30 May pictures

30 May Rain again.

30 May

The morning started out sunny and clear, this enabled us to enjoy a country roads trip to Bagno Vignoni, which was a medieval spa town.  Apparently the Romans were aware of the hot springs, yet there were only minor ruins from their time.  In the 1400s the springs were used to mill flour and wool processing.  The buildings were in ruins but it was interesting to read about the use of the hot springs.

Afterwards we headed to Pienza, which is a 'model' renaissance town.  It looked very dark and sure enough it started raining.  It was also cold for May, 50 degrees and yes it did rain.  The views of the land around Pienza were beautiful, with rolling hills of wheat.  Apparently the fields should have wild poppies and cultivated sunflowers, but it has been a very cold and wet spring that the wheat was still green and only hit or miss poppies, no sunflowers.

This evening if it isn't raining we'll have a stroll around Montepulciano, one of Tuscany's highest hill towns, with streets brimming with Renaissance  palazzi  and fortifications that offer views of both Tuscany and Umbria land.

29 May Pictures

Slow connection so read today,s blog and I,all post the pictures in order.  Mom engage you nagging and I know you can figure it out.

29 May Somewhere in Tuscany

29 May spending 2 nights in Montepulciano

An early departure from the hotel in Venice with a boat ride to the mainland to board our bus.  Today we continued driving along the Adriatic coast down to a town called Ravenna.  Along the way the road was through the Po River Valley.  The land was flat, and there are a lot of levies to protect the fertile farm land.  It looks like there's wheat, corn and fruit trees.  We've passed a lot of trees in rows and the conclusion is that these trees are of the poplar family and our guide told us that the trees are grown for paper manufacture, but he didn't know what kind of tree.  

In Ravenna we stopped at yet another basilica, Basilica di Sant' Apollinare.  The church  had some damage during WWII.  The church was founded in 549 and what makes it unique is that it has lots of mosaic decorations.  Some of the earliest examples found in Italy, with a strong byzantine influence. The pictures are a blend of east and west religions.  Of course it is a UNESCO site.

After leaving the plains of Italy, we crossed to the more mountainous region of Tuscany.  After a lot of tunnels and time in the bus, we arrived at Casa Vinicola Triacca on the Santavenere Estate  in Montepulciano.  The vineyards was bought in 1990 and has expanded to more acreage to be able to produce about 140,00 bottles of red wine and 6000 bottles of white wine.  The wine is generally graded DOGC grade which entails complying to a series of rules and has been the barrel for at least 2 years.  We had a tasting of one white and two reds, and I think all were blended wines.   To accompany our tasting we had a plate of meat and cheese.  The cheese was made from sheep milk, with one fresh and the same cheese aged.  There was also local proscutto, and a proscutto made of the meat from the area between the eyes and neck, a salami with fennel and then a regular salami.  I liked the white wine and proscutto best.  Roger like the while wine and the regular salami.  

Notes:  The small wine barrels cost e450 and are only used two years as part of the DOGC rules.  After it is used, it is sold as used for e50, to local farmers or people who aren't in the wine business.  The huge many gallon casks  cost e1000 and can be used up to 5 years.  

28 May pictures

1.Glass demo
2.Grand canal
3.Masks
4. Gondola
5. Rialta bridge over Grand Canal

28 May Venice

28 May

Our morning started out with a stroll through the Hidden Streets of Venice.  Ana, our local guide, provided a string of information that I can't begin to remember all.  However I do remember that there are about 120 islands in the "lagoon" that is considered Venice.   There are six different districts that make up Venice, which happens to be reflected in the symbol on the bow of a gondola.  There are no motorized vehicles on the main island, so there are few fat people in Venice, other than tourists.  Venice has been part of a country of itself governed by a Doge, conquered by Napoleon, part of Austria, and eventually became part of Italy when Italy finally established itself as a country in 1862. The city of Venice was established as a result of it's inherent security from attack by living in a marshland lagoon.  They decided that trees driven into the clay ground below the marsh was the best way to support buildings, so they started building back in the 1100s.  Venice was an Adriatic trade center and was greatly influenced by Constantinople and the Moors.  This is reflected in the architecture, mosaic and Byzantine painting style in frescos.  Ana also told us that Venetian aren't that creative with their street and alleys.  If there's a church the alley way can be named the via by the church, via behind the church, which is really confusing because there are lots of churches.  We were given a map of Venice, but not all the alleys are on the map which also very aggravating.  When we left bread crumbs to find our way back to the hotel the pigeons just ate the trail.

