Another Lazy Day . . .

Friday, 29 June, 2012

This is our last day in Tuscany.  We were very lazy.  Reading, swimming, and using iPods.  Just ran to the bank and the grocery store in Asciano.  The flies are driving us crazy.  They are all over and since there are no screens, they are driving us crazy indoors as well.  I have told the children that they get a prize if they kill one. 

Kind of dark, but it's Anneliese

Randy had the children each type a blog entry for his blog (even though we still don’t have wi-fi access).  It was interesting reading them.  Annie wrote about our overall vacations, the benefits and the drawbacks for a teenager, getting rather poetic about the beauty all around us in Tuscany.  Shelby wrote more about what she has seen, in the same run-on sentences that she speaks in. : )   Joshua dictated to Randy, focusing, of course, on the buildings, but also talking about learning new facts about places and learning more about the culture of the people that live there.  

Joshua

Tomorrow, we face a 5 hour drive to a small village outside of Sorrento.  We are breaking it up with a stop about two hours from here to see two more towns.  Slightly cooler today, but still very hot.  We washed our last load of clothes last night and when I took them out, I realized that we had set the washing machine at 60 degrees and put Shelby’s red cotton skirt in with whites.  Well, I didn’t take out any whites.  I washed them again right away, before setting them on the rack to dry, but they are still all shades of pink and brown.  We don’t have a clothes dryer, but we have a drying rack.  We set it up outside the door, and the sun is so hot and the air so dry, the clothes are all dry (even denim shorts) in less than half an hour--less time than a dryer would take. 

Shelby

Hopefully we will have wi-fi and a washing machine, and air conditioning in our new place.  But I’m sure it will be beautiful wherever we are.  It is Italy after all!!     

The Tuscan countryside at dusk

Just before sunset we took a short walk to see it--awfully pretty, don’t you think?

Asciano and the Lazy Day

The town gate to Asciano

28 June, 2011

There is no job for meteorologists in Tuscany.  Yesterday?  Hot and sunny.  Today?  Hot and sunny.  Tomorrow?  Hot and sunny.  And going out on a limb, next week’s weather?  Hot and sunny.  A few days ago, we passed a digital sign that placed the current temperature at 44 degrees Celsius--that equates to over 111 Fahrenheit!  That could very well be inaccurate, but it has been over 90 degrees Fahrenheit every day we’ve been here.  But, as the joke goes, it’s a dry heat.  It is very dry here.  The grass and weeds crunch under your feet unless watered regularly.  The lavender that fills our yard must love dry weather.   The pollinators certainly love the lavender.  When you walk down the path, the butterflies dance before you and the buzz of bees fills your ears.  Actually, the buzz of bees never ends.  You can hear it pretty constantly because of the lavender and the fruit trees and flower bushes of our neighbors.  

LIke much of Europe, Italy does not routinely have screens on it’s windows.  The only screen have seen was for a window with a huge wasp nest right outside it!  They usually have shutters and sometimes the shutters have louvers which is helpful.  Our shutters here do not have louvers, so we have our windows and our front door open most of the time to catch the breezes.  One night, our door was shut, but the light above the door was on.  I went to turn it off, but saw what appeared to be a hummingbird with a really big body bumping against the glass, probably trying to get in.  But then it landed.  Eeeeeew!  It was a huge beetle!   3-4 inches long--it was definitely a creepy Italian beetle-monster!  It continued to try to fly into our glass door until I turned off the light and it flew away.  

Today, we went to Asciano.  It is a small town nearby--complete with town walls and an archway to enter the town.  Very cute.  It has a main pedestrian street in the older part of town with all of the shops, as well as streets outside of the older part that lead to grocery stores and other places in the town.  The oldest houses are all down near the wall, while the church and a park are up on the hill.  We went into one of the stores that advertised tourist information and asked about wi-fi.  They said that Asciano has free wi-fi out in the streets.  No password needed.  Well, they do.  However, it will let you read things on the iternet, but does not allow you to go to sites that are password protected (such as email, facebook, blogger, etc., etc.)  Italy recently passed an internet anti-terrorism law that requires you to provide a passport or other information to get internet access.  We asked the tourist information person about that, but she did not understand what we were saying.  So in Asciano, you can read things, you just can’t go to sites where you create or communicate with others (is what we figure).  Our U.S. government also, is working on trying to pass bills to limit our access to information on the web.  My daughter, Anneliese, keeps me updated!  My liberal activist daughter! 

