Sunday October 23, 2011

It is 3:30 in the afternoon and I am sitting out on our little veranda facing the Tuscan hills while writing this blog – bellissimo! Our journey today took first to the Tempio di San Biagio (see photo), a World Heritage site. It is a beautiful church in a tiny village on top of a hill dedicated to St. Biagio who takes care of sore throats. A few people on the tour seem to be coming down with colds and Manuela wanted to offer a prayer for a quick recovery. We then traveled to the small village of Pienza. This was a small medieval town that was partially rebuilt in Renaissance times by Pope Pius II because this was the town he was born and grew up in. The rebuilding was never finished as the Pope ran out of money, but what was done is lovely and this is a UNESCO World Heritage site. There were three small streets (see photo) in the town named Via Della Fortuna (street of fortune), Via Dell Amore (love), and Via del Bacio (kisses). The town itself is quite charming, but really it is the smell which grabs your attention as Pienza is known for pecorino (cheese made from sheep milk). We had time to wander the village on our own and then met in a café for a group lunch. Dave surprised me with a pendant that was made by a woman in the village. It shows cedar trees, which are made with tiny leaves – it is lovely! For lunch we had wine (Kelly and Lana had two), a zucchini and parsley salad in olive oil topped with pecorino cheese, pizi, which is very fat spaghetti (homemade of course) and an apricot flat cake for dessert. On our way back to Chianciano, we stopped in Bagno Vignoni. This is a tiny village with only a half dozen houses built around a large pool of volcanic water (see photo). It was constructed by the Medici and now there are also a few modern hotels/spas here for those people who wish to bathe in the hot sulphur water. There was an archaeological site nearby of the ruins of some grain and wool mills. The location was spectacular and we had a lovely visit before coming back to our temporary home. After resting for a bit, we started out to dinner at 6 PM. After walking all over creation and finding that all of the restaurants open at 7:30, we made our way back to the hotel and ate in the dining room since they opened at 7:00. Dinner was delicious. I had tortellini in a homemade clear broth and a salad. We will probably skip our walk tomorrow morning as we will leave early for Siena and also because we will be doing a lot of walking there on the tour.

