The Crete, Abbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore, Arezzo

Sunday, October 5, 2008

This morning’s ride took us through an area south of Siena known as the Crete. The landscape is marked by a clay-like soil, rolling and eroded hills with farmhouses, villas and small towns perched upon them, and cypress-lined lanes. The soil doesn’t support the vineyards and olive groves that characterize the rest of Tuscany, but wheat is grown in abundance. It is strikingly beautiful at every turn, even when the crops have been harvested and the fields plowed under.

We wound our way to the Abbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore, where we viewed a noted cycle of frescoes depicting the life of St. Benedict lining the walls of the cloister. We attended Mass in the Abbey, the incense rising along with the chants of more than two dozen monks and priests on the altar.

Then, on to Arezzo, a partially walled city with a wonderfully atmospheric historic center. We enjoyed a memorable meal, the impressive cathedral, views of the countryside below, and the monthly antique market (600 vendors!) that lines the streets throughout the old town.

Finally, home to rest from our hard labors and prepare for back-to-the-workweek Monday!

Pistoia, Pisa, Lucca

Saturday, October 04, 2008

While it was cloudy and damp at home base, our weather forecast indicated that there would be clear skies just a bit north of here. So, we set our GPS for Pistoia, a lovely city west of Florence. The Saturday market was in full swing (leather boots for 20 euros, anyone?) but it was the setting in the Piazza del Duomo that was really worth seeing. The Della Robbia clan was in full flower in this city and their works adorn the cathedral, churches, and civic buildings throughout the city.

Pisa was the big surprise of the day. The Piazza dei Miracoli was, indeed a glorious vista; as Tom observed, it would have been fabulous even without a leaning tower. It’s a lovely green space, filled with people (like us) laughing and taking goofy pictures of each other holding up or tipping over the famous tower. The duomo is wonderful, the baptistery immense, and other buildings in the piazza combine to provide quite a visual punch.

Because we had a little extra time, we decided to re-visit a favorite city, Lucca. After doing so, it’s hard to imagine we might have skipped it. The lovely, tree-framed Piazza Napoleon, the Piazza Amfiteatro, built upon the remains of the Roman amphitheater, and the remarkable park-lined walk atop the walls all make for a very special experience.

Hope you all had as lovely a Saturday as we did.
Mel and Tom

Florence

Friday, October 3, 2008

We spent today in Florence, revisiting some favorite places and checking out some new ones, as well. As we walked through the centro storico, we were amazed by the throngs of tourists jamming the streets. The Ponte Vecchio was almost impassable; obviously, the low season has not yet arrived! We made use of our MP3 players as we walked; before we left home, we’d downloaded several audio tours. It was fun to listen to them and ditch our guidebooks for a while! In addition to having our ears fully engaged, our sense of smell also had its day today; the wonderful aromas of food and the fragrance of leather were equally enticing everywhere we walked. Today’s weather was cloudy and there was some brief light rain, but we missed most of that while we were indoors.

Chianti

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Today, we drove without any real destination through the Chianti region of Tuscany north of Siena. The views at every turn were spectacular and we enjoyed wandering around Castellina, Radda, Greve, and other small towns. Roadside olive groves, vineyards, and cypress tree-lined drives to farmhouses ensured that we didn’t care whether or not we were “lost”. After all, how can you be lost when you don’t actually have to be anywhere? We finished the day at the “Manhattan of Tuscany”, San Gimignano. This walled city of many towers is packed with tourists and the shops that cater to them. It is impressive, but it can also be oppressive, even on a late Thursday afternoon in October. We were happy to retreat to our quiet little agriturismo to enjoy our hosts’ wine and cheese while making dinner.