The main street of Asciano

I have noticed that in Tuscany, there are fewer shrines and the shrines that we see are more modest than in the north.  We went into Asciano’s church and it was very peaceful.  Much more spare than many Catholic churches tend to be.  Very little in statuary and the stained glass was very minimalist.  I did see a large picture of the Virgin Mary at the top of a building.  

The church

The simple dome and lantern

A photo on the main street of the Virgin Mary

So we got groceries before afternoon siesta and went back to our apartment for a lazy rest of the day.  We had quiet time, reading, napping, and playing iPod games.  Then, after a late lunch, Randy went for a walk and I went swimming for awhile with the children, then read some more and cuddled with Joshua.  After dinner, continued to be quiet time inside and outside, reading, writing postcards, talking, blogging, etc.     

In the Dome

Our lovely children in front of Florence

Wednesday, 27 June

Wow, we’ve reached the halfway point of our journey.  We had a very busy day today in Florence, as well as a few hours in Siena.

We parked in Florence across the river from most that we wanted to see, so the first job was to go down to the river and cross it.  That done, we followed the signs to the Duomo--the main cathedral in Florence.  It’s facade made of pink, green, and white Tuscan marble. 

It boasts the first dome built since Roman times.  They built the church with a space for the dome, hoping that someone would be able to figure out how to span the space.  It was built in two shells because the space it covers is so huge.  So since there is a space between the domes and staircases for maintenance, etc., the church can charge money for you to climb up.  And climb we did.  Wow, 463 steps--as Tram said, our trip is my European step program--the Duomo is my Italian stairmaster--with a view.  Michalangelo was said to get his inspiration for the Dome of St. Peter’s from the dome of Florence.  It took us about an hour and a half to wait in line, climb up the increasingly smaller staircases, and climb down.  I asked at the ticket office if there were special prices for the children (there are only sometimes).  Happily, Joshua was free and the girls were two for one!  The first stop up was the gallery around the base of the dome--on the inside.

A view of the inside of the dome from the gallery at the base

Then, up to the lantern at the top.  A lot of heavy breathing and people stepping off to the side at the landings to take a break and catch their breath.  We finally made it!  The views were great and the trip down a piece of cake.  

We made it!

The view from the top!

  

In the plaza of the Duomo, there is a statue of Brunelleschi (who designed the dome)which has him holding a compass and piece of paper with a drawing of the dome on it  and has him looking up.  If you follow his eyes, he is looking directly at the dome of the church.  

Then, this being Florence, we had to visit a museum.  The largest, the Accademia would have been about 100 dollars for our family and you have to get reservations in advance,  so we chose the slightly smaller Bargello.  It has statues by Donatello and Michelangelo and many others.    The building itself boasts a great central courtyard and loggia.  

The central courtyard of the Bargello museum

Then to walk across the Ponte Vecchio--like the Rialto in Venice, it is filled with shops.  It has the facades of houses on the outside.   You can see it in the center of the photo:

The Ponte Vecchio is the bridge in the middle

We stopped for gelato in a store that did not have prices listed, but we figures one or two euros each.  So we each ordered two scoops and they were huge!  I had a 20 euro note out to pay when she said 40 euros!  My jaw dropped open!  That’s about 50 American dollars for five ice cream cones!!!  And they were so big, you had to eat them quickly and couldn’t enjoy them.  Then we went to Siena to upload our blogs.  We went back to the same restaurant and Randy sat outside.  It worked fine until the owner arrived (after siesta), then it stopped.  I tried later and he asked why we did not eat at his restaurant and suggested that there was another spot that might work.  It didn’t, but we won’t be bothering him again.  We did see some groups practicing for the flag throwing competitions of the Palio with drums to keep them on beat--very cool!  (They’ll be in medieval costumes for the competitions, of course.  See blog of June 25 for more explanation).  

