Loreto (Marche) and Saturday happenings
I have a few New Year Resolutions that I can happily say I am maintaining. However one of them I have technically failed as I didn't leave Abruzzo in March, but there we go, these things happen. 5 out of 6 months isn't too bad so far...
On the 29th of June I realised I had only left Abruzzo in June to go to London. As that is a place excluded from my Resolution, I asked my friends at a Jazz gig where I could go that would be outside of Abruzzo but do-able on a Saturday afternoon, by train. A few suggestions were made but I decided to follow the friend who was the most helpful, she actually researched the train times for me!
Saturday morning I wake up, peer at the clock and realise that I had twenty-seven minutes until my train would leave. Panic ensued but thankfully I made it onto the right train fully clothed, with a ticket, my laptop and some lunch! After about an hour and a half I got off the train in Loreto, a small town in Marche, the region north of Abruzzo. Of course, I was the usual prepared traveller ....I knew of only one place to visit, a church that apparently housed the House of Mary (literally the stones of the house Jesus' mother lived in, and therefore Jesus...) and I knew that this was, as usual, on the top of a hill in the old town. On exiting the station, I did the thing I knew I had to do, I walked up the hill....
Due to luck I actually scaled a set of holy steps that, I think, would be where the many Pilgrims (from the train station) would also trek up. It had an extended version of the "Stations of the Cross", that depict the Easter story, as there was also a Nativity scene and Jesus' first visit to the temple. These were at the side of a wide, pedestrian only, path. "The Shrine of the Holy House", as I discovered it to be called once I got there, gets a fair few people visiting it...the booklet states that it has become "...the favoured destination of millions of pilgrims..." but I didn't see a million people pilgrimaging, just me walking up the hill.
The old town centre itself was fairly straight forward, all of it centred around the Basilico and it's piazza so I was pretty happy that I hadn't researched the place as I think that I wouldn't have chosen to visit it. Being a hot day I stopped off for a cold cappuccino (once I'd found a cash-machine...I really am a very unprepared traveller) and rang my Mum, who was shopping in Morrisons with Dad in Newport....it must be odd to receive a call from your daughter in Italy when you're doing the weekly shop.
Moving on...the Holy House thing. It was quite understated...if you disregard the large marble casing that surrounds it...oh yeh, and the MAHOOSIVE church that is then around that! There's a Catholic Legend that tells the story of how angels flew the house across from Nazareth, as they do, but, again according to the information booklet, this has been deemed unlikely. It's more likely that the house was in fact transported in a ship. Apparently, when the Crusaders were expelled from Palestine, the house was moved first to Croatia and then across the sea as part of a brides dowry of an emperor's daughter or something. That's an important family to own a Holy House...
Anyway. The stones itself did look old. The bricks lower down were shiny after having been rubbed by generations of hands and fingers. It was quite awe-inspiring to think that so many pilgrims believed this house is that of Mary. I'm not sure what I think to be honest. The booklet described the evidence that had been collected to prove that it is the house, and there's a floor plan and stuff of what it would've looked like. The stone structure in Loreto was once connected to a grotto, the Grotto being carved into rocks and so remains in Nazareth....and there's been "tests" that have confirmed that the stone of the Holy House match that of the Grotto....I leave it at that.
The rest of my Saturday was relaxing. I was able to get the train back to Pescara without rushing with plenty of time to get ready for the evening plans: an aperitif at a friends house followed by a few drinks (and a burger) at a Beach Bar, or Establishment, as the argument for what a "Lido" actually would be called in English is a constant battle between English speakers.
To end the night I fell at a man's feet, literally. I saw a person from one of the flats in my apartment block entering my building so I ran across the car-park after locking my bike to get through the door before it closed. The man held the door open for me only to have me fall at his feet as I tripped up the first step. I laughed, mumbled "Scusa", got up, continued to run up the stairs, stumbled into my apartment to discover my knee was quite painful and had already developed a healthy bump. It's now a pretty purple bruise three days later!
On the 29th of June I realised I had only left Abruzzo in June to go to London. As that is a place excluded from my Resolution, I asked my friends at a Jazz gig where I could go that would be outside of Abruzzo but do-able on a Saturday afternoon, by train. A few suggestions were made but I decided to follow the friend who was the most helpful, she actually researched the train times for me!
Saturday morning I wake up, peer at the clock and realise that I had twenty-seven minutes until my train would leave. Panic ensued but thankfully I made it onto the right train fully clothed, with a ticket, my laptop and some lunch! After about an hour and a half I got off the train in Loreto, a small town in Marche, the region north of Abruzzo. Of course, I was the usual prepared traveller ....I knew of only one place to visit, a church that apparently housed the House of Mary (literally the stones of the house Jesus' mother lived in, and therefore Jesus...) and I knew that this was, as usual, on the top of a hill in the old town. On exiting the station, I did the thing I knew I had to do, I walked up the hill....
Due to luck I actually scaled a set of holy steps that, I think, would be where the many Pilgrims (from the train station) would also trek up. It had an extended version of the "Stations of the Cross", that depict the Easter story, as there was also a Nativity scene and Jesus' first visit to the temple. These were at the side of a wide, pedestrian only, path. "The Shrine of the Holy House", as I discovered it to be called once I got there, gets a fair few people visiting it...the booklet states that it has become "...the favoured destination of millions of pilgrims..." but I didn't see a million people pilgrimaging, just me walking up the hill.
The old town centre itself was fairly straight forward, all of it centred around the Basilico and it's piazza so I was pretty happy that I hadn't researched the place as I think that I wouldn't have chosen to visit it. Being a hot day I stopped off for a cold cappuccino (once I'd found a cash-machine...I really am a very unprepared traveller) and rang my Mum, who was shopping in Morrisons with Dad in Newport....it must be odd to receive a call from your daughter in Italy when you're doing the weekly shop.
Moving on...the Holy House thing. It was quite understated...if you disregard the large marble casing that surrounds it...oh yeh, and the MAHOOSIVE church that is then around that! There's a Catholic Legend that tells the story of how angels flew the house across from Nazareth, as they do, but, again according to the information booklet, this has been deemed unlikely. It's more likely that the house was in fact transported in a ship. Apparently, when the Crusaders were expelled from Palestine, the house was moved first to Croatia and then across the sea as part of a brides dowry of an emperor's daughter or something. That's an important family to own a Holy House...
Anyway. The stones itself did look old. The bricks lower down were shiny after having been rubbed by generations of hands and fingers. It was quite awe-inspiring to think that so many pilgrims believed this house is that of Mary. I'm not sure what I think to be honest. The booklet described the evidence that had been collected to prove that it is the house, and there's a floor plan and stuff of what it would've looked like. The stone structure in Loreto was once connected to a grotto, the Grotto being carved into rocks and so remains in Nazareth....and there's been "tests" that have confirmed that the stone of the Holy House match that of the Grotto....I leave it at that.
The rest of my Saturday was relaxing. I was able to get the train back to Pescara without rushing with plenty of time to get ready for the evening plans: an aperitif at a friends house followed by a few drinks (and a burger) at a Beach Bar, or Establishment, as the argument for what a "Lido" actually would be called in English is a constant battle between English speakers.
To end the night I fell at a man's feet, literally. I saw a person from one of the flats in my apartment block entering my building so I ran across the car-park after locking my bike to get through the door before it closed. The man held the door open for me only to have me fall at his feet as I tripped up the first step. I laughed, mumbled "Scusa", got up, continued to run up the stairs, stumbled into my apartment to discover my knee was quite painful and had already developed a healthy bump. It's now a pretty purple bruise three days later!
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