Around 1300, another item on my bucket list was scratched off.  I have ridden on a actual Gondola through the water ways of Venice.  It was a nice leisurely row, yet it's hard to not see the humor in gondola traffic jams.  Venice in 1900 had a population over 100,000.  Today the population is about 30,000.  It is too expensive for locals to live in Venice, plus most of the properties are being bought by either the elite super rich or hotels.  Everything has be be carted in to locations, so it makes all items too pricey for the average worker.  We saw a barge unloading bricks for renovation, two bricks at a time.  The general population has moved to mainland cities with train or shuttle traffic for commuters.  Of course the town has over 2 Million visitors a year.  When we came across the lagoon in our boat we counted 4 cruise ships. There are not enough hotel rooms for as many people who come to see Venice. At noon you could stir the people in San Marco plaza with a stick.  The folks from rural Australia did not like all the foot traffic.  Roger doesn't like all the people either, which is why we're back in our room waiting for the crowd to die down.  This occurs around 1700, because most of the tourists head back to the cruise ships or to the mainland.  

Shopping in Venice is pretty much tourist targeted such as Murano glass, Venetian masks, Milliflrori glass, and basic Italia things that are seen in any other city, (just like in any tourist place in the USA.)  Roger even noticed his gelato was more than other places he's tried.  Even the toilet is more expensive, e1.50.  (Other places have only charged e 0.50).

Tomorrow is an early start, as we have to get our luggage to a boat for shuttle back to the mainland at 6 am.  We don't leave until 730, because it takes a lot longer to move the luggage than people.

27 May Weird Hotel Internet

27 May

We left Firenza and took at expressway to Bologna.  Bologna was a medieval town that grew into a major city during Mussolini's time.  Unfortunately since it was a critical hub during Mussolini, it became an Allied target during WWII.  Several old buildings were bombed, but have since been repaired to their old original state.  There's one tower that was missed that was built in the 11th century, which is now leaning due to the weight of the tower.  We didn't have a guided tour through the old part and had about 2.5 hours to wander the streets.  Roger and I ended up in the University section which was rather far from the old section where we were supposed to meet up.  Fortunately we were able to find our way back but I think it was an indication of things to come later.

After Bologna we got back on the expressway and headed to Venice.  The men that Roger talked to were all amazed at the passing skills for the large vehicles on the highway.  From our bus, it looked like we could touch the truck we were passing.  Inches not feet folks.

Venice is like nothing we've ever seen.  First off we had to take a boat to a landing and then walk to our hotel.  Our luggage was sent ahead of us on a boat.  We stopped at a Murano glass blowing factory called Arti  Veneziane alla Guidecca.  Each piece is made by hand and some of the pieces in the gallery were amazing.  Roger really wanted to buy a parrot piece, but it was a mire e9800.  I talked him out of it, with the statement "where would we put it?"  I found a piece for e12,000.  The overhead of the showroom had amazing chandeliers.  Pictures were prohibited in the showroom, but allowed in the demonstration section.

After we spent time there, I suspect our luggage had been boated to the hotel.  There are no cars that we've seen on Venice, boat or foot is the way to travel.  Roger and I went to a grocery store for a light supper and found it by watching people go by with COOP bags.  We made it back to our hotel by shop navigation, as oppose to map navigation, because the alleys are not marked well on the map.  This evening we had a boat tour of the Grand Canal and a couple of side canals.  The Grand Canal is about 1.6 miles long, but you don't get a sense of length going through the various side canals.  Several of the pedestrian bridges are low, but Roger didn't bump his head.  Once we finished with the boat ride, we had alfresco drinks as a group in the Grand Cafe.  Venice is known to be windy, and both of us can confirm this fact.  We sort of got turned around on our walk back to the hotel in the dark.  The streets look very different in the dim lights of the alleys.  Fortunately we figured it out and we made it back.  Our guide, Mario said that getting lost is all part of the Venice experience.

