This spring and summer, we’re filming six new public television programs to wrap up our new season: Berlin, Prague, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, the Veneto, and the Cinque Terre. We do two shows (12 days) per shoot. Right now, we’re having great fun in Italy shooting episodes on the Veneto and the Cinque Terre.
As a tour guide, I strive to get into the mindset of the people for whom art was created. Ravenna’s mosaic-slathered Church of San Vitale dates from a time when the ancient world was on the cusp of the Middle Ages. For 15 centuries — ever since the days when Jesus was portrayed without a beard — pilgrims have pondered the path their lives will take as they work through the labyrinth leading to this amazing altar. With delightful symmetry and vivid symbolism, this lovingly assembled pile of mosaic chips has worked wonders on visitors for well over a thousand years. And we’re excited to be bringing it home on public television.
If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.
Padova’s Scrovegni Chapel is slathered with precious and exquisite frescos by Giotto, including several poignant scenes from Holy Week, Jesus’ Crucifixion, and the Resurrection. I’m hoping to do an Easter special (as a follow-up to our Christmas special) for public television, so we filmed each of these beautiful scenes in anticipation of that project. In this frantic little video clip, I take one minute to blitz the events of Jesus’ last week as presented by Giotto. (Thankfully, when you visit the chapel, you’ll get 15 minutes.)
If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.
It’s fun to get off the beaten path when filming our TV series. The show we’re doing now is all about not going to Venice — instead, we’re visiting nearby places we’re calling “sotto-estimato”…underestimated: Verona, Padova, and Ravenna. While I love Venice, the welcome is warmer and less greedy in towns on the nearby mainland.
One of the most popular pilgrimage sites in all of Christendom is Padova’s Basilica of St. Anthony. And plenty of pilgrims were here celebrating the canonization of two recent popes, John XXIII and John Paul II.
Padova’s Scrovegni Chapel, with a precious and exquisite series of frescos by Giotto, is one of those super-fragile and popular art treasures (like Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper) where, in order to control the humidity, only a few people (who have reservations in advance) are allowed in for short visits. With our film work, rather than the normal 15-minute visit, we got to stay for two hours…and, four times each hour (as other visitors were ushered in and out), we had the chapel all to ourselves for a couple of delightful minutes. The last time we filmed here was 12 years ago, when it was covered in scaffolding. Making the best of a disappointing situation, we adjusted the script to focus on the restoration process itself. This time we enjoyed the chapel in all its Giotto glory.
Enjoying the artistic genius of Giotto in Padova’s Scrovegni Chapel is a highlight for any art lover. It’s amazing to consider that these scenes, including this Crucifixion, were frescoed 200 years before the age of Michelangelo and Leonardo.
The entire Scrovegni Chapel is frescoed by Giotto. And, while it’s a carefully designed series of panels showing events from the lives of Jesus and Mary with a dramatic Judgment Day filling the back wall, I enjoyed finding my own favorite little snippets. You can find countless details that, if framed and hung on a wall, would be gorgeously designed scenes on their own. This tiny segment is in the gruesome corner: the damned on Judgment Day, just kicking off what promises to be a pretty miserable eternity.
I love working hard with people equally committed to our mission of sharing the wonders of Europe with our travelers. And my crew — producer Simon Griffith and cameraman Karel Bauer — make TV production both a joy and very rewarding. We get to be alone with Europe’s greatest art. And after private time with the very greatest, we feel a special exhilaration. Even though none of us smokes tobacco, in moments like this, we joke that we need a cigarette.
Pilgrims and happy Roman Catholics were pouring into Rome last week for the canonization of two popes. And many among them were Poles celebrating the sainthood of their beloved Pope John Paul II (born Karol Wojtyla in communist-era Poland). Here in Italy, at Padova’s Basilica of Saint Anthony, a new painting of JPII has already joined the ranks of centuries of inspirational Christians who became saints. Being here as they put up a painting that travelers will stand before for generations to come is a reminder that we are part of history.
If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.