Somewhere Else

It’s Friday 13th – a good day to avoid black cats and ladders, if you are superstitious. Actually we prefer superstitions that are about producing good luck, rather than avoiding bad luck.

There is a good one associated with the historic, glass-roofed shopping arcade in Milan, known as the Galleria (or more fully as Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II). It runs between the square in front of the cathedral and Piazza della Scala, where the famous opera house is located.

According to this superstition, you will have good luck if you put your right heel on the mosaic bull in the pavement and spin around. It’s obviously a modern superstition, since the Galleria was only opened in the late 19th century. But plenty of good luck seekers wait their turn to spin themselves some good luck

For no apparent reason, we have always been interested in sundials. And it’s been a while since we last showed you one. So here is one that caught our attention last time we were in the hilltop town of Bergamo in Italy.

Like many sundials, this one has a thought-provoking motto for the observer. But it’s written in Italian; what does it mean? Our Italian was only good enough to understand that it was something about shadow (umbra), light (luce), the sun (sole) and life (la vita).

So we tried out several translating options. Babel Fish translated it as: “Shadow fugace from the exited light I measure the steps, all’ in sunlight; uom the life”. That didn’t help much, so we tried the “translate this page” option in Google and got: “Fleeting shadow from the sun light output measured steps, the man’s life”. Hmmm, that’s not entirely clear either.

Then we found The Book of Sundials by the 19th century writer Mrs Alfred (or Margaret) Gatty. As well as sharing our interest in sundials, she gave translations of sundial mottoes. She translated this one as:

    A fleeting shade of heavenly light begot,
    I mark, O sun, thy steps, O man, thy lot.

Amazingly, she even makes it rhyme in English. Yes, computerised translation still has a long way to go.

This impressive obelisk stands in the Place de la Concorde in Paris. It is decorated with Egyptian hieroglyphics – and they are the real thing, not a modern copy.

The obelisk is over 3000 years old and once stood at the entrance to Luxor Temple in Egypt. The hieroglyphics extol the achievements of Pharaoh Ramses II. This Luxor Obelisk was given to France by Egypt in the 19th century and transported to France by ship. Diagrams on the base of the obelisk show how the task was carried out (below). Since the obelisk is 23m tall and weighs 250 tonnes, moving it was quite a significant technical achievement.

We have shown some rather functional obelisks over the past few days, but some are put in place for decorative purposes. The one above is in Rome, standing in front of the 14th century church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva. It is certainly a cute obelisk, supported by a cheerful-looking elephant. Not a very convincing elephant, though – you suspect that the sculptor (Bernini) had never actually seen one.

The obelisk below is artistic in a different way. We saw it several years back in Florence, when it was undergoing restoration. The protective hoarding featured a large picture of the obelisk, so you knew what you are missing while the restoration was in progress.

It’s Bastille Day in France, though the French call it La Fête Nationale (the National Celebration) or more colloquially le quatorze juillet (the fourteenth of July). Those French names are more accurate than the English term “Bastille Day”, even though the storming of the Bastille did take place on 14 July 1789.

One year later there was a huge celebration to mark the anniversary of what everyone believed (incorrectly as it turned out) was the end of the French Revolution, and that’s the event commemorated today.

If you are in Paris, you won’t find the Bastille – it was pulled down in the Revolution. But at the Pantheon you can see the sculpture above, with its obvious revolutionary imagery. It is by the French sculptor François-Léon Sicard and dedicated to the National Convention, which was the legislative and constitutional body during the French Revolution. The slogan on the sculpture translates into English literally as “Live free or die” or more poetically as “Liberty or death”.

Today is an important anniversary for fans of Pinocchio, the mischievous puppet with the nose that grows when he tells lies. The first instalment of this classic story by Carlo Collodi appeared on 7 July 1881. It continued to be published in instalments until it was printed as the book The Adventures of Pinocchio in 1883.

If you travel around in Italy, you are bound to see many Pinocchios. We found the one above (who appears to be Pinocchio’s sister) in a little side street in Rome. And souvenir stalls in many places have plenty of smaller versions that you can easily take home with you:

Today is an important anniversary in the history of Rome. On 2 July 1871, Victor Emmanuel II set up the capital of the newly unified Italy in Rome.

If you happen to be in Rome today (we wish we were), there are several places that you may want to visit. The most obvious is the massive Monument to Victor Emmanuel II, known as il Vittoriano. This grand structure underscores the fact that Victor was the first King of Italy and also “Father of the Country”.

The other place to visit is the 16th century Quirinal Palace, which Victor Emmanuel II established as the royal residence. It is now the official residence of the President of the Italian Republic and a great place to watch parades by guards in colourful uniforms. The Quirinal Hill is the tallest of the Seven Hills of Rome.

Today is Portuguese National Day (Dia de Portugal in Portuguese). June 10 was chosen as the date because the Portuguese poet Luis Vaz de Camoes died on this day in 1580. He wrote the epic poem Os Lusiadas, which is like the Portuguese equivalent of Homer’s Odyssey or Virgil’s Aeneid.

One of the major characters in the poem is the great navigator Vasco da Gama, who sailed from Europe to India in the late 15th century. Da Gama never made it to Fremantle, but the port city does have a monument honouring his achievement. It features a bas relief bust of da Gama on the front, and a ceramic sailing ship on the back. You can find it on Fremantle’s grassy Esplanade, near the Fishing Boat Harbour.

Yesterday we described the amazing underground tunnels and rooms located beneath the streets of the Umbrian hill town of Narni. This underground complex served different purposes at different times.

During the Inquisition, suspected heretics were imprisoned here for torture and trial. Some rooms have displays of gruesome torture equipment (above), while others still have ancient graffiti that was scratched into the walls by the prisoners of the Inquisition:

There must be something sightly subterranean about us; during our travels we always manage to visit a few underground tourist attractions. Of course there are some advantages to being underground – it doesn’t matter if the weather is cold or rainy outside. But we don’t really need a reason or excuse; we just happen to enjoy being under the ground.

One of our favourite subterranean sites is Narni Underground. Narni (above) is a medieval Umbrian hill town about 80km from Rome, with several odd claims to fame. CS Lewis adopted the Latin version of the town’s name as the setting for his Narnia Chronicles. And the town is considered to be at the geographical centre of Italy.

But the best thing to see when you’re there is the extensive Narni Underground (Narni Sotterranea in Italian). The oldest parts of this complex date back to Roman times. Today it is accessible as an extensive maze of underground tunnels, churches and prisons – all hidden underneath the town. Enthusiastic guides lead groups of visitors through the tunnels, explaining the original uses of the various rooms. There is even an underground chapel carved out of the stone: