Prologue: Early Christian, Medieval Travel Journal

The Arch of Constantine, Rome

Well, the time has arrived for our departure on the GSB Early Christian, Medieval Travel Tour. We are headed to Italy, Grazi very much! Specifically, Rome, Florence, and Ravenna. Our focus will be early Christian and medieval Kingdom history.

We will of course have to take steps to avoid the ever present threat of the COVID. By the good grace of God and fine research of Pfizer, we have avoided COVID for 2 1/2 years, but we will need to be extra careful because one misstep could derail the vacation for all three of us.

Toward that end, I have encouraged The Wife and Ann to wear N95 masks during the entire flight to Rome, but I am not confident they will take my advice. Their objection is not political but Epicurean. They take great pleasure in drinking the Champagne served in Business Class on overseas flights, which is incompatible with responsible masking. In response to my insistence that they forego this pleasure this one time, their response will likely be imitative of The Dude in The Big Lebowski, “Easy man, there’s a beverage here.”

Also, The Wife told me I would be packing myself this time. I can’t remember what brought about this change in the arrangement that has served us so well on the many GSB travel tours. I always felt my leadership of the GSB Team entitled me to some level of service from those I led into foreign lands in search of Kingdom history, but apparently I was wrong.

So, I have adopted a strategy in my packing. It is the travel equivalent of the old tear-away jersey. I have intentionally packed old worn out clothes, including underwear–“the whites” to quote another line from The Big Lebowski. Then, after wearing the clothes, I will simply discard them. They will not find their way into my suitcase for the return trip. Instead their final resting place will be with the Caesars in Rome, Savonarola in Florence, and Theoderic and Dante in Ravenna.

Another challenge on this trip will be moderating Anne’s, and to a lesser extent Cindy’s, theological intolerance of Catholicism. We are going to the ground zero of Popery, which should incite some interesting conversations. In Ravenna, we will explore Arianism and ask the question, “Were the Arians Christians?

So, stay tuned and enjoy the ride. GS

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