Robert Guiscard tour to Campania and Apulia

October 21-November 1, 2003

Early Booking Price, before June 21, 2003: $3285

Regular Price, from June 21, 2003: $3695

Single Supplement $450, Deposit $600

Tour Director: Professor Peter Gravgaard

Itinerary

Day 1 (October 21, 2003)

You fly from the USA to Rome, Italy. (Please ask your travel agent for a flight arriving at Rome Airport, Leonardo da Vinci, between 08:00 am and 12:00 noon on Day 2 of the tour.)

Day 2 (October 22, 2003)

You arrive in Rome Airport where the tour director, Peter Gravgaard will meet you and take you to Sorrento where you will spend five nights.

Day 3 (October 23, 2003)

Nobody disagrees that Sorrento is the most beautiful place in Italy, though the neighboring villages are also gorgeous; you will have four days to enjoy them. Today we will take a drive to visit Sorrento, then nearby Positano, the most vertical and expensive of them. From Positano to Amalfi on the Amalfi drive. Amalfi, which now is minuscule, was once a respectable naval power, like Venice and Pisa. Its cathedral is lovely with impressive bronze doors, made by craftsmen from Constantinople in 1066. Two remarks about Amalfi: the inventor of the ship's compass was Flavio Gioia from Amalfi, and two, the boast on an inscription over the harbor square: "Judgement Day, when the Amalfitani go to heaven, will be a day like any other day."

From Amalfi we drive to Ravello which has some wonderful gardens, one of these inspired Wagner to imagine Klingsor's magical garden in Parsifal. (This is authentic: Wagner wrote it in the guest book in the Villa Rufolo.)

Final visit today, time permitting, will be Salerno. It once had the first medical school in Europe, and can perhaps beat Bologna for the dignity of being Europe's first university.It was also here that American forces landed in September 1943. The greatest Norman of them all, Robert Guiscard (1016-1085) built the cathedral here. His second wife, Sichelgaita, a formidable warrior, herself, came from Salerno.

Day 4 (October 24, 2003)

In the morning we will take a tour through the center of Naples to see the Royal Palace, the National Library, the San Carlo Operahouse, the Castel Nuovo, and the San Gennaro Cathedral with the Basilica Restituta.

In the afternoon we will drive to Pompeii to visit the ancient city which was buried under volcanic ash in 79 AD. Excavations started in 1748 and were again commenced in 1911.

Day 5 (October 25, 2003)

Today we will spend the day visiting Capri, the most popular island in the Mediterranean.Weather permitting we will visit the Grotta Azzurra (the Blue Grotto.)

Day 6 (October 26, 2003)

This day is at your disposal to explore Sorrento or go shopping or do what you like.

The tour director will be happy to help.

Day 7 (October 27, 2003)

Today we will drive from Sorrento to Trani in Apulia where we will stay for two nights. On the way we will be stopping to see those two highlights of Norman history, Melfi and Venosa.

Melfi was the first capital of the Normans in Apulia. This is where the First Crusade was proclaimed in 1089; where Robert Guiscard was invested as Duke of Sicily by Pope Nicholas II in 1059; where King Roger II of Sicily held court, and where Emperor Frederick II promulgated his Constitutions of Melfi (this was a new code of laws for the Kingdom of Sicily.)

Venosa is where Robert Guiscard chose to establish the dynastic cemetery for the Hauteville family, the sons of Tancred of Hauteville in Normandy. Here were buried his wife, Alberada, and his brothers, William Iron-Arm, Drogo, Humphrey.

One contemporary writer who wrote a history of the Normans in the South of Italy is Amatus of Monte Cassino. He has given a fresh account of the arrival of these young men:

And in the morning the Normans rode gaily off through the meadows and gardens towards Venosa, which is not far from Melfi, happy and joyful on their horses, cavorting hither and thither; and the citizens of the town saw these unknown knights, and wondered at them and were afraid. And the Normans returned with immense plunder and brought it back without trouble to Melfi… And from there they set off for lovely Apulia, and what they like they took, and what they did not like they left… (Amatus of Monte Cassino)

From Venosa we continue to Trani to find our hotel.

