Rome

Something I love about walking is that you often turn a corner or reach the top of a hill and come across whatever it might be - an extraordinary building, a park, a gallery or as often happens here in Rome you come across ancient ruins.

My first day here was spent walking - but unfortunately walking much further than I had hoped. I've been using a mix of hard copy map and google maps and have arrived at something that pretty much works - but this system took some honing down. This first day in Rome was a case in point. Using the map I can identify where I want to go but I found that when I thought I was heading for a particular place I was at times heading in the opposite direction. On the last day I found a shop that sold compasses, something I wish I would have had from the start.

Anyhow, I ended up literally walking around the Colosseum - via the related roads - hate to know just how may kms that was and I wouldn't mind seeing my face when I realized I was back where I had started. Anyhow, I walked a lot on that first day but I got to see massive war memorial - the Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele - the Colosseum, and the Pantheon. I had hoped to see the Trevi Fountain but with the heavy downpour that later set-in I dumped the plans and set off to m hotel - walking that is. The next day was luxury, I managed to get a bus to the Vatican Museum.

Vatican Museum, now, that's another story, for anyone who has been there you won't be surprised. I had seen Roman statues at other, earlier galleries and museums, but the collection here was exceptional. There was an extensive array of heads, busts, and many full length statues. There were pillars with writing and items such as a large marble item that looked like it would have been pond.

The building was filled with murals that decorated the walls and ceilings throughout. There were very large tapestries depicting historic scenes, a collection of religious art that mirrored collections I'd seen in earlier galleries and there was a collection of modern religious art, though I must say these generally weren't impressive. Finally after visiting numerous galleries we were led into the Sistine Chapel.

 


The whole time I was mindful of an earlier trip to Rome with Barry when Joey was about two years old. Barry says he remembers the pain he was in with his back but because, at the time we held the understanding that the museum closed at 1.30 pm I vividly remember being in a stream of mostly Italians who were practically running to see the recently restored chapel (I think now they stopped letting people in after 1.30). Nevertheless, we were caught in the stream, Joey in the pram, we were carrying, one at the front and the other at the back running with the stream. I was thinking I could go back once we'd seen the chapel only to find that at that time it wasn't possible to retrace your steps, we just had to leave. So needless to say I was keen to see all the riches that I'd earlier missed.

I should also mention a section of ancient relics including pots that I think may have been used to melt copper, coins, ancient christian symbols, pottery candle holders, jewelry, and many other items.

Needless to say I was appalled by the wealth that is stored here that I am sure must run contrary to christian belief?!

Later when I got to the Trevi Fountain only to find probably a thousand people thronging to get a selfie or snap of what has become an icon of Rome.

I had one more day left as my flight back to Australia wasn't leaving until 10.30 the next night but I just couldn't bring myself to visit another museum or gallery so I decided to simply take it easy, to type up my blog, to read and to watch another episode of Mary Beard on Rome.

I should mention here that I've supplemented my trip with documentaries, or travel guides on youtube, something I found helpful in identifying what I should see in each city. The two I'd like to highlight here are the BBC Rome a history of the Eternal City, a three part series, with Simon Seabag Montefiore and the second Meet the Romans, another three part series, by Mary Beard.

                              

                                 

Florence 2

I was in Florence for seven nights, and as I've said previously the bulk of this time was taken up with the conference.

Luckily before the conference began I booked tickets to visit the Uffizi Gallery and the Duomo Cathedral which included the Bapistry and the Duomo Museum.
 

                   

There are many other such galleries and museums in Flororence but these, I thought were the fundamentals. On my day walking I came, by chance, to the museum for the International Centre for Performing Arts. This was a treat. The display was dedicated to the work of Franco Zeffirelli. He predominantly designed costumes and the stage settings for opera. There were many examples of his work with costumes, posters and a couple of dioramas. There was also a full room display of video, art and music depicting the inferno. A google search on his name will bring up the huge range of Operas and other productions that he worked on.

