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Italia und Deutschland| | So my first year of PHD economics is over and I'm back to some real fun.
The past two weeks I've been in Europe, though two very different parts of Europe: Italy and Germany. The states Lazio and Tuscany (Rome and Florence) in Italy, then East Germany (Dresden and Berlin).Its possible I could have picked a more extreme dichotomy, say, Sicily and Frankfurt, but this one worked well enough for a few insights.
The reasons for my travel varied just as widely.
In Italy ameliorator and I set of on a whirlwind 5 day “tourist Italy” trip, albeit with the excellent caveat that we'd be visiting and traveling with Jana, who lives in Florence doing an art restoration internship.
As for Germany I am here for a 10-day summer school in economics and decision making.
I'll list some obvious differences and begin with an indicator: Street crossing: In Italy, it's all chaos, all the time- pedestrians crossing anywhere and cars speeding around. Still though it actually didn't seem dangerous, not like, say Istanbul, where cars speed up when they see a pedestrian crossing. Cars were respectful, laid back.
Germany was as I remembered it when I first traveled there in 06, and was shocked that people actually listen to the “walk/ don't walk” signals. People will wait patiently on the corner, even at 1 a.m. with no cars to be seen, for the cross sign to appear. This strict adherence is less in the very progressive Berlin (It was more notable in Dresden and my former trip in Bavaria) but nonetheless is remarkable.
Religion is another point of difference. East Germany, was the home of Martin Luther, who preached not far from Dresden. Italy of course is the seat of Catholicism, at Vatican City, where I went 3 of my 5 days in Italy- every one of the Days I was in Rome.
We also saw a portion of the Vatican Museums' 7 miles of chambers; I declare this to be the greatest museum in the world. I've never been into the Hermitage or the Louvre, but having experienced the Smithsonian, British museum, Ufizzi, Pergamon, Met, MOMA, Field Museum, and more. The Vatican museum has them all beat in sheer scale, including the Sistine Chapel which was a highlight of my trip and I know next to nothing about Renaissance art. Plus tons of other artwork, including modern art, historical maps, and so on. On top of that, the Vatican has Michelangelo's Pieta sitting in a dusty (though not forgotten) corner of St Peter's.
We went to Sunday mass in St Peters, which is huge but not overly ornate given what it could be. Rather the overall color scheme is a subdued set of earth tones that I though very beautiful. The bizarre thing about this mass is that it seemed less formal than some others, including the collection going on through the Eucharist. Despite having the perfectly designed kneelers,mass in St Peters was not an overly sublime experience. Still the church itself was nice offering Mass constantly (and simultaneously) in several of it chapels, and offering confession on the weekdays. It was very much a functioning church, not a museum as several other Churches we went to in Italy
The Pantheon was actually quite shocking- people eating ice cream in the church, yammering and photoflashing, running around, with total chaos of the money changers at the entry. Despite this, the pantheon is an amazing building, A perfect half dome upon a cylinder and a huge gaping circle in the ceiling allowing a huge thick light beam to illuminate the ancient building. The building is in perfect shape 2000 years after it was build, originally as a temple to all the Gods. Physically perfect, environmentally poor...
The Pantheon is just one of Rome's many Basilicas and we saw at least 4- a couple being virtually completely untouristed despite being downtown, huge and gorgeous. A Basilica in Rome is about as rare as a casino in Vegas: you don't need to go in every single one to get the idea. (A Basilica is a magnificent church without the seat of a bishop- Washington has one: the Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception; whereas Washington's Cathedral is the Smaller (though still quite large) St Matthew's downtown)
The art differential between Italy and Germany is also large and this was something more than I unanticipated. I don't think I had much exposure to German art the week I was in Bavaria- it was some architecture, a few nice churches and castles, and mountains. But here in Berlin in particular, art is everywhere. And while yes, there is the stereotypical industrial geometric German art, I am really surprised at first the diversity of art here, and even more so, at the art appreciation that the average Berliner has. The modern and progressive art here even found its way into the Museum of southwest again antiquity, aside (in the same museum as) an exhibit on Islamic art and Turkey's great Altar from Pergamon. In the same room, in an almost seamless exhibit, we saw multimedia television screens sounds, bells, and artworks. This particular exhibit, expounding upon Nebuchanezzar of Babylon, was quite thorough, mixing ancient texts, paintings, as well as modern pieces paralleling Nebachunezzar to Saddam Hussein.
