A Startling Lunch

We have been having nice lunches out and then cooking in for dinner. So we had lunch at this trattoria.

Great lunch and after we paid, the waiter brought this jug of clear liquid and two stemmed glasses to the table. Wm and I thought it was some more water since we had exhausted our bottle of water and wine. So William fills the glasses up. I got a whiff and said "I don't think this is water." Sure enough, it was grappa. And there we sat with about 2-3 servings worth of grappa in front of each of us. We did our best but it is 76 proof. Live and learn.

Our Digs in Sienna

After being spoiled rotten with high speed wireless in our attic garret in Lucca, here we are in Sienna with a lovely room with a view and 14 foot high ceilings and no internet. We plan to go to either the internet spot around the corner or a free wireless pub further downtown. Our room is really large ~35x18 + bathroom but very compact. It has a loft and a kitchen in a box and the shower combines with the bath in an interesting way reminiscent of the Pleasure Way (our RV). The ceiling is painted to look like the ceiling of a palazzio. This building is about five to six hundred years old. We look out our window to where St Catherine was born about half a block away.

The Kitchen side of the room

A close-up of the ceiling

The View

Our first day here we went for a walk toward the downtown. William looked at the map and said let's just go this way. Looks like a straight shot. I looked at the map and saw some curved roads that looked like they followed the contours of the land, but OK, so off we go. Down, down a street so steep you would have slid down if it was wet to a v shaped bottom. Then up up a street that vied with Lombard, except that it just went straight up, no curves. We see almost no one on our walk, until we pop out at the top onto a broad thoroughfare filled with people. Now we walk the contours with everyone else.

My Kingdom for a Pomodoro

Who could know that grocery stores in Lucca are closed Wednesday afternoons-----or maybe just this Wednesday? I was going to make Tuscan Bread soup, but needed tomatoes and basil. William said he wanted to eat in so wasn't there anything I could do? We are by ourselves here in the B&B. Claudio is in Rome. There are impressions that he is visiting a girlfriend. Marina or Angela shows up in the AM to fix breakfast. Otherwise we are on our own and have full kitchen privileges. So I remembered watching Jon prepare some dish with pasta, garlic, herbs, bread crumbs, Parmesan, and olive oil. I found all that and some capers. So I should be able to make a dish. There is plenty of wine downstairs and fruit and cheese for dessert. Also since we are traveling tomorrow I got William a cute white chocolate heart with milk chocolate stripes for Valentine's day at the Chocolatier next door and will give it to him tonight.

A Touch of Cinque Terre

We took the train to Riomaggiore and walked the Lover's Walk (Via dell' Amore.) Cinque Terre has changed. When we were here in 1999, it had just been made a National Park. Now you have to buy a park pass to walk on the trails. Although the sea was quiet and the sun was bright, it was still off season and there were few tourists. Only saw one large Asian tour group. Since talking to Anna, we cannot automatically assume that they are Japanese, as she was traveling by herself to avoid the high costs and togetherness of a tour group. Worked for her since she was quite the linguist. For our future trip to China, although we will try to avoid a group, we will still have to hire a guide, I am sure. No tables in the sun outside restaurants on the square at Vernazza--not until Easter. So we had lunch inside. And no Valerio. After lunch we sat near the sea in the sun.

Biking the Ramparts

Today we got two bikes from the landlord, Claudio, and biked around the top of the city walls. We packed a picnic and lunched in a sunny spot. The bike/walking path on top is paved and as wide as a road. It used to be used for car races, but now it is just a park. Not too many people were using it today as there was a bit of a breeze. The bikes were single speeds that were not too bad if you ignored their appearance. Mine was totally covered with rust and the seat was badly cracked and with some holes. The brakes were really really soft --good thing I don't go too fast. William's looked marginally better but it rattled, shimmied, and the chain guard kept threatening to fall off. Claudio gave very specific directions that since we had only one lock, the bikes were to be carefully locked together if we left them. So very valuable transportation.

Now this is really Carnevale

William saw a poster for Carnevale in Viareggio. So after we had lunch in Pisa we caught the train to Viareggio. This was fantastic. Huge floats with lots of action and lots of humorous jibes at politics. The crowd was so huge we got a bit of the experience of the true meaning of the expression crushed in a crowd. The fireworks at the end were long, about 25 minutes, and wonderfully choreographed to music. We were back in Lucca by a bit after 9. Still time for a late snack.


Look very closely at the figure above William.


The revelers

We took a lot of the pictures early, while the floats were still parked. We thought they were wonderful then, but to see them lit up and full of movement was amazing. The parade itself did not start until about 5 and came to a standstill in the crush of the crowd at about 7, then, while crushed in the crowd, what seemed like interminable announcements of the float winners prior to the fireworks that signaled the end of Carnevale for another year.

Pisa

No trip to this area is complete without a side trip to Pisa. So we took the train for a side trip on Sunday.


We did not climb the tower as 1. it was a 2 hour wait. 2. the stairs are sloped, slippery and have no hand rail. 3. there are a lot of stairs. 4. the charge is 15 euros per person. Leave that climb to others.