I had one day before the conference and two afterwards, Saturday and Sunday, so on the Saturday I visited Uffizi and Sunday Duomo. I feel it was worth visiting simply to see what it was like but must say, again I found each of these, except the Duomo museum, disappointing.

The square which leads into the Uffizi was chocker block with people when I arrived. The square was grand, with imposing statues, and numerous and large tour groups. There was also a band playing classical music - nice in itself. I found out later that the entrance to the Medici's sprawling residence led onto the square as well.

The booking system worked well and there was value in booking early. I've found on each occasion that they don't allow more than a certain number to enter and so once you are in there is generally good space - that is unless you're in a room with a tour group, something I avoided.

After the disappointing commentaries I was keen to hear this one, which turned out to be disappointing in a different way. It was factual and clinical with no context. I could have equally just read the discriptions and been just as well informed. I noticed quite a few people using their guide books, which may well have been much better. I also found out later it is possible to view a guide to the gallery on youtube by Rick Stein.

I wasn't keen to go on one of the tours. An added value would have been the opportunity to ask questions but then with so many people I don't think there would be much opportunity for that.

I was left with quite a few questions like, did the Romans and the Greeks produce art - paintings? There may have been something of this there but if so not much. There were loads of marble statues, which the audio guide had little, if anything to say something about.

When I think about the art, there were few, if any, that impressed me. Nothing like Picasso's Gurnica.

Many of the rooms were filled with religious art, early depictions of Jesus, Mary - the Madonna - the holy family, John the Baptist, the priests and the Christian story. If there were so many Christians -who was being killed during the Spanish Inquisition?

This, to me, exemplifies the point - history is written by the victor.

There is so much more to be said of these years and this was totally missing. The black plague, the Spanish Inquisition, the burning of witches, the rural poor and the expanding bourgeoisie. I expected so much more.

I wondered if the presentation was moving, or held significance for many people? Lots of people were taking children through and seemed to be retelling the story, simple and uncomplicated - this is the truth - but were they - I don't know - not speaking the language is such a disadvantage.

We were led through rooms which featured artists such as Raphael, Correggio, Leonardo, Tiziano, Caravaggio, Rembrandt and Rubens these were mostly images of saints, rich people and a sprinkling of varied characters. I tended to take pictures of the women, being on my matricentric tour.

The commentary mentioned this era being the birth of humanism - something that interests me and something to learn more about.

The Duomo is incredibly grand on the outside but relatively simple inside. The Bapistry is something different with gold paint highlighting the christian story and features a large depiction of Jesus.

I'd love to know what the locals are thinking about all this religion but then the fact that there are small numbers who attend church these days might say it all. I've got to remember this is confronting to me but they've grown up with it - the stories that underlie their culture.

I had an interesting conversation with a young French woman while waiting in one of the lines, she made a distinction between the French and Italian's attitude to religion, and then there are the Spanish, the English, the Germans, the Scandinavians, the Russians and the Eastern Block.

I became friendly with a couple of fellow presenters from the conference, Katie and Myra. Funnily enough when Myra and I met and she said she was working at Binghamton University, there was an immediate basis for conversation, we had been to the city in 2008 on our Rod Serling tour.

Anyhow, over the next days Myra and I got to know each other and over the weekend shared dinners and a long walk looking for Belloguardo - which turned out to be just too far away. Myra, who teaches psychology, loved the conference and is excited to pursue work on the experience of women as mothers. We've shared our details and plan to stay in touch. It's wonderful how organisations such as MIRCI can bring together like minds.

My travel to South America has served me well. I am confident and prepared and am moving through the transions smoothly. I've heard about the dangers and am taking precautions but so far so good.

I was 1 1/2 hours early at the station going down to Rome but once I got writing I soon discovered that time had slipped by and there was only 15 minutes to spare.

Florence

Well here i am in Florence. I've been here for just on five days with most of these taken up with the MIRCI conference.

