Southern Tuscany in spring

Castello di Ripa d'Orcia--we stayed here.  This is from a hike down to the river
where the vineyards are.  Beautiful views, beautiful place if you can stand the
castle keepers (remember Marty Feldman in "Young Frankenstein??")

Well, we have really done some traveling and are far behind on posting!  It started four weeks ago with a trip to Naples (forthcoming) for the weekend to see Naples and Pompeii, and then Debra and Lulu (from England) came for the week to visit.  That Friday spring break started and the boys and I took the train to Milan to meet Fred...only his plane out was diverted to Pittsburgh instead of NYC...long story short, he met us the following night in Prague (to follow!) where we spent a long weekend, then flew back on EasyJet (cattle call style seating just like Southwest Airlines only people are much more aggressive!).  What do you know, the national Italian MTV awards were right out in the Piazza with 20,000?? teenyboppers and music so loud it shook the 15th century window casings!  The boys both invited friends to watch the whole thing from our windows and Fred and I protected our cochleas in the back rooms!  The following day we rented a car and spent four nights in southern Tuscany.

So, the long and short of it is that we spent Easter in a 13th century castle (Castello di Ripa d'Orcia) in val d'Orcia.  We were the eggs in the castle!  Lo and behold, we found out shortly before going that Fred's old roommate from medical school (Jon Ark) was going to be only 15 km away in Montalcino at exactly the same time we were there so we joined them for dinner two nights and a tour of the winery Il Poggio Antico.  They were staying at an Agriturismo, which I discovered is fairly common in this area...the vineyard owners set up apartments, old farmhouses, new condos so that tourists can stay right in the vineyards!  Though I am not a wine drinker, I enjoyed the tour of the winery and and their olive pressing plant.  This particular agriturismo had over 500 acres of which less than half was devoted to growing mostly the Brunello grape for which Montalcino is famous.  There were also acres of olive groves.  Compared to old days, this is all high tech now...I love the oak barrels from France at 70,000 euros apiece. But that's okay...the vintner gave us a tour and he was a fifth generation vintner.  We learned what I'd heard in Florence: you only want to buy cold-pressed, extra virgin olive oil.  Cold pressed for the obvious reasons the heat doesn't destroy the oil (light, heat, and moisture...that's why olive oil should be stored in a dark bottle so it doesn't oxidize) and "extra virgin" because it's the first press and they are allowed to use 10% of pits, etc. in just plain old "virgin" olive oil...which means there might be an extraction with petroleum products involved! We also learned the Brunello wines Fred bought have to age for at least five years.

But, I think the highlight was really the countryside.  We had read about this area in National Geographic Traveler Tuscany (I highly suggest this as it's so complete) and the Tuscan Blue Guide (if anyone out there is thinking of going to Tuscany and touring around, I would highly suggest both...they complement one another with the Blue Guide also including some really out-of-the-way places to visit), GPS (ours didn't work), and a big map of the back roads of Tuscany.  In spring, the fields are all shades of green and the red poppies start popping up everywhere.  The grapevines are all espaliered and just starting to show some leaf action. There are miles of undulating hills with rows of poplars and cypress and acres of primly pruned vineyards everywhere.  Not to mention, medieval castles on hilltops sprinkled everywhere!

I mentioned above we stayed in val d'Orcia in Castello di Ripa d'Orcia....the views from the castle were stunning and the castle itself was pretty self-contained with a little church, a bell-tower, etc.  The castle keepers, unfortunately, seemed to have been locked in the castle far too long and leaned out of the belfry bellowing when we brought our friends in (for twenty minutes one morning just to see our place), insisting that they leave.  Really, that was the only down side to the whole trip.  The castle was in a wonderful location a few miles from San Quirico d'Orcia, a lovely little walled town which doesn't make it in the guidebooks.  We were close to and visited the fortress towns of Montalcino and Montepulciano, both of which are known for their wines as well as Pienza, a beautiful Pope Pius II "designed" hill town  which is also known for its peccorino cheese (sheep, that is) and Bagno Vignoni where the town square is a sulfur thermal bath from the Roman times! We also visited the Sant'Antimo abbey (the one Charlemagne stopped and had built in gratitude right where an angel appeared to him telling him to grind a local herb, now named "carolina", to cure his troops of a crippling mysterious disease on their way back from a conquest in Rome)...it was good Friday when we visited so it was interesting to see Christ on the cross draped in red. Nearby was the extremely quaint and quiet, pristine castle village called Castelnuovo del'Abate and we walked through the little single street one morning just as people were starting to come out of their enclaves.  We also visited Abbazia di Monte Oliveto Maggiore (the other of southern Tuscany's great abbeys) which was surrounded by cypresses, olive groves and oak woods and has an incredible fresco cycle on its cloister walls by Luca Signorelli and Sodoma showing the life of St. Benedictine.

