ITALY TRIP - What on earth is an Ostrogoth?

I would be lying if I said I had never heard the term 'Ostrogoth' before.

After all, I'm a Classics teacher.

Dinner beside the baptistry of the Ostrogoths

However, I kind of imagined them rather like one of the alien foes who crop up in Star Trek on a semi-regular basis. Their role in the plot is to threaten the Starship Enterprise/the Universe/the Roman Empire.

They are the kind of people that the most devoted Trekkies would have a file on. 

And maybe have invented a complete language for. 

And had plastic surgery in order to resemble. 

But then we visited Ravenna.  

In ancient times, as the city of Rome fell prey to invasions, the capital of the Western Roman Empire moved to Ravenna. 

There it remained until the whole of Italy was taken over by the Ostrogoths under king Theoderic in around 493 AD.

It turns out that Theoderic (although a barbarian, and therefore snubbed by snobbish Romans) was wise and did some good ruling.  He retained many of the institutions of the Roman Empire and promoted culture and prosperity. 

 
So what exactly is an Ostrogoth?
Just means an eastern Goth.

And I'm pretty sure they spoke Klingon.

Tomb of Theoderic

Magnificent porphyry sarcophagus of Theoderic

ITALY TRIP - Death is what happens when you're making other plans

Galla Placidia of Ravenna was a powerful Byzantine noblewoman, one of the super-rich of her day. However, in spite of that, she recognised that she was not immortal. 

She devoted time and energy to reconciling herself to the prospect of death.  Her technique was to build the most exquisite tomb. 

She commandeered a small octagonal chapel to St Lawrence in the precincts of the church of San Vitale. Inside she lined it with the most exquisite mosaics, especially of doves. The high point was the deep blue dome lined with a mass of gold stars. And so that St Lawrence would forgive her, she included his image too.

For her body to rest in she commissioned a solemn marble sarcophagus. A warm yellow light penetrated the interior through veined alabaster windows.

If anything might make you ready to meet eternity, it would be this mausoleum.

Yet the history books relate that Galla Placidia died unexpectedly while on a trip to Rome, many miles away, so her remains are unlikely ever to have rested inside.

To paraphrase John Lennon, death is what happens when you're making other plans. 

Yet arguably, the tomb still did its job.  It must have helped Galla Placidia to anticipate death with equanimity.

ITALY TRIP - Coughing during the Creation

What is it about music concerts that makes me want to cough?

We were visiting Ravenna to see the ancient churches with their fabulous mosaics, still bright and gorgeous after one and a half millennia.

It was also the Ravenna Festival.  Each night, tickets were just one euro to attend a short concert of sacred music in one of the most beautiful churches – vespers at San Vitale.

The first time we went, Dimitri Grechi Espinoza played a piece of music he had written about the Creation – Oreb.

It was written for solo sax but he had employed the extraordinary acoustic of  the church.  The magnificent resonance and echoes made the music swell to sound like a whole ensemble.

I was completely captivated.  When a couple of oafs came in late just behind us and talked, I turned and glared.

Then it happened – just when it was most important to be quiet, my throat began to rebel.  I did not even have a cold.  Just my mysterious allergic reaction to serious music.

I held onto it for as long as I could, sipped water from my crinkly plastic bottle, unwrapped the rustly cellophane from a lemon sweet.

There were tears in my eyes when finally, I had to let go one short explosive cough.

The cough reverberated around the angelic architecture and soared heavenward.  It sounded like a whole ensemble of coughers.

At the end of the performance, I took care not to turn and meet the eyes of the people I had glared at and left promptly.

However, Espinoza was performing again the next night.  There we were, back again.  But this time I was sucking a cough sweet.

Nigel outside San Vitale