Shot of the Day – 28 - Tuscan Dawn

Tuscan Dawn, San Gimignano, Italy (24 May 1999)

The same trip that produced the shot of the Siena Cathedral had us spend two nights in the charming, medieval, walled town of San Gimignano. This hilltop community has been a settlement since the 3rd century B.C. and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Few inhabited, developed landscapes are as beautiful as the Tuscan countryside. Rolling hills, olive groves, vineyards, grain fields and perfectly-placed trees are stunning any time of day.

Our hotel was on a square with an ancient well…Piazza della Cisterna. The room overlooked the town wall to the vista beyond. We woke up early enough to witness this moody, misty landscape through the open shutters as the distinctive sound of distant cuckoo’s stimulated yet another of our senses. It was all quite spectacular and memorable.

San Gimignano, Italy (23 May 1999)

I used to think that all the towers that distinguish the town were a product of the wealth that medieval merchants had accumulated. San Gimignano did alright since they had as many as 72 of them.

Turns out that the number and height of the towers was primarily the result of a rivalry between two political factions. The Guelphs supported the Pope and the Ghibellines backed the Holy Roman Emperor. For a couple of centuries, rich families on both sides engaged in a protracted pissing contest to see who could make the biggest phallic display. What can I say? Must be a ‘guy’ thing.

Ballparks – 11 – Miller Park, Milwaukee, WI

25 July 2001 

Miller Park, Milwaukee (25 July 2001)

The regular season is over. The Major League playoffs are down to the Final Four. Regarding my quest to visit and photograph ballparks, these semi-finalists include two teams I have yet to visit – the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros and one iconic stadium that has already been posted – The Boston Red Sox’s Fenway Park. The last of the teams remaining is one of the more improbable ones. The Milwaukee Brewers, in the smallest market in the game, with one of the smaller payrolls, has made it to the National League Championship Series. Good for them.

On July 24, 2001, we began a Wisconsin family visit by starting in Chicago so we could catch a game at Wrigley Field. That event was posted here on 10/31/16. The following day, we were in Milwaukee and took in a game at the brand-new Miller Park. This was the first year the park was open for business.

The earliest domed stadia, like the Astrodome in Houston and Superdome in New Orleans, had to install artificial turf because grass doesn’t grow well indoors. Later designs incorporated retractable roofs to allow in sunlight (and rain) when appropriate and allow games to be played in inclement weather. Miller Park has the game’s only fan-shaped retractable roof and it can be opened or closed in just ten minutes. I am one who is all for the occasional indoor game in Wisconsin…I still remember attending a Brewer game in 26° cold one evening.

Miller Park Under Construction (5 September 1999)

The park’s opening was delayed a year after a serious construction accident. Less than two months before this picture was taken, the high cranes used to lift huge sections of the retractable roof were carrying a 450-ton load and collapsed in winds too strong for the task. Three iron workers were killed and the damage was sufficient to delay the schedule a year. The team had to use old County Stadium for another season. We reported on that venue on 8/3/17.

Images and More Sports Editor at the Statue of

Milwaukee Braves great Henry Aaron (25 July 2001)

It seems that all the new ballparks have promenades that include statues of former greats. Even if your team is having a lousy year, you can take in a game and celebrate past heroes and glories.

On that day, the Brewers played the L. A. Dodgers…the same team they are battling now for a spot in the World Series. The visitors came to town with a winning record…13 games over .500 and the Brew Crew, on their way to a 4th-place finish in their division, were 13 games under .500. The fans that stayed to the end (we had to drive north to the family) were pleased as the Brewers took the early lead, lost it but won the game in the 9th inning, 4-3. The box score and all related stats are available through the link in the date at the beginning of this post.

Check out the lineups in that game. The Dodger players included Gary Sheffield, a member of the ‘500 Home Run Club’ and Alex Cora, who this year as manager of the Boston Red Sox, led his team to the best record in the game. Adrian Beltre, now with the Texas Rangers, was the Dodger third baseman then and is still playing. He recently hit that rare milestone of 3000 career hits and should certainly make it to the Hall of Fame.