I mention all this to remember it...it truly is some of the most beautiful countryside ever and just a drive through this area (without even stopping off to peer into the castles and castle towns and abbeys) would have been enough! 

 

view from Montepulciano

The Arks and Duffys at the Agriturismo Poggio after the wine tour

Easter Day in Pienza's main square!

Ryan on the "main street" of Castello del Nuovo dell'Abbate

Ryan and Evan at dinner in San Quirica d'Orcia

Abbey of Santa Maggiore Oliveta (frescoes of St. Benedict's life by Luca
Signorelli and Sodoma)

Bagno Vignoni--where the town square is a thermal bath!

window in Castello delnuovo del'Abbate



Sant'Antimo Abbey






Villa La Pietra in Florence

I was kindly invited by Nancy, a retired principal, who is staying in Piazza Santa Croce area and has been coming to Florence yearly for the past 10 years (!!) to go on a tour of the La Pietra estate yesterday.  Tours only occur on Fridays by appointment and she said I wouldn’t want to miss it.  It turned out to be one of those beautiful, clear cool days that the Italian guide said only occur with the tramontana (winds out of the north from the mountains). 

This is a lovely villa from 15^th century Florence (then, actually the countryside) that was bought in the early 1900s by the Acton family.  Arthur was a Brit and Hortense was the daughter of a very wealthy Chicago banker. Nice combination: Brit with exquisite taste and pedigree funded by American banking money.   Sir Harold Acton was one of their two sons…the other son died in WWII and Harold inherited the property.  When he died in 1994, he bequeathed the property and 110 million to New York University to maintain in its exact state, inside and out. Our Italian guide told us that it probably would have fallen to complete ruins if he left it with the Italians, since there are no tax breaks with inheritances or not-for-profits and the Italians have a ton of “other” buildings and art to keep up with.  She said many buildings go to ruin here for that reason.  The Actons had acquired several villas on the surrounding properties and those are used for NYU students who study abroad at the NYU campus. Sometimes, visiting professors, etc. stay in the upstairs' rooms of La Pietra.  We were told yesterday that over 80 American universities have presences in Florence! We couldn’t take pictures inside but I will say this is one place to see inside and out—the original villa belonged to one family during Renaissance times and then was bought by the Caponi (=castrated chicken in Italian) family and their coat-of-arms is still seen in one of the sitting rooms! However, Hortense (daughter of very wealthy Chicago banker) liked the Medici coat-of-arms since they were also bankers and there are several of these displayed throughout the house. What is interesting is the eclectic combination of medieval and early Renaissance to high Renaissance art that the older Actons collected.

Apparently, Renaissance art really didn’t have much of a price tag until about mid-20^th century and a number of British and American collectors made some very fine purchases. The guide said that in the early 1900s the Italians were clearings out villas, convents, churches, etc. that were no longer inhabited to make schools, apartments, etc.  There was an abundance of cheap art. The villa was occupied by the Germans during WWII and Harold’s mother was imprisoned and then went to Switzerland and then recovered the villa after the war.  The villa had some of the old red-tiled Tuscan floors plastered over and then drops of paint applied and varnished to create the “alla Veneziano” floors that look like the precursor of present-day linoleum!  There is an eclectic mixture of carved wooden holy figures, paintings, even crèche pieces from Naples (which is famous for crèches…we were in Naples last weekend and I promise to post something shortly on that visit).  There is a grotto right outside one of the studies…grottos became popular here after the Medicis had one built off the Boboli gardens.  They are pretty macabre looking with plastered over shells, etc covering walls and ceiling and usually with some type of fountain—apparently to recreate something from Nero’s villa in Rome which was discovered buried under sand in the 1500s. There are statues and tapestries and paintings as well as collections (Chinosie as Hortense loved Oriental art) and apparently upstairs there are costumes that they collected for their “theme parties.” 

Our guide said, their son Harold spent his life as an “esthete” keeping up the family property…however RWB Lewis said that sir Harold was a respected author and poet.  I read that DNA testing has revealed that Sir Harold (who never married, had no children) actually had an illegitimate half-sister and her family is contesting the estate.  Oh, the lifestyles of the rich and famous.  We saw the pictures of Princess Di and Prince Charles on one of the tables…they spent a week of their royal honeymoon at La Pietra.