And yes, pornography (both museums I have been to included extensive nudity which would most definitely be pornography in America- yet these museums are completely mainstream museums, one even a hands-on museum geared at accessibility, hence kids! The german attitudes toward "progressive" ideas like pornography or feminism or homosexuality is almost elitist. I found it bizarre that there were political statements and pieces overtly advocating messages in a history museum. While such pieces might be in a modern art museum in the US, the Smithsonian's American history museum woudl not mix overt politcs in the same way.
On a previous topic, I find that german society is actually not nearly s overtly sexual as Italian public portrayal is in ads, etc. While very comfortable with ideas of sexuality and public nudity, the German public seems much more sexually conservative in behavior.
On other Michelangelo notes, Jana obtained Ameliorator and I special tickets for Florence's Academia, which is essentially a museum with David and a half dozen unfinished Michaelangelo sculptures as its focus. The David is a truly compelling sculpture, and despite it being probably the most famous sculpture in the world, I was still overwhelmed and the seer size, realism and beauty.My favorite element is his confident stance from afar while up close the fear is so clearly in his eyes. Though there are plenty of criticisms, such as too real, or that his hands are grossly too large, or, as the usually sophomoric lonely planet was titilated about, the size of his member, I think the statue is amazing and perfect, and gazing at it for an hour was a highlight of the trip.
I learned about all of these artworks in Gecan/ Gullickson humanities in 10th grade and was surprised how much I was able to recall when seeing all of these great buildings and artworks. The Ufizzi, Florence's primary art museum, was also chocked full of masterpieces by Caravaggio, Leonardo, Rafael, and others. Though I don't know renaissance paining so well, there were was several I recognized, such as the Birth of Venus, and even more I could actually appreciate. It's a very good museum that makes non-modern art paintings entrancing to me.
On to societal function. The way society runs might be an extension of the crosswalk light example above, but the stereotypes definitely hold true here. Italy's trains are late constantly, things are quite confusing, no receipts (this became a problem when I lost a train ticket- whereas in Germany we always get a receipt) very confusing train schedules etc. Germany again lived up to its reputation of information, efficiency and modernization.
Italy was a frustrating friction point of societal function: just functional enough to make you try to follow the rules, with prices to reflect it, but dysfunctional enough that efficiency was constantly violated and nothing was consistent. Still, the dysfuntionality was not high enough to take advantage of- so it was developed enough to make traveling western style necessary, but not functional enough to make power travel work!
On such example is my first experience here. After my scheduled landing, I had 100 minutes to make it from the Airport to the Vatican for an Audience with the pope. Which, using power travel techniques and navigating the essentially functional transportation system, proved more than possible, albeit difficult, as it would be in any country on such a tight schedule. Ameliorator has already obtained the tickets, so all was perfect until when we were 20 people from the front, the Vatican Guard clowns (swiss guard dressed in even more ridiculous outfits than Buckingham palace) stopped letting people into the hall! There were too many tickets given; half the crowd was turned away! We were tantalizingly close. But when certain groups made exceptions and were still allowed to enter, we tried several time to plead and work our way in, efforts that would work in a normal developing country (whereas our would work in a normal developed country). But Italy is right on the cusp, and not clearly well entrenched as developed- in fact its developing but with western price rates!
Well the result was many of the people with tickets being turned away. Then, next, me tallying a second country on my lifelong list of places I have been kicked out of. That is right folks, I was kicked out of the Vatican (not by a Vatican clown Guard, but rather a Rome/Italian POLICEman was was in a decidedly bad mood and probably didn't like the looks of me, like most POPO don't. It was not obvious if he kicked out just me or Liora also, but he refused to let us go back into St Peters Square and instead walked us, gestapo style, to the exit. IE, the border. And he closed the gate behind us. So of course the Vatican has an open border in st peters square (the Vatican walls that surround most of the rest of the country) and its quite easy to walk in (they don't even check you when the metal detectors go off) so we were able to walk back in but the bizarre dysfunction of the situation was a good reflection on the Italian non-system. We had tickets yet were kicked out of the Country. And were able to walk right back in, through metal detectors that went off, but I was not checked after, not once in the 3 or 4 times I set them off here! Infrastructure yes, purpose, no!