Making Friends

Anna Wong is from Taiwan. She is a brave and resourceful young woman who travels alone to places she decides she wants to visit. We visited with her while she was here. One night when we were cooking in, she cooked in also and we shared the kitchen.

Puccini

Lucca is celebrating homeboy Puccini. So, Saturday, we went to "Una Notte All'Opera" (A Night at the Opera. It was really great. We even recognized some of the music.
Yeah, Puccini!

Lucca; Ramparts and Churches

William is up on the ramparts. These were built in Medieval times to defend the city from other cities. They did manage to defend the city from a flood in 1812.We have been in quite a few churches and I have never seen a fresco showing Mary with a sword protecting the bambino from a horrid devil.
This city has a lot of history. The Etruscans were here, then it was a Roman City with an amphitheater that seated 10,000. After the Romans were defeated by the barbarians the Roman buildings were used to build other houses. The amphitheater was filled with small huts which were cleared later so you can at least see where the amphitheater was. Here you can see houses built into the old walls of the amphitheater. L'acqua di questa fontana proviene dall'antico acquedotto Voluto. The water from this fountain comes from the ancient aqueduct Voluto. We watched a woman fill her jugs of water, then Wm went over for a drink.
William liked this lion in the courtyard of an old Palace.

Churches and Palaces

We went to the museum at San Marco church and the rest of the Pitti Palace. No pictures in San Marco. They were having a special exhibit of the work of Fra. Angelico (1400-1455). He painted everywhere from frescoes in the monk's cells to illuminations in books. In one book I think he was doodling as next to the regular illustration he painted a black and white fire breathing dog and a devil headed bird with a pink bib.
Fra. Angelica Another famous monk from San Marco was Savonarola (1452-1498). A very charismatic guy, he actually was in control of Florence for a few years when there was no clear leader from the Medicis. He was liked at first. He cut taxes and crime, but he also legislated morals with gangs of teenage thugs to enforce his edicts. But since he was also undermining the authority of the papacy, he wound up tortured, hung and burnt in 1498. We saw his cell/room with his furniture and his cape and cowl.
We had already been to the Pitti Palace, but had not been to the gardens and a couple of other museums there so here we are.

More Florence

In the Duomo Museum: Aging Michelangelo decided to design his own tomb. So he got a block of marble, but it was hard and grainy--very hard to sculpt. Michelangelo sculpted himself as Nicodemus in this Pieta, but for one reason or another it was never finished.
Donatello was old when he decided to try his hand at wood sculpture and carved this aged Mary Magdalene out of white poplar. A young Luca Della Robbia was asked to make a choir box for the cathedral. These are some of the panels that illustrate Psalm 150 of various ways to praise the lord with instruments and song. Della Robbia did no more sculpture after this. He quit while he was ahead and devoted his studio to the production of colorful glazed terra-cotta. His family continued with the terra-cotta for so long that the name Della Robbia refers to this type of terra-cotta. William especially liked this Donatello--Habakkuk. At the Medici Palace a scrap of garden and some old garden statues are left where the teenage Michelangelo lived as an adopted son, where Leonardo da Vinci played the lute at parties and Botticelli strolled.In a courtyard of the Medici Palace, Orpheus and his harp music tames the three headed dog that guards the entrance to hell. Does this bit sound familiar to you Harry Potter lovers? No pictures allowed in the Medici Chapel. This sculpture was from a special show in a side room at the Palace. Sculpted by Ciusa in 1907 it is called "La Madre del'ucciso' the mother of a murdered man. She is sitting and mourning.

Carnevale Fiorentino nel Mondo

Florence Carnival around the world. Finally we find Carnival. The parade highlighted the myriad ethnic communities in Florence--Philippines, Denmark, Eritrea, Czech Republic, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and many more. We were in the square near our apartment where the parade ended. Cute Polizia at the head of the parade. (Wm was taking most of the pictures.) A drum band led out Chinese Dragon guy gets hit with either silly string or artificial snow.Lots of energy in this guy from some unknown countryWilliam and a lush Brazilian samba dancerMe and someone from maybe IndonesiaAfter the parade each group did a performance. This group was prior to the parade. A group of school children singing old McDonald had a farm. In Italian it sounds pretty good. Ben and Axel would have grooved to it.

Lunch with Dante

We lunched at the Taverna Divina Commedia just down the street from Dante's house. On the wall they had painted "Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch' entrate." The English for that from the Inferno is "Abandon hope all ye who enter here." The lunch was very good though. I had crostini misti and a spina birra- an assortment of spreads on bread and a beer on tap.
Today we went to the Bargello Gallery and Santa Croce Church.
At the Bargello the drunken Bacchus and bust of Brutus both by Michelangelo were highlights.

This lion outside Santa Croce was really giving me the eye.
William at the sarcophagus of Machiavelli.
A precursor of Lady Liberty.
William with a fragment of the robes of St Francis, the patron saint of his birth city, San Francisco.