Bernie Brewer’s Dugout, Left Field, Miller Park (25 July 2001)

Team mascot Bernie Brewer’s chalet and slide from County Stadium were saved. Back then, after a Brewer hit a home run, Bernie, in full lederhosen get-up, skimmed down a slide straight from the chalet into the foamy head on top of a full beer stein. Now, his chalet is ‘Bernie’s Dugout’ and he hurls himself from the end of the (often empty) upper deck onto a curving slide that ends on the floor of the deck below.

“I Left my Glove Home”

Miller Park (25 July 2001)

As I write this, the Brew Crew is down three games to two in the best-of-seven series. I remember watching the team lose in its only World Series appearance in 1982. While their championship futility hasn’t approached that of the Cubs or Red Sox, I do hope to live long enough to see them spray the cheap champagne and raise a banner for their Wisconsin fans.

About Columbus and His Day

In my travels, I have photographed a number of dedications to Cristoforo Columbo.

Columbus Circle, New York City (30 October 2015)

I was raised in an Italian neighborhood in New York City. My recollections of elementary school education are as ‘white bread’ and white washed as one might imagine. There were no people of color in my east Bronx school…or my history books for that matter, except for the cursory mention of slavery before Lincoln ended it and maybe Booker T. Washington later. All of my P.S. 83 teachers were mature white women, many of whom also taught my mother and her siblings more than two decades earlier…the same material, no doubt.
(I know…there will be some revisionist snark here. This is NOT about ‘political correctness.’ It’s about FACTS. What happened hundreds of years ago was what most everyone wanted. It took a while to change and acknowledge what really happened but we did…many of us anyway.)

What do I remember learning about the earliest days of this nation?

Being New Yorkers, we learned that Henry Hudson sailed up the river that now bears his name and traded $24 worth of shiny crap for the possession of Manhattan Island. There goes the neighborhood. Shiploads of Dutch people came. New Amsterdam became New York. What happened to the Manhattan Indians? Not discussed.

But before all that…Christopher Columbus, that great Italian navigator/sailor/explorer, ‘discovered’ America. October 12th was the day he thought he landed somewhere around India. What happened after that? It seemed to be presented as little more than conquests, territorial expansion…Manifest Destiny…until all those revolutions of independence. Now the Europeans who moved here wanted to manage for their own benefit what they did for their sovereigns across the pond. It didn’t change how we treated the people who were here first.

Christopher Columbus High School,

Bronx, NY (1 November 2005)

Shot through a car window, this drive-by captures an 

ominous, less-than-friendly (but secure) appearance.

Such is life in the Big City.

I remember Columbus Day was always October 12th… our first day off from school each academic year. If it fell on a weekend, tough noogies…better luck next year. Now it’s the second Monday in October so federal and bank employees always get a three-day weekend.

My resident community, Columbia, Maryland, is named after him as are the state capitols of Ohio and South Carolina. I graduated from Christopher Columbus High School. Like I said, where I was from, the guy was a big deal.

Columbus Fountain, Union Station, Washington, D.C. (4 April 2005)

But wait! Starting in the late 1800’s, scholars began to recognize evidence that another European might have made it to North America earlier…which Columbus never did on any of his four voyages. All his landings were on Caribbean islands and South America.

The blasphemy that was upsetting certain partisans, especially in New York, was about the Vikings, who ventured west from Norway to settle Iceland in the late 800’s. Upon hearing about a place that an earlier sailor had seen after being blown off course on his way to Greenland, Viking Leif Erikson made it all the way to Newfoundland and established a settlement there around the year 1000. They called it Vinland. They were the first Europeans to set foot on North America…and they did it 500 years before Columbus.

