Italy 2019

Thursday, April 25, 2019 - When in Rome...

Here we are in Rome, right by the Vatican, after the journey that began yeaterday at 11:00 am. We didn’t get much sleep on the plane, so when we got here mid-afternoon we were ready for bed. But first, we must do as the Romans do and have some gelato. Then we wandered into the Vatican to verify that it really is right there. We’ll tour it in a couple days. Finally we had dinner at one of the few places open early and watched Rome walk by, or ride by on scooters.

Friday, April 26, 2019 - Layers of Rome

We started the day with ancient Rome. The Palazzo Massimo has exquisite sculptures, mosaics and frescoes. We especially liked a completely frescoed room, where a family 2000 years ago went to escape the summer heat, surrounded by a painted garden filled with trees and birds.

The rest of the day was Renaissance Rome, including the magnificent Trevi fountain, even larger and more elaborate than we expected. Legend says that if you toss a coin in the fountain you will return to Rome. I guess if someone at the edge of this crowd attempts to toss a coin into the fountain, they will only hit another tourist. There are Renaissance masterworks (and crowds) everywhere. 

In the evening we had a modern Roman feast, featuring saltimbocca (“jump in the mouth” because it’s so tasty).

Saturday, April 27, 2019 - The Vatican

St. Peter’s Basilica was well worth the ½ hour wait to get in (the wait was this short only because we came early), for Michelangelo’s heartbreaking Pieta, the amazing dome and alter canopy, as well as the massive scale of it all. Later in the day we went to the Vatican Museum. The Vatican has been collecting stuff for 2000 years and it’s all here, room after room of jaw-dropping collections of Roman sculpture and much more. Our guide helped us sort through it all and focused on some key pieces, then led us to the Sistine Chapel. She left us there since it was forbidden to talk in order to preserve the brilliance of the newly cleaned frescos from impurities in human breath. There in the center was the famous Creation of Adam, surrounded by so much more, and on the front wall the later and more pessimistic Last Judgment. After spending some time with this huge and complex work, our eyes and minds were saturated, so we left, but that meant walking through dozens more galleries and three gift shops. Whew!

Sunday, April 28, 2019 - Ancient Rome

Everywhere under Rome is an echo of the ancient world. They are trying to build a new subway line, but keep running into sculptures or other antiquities. The Colosseum is remarkably well-preserved, in spite of the iron structural elements having been scavenged. We stepped onto the stage as the gladiators did, and looked out at the seats that once held 60,000 (mostly drunken) spectators, then down into the cages below the stage that once held the fighting beasts. We then walked over to the excavation of the former Roman Forum, the center of social, commercial and political life. Little is left except for a building that became a church, but our excellent guide (all our local guides so far have been excellent) brought it to life with stories and pictures.

In the afternoon if was "arrivederci, Roma," as we headed north to Tuscany and the ancient and charming town of Volterra, where we had a Tuscan feast. We are eating very well.

Monday, April 29, 2019 - Volterra

So it’s our first day “under the Tuscan sun" and it’s hailing! Fortunately, it didn’t last long, though it was cold all day. What a change from the first day when we were wondering why we bothered to bring warm clothes when it was so hot. 

We had a tour of this ancient (5000 years old) and charming town and learned about its interesting history. It dates back to the Etruscans, well before the founding of Rome. We learned about the Etruscans and saw the oldest existing Etruscan stone arch. The Romans certainly used the stone arch to great advantage, but it was the Etruscans who invented it. The Etruscans had a strong culture, beautiful art and jewelry and strong building skills. The Romans conquered them and the victors always write the history. The Etruscans got a bad rap.

When Italy was a collection of city-states, Volterra was one of the most powerful, rival to Florence. Their town hall (circa 1200) once ruled a large area and was the architectural inspiration for Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio. Now Volterra is a charming town of about 6000, mostly artisans and restaurateurs.

We spent most of the day exploring the steep and narrow cobbled streets of town, with pizza and wine for lunch, gelato in the afternoon and wine tasting in a cellar in the evening.  

Tuesday, April 30, 2019 - Lucca and the Cinque Terre

We left the lovely hill town of Volterra, down a very twisty road and on our way to Monterosso in the Cinque Terre. On the way we stopped at Lucca, an ancient walled city, home to Puccini and Paganini. The former moat is now a wide grassy area and the top of the wall is an elevated park filled with cyclists and hikers enjoying the many varieties of trees. We wandered the narrow streets and sampled the local version of ravioli.

