Field trip

I take it back about swim meets being the most interesting things I do… Today I went on a field trip to Perugia. I got to see some of the coolest stuff. For example, seismographs, the world's oldest (according to the tour guide) organ, paintings by Raphael and Caravaggio, manuscripts, miracles and much more, all in one stop- a monastery/university. I had a most wonderful trip.
We went to where the seismographs were invented, and we got to see a replica of the first one, two later editions, and finally we got to play with the current one. It was really cool to see the current one, the tour guide showed us how to set off the alarm for an earthquake- basically a bell that tells you to pay attention to the graph, and he also showed how you can cause waves in the graph by jumping up and down nearby. The graphs are really neat, because they are drawn by hot wires on heat sensitive paper. We also got to see the graphs for the recent earthquake in Nepal and of one that caused a tsunami a while back.
After that we got to see a medieval herb garden, which was pretty cool, but not that unexpected, given that this particular university focuses on agriculture. Then, after a short break, we got to see the church (San Pietro in Perugia, if you're wondering). It was really more of a three-layered church, the oldest ruins dating back to apostolic times (they believe that Saint Peter the apostle visited the community of local christians there). Unfortunately the ruins are inaccessible. Then, on top of those ruins was built a paleochristian church, which we are dating based on the red frescos- a red found in Pompeii and  in Saint Peter's tomb in Rome. Off to one side, you could briefly see some pottery that had been found there, but it wasn't part of the tour, so I didn't get a good look. We proceeded to traipse into the choir area (presbytery might be the word for it). It was all done in the finest inlay I have ever seen; it was like drawings with wood. The inlay was done by two brothers- one did the doors in the back leading onto a balcony with one of the farthest views (the doors were then copied in Rome), the other did all the rest. It was back there that we got to see the world's oldest organ (it outdates another organ by only ten years), and we also got to hear it played. Incredible. Of course the church was also made for acoustics, so that didn't hurt anything. Then we got to see a small painting by Raphael and two of the same size by Caravaggio, which were hung in the corners of the vestry. Then the priest told us about a miracle that happened there and we got to see the evidence of it! While building the third church, one of the pillars started falling (a big, fat, heavy, granite pillar) and there were two workers in its path. Saint Peter of (I don't remember where) did a sign of the cross and the pillar stopped falling, put itself back up (but not on centre). There is a fresco on the pillar of Saint Peter of somewhere and the story. That in and of itself isn't all that much evidence, especially as the fresco was put up later, but underneath that fresco is an older fresco (which can sort of be made out with ultraviolet light) showing the same event; besides this, that pillar is the only one that has a capital from the time the church was being built (10th century); all the others were swiped from a pagan temple along with the pillars.
When, at the end of the tour I asked about the manuscripts that our guide had mentioned earlier, one of the teachers went to find somebody who had a key. He had lost the key. But we were told that they were back there (with a wave of the hand) and we could look through the glass door while he looked for the key. No luck. I looked longingly through the glass doors, and then finally left.
About ten minutes later, Don Riccardo came up to me and told me the guy had found the key. I was so glad he had! The manuscripts had some of the most detailed miniatures I have ever seen. In one, which couldn't have been much over 2"X1.5", you could clearly see the folds in the monks' robes. Amazing.
But then we had to go home.
Ciao,
Florence