Another Italian Remembrance

No pictures please...

All the tours today forbade cameras – so much history and beauty left unfilmed. For someone who can be quite addicted to my camera, I lamented this but only for a moment.

Just as things have been beyond words, so too are there sights beyond photos. There are things that should only exist in actual experience and memory. There are things that require the utter silence or cluttering noise, the smell, or the whole of the place to truly do justice to it. Even a picture would minimize the grandeur of a place or work of art or tomb. It could make you think that history could somehow be contained within a frame. How silly to think such a thing – it could even be said that it borders on blasphemy.

However far one chooses to take that idea may depend on what is being observed. Sometimes taking pictures helps one to focus on the details of the thing, but then the giant nature of it can be diminished. Saint Peter’s Basilica, for instance, is built on such a grand scale that to say I felt tiny would be an understatement. I felt comfortingly insignificant in the face of such history, power, and beauty. Art, statues, and alters fill this vast space enclosed by marble and adorned by gold. There is no way to capture this through a viewfinder.

This place is so full of detail that it seems ridiculous to begin to write about it. So, I will, in fact, refrain from the attempt. I will say however, that I like to think of all those works of art (and, if I am honest extravagance) as works of love and reverence for God. So, how could I ever put love in a frame?