2018-07-10

【Aiden in English】

        “In fair Verona, where we lay our scene."

        That's one of the few lines I remember from Romeo and Juliet. And so, in honor of the “greatest literary playwright” in history, today's adventure brought us to Verona. 

        To be completely honest, I don't think Verona would receive nearly as many tourists without Shakespeare's depiction of the city. What's coincident is that the city itself had much more history than two feuding families. While there was much noise around the Renaissance, the area proved to be quite dramatic from the early 1000's. Its involvement with local wars was quite frequent, from the late Latin Ages as a small settlement to the Gothic wars. Eventually, it ended up as an Italian city that Shakespeare wrote about, so now it's also on the world map. 

        A common belief is that Shakespeare never came to Verona. Born in England, he was caught in the Renaissance wave of literature, influencing much of his craft. While his writing took place in Verona, Shakespeare did not explicitly describe the town itself, or actual people in it. Yes, Romeo and Juliet are characters that have no evidence of actually existing. While I found this hard to believe, writing such a story is much easier to formulate in your head than using all facts. I'm not sure whether every tourist understood that the characters might have been false since the line to view the balcony of "Juliet" said otherwise. Regardless, we went up to the balcony and took a picture. It really was just a tiny standing area outside a window, which I felt kind of overhyped. I don't know how a book motivates so many people to take time out of their life to see something that is allegedly true. However, there were apparently two major, rich families in the city, although perhaps not angry at each other. They also had names similar to Montague and Capulet, just in Italian. Maybe Shakespeare did have some information to draw up the story, all the more reason for millions to crowd the small courtyard under the balcony. 

        Outside of the Shakespearian dream, we traveled through Duomo and Basilica of Saint Anastasia one after another, filled with, you guessed it, renowned paintings, and, you guessed it, marble walls (there is a lot of marble). No matter whether it's the largest cathedral (Duomo) in town or the bishop residential house (Basilica). After the third church, I lost track of the differences. It's not boring, but it's quite the opposite. They're all too grand, sometimes I feel so disconnected from them, especially since the local church I go to barely seems like a church in comparison. After a while, you kind of accept them as a class on their own, each a palace filled with riches from the people to the greatest figure in their lives: Jesus. Once again, it's spectacular to see what belief can drive people to do. From marble walls and columns to mosaics on the floor and ceiling, constant miracles come true in the thought of building it for God. 

        As for me, I thoroughly enjoyed this small inland road tour. It also marked the final day on land. From tomorrow on, I’ll enter the cruise section of this trip.

【紅霞譯文】

        “美麗的維羅納，我們的故事從這裡開始。”

        那是《羅密歐與朱麗葉》留在我記憶里寥寥幾句台詞中的一例，僅僅為了紀念史上“超群絕倫的劇作家”，今天值得我們親自到維羅納轉悠一趟。

        說實話，我覺得要不是莎士比亞筆下生輝，這座城市幾乎沒法吸引這麼多觀光遊客，無巧不成書，維羅納本身遠比當地兩個冤家淵源悠久，早在文藝復興運動蓬勃發展之前就已經度過上千年崢嶸歲月，其間內憂外患經年不斷，起始於拉丁時代晚期的小村莊又橫遭哥特戰爭洗禮，最終被錘鍊成備受莎翁青睞的意大利都會，而且榮登世界地圖。

        人們普遍認為莎士比亞從未來過維羅納，其出生年代恰好趕上本土英國蘭文藝復興昌盛時期，文學作品又深受改革浪潮的影響，雖說故事情節發生在維羅納，可是作家卻鮮少明確描述當地的風土人情，沒有確鑿證據表明羅密歐與朱麗葉在歷史上確有其人，儘管我發現難以置信，但腦袋瓜里想象的東西要比現實生活中發生的題材更容易編成故事。我不大清楚各位遊客是否明白主人公多半是虛構出來的，反正“朱麗葉”晾台前排成長龍，無論怎麼着，我們登上晾台並攝影留念，陽台不過是窗外僅供人落腳的狹小空間而已，被吹得天花亂墜，結果讓大家信以為真，情願花時間欣賞子虛烏有的場景。然而，當時維羅納似有兩家富裕大戶，但彼此關係未必鬧得很僵，意大利名字與蒙太古及凱普萊特相似，也許莎士比亞手頭確實掌握了一些資料，這樣才好煽情並把成千上萬的戲迷忽悠到陽台下令人窒息的庭院裡。

        走出莎士比亞夢境，我們先後遊覽了維羅納大教堂和聖亞納大西亞主教堂，不出所料，除了聞名於世的油畫而外，頂天立地的大理石格外醒目，無論城裡規模居首的大教堂還是主教居住的聖殿，一概如此。等參觀完第三座教堂，我已經分不清彼此之間有何區別，並非由於它們大同小異，相反卻因其雄偉氣勢，有時難免讓我萌生敬畏的感覺。稍候片刻，你下意識就把它們歸為另類，每所殿堂薈萃了人文精華與至高無上的福祉神靈：耶穌，再次展示信仰給人以無窮力量，從大理石牆與石柱到馬賽克地板與天花板，為榮耀上帝就會不斷湧現各種奇蹟。

        至於自身體會，我非常喜歡小別海岸之行，這也是內陸旅遊最後一天，從明天開始，我將乘遊輪遠航。

Today in History(歷史上的今天):

2017: Esztergom the Hungarian Rome, Hungary(匈牙利的羅馬—艾斯特根)

2017: Lower Danube, Slovakia(斯洛伐克多瑙河下游)

2017: Bratislava—Beauty on the Danube, SVK(斯洛伐克多瑙河奇葩—布拉迪斯拉發)

2017: Bratislava the Little Big Capital, SVK(斯洛伐克迷你之都—布拉迪斯拉發)

2017: Bratislava—Tatra Tiger, SVK(斯洛伐克首都布拉迪斯拉發—塔特拉老虎)

2016: Dublin the Pale, Ireland(愛爾蘭都柏林蒼穹)

2016: Dublin—UNESCO City of Literature, IRL(愛爾蘭都柏林—聯合國科教文之文學城)

2016: Avoca—IRL's Oldest Weaving Mill(愛爾蘭最老的紡織作坊—阿沃卡)

2016: Glendalough Monastery, Ireland(愛爾蘭格蘭達洛修道院)

2016: County Wicklow the Garden of Ireland(愛爾蘭花園—威克洛郡)

2014: Bug Show @ Soccer YMCA Camp(昆蟲到訪基督教青年會夏令營)

Crosslinks(相關博文):

Italy(出遊意大利)

Europe(歐洲掠影)