Saturday October 22, 2011

We skipped walking this morning as we had an early bus ride and knew we were going to get plenty of miles in today as we are having a walking tour of Florence. We drove through some beautiful countryside to get to Florence – rolling hills, vineyards and lots of cedar trees. Florence is one of our favorite cities. We spent three days there on our first trip to Italy and just fell in love with the art, sculpture, architecture and friendliness of the people. Nothing has changed! We had a local guide, Marco, who met us as we departed from the bus. We walked through piazzas (squares) and narrow medieval streets until we came to the Duomo. This is the cathedral of Florence with its famous Brunelleschi’s dome. We also saw the baptistry designed by Giotto with its magnificent doors made by Ghilberti. Michelangelo was so impressed by the doors that he dubbed them “The Gate of Paradise”. We then walked down to the town hall square, Piazza della Signoria, and viewed the replica of Michelangelo’s David (see photo). The original is now inside as over the centuries, it was being damaged from the elements. We also took photos of other sculptures, which were outside the Uffizi, one of the many art museums of Florence. Our next stop was the Ponte Vecchio, which is a famous bridge across the Arno River (see photo). The butchers and tanners used to have shops along the bridge many years ago, but now it is famous for its goldsmiths and jewelry stores. There is an upper floor along the span, which was the passageway for the Medici family. Our next stop was to Santa Croce where we had lunch and were on our own for a few hours until we were to meet the bus. After lunch, we visited the gothic church of Santa Croce. We saw Michelangelo’s tomb as well as Galileo’s. There were many large paintings and frescos in the church and we had a wonderful walk around the interior and out into the courtyard. We saw three weddings today – it seems as if we see at least one whenever we are on a trip. We did a little shopping on some of the small side streets and even managed to have a gelato (ice cream) before having to meet for our walk to the bus. We had two stops on the way back to Chianciano Terme. The first was to Michelangelo’s Garden – a spot that overlooks the whole of Florence (see photo – and note the Duomo with its brick dome). We saw two Lamborghini’s in the parking lot (see photo – this is in honor of you, Dan, sorry it is not lime green, but it was pretty cool!). The other stop was to the Florence/American cemetery, where over 4000 American soldiers and pilots were buried during World War II. It was a miniature Normandy with rows upon rows of white crosses. We got back to our hotel after six and then had dinner as a group right in the hotel. We started with a large buffet of antipasto. Everything was delicious and there were so many things from which to choose! We then had a choice of white or red wine – I chose red for Kelly and Dave had white for Lana. We started to giggle during the salad course. I didn’t want oil and vinegar again so I picked up a small packet of what I thought was salad dressing. We had a really hard time opening it, but I finally discovered that it was to be torn open from the bottom of the packet. I squeezed it onto my salad only to discover that it was mustard! John finally admitted that he had done the same, but with a packet of ketchup! The rest of the dinner was hilarious – the waiter was coming around and serving pasta. I could see that the portions were larger than I wanted so when he got to me, I said piccolo (small) and he said poco (this also means small, but apparently is the proper form for a serving of something). When I repeated poco, he put an additional helping on my plate! I switched plates with Dave so that I could have a smaller one and said grande (large) indicating that he had the larger one. The water came over and put another portion on Dave’s plate. At this point, the whole table was in hysterics! We were laughing so much; we had a hard time eating! I think he knew what was going on and was enjoying himself. When it was time for the main course, sliced turkey in caper sauce, one person at the table said poco and he put a tiny piece of turkey on her plate! Of course, he gave her more when he had served the rest of us. It was really funny! Dessert was tiramisu, which I can’t eat because of the liquor so he brought be a pear and a huge kiwi. I ate what I could and passed the rest around the table. We had a great dinner with lots of laughs! When we got back up to our room, we had a hard time sleeping as someone next to us had the TV on really loud and there was a wedding across the street from the hotel with loud music. I did start to giggle in bed though when I heard the band playing YMCA – it must be the universal party song!

Friday October 21, 2011

We walked this morning in Chianciano Terme, a resort town in Tuscany known for its spas and mineral waters. It was so different from walking in Venice as there the waterfront is lit up and full of people coming off boats to get to work early and, of course, joggers. Here, there are very few street lights and we only saw one person on our walk – a little tougher walking also because the hotel is on the top of a hill so you end up walking uphill at some point in the walk. After breakfast, we boarded the bus and drove through some beautiful country to reach a small hill town from medieval times, Radicofani. The village was lovely – small narrow streets (see photo), uphill to the church where we had spectacular views of the surrounding country. Back on the bus, we headed to our wine tour at Casate Prime Donne. This winery is unique in that the woman who owns it employs only women to make the wine. She thought that women were discriminated against in this field. Most wineries only employ women in the analysis of the wine and in the accounting department. Our guide grew up in both Britain and Italy. She explained how the winery was started and also about the differences of certain wines in the type of grape, how the wine is stored and how long and what type of oak it is stored in. We then went upstairs for our tasting. We were given plates of local meats and cheeses. The cheese is eaten with fruit preserves – we had peach and plum. We were given 3 different wines to taste (Dave and I shared ours with Lana and Kelly (see photo)): Chianti Superiore 2008, Rosso di Montalcino 2006, and Brunello di Montalcino 2004. We then got to taste 3 different extra virgin olive oils – one was a blend (my personal favorite) and the others were each made with just one type of olive. We drove back to the hotel and John, Lana, Kelly, Dave and I decided to do laundry. We finally found it, but it turned out to be a cry cleaners. Unfortunately, the walk was uphill – so we marched back down hauling our dirty laundry. We stopped several ATM’s (still hauling our dirty laundry) before we found one that worked with our cards, but we were eventually successful! Dave accused us of trying to replicate the Bataan Death March! We are headed down to our lecture: Italian with and without words and then we will walk a few blocks to get dinner. We are all a bit hungry, as the light fare at the winery was not intended to be a complete lunch.