Day 8 (October 28, 201)

Our day begins with a visit to the stunning cathedral on the seafront, San Nicola Pellegrino. It is very beautiful, built in three layers: at the bottom is the crypt of San Leucio, then on top of that the earlier Byzantine cathedral , San Maria della Scala, and on top of that, the San Nicola. This is where Manfred, the son of Frederick II, married Helena of Epirus.

Next we will drive south to visit the Castel di Santa Maria del Monte which was built by Frederick around 1240. As what? Some writers suggest that it was a hunting lodge. Others that it was a fortress. None of these suggestions seems very apt: it is a very formal hunting lodge and a very weak castle, lacking moats and ramparts.

An answer might come from a closer analysis of the building' structure and from its location in the landscape. Paul Holberton (South Italy. A Traveller's Guide, p.82) refers us to Nicolaus Pevsner:

(Nicolaus Pevsner) placed it in a context of new ideas in castle building stimulated by experience on the Crusades, and of an interest throughout Europe in symmetrical planning, of of which he declared it the most accomplished example. Indeed its geometry is extremely exciting if geometry can excite: the plan of the building can support all sorts of compass drawings creating wholly symmetrical and concentric squares, circles, triangles, octagons and stars. It is not merely an octagon but an octagon with eight satellite octagonal towers wedded to its eight points and with an internal octagonal courtyard. One superimposition is a star of eight points coincident with the centres of the satellite towers: the lines from the centres forming the star also coincide with the octagonal courtyard. The drawing can be made not merely on a surveyed plan, which is usually corrected, but on an aerial photograph.

Dana Facaros and Michael Pauls draw some interesting parallels to the Castel del Monte in their Cadogan Guide, Italy,p.1037:

At Castel del Monte, however, it is the things you can't see that are the most interesting. This is nothing less than the Great Pyramid of Italy, and the secrets Frederick built into it have for centuries attracted the attention of cranks and serious scholars alike.

They then compare it with Frederick's Tower of the Winds in Enna in Sicily:

The relation of the castle to the ancient surveying of the Apulian plain is a fascinating possibility. Frederick's Tower of the Winds in Sicily has been found to be the centre of an enormous rectilinear network of alignments, uniting scores of ancient temples, towers and cities in straight lines that run the length and breadth of the island. The tower is believed to be built on the site of some forgotten holy place; the alignments and the vast geometrical temple they form probably predate even the Greeks. No one has yet suggested that Castel del Monte replaced any ancient site, but the particular care of Apulia's ancient surveyors, and the arrangement of the region's holy places, sanctuaries and Frederick's castles suggest that something similarly strange may be hidden here.

So, the building has a meaning, encoded and expressed in the geometric features mentioned by Paul Holberton and it may be situated in an important geographical place as elaborated by Facaros and Pauls: the task of the interpretation is to link the two.

Any comments?

From Castel del Monte we will take you to Canosa where we will see the tomb of Bohemund, the son of Robert Guiscard and Alberada. John Julius Norwich describes him:

(The Normans in Sicily, p.285) as "the one man - of all the Crusaders - who stood head and shoulders above the rest". Bohemund gained the Frankish principality of Antioch in Palestine in 1099 and died in 1111.Antioch seems to have been decisive for the poetic development for William IX of Poiters who is considered to be the First Troubadour; he stayed in Antioch to recuperate from wounds received at Heraclea; his son ,Raymond, later married Bohemund's granddaughter, Constance.(Readers who have taken our ELEANOR TOUR TO MEDIEVAL AQUITAINE Tour to Medieval will recognize William IX as the grandfather of Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine and Raymond as her dear uncle.)

From Canosa we return to Trani.

Day 9 (October 29, 2003)

Our program begins with a visit to Barletta to see the castle and the "colossus", a twenty-foot long stone statue, perhaps depicting the Emperor Marcian, one of the less remarkable Roman emperors. We next drive to Manfredonia, a town founded by the son of Frederick II. After seeing the castle of Manfredonia we drive to the Gargano peninsula, better known as the "Spur" of Italy, to visit the Monte Sant'Angelo, the Italian Saint Michael's Mount. This is one of the most important centers of pilgrimage in Italy and the place where, according to the historian William of Apulia, a group of forty Norman pilgrims were approached by a Lombard nobleman, Melus from Bari. He was looking for allies for the Lombards who were fighting for their freedom against the Byzantine oppressors from Constantinople. This was 1016, and here began the Norman presence in South Italy which culminated with Robert Guiscard becoming Duke of Apulia, his brother Roger becoming Count of Sicily, Roger's son becoming King of Sicily, and , finally, Frederick II, a son of an Hauteville and a Hohenstaufen, becoming Emperror of the Holy Roman Empire.

