Inverness and Loch Ness...

Inverness is a beautiful little city. Coming from a place like Adelaide, where the central river is little more than a puddle, the wide expanse of the River Ness flowing through the city is impressive. It’s a green and pleasant land, Scotland, and there doesn’t appear to be any shortage of water. We also had fabulous weather while we were in Inverness (which always helps make a place seem liveable). As we were only there for a couple of days we spent one day walking around the city, and one day going to Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle (I assume most tourists do). 

In Inverness we stayed in a central airbnb in Grieg St, which meant we were right by the river, and could easily walk to everything. Just by chance, in the evening we walked past a pub that sounded lively and had Scottish music playing. The pub was Gellions, which I’ve since read is the oldest pub in Inverness (1841). It was so great to go inside and see so many people having a good time. All ages together, everyone singing along or dancing – it was friendly and happy. It made me wish I had roots somewhere. How nice it must be to belong to a place, to know the music and the stories and the culture and know they are yours. 

The following day we went to Loch Ness. It’s such a touristy thing to do, but I couldn’t resist. I knew it would be beautifully photographic, so even if we didn’t see the monster (we didn’t!) it would be a lovely boat trip. It was a moodily atmospheric day, just the right sort of low scudding clouds to create dramatic lighting, shadows and gleams of sunlight dancing on the water. The surface is dark and reflective anyway (apparently there’s a lot of peat in the water and that makes it murky) so perfect conditions for monster sightings. 

Urquhart Castle was interesting. I often wonder how castles like these got built. Obviously they offer no defence until you have them pretty much complete – but they look like they’d take years and years to build. So what stopped an invading army coming along and taking over when you only had two walls up? Or your walls were only 3 feet high? Actually, maybe that is what happened. It must have looked amazing when it was completed.

Three Churches of Rome...

Being a tourist in Rome is quite an experience. There are some tourist attractions that have thousands of visitors a day – they are shoulder to shoulder squashy, and some places that are so famous that they are known to practically everyone. But there are also many, many other places which seem to be almost overlooked. You can visit them and have them (almost) to yourself. And they are remarkable. Here are three of my favourites.

Basilica San Clemente

Not far from the Coliseum is the Basilica San Clemente, an amazing and remarkable church, which you could walk right past without even noticing. Like so many buildings in Rome the exterior doesn’t prepare you for what’s inside. The Basilica itself is beautiful (and richly over decorated), but that it not what makes it such a great place to visit.

The thing that makes it so interesting is the historical layering. There is a 12th century church at ground level, which was built on top of a 4th century church, which was built on top of a pagan temple of Mithras (Mithras was, probably a competing religion with early Christianity, and had something to do with the cult of the Bull, but since no written records were kept about the practices of the religion, nobody knows for sure). They liked underground temples though, and this one was probably built inside another building, possibly a home, possibly a mint. Each layer is partially excavated and you can go down and down through hundreds and hundreds of years of continuous worship and continuous history. 

Despite its amazingness , we walked around the underground layers of San Clemente with only a few other people (nothing like those crazy Vatican crowds) – which is really the best way to see it. It meant we could take our time and really absorb the history and atmosphere of the place – which was wonderful. And even though I hadn’t heard of it until we started planning our trip, it was one of my favourite places in Rome, and one I’d definitely go back to

The two other churches that were highlights of our trip to Rome have some of my favourite art in the world – Caravaggio paintings, of course.

Santa Maria del Popolo

Once you are inside Santa Maria del Popolo (an unassuming façade), the first chapel to the left of the choir is the Cerasi Chapel, which has two large canvases painted by Caravaggio in 1600-01. They show The Crucifixion of Saint Peter and the Conversion on the Way to Damascus. Both are characterized by the dramatic chiaroscuro lighting and realism Caravaggio is famous for. 

In between these two paintings is The Assumption of the Virgin by Annibale Carracci, (painted just prior to Caravaggio's paintings). This juxtaposition is a great example of how revolutionary and dynamic Caravaggio was compared to the other painters of the day, the Carracci (while beautiful) looks passive and a little contrived compared to the drama and realism in the Caravaggio’s. 

San Luigi dei Francesci

The church of San Luigi dei Francesci is home to a celebrated trio of Caravaggio paintings: The Calling of Saint Matthew (my favourite painting in the world), The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew and The Inspiration of Saint Matthew, (known collectively as the St Matthew cycle).

The Calling of Saint Matthew and The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew were installed in 1600, the two paintings caused a sensation, and became the talk of Rome. Caravaggio was commissioned to do another painting for the altarpiece (the third and final work), The Inspiration of Saint Matthew which was in place by 1602.

These Caravaggio paintings are some of the greatest paintings in the history of art. Beautiful, profound, dynamic, and incredibly moving. They are just hanging around in relatively small churches in Rome – churches you might just walk by without even noticing. This is such an amazing thing to me. I honestly can’t wait to go back and see them again.