Thursday October 20, 2011

No walking today. It was raining this morning and we had to have our bags out in the hall on the early side as we are leaving Venice today. We had a quick breakfast, brushed our teeth and then donned our raincoats for the walk to the vaparetto (water bus). We traveled for 20 minutes and then reached the mainland where we boarded our bus. We stopped for a break at mid morning. There was a convenience store there that sold, among other things, giant containers of Nutella (they each must have held at least a gallon!). I had seen them on display in Venice, but I thought they were only bigger than life size models of the small jars of Nutella you can buy in the States, but no, they are meant to be sold and eaten. It would be like buying a gallon of peanut butter - wow! We stopped for lunch at a roadside cafeteria located over the highway - it was quite good, especially the foccacia, except not as good as what Nick makes on the grill! The area we traveled through was quite lovely - many hills and small towns along the way. We also saw lots of vineyards and olive groves. Unfortunately, it did rain the whole way, but better a rainy day on the bus that a rainy day while we are walking around looking at the sights. We finally arrived in Chianciano in the Tuscany region of Italy at 3:30 in the afternoon. We saw our friend Susanne in the lobby - she is traveling the rest of the way with us - she just skipped the Venice pre-trip. Apparently, their hotel in Ostia, near Rome, was flooded this morning. We were very lucky that we did not get the heavy rains in Venice although they are certainly set up for rain there (see photo of the stacked wooden walkways in St. Mark's square). We had a welcome briefing by our new guide, Manuela, and then a lecture on Renaissance Art. We then went to dinner at a lovely restaurant. The food and service were wonderful. Our table was located in what looked like an old wine cellar - brick vaulted ceilings - fantastic! I managed to publish a few of the blogs and will do some more tomorrow. I will try to stay up to date now that we have internet service. The photo of the cat was taken on Burano. He (she) looks as if he is reading the Fried Fish and Potatoes sign and wishing that he could have some too!

Wednesday October 19, 2011

The three amigos went for a walk again on the waterfront. It was quite a bit warmer walking this morning than it has been, but we could see that it was going to be a cloudy day. After breakfast, we hopped on a water bus and made our way to the island of Murano. This is where all of the class factories have been located since the 1200’s. The reason that they were no longer able to be in Venice proper is that many of the structures on the island were made of wood and they were afraid of fires from the glass making. We visited one of the oldest factories on the island. At first we were given a demonstration of glass making by George, aged 76. He made a Milleflora vase – he rolled the molten glass in a tray of small multi-colored beads (see photo) and then blew and shaped the vase. It was lovely and took him only about 7 minutes! He then made a small glass horse. It was amazing how quickly he could turn and pull the glass to make the head and legs of the horse. We then went into a room where one of factory guides explained the different kinds of Murano glass to us and how they were made. It was all very interesting. We then went into the showroom and were “allowed” to make purchases if we so desired. Some of the pieces were quite lovely, but they also had lovely price tags! The sad thing is that very few of the young people today want to apprentice to become glass blower – it takes 10 years – so I am not sure what the future holds for this industry. We then went by water bus to Burano, which is famous for lace making. Here, again, most of the women making the lace were elderly. It was interesting to see as these ladies hand sew the lace instead of using bobbins (see photo). One small piece of lace may be worked on by 15 different women – each one has a specialty stitch which they complete and then the piece is passed on to another woman who adds her special stitch. Quite an amazing and tedious process. The other interesting thing about Burano is that the houses are all brightly colored. Supposedly, this was done so that the fishermen could find their houses when they came in at dusk (see photo). We had lunch on the island and then headed back to San Marco where it was raining a bit. It had been foggy for most of the day. We went back to a few of our favorite shopping spots and then went out for dinner at the same restaurant we ate at the first night. Tomorrow we will go to the Tuscany region and meet up with Susanne. Hopefully, we can publish the blogs tomorrow.

