Our second day in Italy came and we were introduced to Verona. Verona dates back to before Roman times. It is at the foot the the Alps, from which the Adige river flows. The river provided transportation to and from Venice on the coast. The Romans brought with them the studied practicality of road building, of how to organize a community into a grid of streets and of course the protection and surveillance of the military. Rome was nothing if not a empire of coercion from the very beginning. An offer from Rome could not be refused.

Little of that is evident now. Over two centuries of time,  – the river flooded to cover two thirds of the town in 1882, an earthquake on a scale of 9 in 1117, and most recently the bombing brought on by WWII. Residents of Verona took shelter within the stout old Medieval walls to ward off the concussions and shrapnel. Reminders of those old times remain as ruins, and I’ve included photos that I took while walking around.

While in Italy I am impressed with the intricate outlines of Medieval Catholicism, which, believe it or not continues to be maintained by “the Church” in the 21st century. The consciousness of the post-Roman Medieval resident was organized by church teachings about life and death, about how one ought to live in the “light” of eternity.

The images shows the Gothic form of one of the Scaligeri tombs. The Scaligeri family ruled Verona 1259 to 1387. The tomb of Mastino II is a ostentatious public display, to remind generations afterward of the political heft of this family. A question lingers with me though:

Resolved that heavenly afterlife is one of eternal acclaim, fulfillment, – why “give a fig” about the opinion of any who happen to live afterward? It just doesn’t add up. If we are convinced we’d look forward to that, and that alone. I doubt Mastino was one hundred percent convinced…

Of course the psyche of humans does not change rapidly. Religion does evolve along with everything else. The Romans as pragmatic and warlike as they were, set stock by piety. For them it was a more diffuse sense of the god’s indifference to human affairs, but they always available at crucial events when you could make a petition.

We are staying in Treviso a small and prosperous town on the Venetian plain. The crypt under the Duomo, the cathedral is a burial ground according to Catholic tradition. The Duomo or seat of the bishop was especially holy ground, and thus prospect for swift admission to paradise were improved if your body was laid to rest there. I noted the number of the stone sarcophagus in the underground chamber appeared to be recently installed..

The human species enormously advantaged by language. We liable to believe just about anything, if repeated log enough and if there is not another live option. Finally we are inclined for many generations to be stuck in a view of ourselves that no longer serves us. I think the sad point of the matter – it is all involuntary.