Mel and Tom

On to Tuscany

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

We left Bergamo and the urban north of the country and headed for sunny Tuscany. Much of our route took us through the mountainous terrain that characterizes the center of the boot, running north to south. As we passed through scores of tunnels, the cloudy skies and flat terrain of the north gave way to sun and rolling green hills. (Other than the lake areas and the old town centers in northern Italy, much of the area is not very attractive and some of the small towns are downright ugly. The scenery in Tuscany is much more interesting. Tom)

We arrived at our home for the week, which is at an agriturismo, just outside of Siena. Some years ago, the Italian government began to bolster family farms by subsidizing the conversion of some of their properties to guest accommodations. We are one of about five apartments on a farm that is situated among olive groves. We have modern appliances and bathroom, a lovely covered patio and a delightful hostess who presented us with gifts of olive oil, pecorino cheese, and red wine – all produced by her family!

We spent a couple of hours in Siena and were amazed at the large number of tourists, mostly European, here on a Wednesday in October.

We were also delighted to discover that we have Internet access here, as well. It’s slow, but better than none at all. (I even got to catch up with Tina Fey’s latest Sarah Palin spoof on SNL, but it was slow going; Thursday night’s debate will be a real test!)

So, we’ve found another comfortable temporary home and we’re well situated to enjoy a week savoring the glories of Tuscany.

Mel and Tom

Mantua and Cremona

Tuesday, September 30

First of all, I need to clear something up. Tom did not buy me one of those hats; even though I'm always ribbing him about the sorry state of his favorite baseball cap, he knows better than to think I'd don one of those!

We spent the first part of today in Manuta, a city surrounded on three sides by the meandering Mincio River. We visited a monumental cathedral, an 11th century church in the round, and several lovely piazzas in this medieval-feeling city. Once home to the Gonzagas, it was both ruled by them and the beneficiary of their patronage of the arts.

This afternoon, we visited Cremona. This city was the home of Stradavarius, the Guarneri dynasty, and other famous makers of violins and the tradition continues; the shops of today's liutai (violin makers) are everywhere in the old center of the city. In addition, Cremona's massive duomo boasts Europe's tallest bell tower.

We leave Bergamo tomorrow morning and head for Tuscany, where we will spend the next week in Chianti, outside of Siena. We have happy memories of a previous visit there and are looking forward to this one.

Unfortunately, for the rest of our trip, we will not have access to the Internet in our apartments. We will keep in touch via e-mail and I'll try top post to the blog as often as possible. Please keep writing; letters from home are as welcome as they've ever been!

Ciao for now,

MER

Pavia

The picture shows the latest fashion from Milan. I just wanted the ladies to know before anyone else. I got one of the hats for Mary Ellen.

Well, today was not one of the best so Mary Ellen decided not to post a message, leaving it to me. It may not have been great but any day here has something. We decided to go to Pavia a city south of Milan and especially to go to Certosa di Pavia, one of the must see places in Italy according to Michelin. It is a Cistercian monastery outside the city. Pavia, which has the University where Leonardo studied, was nice and we enjoyed using our Italian to get around. The first person we asked for directions turned out to be an American student studying there (who knew as much as we did) but we eventually talked with an older Italian man who brought us to the place we were looking for. It is nice to be able to ask someone directions and have them not say, “Oh, American?”. Anyway the man told us much more than we understood but we learned a little and we all enjoyed it.

The downside of the day, besides driving in the unbelievable traffic here both on and off the Autostrade, was Certosa. It was very quiet around the monastery, and then we found out that it was closed. Many of you probably know that museums and such are often closed on Mondays here, but we had made “certain” about this place. The guidebook and the monastery website both said “open every day”. Of course they meant “every day but Monday, you dumb tourist.” Such is life. I guess we now have a reason to come back. And tomorrow will be better.

Brescia and Lake Iseo

Sunday, September 28

This morning we attended Mass in one of the two cathedrals on Brescia's Piazza del Duomo. The 11th century Rotonda, as it it known because of its unusual shape, has sunk below street level; walking down into the nave and looking up at the dark, circular walls pierced by deeply-set windows high above was an other-worldly experience. That feeling was matched by the fact that the Mass was in Latin, with Gregorian Chant, which Tom and I were both amazed that we remembered. In fact, the Latin prayers and verses were considerably more intelligible to us than the homily, which was delivered in Italian!

After Mass, we explored some of the medieval streets, which exist side-by-side with the excavated remains of the forum of the original Roman settlement and the Fascist-era Piazza della Vittoria.