Tuesday October 18, 2011

Dave woke up with a headache so it was just John and I for the walk this morning. We took almost the same route as yesterday, but diverted away from the water for a bit to see a different area of the city. After breakfast, Andrea took us on a walking tour across the Rialto Bridge (this is the only bridge in Venice with small shops lining the sides). We meandered around stopping in places to hear small stories of the area. One of the places we stopped was at Marco Polo’s house. He was only one of many Venetian merchants who traveled to China for spices and other exotic goods, but he is the only one who is remembered as he was once captured by Genoans and put in prison for two years. While he was in prison waiting for ransom to be paid for his release, he decided to write about his adventures. This is what made him famous. After our walk, we took the water bus (vaporetto) back to San Marco. We found the post office and bought stamps for the postcards. We stopped for lunch at a cafeteria (it was okay, but nothing to write home about) and then went back to the hotel for a short break before our next walking adventure. This time we went to the Jewish Ghetto (according to Andrea, the word ghetto was coined in Venice because the area that was used to house the Jews was originally a warehouse area that was used to make cannons and the Italian word for cannon making is similar to ghetto. We came back to the Square via vaporetto and set off to do a little more shopping and to get dinner. We again came back on the early side. We downloaded the cameras and hopefully I can get some pictures on the postings. The photos today are of the Grand Canal and a smaller canal. As you can see there is a lot of traffic on the Grand Canal - you can see gondolas and water buses, but keep in mind that there are also water taxis which hold about a dozen people and zip around both the buses and gondolas!

Monday October 17, 2011

John, Dave and I went for a walk before breakfast along the waterfront. There were quite a few people out even that early in the morning – some coming off the water taxis (vaporettos) to work, street cleaners with long straw brooms, joggers, and photographers setting up to catch the first rays of sun on the water. After breakfast (the croissants are wonderful!), we had a walking tour of St. Mark’s Square by a local guide. He took us into the cathedral, which was decorated with intricate marble designs on the floor and small mosaic beads of glass on the ceiling. Much of the glass beads had a sliver of gold imbedded – it was quite ornate inside. Venice is made up of 117 islands and there are 465 bridges connecting the islands. St Mark’s Square is the lowest point on this particular island and is prone to flooding. Wooden walkways are piled in the square to be put up in case of flooding. Last year, the area in front of the cathedral flooded 200 days! We have been lucky as the weather has been sunny, but cool. After our tour, John, Lana, Kelly, Dave and I visited the Doge’s Palace and the prison. There is a bridge between the palace and the prison called the Bridge of Sighs. The prisoners would walk across the bridge on their way to public execution in the square. We then walked across the square and took an elevator to the top of a tower to get 360-degree views of Venice. It was a perfect day and the terra cotta roof tiles made a lovely picture. We stopped for lunch and then walked across the Grand Canal to do some window shopping. Most of the shops sell jewelry – some specialize in Murano glass beads. Another popular shop is of masks – very elaborate ones that are uses in February for two weeks during Carnivale (see photo). After walking along way, we stopped and took a gondola ride (see photo). We started in the Grand Canal, but then meandered down some of the smaller canals. It was a lovely day and the ride was very relaxing. Our guide was young and explained that he was the third generation of gondola owners in his family. He took us past two gondola makers’ shops right next to the canal. It is quite expensive to own one as they are made by hand and cost 40,000 euros and that you would need two in your lifetime. They are always painted black on the outside, but each gondolier chooses the insides. Ours was black, white and silver with a blue floor. We went for dinner when we got back near our hotel – it was very good. The waiter who enticed us into the restaurant was quite charming. We got back on the early side and I spent some time blogging and writing postcards before bed. I’m still not sure when I will get to post the blogs as the WiFi in the hotel is on the blink and although we passes an internet café yesterday, I’m not sure I can find it again.