Another example Ameliorator raised was that at the internet cafe, we were required to register (by Italian law) using an official ID. But Liora could use an expired ID, and mine didn't have a birthdate- but they allowed me to just tell it to them...and then no problems, I could use the internet. I guess they didn't find me as an enemy of the state. Much like the developing world, dysfunctional pointless, ineffective hurdles- not unlike recent airline regulations, which have now (liquid carry-on limit) spread here to germany as well!
Political background is also shocking one might think that as I spent my time in the Northern (more functional, ostensibly) part of Italy, and former Eastern Bloc (the backward part of) Germany. Actually this trip to the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany) means 2008 is the 8th Straight year I've been in the Eastern Bloc. Every year of the new Millennium and counting!
I haven't seen the wall or Brandenburg gate, but I did visit the DDR (Deutschland Democratic Republic, not Dance Dance Revolution) museum, which has the standard super-critical slant toward the Soviet bloc history, complete with condemnations of Women's day and East German autos and an exhibit of photos and videos of people yearning to express their freedom and individuality by nude sunbathing. Not unlike the Museum of Communism on Prague, this museum adequately captures the region's anti-Soviet sentiments.
Now that I've been to (the former) East Germany, I'm missing only Hungary to complete my Warsaw pact travel list (The Warsaw pact is the Soviet Union's correlary to NATO, though the soviets violently put down protests in Czechoslovakia and Hungary, thus attacking members of their own alliance). I also have never been to Slovakia, but in the Bloc days Czechoslovakia was one country so my Czech family trip in 2003 suffices in this nuanced game-a way to exploit the political simplicity of Europe of the Cold War Days. As for the USSR, despite having never been to Moldova and the Caucasus, I can still tally USSR via any of the other 11 former soviet Republics. Likewise, Romania Bulgaria where I went with Eric (and Logan in Romania) and Poland, where I've been several times, round out the Warsaw pact (after Albania pulled out quite early). So while I'd been to Germany, I'd never been on East German soil until this week...
A few other interesting things: I stopped by Dresden (East Germanys second biggest city) for a day, a town that was known as the Florence on the Elbe. But The town was obsessed with how it was before the WWII bombing, and seemed trapped in nostalgia. Must like a good portion of the eastern bloc, looking to better days of yore.
While its really nothing compared to the real Florence (nor was it before, given the perfect reconstructions and looking at the numerous photos), the architecture here was quite impressive, most of it rebuilt already, though construction of the more pedestrian areas of the city are still going on. I climbed the main cathedral's bell tower, as it my normal city exploration technique and meandered the streets across the river to the unbombed residential side outside the center where life is less of a museum. Altogether a pleasant city, though while it was well-touristed, the number of tourists between 18 and 45 here included approximately myself only. In essence, it was close to a museum city, mixed somewhat with modern business trappings overlaying old Soviet Bloc infrastructure. I thought it was interesting that a skate park has sprung up around a Soviet monument with the standard excellent German Graffiti all around. Graffiti is really invented in america, perfected in Germany.
Another note is that I arrived quote late after a flight change and infrequent trains from the airport, leaving me unable to find the hostel- as it was not on the lonely planet map. Thus had a night out under a tree by the tracks. Quite pleasant despite threatening skies. The overcast and rainy weather has continued, with frequently changing skies to allow some sunshine, throughout the week here in East Germany, making it very similar to Baltic State weather! This was a welcome contrast to the constantly sweaty Italian summer weather!
A few more fun things: the Palio horse race in Siena, Italy's biggest festival, Cinque Terre- a coastal hike through some Ligurian (Mediterranean) sea villages and cliffs, the Colliseum and other ancient Roman ruins, as well as the analysis of the social scene and historical sites in Berlin. Plus a few notes on the Economics here- upcoming in a future post! Too much for one installment!
| | | Posted 7/12/2008 6:41 AM - 68 views - 2 comments
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