Day Two: Gradara and Urbino

As I woke up on our first full day of travel I couldn’t help but enjoy the sights around me and be grateful for the opportunities we have. Today we had a prompt check out time of nine am and found ourselves back on the bus traveling from Rimini to the quaint city of Gradara. When arriving into Gradara we walked up into the city through hills and eventually into the castle.

Gradara is in the center of Marche and on the border of Emiligia Romagna. The castle is famous for being the first of Maletesta and the last of Monte Fedro. Being in such a historic place was interesting for me and I enjoyed walking around the hills and seeing the beautiful views of the mountains. We learned that the castle has untraditional architecture because Gradara was seen as the “door” to Maletesta. Looking at the small tourist shops now and the small restaurants hoping that someone will enter made me think of what this city was like back in its time. Thinking about the time that this was the grand fortress, the door to Maletesta and all of the power and responsibility that this city held is amazing to consider.

Gradara’s Castle is known for its infamy of the tragedy of Paulo and Francesca. The story was depicted to us in Dante’s Divine Comedy one of the main focus points of our class and the tour.  Francesca lived in the beautiful castle and was married to Giovanni Malatesta who was Paolo’s brother. Giovanni was not a particularly attractive or nice man and did not do much for Francesca. Paolo was handsome, an interesting knight who lived in the very room right underneath Francesca. Stairs and a trap door connected the two together and one day Paolo climbed the stairs to visit Francesca. We learned of the story that the two lovers sat side by side reading the story of Lancelot and Guinevere. They were overcome with emotion and began to embrace when Giovanni came into Francesca’s room and witnessed the adultery. He was so filled with anger that he decided to kill both Paolo and Francesca. Thus became the tragedy of Paolo and Francesca.

This story of Paolo and Francesca correlates to our reading of Canto V in Dante’s inferno. Dante is led by a Virgil into the second circle of Hell which holds the souls of those who committed sins of lust. Dante listens to Paolo and Francesca’s story and how they got to the second circle and Dante faints from his emotions. The story of Paolo and Francesca is said to be very close to his love for Beatrice and what could have happened.

In the castle we saw many rooms and the first of which was the torture room. Torture was a new idea in history and was regarded as the only way to get the truth. Death was too easy, and was seen as a sweet release from this cruel world. The second room that we visited was the Sala del Mastio where Maletesta built the right and left wings of the castle. All throughout the room there were beautiful crests of Malestesta. The third room was the Borcetti where they ate fruits and fresh vegetables and meat with Sigius Mondo and this was very strange to most people because they were not used to having fresh food to eat. Sigius Mondo was Fredericos enemy and it is said that Sigius may have killed his own first two wives so he could be with his first true love Isota. The fourth room was the Sala Malatestinna because of its pictorial decorations between 1921 and 1923. The latin saying “Tempus loquendi, tempus tacendi” spoke to me while we learning about the history of the castle and is translated to “it’s time to speak, you can’t speak.” I think that the history of the castle affected the way I saw those time periods and how things were dealt with.  Soon after our tour, we had time to explore and have a small lunch and then made our way to the city of Urbino.

As soon as I saw Urbino I fell in love. Urbino is a UNESCO World Heritage site that is an enclosed city due to the high walls and is translated into “A city built on two hills”. Urbino is known for many things including the patronage of Duke Federico da Montefeltro and being the birth place of many artists. The city is contains both the Ducal Palace and Raphael’s birthplace. Raphael was born in 1483 in Urbino. We also learned that Urbino has a large Jewish synagogue and a large Jewish community. Urbino was originally founded by the Romans in 184 BC.

As we continued our tour through Urbino we walked past the oratories of St. John and St. Joesph where they helped orphans and families condemned to death. We visited the Cathedral of Rubino which was restored in the 18th century and I learned that a lot of the city has a very Roman structure to it.

The first place that we visited in Urbino was the Ducal Palace or Palazzo Ducale. The palace first began construction by Montefeltro in the 15^th century. We learned that one of the most important rooms of the palace is the studiolo where Montefeltro worked and faced away from the city. The room is full of beautiful artwork and wood work and is full of symbols of classical writers and the arts.

It is important to note that some of the paintings on the ceilings of the Palace are currently located in the Louvre. It was interesting to learn that the ducal palace and the church Monastery of San Dominico also have some of the same decorations. Frederico wanted to be considered as a man of culture but was also a man of war and because of this his portraits have symbols which mean to lay down your weapons.

The palace is also home to many famous works of art including The Ideal City, Flagellation of Jesus Christ, and La Muta. The Ideal City by Fra Carnavale shows the changing perspective of the time and the new ideals of the Renaissance. Flagellation of Jesus Christ was painted by Piero dell Francesca and it quite puzzling to many people because Jesus Christ is in the far back left of the painting which has lead to many different interpretations. La Muta by Raphael is also housed in the Ducal Palace, however it was currently being restored and we were unable to view it.

The palace is currently open to the city because it followed the ideas of the renaissance and was for the people. This meant a lot to me and thinking about how past Italian culture has influenced today’s society. Gradara on the other hand was more medieval and was considered to be for god whereas the renaissance movement is for the man. The main square of the palace is inscribed with the qualities of the lord such as peace justice and his battles won.

After the Ducal Palaec we made our way to the House of Raphael. Raphael’s father, Giovanni, lived there for many years because he was a painter for the Duke and inspired Raphael to become a painter as well. Both Giovanni’s works and Raphael’s works are shown in the house but a large amount of them were copies. I believe that part of the house is now a school for the arts and teaches people the famous artistic techniques that once lived there. It’s amazing to think that some of the greatest painters have inspired modern society to continue on with art. I loved Urbino and its many hills, I stopped for a gelato and made a small purchase for myself before we were rushed back onto the bus but I hope that one day I will be able to visit Urbino again.

Once everyone was on the bus we drove to Castelraimondo where we would stay in small apartments for the next three days. Once we arrived, we had about an hour to get ready for another beautiful group dinner. The meal was amazing, four courses, enjoyable company and interesting conversation. It was a wonderful second day for the Italian travel!