Columbus Statue, State Capitol Grounds,

Columbus, Ohio (15 June 2009)

This, as one might expect, upset some people. I remember the American Italian Anti-Defamation League took up the cause. The organization was formed in the late ‘60’s to combat negative stereotyping of Italians. They wanted you to believe there was no such thing as the Mafia and that Italians were wrongly portrayed in the media. Led by (Mafia boss) Joe Columbo, they would protest and picket certain events and products. By the early 70’s, the organization faded from view…especially after other Mafia kingpins put a hit out on Columbo and he was shot down at a rally in Columbus Circle in New York City in 1971. You can’t make this stuff up.

So, here’s to Chris. With each passing year, one has to wonder if his ‘accomplishments’ were all that great. Clearly, European colonization of the New World was inevitable. If the Italian bank-rolled by the Spanish didn’t open up the western hemisphere for pillage, plunder and genocide, the Portuguese, French and English would have…and certainly did.

Columbus Grave, Seville Cathedral,

Spain (4 October 2005)

To round out this story as few can, here is an image of CC’s last resting place. He died in 1506 in Spain. His remains were moved to colonial Santo Domingo, then Cuba, before they were returned to Spain in 1898. He is now in an elaborate, raised bier or catafalque in the Seville Cathedral.

More jurisdictions and colleges are ditching any recognition of C.C. in favor of recognizing the Native Americans who suffered and declined once the European colonization began. For anyone who thinks this is just another example of political correctness run amok, try to take an objective look at our history…maybe even put yourself in the place of the people who lived here for thousands of years before the land was “discovered.” How would you feel if strange, foreign people with advanced weaponry landed in your community and decided to [a] kill you or [b] enslave you or [c] take your provisions or [d] rape your women or [e] drive you away from your homeland or [f] infect you with new diseases you never experienced before?

Consequently, more places now call this holiday ‘Indigenous Peoples’ Day’ or ‘Native Americans Day.’

I’m all on board with that.

Italy – Day 5 – Last Day in Milan

Where to spend our last morning in Milan now that seeing The Last Supper was off the table (so to speak)? We took the convenient subway to the Basilica of St. Ambrose. Churches have been on this site since the 4th century. The current Romanesque structure dates from 1080.

Basilica of Sant’Ambrogio, Milan (20 February 2018)

Ambrose is the Patron Saint of Milan and was one of the most important ecclesiastical figures of the 4th century. He is one of the four original Doctors of the Church (along with Jerome, Augustine and Gregory the Great).

Pagan Representation (or Butcher Advertisement)

Sant’Ambrogio, Milan (20 February 2018)

The arcade in front of the church has many additions inserted into the walls and columns that were not original to the church. They appear to have been taken from elsewhere…one column was actually inserted upside down. The area was an ancient market place and there are plant and animal carvings that seem to pre-date even the Romanesque period of the building.

Interior of St. Ambrose Basilica (20 February 2018)

The sarcophagus on the left has been in that exact spot since the fourth century. It is said that Ambrose himself might have been there when it was created.

Apse Mosaic, Basilica of St. Ambrose (20 February 2018)

Behind the 9th century golden altar is the apse with a 13th century mosaic depicting Christ, the Saints Gervasius and Protasius and scenes from the life of Ambrose. The mosaic was restored after being damaged by World War II bombing.

St. Ambrose in Repose (20 February 2018)

St. Ambrose died of natural causes in 397 and is displayed in a crypt beneath the altar. He wanted to be buried alongside Saints Gervasius and Protasius, two 2nd century Roman soldiers who were beheaded for swearing allegiance to the Christian God instead of the Roman emperor. With all due respect, the Catholic veneration of the mortal remains and pieces-parts of their favorite sons and daughters can get a bit creepy. But that’s me.

From here we returned to the hotel, finished packing and took the last Metro pass subway ride to Central Station. The bus to the airport passed a blazing fire that consumed a van on the side of the expressway…my camera was packed away so there is no documentation of that little entertainment.

I love visiting Italy but as Dorothy said, “There’s no place like home.”