Flag throwing practice

Doing better after pointers from their coach

We have two more full days here in Tuscany and have decided not to do some of the further away daytrips, but to stay closer to home and relax.  

Uh-oh, who told a lie?

More medieval towns

Tuesday, 26 June

Today we visited two more towns.  We are enjoying just being at our apartment, we’ve been spending more time doing that.  The children have been enjoying swimming--thank goodness for their big sister lifeguard, Annie.  Randy and I have been enjoying reading and napping and looking out the windows at the beautiful scenery.  The woman that owns our place said that she didn’t put anything up on the walls because what could compete with what was right outside the windows?  Those scenes were better than any painting she could come up with.  And she was right.  

A view from our apartment

First we went to San Gimignano.  Annie observed that it is pronounced very much like Jimmy John’s.  It was very much like the other towns, but seemed to be full of tourist shops.  It also is  full of towers.  Back in medieval times, there wasn’t a lot of protection for families.  Families with money would build towers to live in to protect themselves from marauders.  San Gimignano is charming with nice squares, small little churches everywhere, tall, old buildings clustered along labyrinths of streets (that cars actually try to drive on).  It was very cute and kind of what you expect a medieval town to look like, but very touristy.    

Then we went to Volterra.  Since it is the town that is the setting for the Twilight books, we expected some Twilight hype.  But we were pleasantly surprised and only saw a few t-shirts in one shop.  The scenes for the movies were shot in a nearby town, so maybe that is the reason for the non-existent hype.  As you walk up to the older part of the village on the hill, you see what looks like a castle wall and tower--nope, that’s the prison!  Volterra is more of a town that people live in and is thus less cute than San Gimignano.  It still has some squares and old buildings and the photo of a building with the person’s head carved into it was rather whimsical!

See the little guy at the top of the photo?

All of the towns and farms in Tuscany are built on hilltops, probably for protection purposes and because it is so hilly, all of the crops are on the hillsides.  Then, they have these trees--creepy, Italian trees (Under the Tuscan Sun reference), that are tall and thin and coniferous.   I prefer my shade and fruit trees!  Joshua really likes them though.   Many homes line their long driveways with them and use them in their landscaping.  We have some in our little encampment too.  I’ll try for a photo tomorrow.  We are having to upload several days at a time since we don’t have wi-fi here.  Randy made the observation that we haven’t watched TV since we’ve been on vacation and don’t really miss it, but we do miss wi-fi.  I haven’t checked my email or Facebook in ages!  

Romulus and Remus?

Monday, 25 June

Today was a quiet day.  Randy had to go to the grocery store early so that we could have enough food for breakfast.  Then we went to Siena.  Parking was absolutely crazy--we luckily found one by the football (soccer) stadium.  Then walked to the town hall (the Palazzo Pubblico) with a large tower (Torre di Mangia) next to it.  Joshua saw the tower in a book a few weeks before we left and was hoping to be able to see it while we were here--yay!   In front of the town hall is a square--the Piazza del Campo, which has been called one of the world’s most beautiful squares.  

The Piazza del Campo

The Palazzo Publicco and Torre di Mangia

Short history lesson:  in Sienna, the power of the town was once divided into 17 tribes or clans (similar to wards or parishes), called the contrade.  Many other cities also had these, but in Siena, they continue to flourish.  If a child is born in the contrade, they are automatically become a member and pregnant women are often rushed across the city to give birth in the right place.  The contrade maintain the city’s traditions and sense of identity.  Italian law recognizes them as legally chartered communities with officials elected each May.  Each contrade has its own chapel, museum, fountain, colors, and flag.  They hypothesize that the built-in community solidarity and social control may account for the city’s low crime rate.  The Palios are held twice a year and there is a great deal of contrade activity then.  The Palios are horse races held twice a year in the Piazza del Campo.  Only 10 contrade compete each time (drawn by lot) because the track is so narrow (3 times around the Piazza del Campo).   One interesting fact is that the jockeys ride bareback and that a riderless horse can still win!   The procession before the race with the contrade in medieval costumes and flag throwing contests (remember Under the Tuscan Sun?) is long, but the race only lasts a few minutes.  The palio will be run this Friday--we saw all of the stands for spectators already set up around the edges of the Campo.  Randy found a restaurant with a very kind man that allowed us to use his wi-fi (free of charge), even though we weren’t eating there.  He invited the children and I to wait with Randy but we decided to look more closely at the courtyard of the Palazzo Pubblico and at some of the souvenir shops.   