Travel means pretty much heaps of walking so as usual this has been my pass-time. I spent much of the first day familiarizing myself with the area, and using a combination of a hard copy map and google maps i found the university campus - along the way being stunned by the Duomo.

Today,  Saturday I'll be visiting the Ufizzi gallery and tomorrow have a look inside the Duomo, the Bapistry and the associated museum.

But first up thought I'd give some overview thoughts on the conference. As per usual the conference was packed and intense. The organisers are strict about time and so generally after a quick coffee and snack the papers begin. There are usually parallel sessions with three or four papers in each. There is a fifteen minute break inbetween and one hour for lunch.

The keynotes Petra Bueskens, Genevieve Vaughan and Andrea OReilly were all engaging and had much to say. The parallel sessions cover a wide array of topics, disciplines and perspectives - all on the experience of women as mothers - theory or practice.

There was terrific energy and enthusiasm at the conference which leaves one with the feeling that there will be no holding back of such a movement.

I was delighted to have touched base with either health professionals or professors who are concerned with maternal health and wellbeing and as it turns out this is the theme for the next MIRCI conference that will take place in Toronto, Canada next year.

But i was also delighted to hear about the work of younger women, be they activists, artists or working on a PHD in literature who are all taken up on related topics. I've got to know new colleagues from Canada and the USA and strengthened connections with others I've known for some years.

Overall a wonderful experience and so glad i came.

Milan

It wouldn't be fair to compare most cities with Barcelona so yeah Barcelona wins again - but then every city has its charms that is up to the visitor to find.

My trip to milan however didn't start well.

I'm remembering that in many ways travelling is hard work - well the more you put into it the more you get out - like, for example, learning the language admitedly a big investment but pays off in spades.

Anyhow, think I'm slipping i didnt look into the best way to get from the airport to the city beforehand - going with the flow. So near the luggage pickup at the airport there was a guy with a desk selling tickets for the bus to the city so a couple of us thought ah this looks easy and bought tickets at 5 euros, seemed reasonable. Bought the ticket and went outside to find a public bus waiting which cost 1 euro 50 cents.

Made it into the city this time without a map so tried google maps on my phone which unfortunately ive found difficult - keeps dropping out and has been misleading so I'm wandering around town thinking about looking out for a taxi and of course approached by someone supposedly selling books - after a short encounter only to find the zipper on my handbag open leaving my purse - with money, my drivers license and a card - there for the taking. Milan and to some extent barcelona have a problem with pick pockets. Anyhow i think he tried but too difficult to find my little purse thankfully.

I found a taxi but the hotel was near the station so had i spent the time i could have been reminded and got the train from the airport. One thing i am finding there are very few, if any, tourist information desks unlike Spain.

                              


Now the trains that is another story there are warnings everywhere - watch out for pick pockets - but then you are vulnerable when you don't know the system and so you can be offered assistance and be relieved of your valuables while you're at it.

It feels a bit like running the gauntlet but i used my wits and eventually got the trains sorted and got off to beautiful lake como the next day. The trip takes about 40 mins and when i started out there were others in the cabin but as we got closer to the lake the last person left. I looked around thinking i should change cabins and found a guy not far away who seemed to be sizing me up - needless to say i left quickly and found other people.

Lake como is beautiful well worth the trip. The guy at the hotel told me the locals get a boat to a particular place and a bus back which was terrific another adventure. It was difficult to find where to get the bus ticket, which was about 3 euros instead of 10 on the boat, even some of the shop keepers didn't know but persistance brought the reward.

I was reminded from my earlier trip to south america the best way to travel is with the locals - which led to travelling on the back of a truck in Bolivia and on a potato boat in Chile - some wonderful memories.

I'll post photos when i can.

Barcelona

Anyone who has been to Barcelona will know what I'm talking about - what a beautiful city it is. Definitely would get more out of the trip speaking the local language people are talking to each other where ever you go and to understand something of what they are saying would be great.