26 May No rain, just lots of wind

Today in Firenza (Florence) we didn't have any rain, some sunshine and lots of wind.  It was blustery and chilly still.
This morning our group was out the hotel door early to get to the Academia (which is the Academy of Art) where Michelangelo's David and several un-finished works are.  The museum part of the Acadamia opens at 8:30 and our group went straight in first thing.  There are 4 statues that weren't completed by Michelangelo in various stages.  They weren't finished because Michelangelo was comissioned for them, but didn't get regular payment for work accomplished.  Apparently this happened rather frequently, where a piece was comissioned and then the artist didn't receive payment or was short changed.  Michelangelo would just quit working on local pieces.  The original David is now housed inside to protect it from pollution, graffiti, vandals and pigeons.  David is not proportional is some parts of his body, but anatomically correct with veins and muscles.  His head is too big, as are his hands and feet.  It was against the law to dissect the human body, but that didn't stop several of the great Rennaisance artists, including Michelangelo who was known to rob a grave or too.  There are absolutely no pictures allowed in the Academia.

After the Academia we went to the big three piazzas in old Firenza.  Of course we also saw Florence's Cathedral which is made of three colors of regional marble-- green, pink, imperfect white. (Perfect white was used in art works, so there was plenty of marbled white to use for building.  Iron veins in white marble made the stones considered imprefect, although David was carved out of such stone and Michelangelo just incorporated the verticle streaks into the legs of David to look like hair or veins.

The city of Florence is trying to encourage cleaner air, so all electric cars get free electricity for charging.  Roger stood by a Twizzy to give you perspective on the size of the most popular vehicle.

After seeing the piazzas, our group went to Peruzzi leather factory.  Peruzzi makes all of the big expensive named brand purses that are made in Italy.  You can buy an unmarked purse for 1/3 of the cost of a marked purse.  By putting Gucchi, or DG, or Coach hardware on the purse the cost triples.  I did not buy a purse.  Peruzzi also makes beautiful leather jackets, belts, and shoes.  When we were there around 1100 it wasn't all that crowded.  Roger and I went back a little before 2 (for a pit stop and nothing else) the place was packed by Asians with money to burn.

We had time to ourselves a from around 11 to 1400.  I had asked where the fashion shopping area was, so we wandered over in that direction. First we walked down to the Arno River, to see the old bridge, which is now Via Oro.  The bridge is the only bridge across the river that wasn't destroyed by the Nazi's.  Today there are a lot of gold shops in the ground level of the street over the bridge.  There were a lot of people window shopping.  After the bridge, I went into several stores looking for a "mother of the Groom" dress and was only seeing things that were too young for me or too trendy.  Roger got bribed with gelato, and was able to find "man chairs" in a few of the stores.  I stumbled across Luisa Spagnoli and was helped by a very nice sales lady.  I tried on about 10 dresses.  There were two that both Roger and I liked.  Roger couldn't make up his mind which he liked better, so he told me that he wanted me to buy both.  So I bought a navy blue dress and a coral dress.  Both dresses are very different from anything I've previously owned and haven't seen anything like them in the USA.  Of course I haven't been looking in the USA, but I know they'll both be fine.

We made it back to the hotel, unloaded our rain gear out of the backpack and headed back out for a stroll.  In the lobby of the hotel there was a map that showed that there was an Ice Cream festival in a different piazza, so we sort of headed in that direction.  The piazza was extremely crowded and seemed like where we were there just happened to be a vortex of high speed wind.  The festival required tickets for the gelato and the line was extremely long (similiar to some of the museum lines we've seen) so Roger decided that he could skip the competition gelato.  Instead about 2 blocks away he had shop gelato.  So he had gelato twice in one day.  We also had pizza for supper, which is generally a good option for us.

Tomorrow we are going to Bologna and then on to Venice.

26 May pictures in Firenza

1.  In front of church

2. Church tower

3.  Electric single person car

4. Statues in old Firenza piazza

5. Peruzzi purses

6. Old bridge across Arno river

25 May pictures

1. Pagan floor
2. Michelangelo statue
3. Chapel fresco
4. Gelato
5. Siena square
6. Towers of San Gimigmano

25May

Under the Tuscan Liquid Sunshine
So we are experiencing the coldest Spring in the last 30+ years, along with the most rain in our guide's memory.  Today it even sleeted on us in Siena!  I had on a t-shirt, long sleeve shirt, a jacket, my rain coat, my hat, a bandana around my neck and yes I was still cold.  I wasnt the only one on the trip who consulted the average temperature for Central Italy in late May/June.  Roger was also bundled up to.  To add insult to the unseasonably cold, it is also windy!