The streets around the Campo are the typical narrow streets that are mostly full of people walking (though the occasional car slowly comes through).   All around the city, we kept seeing what we assumed was Romulus and Remus with the “she-wolf” they were mothered by (in legend).  But both Joshua and I had read that both Romulus and Remus lived in Rome their entire lives.  Then we read some of the history of the city that is here in our apartment and found that Siena was founded by Remus‘ two sons who were also, according to legend, suckled by a wolf.  One son rode a black horse and one rode a white horse, so black and white are the colors of the city.  

This color scheme seems to have been played out in the Duomo--the cathedral.  

The Duomo

The tower is even striped!

The interior

The front of the cathedral is a beautiful jewelbox in white and pink marble with a mosaic at the top and tons of carved stone.  The tower and interior are striped black and white marble.  I asked one of the staff about the pillars in the church.  They are stone on the inside and covered with the stripes of black and white marble.  Inquiring minds needed to know!    I also took a picture of the dome (though the lantern didn’t show up well becuase of the sunlight flooding through it:

We also saw the library of ancient music books.  The room was absolutely beautiful (all painted) and the ancient books of music were available to view under glass.  The illuminations on them were unbelievable.  It’s amazing that they could sing that!  

The ceiling of the library

After the Duomo we walked to our car (about half of the cars were gone by then--around 2:45) and drove home.  

We ate a late lunch, then had a quiet afternoon reading and relaxing, until the children went swimming and we had a late dinner and played cards.   

         

Medieval Towns In Tuscany

Today we visited several small medieval Tuscan towns after sleeping in and the children having a morning swim.  We tried finding the towns using a map the owner had left with a different route marked off.  We realized that it must be an old map as our small road suddenly turned into an interstate or motorway (autostrada)!  We got turned around many times because roads aren’t always labeled and the turnoffs often just list towns on that road which are hard to find on the map because some of them are too small to be on the map or are off the edge of your map.  It is very aggravating.  

We finally reached Montepulciano.  From a distant it was very impressive; old stone buildings clustered at the top of a tall hill.  We parked outside and walked in.  The old town was very cute with the labyrinth of narrow streets and walkways, but with it being a Sunday, many shops were closed and there were few people around.  There was a large square with two churches and a new church everytime you turned your head! 

Then we finally found our way to Pienza.  It is much smaller than Montepulciano, but there were more people around, which was nice.  Just as in Montepulciano, we parked outside and wandered the medieval streets.  There was a pretty church off the square with a nicely painted ceiling.  

The last town we walked in was Montalcino.  It is up on a hill with a small castle.  The walk up into town from the car walk was easy, but the castle was unimpressive.   We didn’t purchase the tickets to walk around the towers, but, at the risk of sounding pretentious, well--we’ve seen better.   