We continued to Monterosso, one of the Cinque Terre (five lands), formerly independent states with their own castle to defend against pirates. Now they are quaint villages clinging to the cliffs above the Ligurian Sea (part of the Mediterranean) and connected by boat, train and, for the intrepid, hiking trails.

 

Wednesday, May 1, 2019 - Exploring the Cinque Terre

This was a free day in Monterosso. We took the first boat (9:45 am—this is a lazy town) to another one of the five towns, Manarola. There we took a trail up into the vineyards above town, a steep hike up and then a long, level walk on a narrow trail. Looking up we saw grapes growing on impossibly steep terraces. Tiny grapes were just starting to form and there were red poppies sharing the rows. Looking down we saw the jumble of buildings and the sea. It was a very pleasant walk and surprisingly uncrowded. We ended with a steep walk down back into town. We had a lovely seafood lunch on a balcony overlooking the town and the sea, then took the train to another town, Corniglia. The walk from the train station to the town itself was very long and steep, so we opted for the shuttle bus. The bus could not handle all the people so there was much shoving and yelling in various languages. It’s interesting to see what happens when people from various cultures with different ideas of queuing (or not) collide (literally). This was our first lesson in the Italian horizontal queue, which involves heavy use of the elbows.

 

Thursday, May 2, 2019 - Monterosso to Florence

Our legs are sore today. Good thing there is no more hiking on steep trails. We left Monterosso, walking to the little train station, with our luggage following in a miniscule truck. We took the train to a nearby town that was big enough to accommodate a tour bus. The bus took us to Florence, with a stop at the touching and sobering American cemetery. We had seen the one in Normandy, but did not know about this. There are others like this all over Europe. It brought home the enormity of the horrible war. The graves were mostly very young men who had gone on bombing missions, knowing they were unlikely to return, sometimes taking only enough fuel for one way so they could carry more bombs.

Florence itself is magnificent. We are staying in a hotel built 1300 to 1500 in the old area. It seems we’ve been transported back to the time of the Medicis and everything looks like a palazzo. We had a walking tour of the area, briefly interrupted by a parade of the Rotary Club in Renaissance regalia. Everything is right in the neighborhood--the Palazzo Vecchio, the Ponte Vecchio (everything here is “Vecchio” (old)), the famous dome, and capped it all with Michelangelo’s David.

At sunset we went to the top of the hotel’s tower—every good Renaissance building has a tower—for a view of the city in all directions.

 

Friday, May 3, 2019 - Florence

I woke with gooey crud in my eye. Since I had uveitis I need to be very careful about eye infections. I needed to see a doctor. We agreed that we would both skip the 8:30 tour of the Uffizi and get this taken care of somehow. I asked our tour leader about finding a doctor and within a half hour a doctor showed up at our hotel room! He examined my eye and gave me a prescription for eye drops and for antibiotics in case it doesn’t clear up. Easy. We joined the 8:30 tour and then got the drops at a local pharmacy (they’re everywhere). Amazing. The Europeans have this figured out. 

The Uffizi is a wonderful art museum. It’s worth seeing just for the exquisite building. Those Medici sure knew how to gild a palazzo. The guide selected a few key works that illustrated the progression of art in the Renaissance, comparing paintings in the same room from different eras. Very interesting.

Later, after getting caught in a rainstorm, we went to the Galileo Museum. There we saw Galileo’s telescopes and other instruments of the time. It’s a marvelous collection, but it needed context—what problem the items solved. There was an app, but it didn’t load until later that evening. This shrine to technology also had a relic—one of Galileo’s fingers. Gross. There were also some 19^th century physics parlor tricks, like a wheel that appears to roll uphill, that were fun.

 In the evening we had a farewell dinner for the first part of our tour and bade farewell to the other 22 people we’d been hanging with the past nine days. This was a great feast with three pasta courses, the famous Florentine steak and the choice of maybe a dozen amazing desserts. Great way to end a great tour. Tomorrow we continue our adventures with another group.

 

Saturday, May 4, 2019 - Train to Trastevere

We took the “treacherous high speed train” (that’s what it sounded like on the announcement. It’s actually freccia.) from Florence to Rome. Fast, nice scenery, good espresso, comfy seats.