Hostel - HelloBCN has been good. My room is basic but ive got it to myself with my own bathroom so ive made myself comfortable. I copied music onto my phone which has been great and i brought barrys tablet and so with free wifi in hostels and hotels I've been able to watch Netflix and one or two movies on youtube which has been good in my downtime in the night. The guy told me there were about seventy people here when i arrived but down at the free breakfast ive only seen about twenty or so people.

You see large groups of people with tour groups on the street i guess this would have its benefits but must say I'm liking being an independent traveler half the fun, i think, is working out the maps, actually finding the place and using the metro - a bit intimidating when its all new but i don't mind asking people for help and can't think of a time when someone hasn't been helpful. It was funny yesterday when i had some cards to post i got the stamps and found what looked like the yellow postbox but i wasn't sure so I'm asking people walking by - correcto - and someone - si. A word of warning though i think adults generally don't like to say they don't know and so might send you on a goose chase. My backup is the paper map that i pick up on arrival.

Naturally the Gaudi buildings are great. I'm going to a park this avo that was designed by him. The churches are beautiful but wouldn't they be even better as town halls?!

  

      

Alicante - more museums

I decided to visit Alicante, a smallish beach town on the east coast of Spain so i could meet a fellow researcher on the maternal, Silvia.

The train journey was 2 1/2 hours from Madrid. The train was fast, clean and efficient - a nice journey and interesting to see the countryside. It was fairly flat and very green but no grazing animals like in australia. There were some, but few crops, so i was left wondering what is happening with the land. I must look it up but i thought i could see if i might have a conversation with the guy sitting next to me. So i hedged - do you speak English only to find as in many other occasions - no English.

Anyhow i got here. I  took the advice to download maps but am finding it not straight forward making my way to the hotel - a work in progress.

Having learnt something of the cultural history of Spain i decided to follow up and visit the local Museo Arqueological and walked about 40 minutes to get there. The museum won a European award in 2004 and i found that it had a wonderfully presented display of items but unfortunately the descriptions were in Spanish and a local dialect so i couldn’t read anything. I discovered markings that indicated that it was possible to do an audio tour. I went back to ask and after quite some hassling i set back to look again only to find that about 1/2 hour later i decided to throw it in - the system just wasn't working. I wrote my experience out saying i was so disappointed to have missed out but hope  they might get something sorted. I said don't you get many English people  similarly disappointed but she said - no.

Silvia and I met up on Saturday and she kindly showed me around the city. Again there were local Roman ruins as well as the remains of an earlier Iberian (I think) settlement nearby. Silvia showed me around the older part of the city, the lovely promenade, and we visited some of the Roman ruins.

For now J

Museums and galleries in Madrid plus

I visited a few museums and galleries in Madrid - three in one day. My favourite was the Museo Arqueologico - natural history museum. A wonderful display on cultural history of Spain from the earliest homo sapiens and neanderthal to Iberian, Roman, Muslim, and Christian and there are remains from all of these across the country. I'm wondering if there might be Roman ruins near Alicante. This museum was in the wealthier part of town so I got to see something of that as well - quite different to the older areas.

A picture of these ancient beads for my sister Lesley.

I liked the Museo Nacional centro de Arte Reina Sofia next best - the museum of modern art though kept thinking I need to read my history of modern art by Matthew Collings. Overall there were a few artists who impressed me Martin Rico at Museo del Prado, John Brown at Museo Thyssen (see some below) and of couse Picassos Guernica at Museo Sofia - this was wonderful to see - it may seem strange but my thought was - and now i have seen god.

I walked from one end of the map to the other so got to see a reasonable sprinkling of the city. The weather has been very good with temperatures between 20 and 28C.