Now on to what we did today.  We left Perugia and headed to Siena.  Our local guide was very good. She told us that in the medieval times, the city was divided up into something like districts based on the local church parish.  There are 17 groups in the city.  Where you are born and baptisized determines what group you're a member of.  Our guide was a catepillar, who married an elephant.  But they may have lived in the dragon sector, so that means their children (if they had any) would have been dragons, not a catepillar or elephant.  It was very interesting to tromp around in the cold rain to notice the different demarcation symbols on the street corner buildings.  Often cases the street was the neutral zone between groups.  Unfortunately the computer to the big church now museum went down, so we had to freeze around waiting for hand written tickets.  Our guide stood in line for awhile and just as he got to the front the computers came back up.  The church was interesting.  During the 1200s, the Black Plague went through the town of 50,000 that wiped out the population down to 10,000.  Only the rich were able to escape the plague and so the church was left unfinished because the workers all died.  The church if had been completed would have been bigger than the Sistine Chapel.  It now is just an interesting building.  The people who were building the church, both the patrons and workers were extremely superstitious as well as religious, so the building is an ecletic  mixture of Roman Catholic themed walls and ceilings, and pagan floors.  There is one family chapel that has some amazing frescos, and there are also two lesser works of Michelangelo, which he never got paid for because the guys responsible for paying him, kept saying tomorrow to him.  So that's why there are only two pieces instead of more that he was originally requested to do.

Siena also has a unique horse race once in July and once in August.  The Campo Square, which is in the heart of the city has a big area where a square perimeter sand horse race course which is made twice a year.  Originally the 17 groups had a horse in the race, well over time in the 1850s the race was changed from once a year to twice, and entrants reduced to 10 competitors per race.  Each group draws a lot to determine if they can enter the race.  Some districts don't get to race, and they may not get lucky in the August race.  The race is three laps around the course and no rules apply other than the bareback jockeys don't have to be on the horse when the laps are finished.  There is no fiancial prize money, but bragging rights for 1 year.  Our guide said that it was the medieval version of the Kentucky Derby.  The inside of the square is shoulder to shoulder people like the Kentucky Derby infield.

After Siena we got back on the warm bus and headed to San Gimignano.  There it rained on us again. San Gimignano is reknown for it's towers.  Rich people showed off their wealth by building towers.    During the hayday of the town, there were 87 towers, however none could be taller than the cathedral tower.  Today only 11 remain.  Roger and I went to a viewpoint and despite the weather saw some pretty Tuscan landscape.  San Gimignano also has a four time winner of the International Gelato Competition, so naturally we had to try some, even though we were really cold.

We're now in Florence.  Tomorrow we see Michelangelo's David.

24 May pictures

1 Etruscan burial site.
2. Tuscan villa.
3.  Building with former familr crests that reflect generations of various families and leadership.
4.town square.

Cortona

24 May
A casual trip to Cortona, which is an Etruscan town in a huge valley that was absorbed by the Romans.  The valley is where Hannibal with his elephants lost to the Romans.  Our first stop was at an Etruscan burial mound about 2200 years old.  Then we stopped for a stroll to see a typical Tuscan villa and then on to the town/city.  Once again construction started out with temples to the gods, which were then built on to either make a church or public office building during the Middle Ages and then eventually absorbed by the construction of the D'Medici family in the Renanisance.  There are a lot of different architectures to see and then amalagated into functional stores on the ground floor and of course apartments on the top.  Today was only a half day of formal touring.  Free time in the afternoon, so naturally Roger and I had to find a self serve laundry, because we've been gone for 10 days and the dirty clothes were overtaking the clean ones.  There's no way I'm going to wash/rinse out a pair of Roger's jeans in a sink or bath tub.  This should take care of us until Athens.  I'm glad I live in the USA, because for the most part we haven't found anything cheaper here than at home.  It cost us 18 euro for doing just two loads of clothes.