We will visit the Monte Sant'Angelo sanctuary and then drive to our hotel in Foggia where we will spend the night.

Day 10 (October 30 , 2003)

From 1016 to 1053 the Normans seeped into Campania and Apulia and found employment as mercenaries for the local barons. Robert Guiscard was born in Normandy in 1016, the son of Tancred of Hauteville, and brother of William Iron-Arm, Drogo, and Roger. Robert arrived in South Italy in 1046 and joined Drogo who sent him off to the depths of Calabria to guard a fortress at the mountain pass of Scribla. Here he had to live by his wits and succeded to gain the sobriquet of le Guiscard, the wiseacre, the smart one. He had clearly imposed himself as the leader of the Normans in Calabria, for when the great chance came for the Normans in 1053 at the Battle of Civitate it was Robert who commanded the Calabrian contingent.

Civitate is located about 40 km northwest of Foggia. Here met on June 18, 1053, the Papal Army of Pope Leo IX (Swabians, Lombards and Italians) with the Norman Army under Humphrey of Hauteville, Robert Guiscard and Richard of Aversa. This was the opportunity for all those who hated the Normans to destroy them once and for all. Even the Byzantine Emperor had sent an army under Argyrus who was waiting for the Pope at Siponto (now Manfredonia). However the Byzantine army never showeed up; Richard of Aversa's column defeated the Lombards and drove the Italians to flight. The Norman center under Humphrey and the left column under Robert withstood the Pope's Swabian elite troops who were exterminated when Richard's column returned to battle and could attack their rear.

After Civitate the Pope took nine months to give in to Norman demands:he was their prisoner and must have given tacit agreement to leaving them with their Italian possessions. And six years and several popes later the Church of Rome decided on an alliance with the Normans; this is why a synod was called at Melfi in June 1059. Here Richard of Aversa was confirmed as Prince of Capua (which he had been since 1957), and Robert Guiscard was invested with the Duchies of Apulia, Calabria and Sicily.

Today we will drive to San Paolo di Civitate to see the battlefield of Civitate (the Italian Hastings), the ruins of the cathedral and the ramparts from which the pope saw the defeat of his army.

Next we drive to Lucera to see the great castle, built by Frederick II in 1233 and enlarged by Charles of Anjou, 1269-83. South of Lucera is Troia which has afine cathdral we will visit, time permitting. From here we drive to Benevento where we will spend the night.

Day 11 (October 31, 2003)

After their victory at Civitate the Normans took their prisoner, Pope Leo IX, to Benevento which was papal property and kept him there until he gave in to their demands, so the city is associated with Norman triumph, but if we see, as we must, Frederick II as the last Norman ruler, Benevento is also associated with Norman failure, for it was here that in 1266 Frederick's son, Manfred, was defeated in battle by the Pope's champion, Charles d'Anjou. (Frederick's grandson, Conradin, was later defeated and executed by Charles d'Anjou in the battle of Tagliacozzo, east of Rome in 1268.)

Today we drive from Benevento to Rome where we will spend the night. In the evening we will have our FAREWELL DINNER.

Day 12 (November 1, 2003)

It is the last day of the Robert Guiscard tour, so we will take you to Rome Airport, Leonardo da Vinci, so you can return to the USA. (Ask your travel agent for a flight departing no later than 11.00 hours.)

BON VOYAGE. Have a safe journey home.

Bibliography

David Abulafia, Frederick II. A Medieval Emperor, London, 1988
Harold Acton, The Bourbons of Naples, 1956
P. Arlacchi, Mafia, Peasants and Great Estates, 1983
Benedetto Croce, History of the Kingdom of Naples, 1970
Paul Holberton, South Italy. A Traveller's Guide, London, 1992
Carlo Levi, Christ Stopped at Eboli, Penguin, 1982
John Julius Norwich, The Normans in Sicily, Penguin, 1992