieti: Part One

Rieti from behind the Basilica di Santa Maria

I confessed to Ethan all I want to write about is Rome and Venice.  Those parts of the trip are what I am hanging onto as the day to day reality of my American life putters along.  I want to be strolling along the Tiber as early evening approaches; somehow the James river just doesn't cut it.  I want to be able to walk somewhere in this town, but Lynchburg is not foot friendly.  From my house it's even a haul to the bus stop, let alone the grocery store or a real park.

Eventually I'll explain what we were doing at the convent, (since that was the reason we were in Italy).  One of Roberto's employees/interns was Flavia, who grew up in the town of Rieti, a 20 minute drive from the convent.  She had arranged a late afternoon tour of the historic center of her hometown.  We left the lab early and headed deeper into the region known for the ancient "Rape of the Sabine Women" legend (Romulus and his first generation Romans needed women, so they abducted some of the Sabines ladies from this region.  By the time the Sabine soldiers went to rescue them, some years later, most had married and settled into Roman family life.).

We parked and walked up the hill to the Palazzo Vescovile ('Bishop's Palace'), built around 1283 CE.

Shannon under a vaulted arch.

The vaults of the Palazzo Vescovile ('Bishop's Palace').

I could not resist taking a picture of the red Vespa parked behind the fence as we walked out toward the statue of St. Francis in the Piazza M. Vittori.

San Francesco in the Piazza M. Vittori.  Basilica di Santa Maria's bell tower from 1252 CE is above him.

There was a moment where I lost my fellow students after stopping one too many times to take pictures. I walked frantically into the cathedral and saw no one.  I came out, wondering what I was going to do, lost already in Italy. Luckily I turned the corner and they were all admiring the view of Rieti (the first picture on the blog) before we went inside Santa Maria.  This would happen a few times to me, partly because of taking pictures, but mostly because I am slow.  I like to stroll, and, unlike my husband, never walk with a purpose. We entered the church and I did get teary, the first of many times after entering an old and sacred place. It was here I realized: "I'm in Italy!"

A bit blurred but one of my favorite symbols, the sacred heart.

After the cathedral, we took a short walk to Museo Civico Archeologico, the archaeological museum. We walked into a small courtyard and something about this mural seemed familiar:

The local art students had a temporary exhibition dedicated to the artist Keith Haring, an 80s icon. Since I was the only art history major on the trip I could hardly contain myself.  Ooo! Ooo!

This museum also had exhibits on the "Rape of the Sabine" legend, including interpretations of the event by the art school (see above as well).

Jacques-Louis David's The Sabine Women, but in millions of pixels.

And this gem, a reenactment of David's painting but in the style of Yves Klein's body paintings. When I saw this I had to capture it: "My art history prof will think this is hysterical!" 

There were more serious exhibits of course:

Rieti from above.

An expressive beard and brow in marble.

A collection of pottery and votive artifacts.

The museum had a courtyard which we went out into so we could look up at some of the surrounding architecture . I snapped a photo of what I think is the Santa Lucia bell tower. I noticed something in the far right upper (2nd level) window which I thought was extremely odd.

In the window I saw a basketball hoop with a huge poster of Kobe Bryant.  I thought; "Wow, now that's a big fan...and they must have an office where they get to shoot baskets." (*Duh*)

What I found out tonight while doing research on the things I had seen in Rieti was that Kobe Bryant's dad Joe, played for the Sebastiani Rieti basketball team from 1984-1992 (yes, wikipedia is my source here, but I checked other sources too).  Kobe went to school in Rieti, and learned Italian. Though I'm not a Kobe Bryant fan, this was a cool bit of trivia to discover -- and it solved the b-ball hoop mystery.

 After the museum Flavia had arranged for a gentleman to open up the Teatro Flavio Vespasiano (Flavio Vespasian Theatre) for us to have a look around. On the way there she led us to the monument to Rieti's reputation as the "Umbeliculus Italiae," or geographical 'belly button' of Italy. The marker is in the quiet Piazza San Rufo.

After snapping a few pictures around the monument, we strolled to the theater located on the Via Garibaldi, and were allowed inside. The ceiling of the theater is the triumphal parade of Vespasian and Tito (Titus) after conquering Jerusalem.

 It was magnificent! I was tempted to walk down the aisle and get up on stage, but instead sat down for a rest in a red velvet seat. Speaking of rest, I need some. Part Two in the works.