Outside there is a commanding view of the countryside…and I mean commanding, especially in the spring.  They employ 8 full-time gardeners year round (and 4 extra in summer) to keep the gardens in the same condition they originally were when the Actons lived there.  NYU even imports water in to maintain these (they are apparently against disturbing the property in any way, including digging for a well…).  The budget for the garden is far beyond the budget used for maintaining the villa!  The Actons stipulated pink roses and there are only pink roses on the property…the guide says they wanted to create an Italian garden but it really is a British garden.  There are “14 shades of green” in this garden and it was meant to have outdoor rooms and even an outdoor green theater.  It is absolutely gorgeous and well worth a visit!

view of olive trees and surrounding villa where students stay

La Pietra villa

the back of la Pietra



view north from gardens.  Look at that wisteria!

more wisteria

a hole in the trees for views

southern view from garden...of Duomo

the lemon garden

more of the lemon garden...limonarium in the photo is where
lemon trees are stored in winter

the "outdoor theater" where performances occurred in summer

garddens and old watering trough for horses (decorative!)

Fred in Dallas...San Gimignano

   After our return from Paris I spent the next week in florence with Renee and the kids.  I went to some of Renee's activities, such as a cooking class she was taking.  I think she already showed a picture of us but it was myself and nine women...very nice!:

  Renee and the boys have been to several Tuscan towns and she has blogged about some of these: Siena, Voltera, Pisa.  We took out a bus out to San Gimignano, the epitome of a Tuscan hill town.  Pretty touristy but it has 14 of the original 72 midieval towers still standing and very scenic.  We had a nice lunch and I had a Tuscan delicacy for the first time: boar stew...not bad.  Wild boar, or cinghiale, is served in many different ways.  Some photos of the town and views around it:

A wall surrounds the town and this is the village below:

 

    I had a great week in florence and could choose form hundreds of pictures...the Duomo, the Bargello (incredbile, worth a separate entry), Santa Croce, Oltrano...the list goes on.  My last day there we went up to Fiesole, a small hilltop town overlooking florence founded by the Etruscans about 400 years before the Romans founded Florence.  Great Etruscan and Roman ruins and a neat little museum.  We had lunch in a favorite local spot, Ristorante Perseus where I had ribollita, a Tuscan favorite...a traditional peasant dish with vegetables, bread, and spices.  Mine was incredible.  Ahh the best part of travel.  We met an old gentleman at the table behind us, a shoemaker who had taken up painting in the past 10 years.  He has only been out of Florence three times in his life...in his early 70s.  As sweet as they come!:

                            

  I head back to Italy this Saturday...first stop, Prague!



Fred in Dallas...more about Paris

   We were only in Paris three days but boy did we pack a lot in.  As I metioned in my last post about Paris, we walked everywhere, same as Rome.  I love walking around a city...you learn so much more about its people and its secrets.  I do the same when I travel in the States.  I rarely take taxis...much prefer just hoofing it.  And the surprises and great finds you stumble upon..always the best part!
   I am not a student of architecture but how can you not be fascinated with it when traveling through these ancient cities of Europe.  Below are the flying buttresses of the exterior of the Notre Dame Cathedral:

   Beauty and strength, just like the human body.  I remember learning when I first visited Paris that the cathedral took 190 years to build!  Multiple generations worked on the building, just like the Duomo in Florence.  Here is a picture of Evan outside the Sorbonne...that great Parisian institute of higher education.  We are trying to play with the image a bit to make it look like he is lifting that steel container...his composition!:

  And oh the flower shops...and bakeries...and wine stores!:

  We dined at a restaurant called Nicolas Flamel, named after the 15th century alchemist who supposedly discovered the philosophers stone.  Reportedly he was JK
Rowlings inspiration for some of her wizards in the Harry Potter series.  He founded a home for orphans and the restaurant is housed in this ancient building:

Great fun and a great meal.  Incidentally, this is our second time staying in a reasonably priced little hotel 5 mintues from the Louvre, Hotel Therese...neat little place and reasonably priced for Paris. (http://www.hoteltherese.com/)
    We spent time in the Louvre which is so massive it can intimidate the average tourist...there is so much to see.  So the key is to go in and spend an hour or two and then come back if you want to see more.  We did run by and see the Mona Lisa...have never really understood what the big deal is with that painting.  The boys chilling in one of the galleries:

Great tip, don't wait in line at the main glass entrance by IM Pei, get your tickets on line or go in one of the side entrances and walk right in.  I loved looking in this one room where they were unpacking new or stored antiquities... the place is busting with masterpieces!:

   We walked up the Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe, which was commissioned by Napolean to celebrate his victories.  By the time they finished it he has lost more than he had won and had long ago been banished to Elba.  The four of us on top:

That gal on the left really wanted to be part of our family but we eventaully ditched her.  And a shot of the city with the Eiffel Tower:

  Paris was fantastic...great art, great food.  It just has a very unique feel.  The statue below is in the Jardin des Tuileries, between the Louvre and the Arc.  The poor guy is very sad...there are constant birds on his head crapping on him...or maybe he's sad because of his small penis?  I guess we'll never know.