I'll post some pictures once Roger loads them on his Nexus.  It seems to be working out OK traveling without a laptop, just some interesting work arounds.

23 May pictures

1. Basilica of St Francis of Assissi. (It stopped raining just in time for our 5pm stroll thru old Perugia, but it was chilly despite having cleared off.)
2. City wall of Perugia.
3. Augustus city entry ruled for 44 years until about 14 AD.  Took with smart car to give size contrast.
4. Roman aqueduct which is now used as a major walk way for University students.

Rain

We left Orvieto and it was raining.  We made our way through the countryside to Perugia via Assisi.  A lot of the road wound through the Tiber River valley.  There was a lot of evidence from the February flooding, as trees were swept along the banks on both sides and left in strange places as flotsam.  There is a large reservoir from the daming of the river, but it was unable to prevent flooding.  Fortunately it was in February so the spring wheat crop had not been planted.  I suspect the valley would be spectacular in the sunshine, but we just saw it gray, albeit green and dismal.

At Assisi there is Italy's number one religious pilgrimage site, the Abbey of St Francis of Assisi.  The abbey and it's churches are dedicated to the Franciscan order, plus there are convents of the St. Clara order.  St Francis lived until 1224, for about 44 years.  Apparently according to church records he performed several miracles and was beatified only two years after his death.  The church was built on an old church, which was it's foundation.  The lower church supports the upper church, which was completed only 10 years after construction started in 1236.  The old church was the first church in Italy to have stained glass windows.  The new church lost all of it's stained glass windows in an earthquake, which was interesting because it was built almost directly over the old church that didn't loose any windows.  The new church also lost two sections of the roof and 4 people died, whereas only minor damage occured in the old church.  Pictures were not allowed in either church.  Both St Francis and St Clara's remains are in the basement of the church, in there respective dedicated areas.  St Clara was a follower of St Francis.  Her order is a cloisted order.  St.  Francis of Assis is the patron saint of Italy.

Assisi is a walled town, that has about 3 miles of wall fortification.  The weather did not lend itself to walking around the town.  It was definitely damp and chilly.  Of course that did not stop Roger from having some gelato after lunch.

We left Assisi and headed to Perugia, which is the capital of the Umbria region.  Italy has regions like the US has states, as a result of the country's unification in the late 1800's.  Tomorrow we'll be going to Tuscany to visit a town with a little bit different history.

Umbra is known for Italian terra cotta, ceramics and dairy products that include soft cheese and milk chocolate.    We're going to have a guided evening stroll around Perugia, if the weather cooperates.

22 May pictures

Inlaid wood items for sale.

Ceramics in Orvieto.

The walled old town of Or

vieto.
The Duomo in Orvieto.  The mosaic is up close but it on the front outside of the building.  The sides as and back are striped.

A long day on the bus

22 May

First stop Notturno Inlaid Wood Factory. A guy gave a talk about how his factory does traditional inlaid wood.  Wood is cut into 1/8 inch thick boards and left to dry for 5 years.  Wood used:  mahogany, olive, lemon, orange, umbrella pine and oak.  The wood is then cut again after curing into very thin shirt cardboard for laminate.  Then between 12 to 24 sheets are stacked and brad nailed together.  Next the stencil is put on top and then very careful jigsaw cutting occurs to cut the wood pattern out.  There's 50% waste in every stencil, put this is part of the traditional process.  After the cutting, the pieces are put back together in a jigsaw piece process.  The framework has masking tape applied so the pieces stay put once the puzzle is put back together.  Once the laminate is re-constructed, the laminate is fish glued to the backing board and left under a great amount of pressure for two days.  Then the piece is finished with high grit sanding to remove any paper and masking tape prior to finishing, either with 9 coats of polyurethane or buffing for finishing.  After the talk, we went into the shopping showroom.  Because the process on any piece takes at a minimum of two months to finish, not counting wood curing time at the start, pieces were somewhat pricey. There were a couple of interesting pieces, but we decided that if we were to buy something expensive, we'd prefer to buy American.

