To my surprise, Monte Cassino is actually on a mountain. I figured because of its history, where Benedict built it upon a temple to Apollo so he could confront the demons, it would be on a nice little hill called a Monte like Orvieto. No such luck. I also learned you should always, always take the shuttle bus or a taxi up. Since I arrived 40 minutes before the first shuttle, I thought I would walk it. Bad idea, my enthusiasm failed about 2/3rds of the way up and then it was too late so I had almost a two hour trek up. While it was cool walking the old pilgrim trail instead of the very roundabout road, I was having flashbacks to character building camping trips in Montana.
I have an obligation to post mountain pictures since I mentioned the trips.
The monastery itself is only 60 years old because we (America) blew it up in WWII because we didn't believe the Germans when they told us they didn't hid weapons there. Despite being new, it is amazing (and luckily the tombs of Benedict and Scholastica survived).
So we get a modern take on Baroque
The church itself is absolutely hysterical. The upper courtyard before you enter is filled with statues of monarchs who were Benedictine oblates, the crypt church around the tombs is covered in marble frieze work of full sized Benedictine Saints. While the Jesuits have a gold and diamond encrusted Ignatius and the Franciscans have the miracles of Francis by Giotto, the Benedictines want you to know what the legacy of Benedict and Scholastic is aka Western civilization and more saints than you (you being anyone else).
An example
Scholastica
Benedicf
The aaltar
And just as a disclaimer, if the American Benedictines at Norca are ever given Monte Cassino, that is my sign to defect and join because Monte Cassino is just about my version of perfect.
Not joking about that.
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