Then we tried to make our way to the outskirts of Siena to find a place to eat, but we got to the walls of the old town without finding anything open, so we turned around to go to Taverna d’Arbia--a moderate-sized town near where we’re staying.  While we were trying to find our way out, we got too close to the middle line while a car coming toward us did the same thing and they took our side mirror off (I’m not sure if they lost their mirror too).  That was very scary.  Then, again, the small road suddenly turned into a motorway and we were going the wrong way!  There are very few exits on the autostrada so we took the first one we could and turned around to go the other way while I found where we were on the map and we were then able to follow signs to find Taverna d’Arbia.  We stopped at the first ristorante we saw.  We answered that, yes, we would like to eat outside and they led us to an attractive back patio for our dinner that was not horribly expensive.  I tried gnocchi (not sure if that’s the correct spelling).  I’ve always wanted to, and where better than Italy?!  It is made from potatoes and I seem to remember reading that they are like dumplings and the dough is dropped into boiling water but I could be just imagining that too!  : )   Anyway, it was in a red sauce with buffalo mozzerella (again, spelling) and was delicioso!!  The Diet Coke with it was good too!  I have very little diet coke to drink on vacation because it is expensive to buy in the store and we don’t eat our very often.  It is healthier, but I miss my Diet Coke!  

Below, you can see two photos of our place; one is a view of Tuscany from our front door (and one of the bedroom windows) and the other is looking down on our little piece of yard full of lavender with a portico over a table and chairs.  The other is the sunset.  Still no wi-fi.

Tuscany

Today we awoke to a rooster crowing and horses neighing right below our window (sigh).  The joys of Agro Tourismo--when you stay at an agrigultural or pseudo-agricultural place such as a family farm.  The government evidently gives families a tax break or some other incentive if they also rent rooms for tourists.  It is a way for family farms or other such enterprises to stay in business plus increases the number and variety of places for tourists to stay without building more hotels.   Randy went for a lengthy walk early this morning while the children and I slept in.  It was a very eccentric place, though a bit down-at-the heels.    

Then, after breakfast, we left and went to the third of the five towns, Corniglia (photo below).  Cute town, much like the others, then we walked to the next town, Vernazza.  Because the paths are a national park, you need to buy a pass to enter.  The man selling us the path said that it was an hour walk, the sign said an hour and a half.  Neither said that it was an hour and a half uphill almost the whole way  (It was 382 steps just to reach the path!  They have a sign.)    It was a more interesting path than the other, which had been merely a sidewalk with steps built down to each of the towns.  This was through (and above!) the countryside and much more strenuous, over gravel paths and uphill.  The sea was visible part of the time, but it was difficult to enjoy the view when you had to constantly watch your step.  As we got closer to Vernazza, the path became more difficult to negotiate due to the numerous landslides of last October.  Evidence of the work included new retaining walls and bags of cement (?) or other materials scattered around.  In one part, we had to walk on the bags to descend, another walk on a wooden construction bridge, and a third, walk on planks placed over an open space.  In Vernazza, you could see evidence of the landslides.  Photos were on a wall of how high the mud had been.  The town had been evacuated for several months and they did not have water or electricity for a few months after that.  The work must have been immense.  Some buildings were freshly painted, while others had peeling paint and scars up to the level of the mud (often the entire first floor had been covered).  Vernazza was a pretty town as well.  

We had spent so much time on the walk to Vernazza, we didn’t have time to walk to Monterosso, so we took the train and walked around.  The first part of the town focuses on the beach.  You have to pay to enter the beach and then, you may need to pay also for the changing stalls and chairs and umbrellas.  There is not really any space between the rows of side-by-side chairs and umbrellas set up.   Going to the beach is not an inexpensive activity.  I’m not sure how much they charged, but since it was almost full they certainly made money.  It’s not even a sandy beach--its sand until you get to the rocks next to the water.   

After you go through a tunnel, you get to the main part of the tunnel, behind the hillside across from the  beach.  Monterosso also has damage from the landslides that can be seen on the buildings.  They also have photos set up and were collecting money for landslide relief.  

We left the Cinque Terre much later than we had expected, and proceeded to Pisa.  You could see the leaning tower from the road.  But to get to it, you had to park, negotiate some parking deal with a man walking around (scam?) and walk past hundreds of booths selling souvenirs.  Once there, it was fun to see and funny to watch tourists representing numerous countries of the world taking pictures of each other trying to hold the tower up!  We, of course, took the obligatory photos of the children holding the tower up, bought some cheap souvenirs, and headed back to the car.  When we had arrived, a man talked to us in Italian and bought us a parking ticket.  When we returned, we had to pay him 2 euros (the ticket was 1 euro 30).  So he must be making 70 cents per car that he talks to.  In a public parking spot.  Oh, well, support the local economy.  