After we left the wood factory, we spent well over an hour in Italian traffic trying to get to Naples.  They had closed 2 tunnels so we had to crawl through the local small laned towns.  The tunnels are being worked on due to age and getting ready for the serious summer traffic.  We made 3 stops enroute to Orvieto and finally arrived at 1530.  The town is a fortress town, so you have to take several escalators (for the tourists) or stairs up the hill side to get inside the city walls.  The stone that most of the buildings are made out of is tofa, and has lasted for centuries, looks like a cross between red lava stone and light brown brick.

Once our suitcases show up, Roger and I are headed out for a stroll after sitting on the bus for so long.  I'll try to post some pictures later.  There's a 1300 Duomo in the town, which is considered a holy site.  Our guide really didn't do a good job explaining why it's holy but I might learn more from our visit.

Capri

21 May
Today we took a fast ferry over to the island of Capri, playground of the rich and famous, as well as the average tourist.  The restaurants have boards with pictures of the rich and famous from Dr. Oz to Jackie Kennedy, as well as familiar faces that we couldn't remember their names.

The island has three distinct tiers.  The lowest tier is the harbor where all the ferries come in and the fishing boats, and tour boats work out of .  There is a funicular up to the town square on the island with all the shops, jewelry, leather, clothing, kiosks with a variety of lemon products, sunglasses as well as countless gelato stands.  We walked up to the Roman Garden which Emperor Agustus had built around 70 BC.  The island was orginally inhabited by Greeks, who were eventually conquered by the Romans.  It continues to surprise Roger and I how civilizations use former civilizations construction as foundations for their building projects.  In the late 14th century the Carthusian Monastery figured out how to make water into perfume by the addition of various scents from flowers found on the island.  Today the factory continues to manufacture 13 different perfumes and au de toilettes for sale.  The favorite is Floiri de Capri which is refined floral notees dervied form the lily of the valey along with wild carnation blended together with the enimatic allure of sandalwood, glang-glang and oak.  This perfume was not my first choice, as I was able to pick out the most expensive perfume manufactured.  Needless to say (Lynda) I didn't by the most expensive, but opted for the most popular instead.

After seeing the Agustin garden we wandered around the island.  Unfortunately there are a lot of private villas which limited the walking away from the crowds of people.  Of note Capri was never attacked during WWII and General Eisenhower had a meeting with Winston Churchill on the island according to our guide.  Roger was unfamiliar with this meeting, as my history addict didn't know about this which could have gotten lost in translation.  It is interesting to us that the Italians don't necessarily remember that they were allies of the Germans, as there have been frequent statements about the German attacks and occupation.  The only mention of the Italian government during WWII was a comment about a road built by Mussilini during the late 1930s.

When we got back to Sorrento this afternoon, Roger and I went on walk through the town.  Unfortunately it started to rain, so it wasn't as pleasant as it could have been.  We had lunch at a trip advisor restaurant, and it was just OK.  The calamari was rubbery, not nearly as good as last nights.  Oh well.  After several more trips down less trafficed alleys we had to stop for ice cream.  Apparently there's a definite difference between gelato and ice cream, but Roger hasn't figured out what that difference is.  Regardless Roger hasn't had a bad taste of gelato since he started taste testing it.

I keep forgetting to write about this.  Trent and Lynda-- there are NO STARBUCKS in Italy.  I was told by an Italian barrista that the idea of Starbucks was based on Italian Cafe places.  Italians do not drink expresso in anything but a stoneware cup.  They enjoy the tradition of stopping by their favorite coffee bar for a quick expresso.  You pay the cassa first and are given a receipt, which you take to the bar and get your order filled.  You won't get served if you don't have the receipt, because that indicates you haven't paid for anything.  We learned this in Rome, when we ate first and then went to pay and the cassa was confused about our order or doing things.  Fortunately it wasn't busy, so paying for a Coke Zero and sandwich didn't cause us too much of a scene.

Apparently Italy has joined the rest of on time Western Europe and has definitely gotten organized over the last 25 years.  Even traffic is more organized since we were last here.  Sadly Napels continues to be very polluted and there is an LA like brown haze that can be seen from Capri.

Tomorrow we leave Sorrento and start heading north towards Florence with an overnight in Orvieto.

Pictures from Capri

The perfume factory on the island.

The second level of the island and town of Capri.

Our approach to the island.

Flowers on the island.