Let me know what you think. Cheers Joan

News in spain

I've been watching the news but only get words not stories and so have looked up Euronews on youtube in english. Found this clip on camp outside of madrid linked below. Believe the unemployment rate in south is 40% in some areas. Yesterday came across heavily guarded event - think the PM might have been there. Quite some turmoil going on about Catalonia.

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6zxcUOKLvH0

Museo del prado plus

The hotel urban sea is well placed, a short walk to botanical gardens and museo del prado. Walked out to street scape with beautiful balconies and facades. A short walk found a hermosa .. lovely .. deli/cafe, quiet and comfortable for brecky coffee and bread though realised i didn't know how to ask for weak cafe can leche. Stumbled through and got stuck on butter as well. I'm finding a lot of people who don't speak English.

At the museo del prado 95% of the people were speaking Spanish Italian or french only heard a sprinkling of English. .. so different to what I expected.

There was a massive line but i booked online the night before and so walked straight in - nice. Must say i was surprised by the number of portraits of #@%& virgin and child - surely there were artists around at the time that found this offensive - as i do.

In my study of gender and philosophy at uni we drew from the work of Genevieve Lloyd in the Man of Reason a book I'd like to go back to, but as i recall Lloyd talked about a divide between body and spirit that infused western thinking - reason being pure and the body degraded and base. Decartes - i think therefore i am - an example of this - men where thought to exemplify reason and women were associated with the body and where therefore base and impure. There were many examples of this divide between purity and the body evident  in the works of art on display. The only way the mother of Jesus could be pure was for her to be a virgin - and unfortunately this association with purity and virginity survives today.

My favourite of the artists i saw today was Martin Rico a Spanish artist

You can see through these examples below that art worked in the form of story boards with the gold depicting the wealth and glory to found in heaven. Fair enough to display these works as historical items but I was very disappointed with the audio-guide commentary that I feel should have provided the historical context.

For now Joan

Long haul from - upside down at the bottom of the world

It was a good price for overnight flight but i can see why. The plane left australia 9pm sunday night so a fair bit of waiting around to start with and then first leg to Doha ... with Qatar airlines about 13 hours. The novalty of movies on demand is wearing off but then in between aust and madrid i did watch three movies and a couple of TV shows. Must say the Shape of water was disappointing as was I Tonya ... Three Billboards was better but the pick i thought was a couple of episodes of Mr Robot.

Arrived at Doha airport about 5am there were literally hundreds going through looking for connecting flights across the globe ... globe trotters incorporated.

After waiting around for four hours it was another seven hours to Madrid. People have been saying that most people speak some English but so far I've found a lot saying either they don't speak English or a very little.

It was interesting navigating the trains .. there are two operators .. like our airport train .. privately owned and in competition with the Metro. I bought a ticket for the metro but after some questioning of the attendants i ended up buying a second ticket .. i know now because the guy didn't want to explain that i had to change trains once or maybe twice to get where i needed to be whereas the other train went straight there. So he said jyst buy another one.

In the course of navigating the airport i asked for advice on directions and found that the young woman i was talking too had just completed a study on feminist perspective on orgasms and was very interested in forthcoming conference. She even said she might try and come. I gave her my card and some info.

Anyhow will write some more tomorrow night got to go to bed zzzzz

Mums Rock

The work that women do as mothers is awesome. It most often holds families together and contributes substantially to our social and cultural capital. Fathers can be great as well, but that's another story. In this particular time and place there is a need for our social and economic system to recognise and respond to this 'unpaid labour' and value its true worth. The Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (MIRCI) which is based in Toronto was established in the mid-1990s and has led the way in promoting research into the maternal or the experience of women as mothers. You can see more about MIRCI at www.motherhoodinitiative.org and the wonderful Demeter Press they established at www.demeterpress.org

Professor Andrea O'Reilly has been a driving force in this arena and has coined the term 'matricentric feminism' the title of one of her many books.

I look forward to meeting maternal scholars, hearing about their work and seeking out ways of moving this agenda forward, but along the way I'll be visiting sights and scenes that I hope to share with you.