This afternoon, we headed for beautiful Lake Iseo, which is ringed by mountains and cliffs. We drove around the long lake, stopping to soak up the views and for a late and leisurely lunch on the patio at a lakeside restaurant. Our enjoyment of the assortment of mixed grilled lake fish was accompanied by the pleasure of watching three generations of the family (down to a toddler) who served us in their ristorante.

Another great day in Bella Italia!

MER

Verona

Saturday, September 27

Somewhere between my e-mail and Tom's my original post about our trip to Verona vaporized, so I'll back track a day and share some pix from yesterday before doing today's trip in a separate post.

As the Arena and other ruins attest, Verona was important to the Romans, Ostrogoths, Lombards, Franks, the Holy Roman Empire, Milanese, Venetians and Austrians long before Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet went western tourists there in droves to visit Juliet's home, balcony and tomb. Talk about Fantasyland; Disney has nothing on the Bard!

Verona's historic center is lovely and its piazzas were lively as people enjoyed a street fair that flowed from one square to another with music, games, and other fun framed by picture-perfect palaces and civic buildings.

MER

Lake Como and Bellagio

Today, we drove to Como, located on the bottom of the western "leg" of Lake Como, which is shaped like an upside-down "Y". We drove north on a narrow, winding road overlooking the lake to Bellagio, located at the spot where all three sections of the "Y" come together. We had our picnic lunch on a bench along the lakeside pedestrian promenade and then spent a couple of hours wandering around this jewel of a town. We returned to Bergamo via the eastern leg of the lake, on another cliff-hugging, view-filled road.

Mel

Bergamo Pictures

I'm backtracking to post a few pictures of our home base for our week in Northern Italy. Because I'm having difficulty posting images exactly where I want them and am too tired to fuss with this any more, I'll just upload them and leave them where they land! They include a view from the city walls of Bergamo's upper city, Citta Alta, a shot of the Colleoni Chapel and Basilica of St. Mary Major in the Cathedral Square, and a view of the street from our apartment window.

MER

Off to a Good Start

Our flights went off without a hitch and we arrived in Milan today (Thursday) at 6:00 am. We took a shuttle into the city, picked up a car and headed for Bergamo, a hill town about 30 miles from Milan.

With the help of our GPS system, we found our apartment just a block from the one of the gates to the upper town (Citta Alta). Our new Italian cell phone accounts (more about that later) made it easy to connect with our landlady. We're delighted with our digs for this first leg of our stay -- a fully modernized apartment in a sixteenth century building, complete with courtyard and frescoes dated 1527!

After getting settled, we took off to spend the afternoon wandering the cobbled streets and enjoying the piazzas, churches, shops, and views of the Citta Alta. We made a foray to a market for somethings to stock our frig and then headed home to enjoy our happy hour and dinner in our temporary home.

About the phones... For any of you who might be planning a trip like this, or even a shorter stay, you might want to consider getting a SIM card in the country you're visiting. Before we left home, we had T-Mobile "unlock" our cell phones, which means that the phones will now accept other carriers' cards. In essence, our own phones now have Italian phone numbers and we can make calls here as if we were locals. This is helpful for making reservations, contacting landlords to arrange to pick up apartment keys, and even keeping track of each other! All incoming calls are free (for us, not the callers), regardless of their point of origination. We know people who buy new phones to do this, but that is totally unnecessary if you have a phone capable of international use and if your cell provider uses SIM cards. We got two pre-paid SIM cards for 8 euros and they came with 10 euros of talk time credit!! Our deal of the day, for sure.

Time to close; Tom's asleep on the couch and I'm nodding and can barely type; we'll soon be making up for all that lost sleep!

We'll post some pix soon; tonight, we just don't have it in us!

Ciao!

Mary Ellen

A New Way to Keep in Touch

On this trip to Bella Italia, we're going to try our hand at blogging to replace all those post cards that we were never very good at sending. If you bookmark this URL, you can easily check on our progress and have a peek at some of our pictures (assuming that we are, indeed, better at this than we are at snail mail!) If we're not, we'll just blame it on sketchy Internet access!