Then we drove to our apartment.  Getting to Siena worked fine, with the maps,  watching the signs very carefully, and taking a few good guesses.  Then came to finding the apartment itself.  That took quite a bit of turning around and incorrect guesses because there are no signs or labels.  Eventually we got here.  Luckily we had stopped for dinner and breakfast groceries on the way because the stores were closed and are also closed Sunday.  We are in one part of a huge old farmhouse (originally housing 50 inhabitants) which has been divided into 4 (?) apartments.  We share a pool.  Our apartment has two bedrooms, a large public room, two bathrooms and a loft with a duvet.  Joshua called the loft.  The girls have the bedroom with the attached 3/4 bathroom.  We all use the shower there because the other is a tub with an attached hand-held shower attachment, but no shower curtain or door.  Every place we’ve stayed in has had the hand-held shower attachment.  We even have a dishwasher and washing machine.  The only thing we’re missing is wi-fi :(   So this may end up being posted later.  Randy thinks he may have found a wi-fi place in one of the neighboring villages; other than that we would have to go to Siena.  You can’t have everything!      

The Five Towns

Manorola, Cinqu Terre

Friday, 22 June, 2012

Hi again!  We have wi-fi so I can type directly into my blog and caption my photos.  Before, I had to create a word processing document and line up the photos for Randy to go into town to the wi-fi spot to upload them.   This is way better!  If you have not, please create a google account (super easy) and comment--I love to read the comments--especially when we have wi-fi access!  : )  The comments get sent to my email.

Well, today was a lot of time in the car--traveling from the Dolomites to the Cinque Terre.  We are in the town just north of the five towns (cinque=five).  The towns are all located on the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea.  They are very cute!  Orange and pink buildings, cute little streets, and kind people.  Also, not too crowded--though I'm sure it can be at times.

We took a train to the town furthest south--Riomaggiore.  It was a quick trip, and our plan was to walk back along a walking path above the sea called the Via del Amore--the pathway of love.  The walk is very flat and only about 15 minutes from one town to the next.  The towns themselves are spread out, going up the steep hillside.  Above the town are the fields!  Olive trees and wine grapes are their primary crops.

Then we walked to Manorola, the next town.  The weather here today is warm (upper 80s) and extremely humid!  So it seemed hotter than it actually was and there was no strong breeze to cool us off.  And we just felt drained.  After Manorola, the plan was to walk to the next town, but there were landslides from torrential rains less than a year ago and the path is still closed (actually, we saw it and it doesn't exist--it stops at a bunch of dirt).  It was getting late--around 7:30, so we ate some yummy pizza made with foccacia bread and went to the train station.  Due to a train strike that ended earlier in the day, the train was due to be almost and hour late.

A young (Italian?) woman on the symbol of the pathway of love

The walking path along the sea

There were some other trails leading around the landslide that may have been open, but we (all of us but Randy) were tired and drained and not in the mood for a lot of walking uphill in the humid heat.   We instead took the train back to Levanto and our B&B.  Our place is quite quirky.  We are not staying in the Cinque Terre because they all required at least a two day stay and we only had one day.  Our B&B is like a small farm or menagerie.  We counted at least 5 cats, 4 sheep, 2 horses,  2 dogs, cockatoos in a cage, and bunnies!  I'm hoping to not encounter any animals that aren't part of the "family" (such as lizards or other bugs).

Randy hard at work on his blog in the breakfast room

The house is a bit run-down, with greenery growing everywhere.  The air outside smells of flowers, but the inside smells a bit of cat litter box.  Our room with the shutters and windows open is beginning to smell more of flowers.  We have three bedrooms--each with a huge bed and we share a bathroom down the hall.  The other room--another couple is staying there, they have their own ensuite bathroom.  The bathroom is clean but could use a makeover--quite a step down from our last place!  But we have wi-fi!  (Although we don't think we will at our next place in Tuscany).