  So after Paris we went back to Florence, the boys went back to school, and Renee and I had the chance to explore a little each day.  Though she has posted on some of the things we saw and did, I will add a few more pics and thoughts next time...

An Argument for Travel During Turbulent Times - NYTimes.com

Fred posting from Dallas.  I have always enjoyed the writings of Paul Theroux...a wonderful travel writer that has been writing about travel for decades.  Attaching an article from the Times he published yesterday.  Are there dangers when traveling, particularly in hotspots or troubled countries?  Absolutely, but most of those dangers can be avoided with common sense.  I believe there are also dangers in not traveling: complacency, missing out on so many wonderful experiences and cultures, not realizing that people everywhere are by and large decent and peace-loving.  Most dangerous of all, however, is my belief that when we don't travel we believe our country and our society has all the answers, does everything the best, and everywhere else may be nice but is a distant second to our utopia at home.  We are trying to teach our children that there is a whole world out there...full of adventure...waiting for them.  My commentary for today!  fjd


An Argument for Travel During Turbulent Times - NYTimes.com

Rduff in Russia

 Rduff and frinz on a huge pile of snow. There was about two feet of snow in Novingrod, so that was fun..even if I was not very prepared with my clothes.

The queen of Russia's summer house...nice

Berestra Palace

Questo è Ryan. I just returned from Russia. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life. For the first 4 days, we went to St. Petersburg, and the last 3 we went to Novingrod. The trip was a MUN conference. MUN is Model United Nations. So, I was pretending to be a delegate from South Korea. Preparing for the conference was difficult, but actually lobbying and debating was fun and enjoyable. A few times I did drift off into sleep though because of the lack of sleep from the previous night. Aside from the conference, meeting new people was very fun too. I made friends with many people from Egypt, Panama, and other countries. At night we would stay up and hang out in other people's room and the hallways. I'm going to miss doing that. We also toured quite a few museums including the Hermitage, which was nice....I guess?  They were interesting at first, but at the end I had had basta ("enough" in Italian). We also saw some ballet and traditional Russian dancing. This was a very unique time for me, because I have never gone on any trips like this with people my age. It was fun pretending to be in the UN. It was also a great bonding experience- I made friends with a lot of people at the school that I never would have expected being friends with. NOICE RDUFF NOICE

Primavera and more on Venice

C’è primavera!  So I will have to post a few pics of the very beginning of spring here. Sometimes on the weekends, I take long walks east along the Arno River past the end of the paths.  The snow melt from the Apennines is occurring and the river is swollen and muddy now.  The weekend before last, I noticed a number of fishermen wearing red shirts and spaced evenly apart fishing along the river.  I should have gone down and asked if they were a club. There were several people out sculling. At least once every century, there is a massive flood…the last being in 1966 where the water level rose 16 feet over the banks of the Arno and really wiped the city out.  It’s very interesting that the two most prominent floods both occurred on Nov. 4^th in the double digit years 1333 and 1966.  I finally found the plaque on the corner of via San Remigio and Via de’ Neri that commemorates both floods…it was too high above my head to take a picture.
There’s also a lot more activity on Piazza Santa Croce with marionette shows, fiddlers and drummers on the weekends.  Also, posting some more pics from the trip to Venice this past weekend!

Italian flags and laundry!

Band on Piazza Santa Croce

Love this door, even has the lily symbol of Florence

Arno River

Fishermen club on the Arno!

Pazzaglia Sculpture Garden with Italian cypresses

    

Florence is full of towers but most of them have been
incorporated into buildings.  This one is part of a hotel in Oltrarno
(which means "other side of the Arno").  Tower houses "grew up" in Florence
in 1200s and served the dual purpose of home and fortification as there were
frequent rivalries between families ...when necessary the families would close themselves
inside their tower houses which had very tiny entrance doors up high accessible
by ladders they would pull up.  Later in the 1400s the towers signified "prestige" so
wealthy families would just build them on alongside their palazzos.  When a family fell into
disgrace, the top of the tower would be "lopped off," a sort-of tower castration!
By decree, they could not be higher than the Bargello (current day national sculpture museum
that used to be the police headquarters and prison)


Evan and I underneath Palazzo Ducale





Murano glass


 

Top of San Marco Church from the side


 

Mars in the courtyard of Palazzo Ducale



The Virgin Mary with a rifle and votives! (inside San Marco)..ok, I don't
have an explanation for this one yet but I like the sentiment



View of  side of San Marco Cathedral



Roma outside San Marco



canal with leaning tower

View of San Marco area from back of Palazzo Ducale

 

Grand Canal in the morning by San Marco

Jackie, Dad and Evan having gelato in Venice.