We took a cab to our hotel, this time in a different area, a neighborhood called Trastevere, which means “across the Tiber.” It’s old and gritty, very different from the touristy area near the Vatican where we stayed before. This is a community of little mom-and-pop shops, one selling meat, another cheeses, others are tiny restaurants. We are enjoying hearing more Italian than English and looking forward to exploring it more.

We met the group for the next part of our trip, southern Italy, and did a walking tour of the area and learned about its history. We walked to a nearby restaurant for our welcome feast—three pastas, a main dish and two desserts. Mama mia! It was all really good. We are eating very well.

 

Sunday, May 5, 2019 - Art and Architecture of Rome

Our whole group took the tram into town. We had an excellent tour of the Capitoline Museum, on the world’s first Capitol Hill. We learned about Roman sculpture and how to understand its context—the giant foot was part of a colossal statue of Constantine, but the sculptures of children are just lawn decorations. We learned how to identify early and late works, figure out which emperor each represents and why many statues include tree trunks (for support).

We continued our walking tour in the Jewish Ghetto. Jews have lived in Rome since 200 BC, longer than any other group, making them the true Romans. There are sobering brass plaques in the sidewalk in front of houses to remember those who lived there and were taken by the Nazis. As we walked through the area we noted ancient, medieval, Renaissance and modern in the same place. There is a 1900-year old bas relief a family that someone had purchased and placed in a wall of a building housing modest businesses. Ruins of the ancient world are everywhere.

After we finished the tour, we went on our own to the Pantheon, which had been closed during the last tour. It was well worth coming back for. This was originally a temple to all the gods (“pantheon”), with an oculus in the dome to let in light, and also tell the passing of the seasons. It was said that rain does not come through the open oculus, but there are drains in the floor. The multi-colored marbles, wide dome and glowing oculus are impressive. This has been maintained so well over the centuries since the Catholic church co-opted it and has used it as a church for centuries.

The highlight of the day was the Borghese Gallery. This former palazzo, within its surrounding park, limits visitors to its art collection to two-hour blocks that must be reserved weeks in advance. We got a greater appreciation of Bernini and Caravaggio there. We also learned that you did not want to be the owner of art that Cardinal Borghese wanted, since he would find a way to get it from you, and it may not be pleasant.

 

Monday, May 6, 2019 - Over the mountains to the Adriatic

If you were an emperor in ancient Rome you would get a big city built around your palazzo with a small lake with an island in it, where you could go to meditate or just get away from everybody. We stopped on our way out of Rome at the ruins of Emperor Hadrian’s villa. Hadrian decided to move his digs out of town and the whole government followed him, so it was more a city than a villa. It was larger than the Vatican, with just as much underground, where the slaves unobtrusively made everything run. No wonder he needed a retreat surrounded by a moat.

We continued across the mountains that run the length of Italy. We saw many picturesque hill towns. When we got to the higher elevations we were surprised to see snow on the mountains around us. There is not usually so much snow in May. This long trip was a chance to catch up on our sleep, but the scenery was too beautiful to miss.

When we hit the east coast, the Adriatic, we followed the coast around the Gargano Peninsula, the spur on the Italian boot. We stopped at the town of Vieste, a charming resort with steep cliffs and a historic core of narrow cobbled streets. It is really cold. We hope tomorrow will be warmer. We’d love to explore this town.

 

Tuesday, May 7, 2019 - Vieste

We were waiting outside in the wind to start our excursion of the day. For some reason I had taken fleece and down to sunny Italy and I was glad I did. When they announced apologetically that the boat trip was cancelled because of wind, I think everyone was relieved. Jerry and I bundled up and had a nice morning wandering through town, exploring the colorful marketplace, the fish market with very fresh whole fish, the narrow lanes and sheer cliffs.

At noon we had a pasta making demonstration at the hotel. They made it look easy. The shape of each pasta is chosen to complement the sauce. We then had a lunch consisting of three of the pastas, with appropriate sauces.

To make up for the boat trip, we had a bonus afternoon trip to an olive oil mill. Jerry chose to stay in town. We saw the trees, just starting to bloom. There are 300 varieties of olive tree in Italy.  We learned about the process of turning olives into olive oil and how quickly it needs to be processed to qualify as extra virgin. We then got to taste and compare various oils.

When I got back to town I ran into Jerry on the main street, who was there to see what was happening. There had been cannons fired and maybe fireworks announcing to start of the festival of Santa Maria of Merino, the patron saint of the town. The local marching band played in the piazza and then came up the very narrow street past our hotel. Later we headed to the main street, which was spanned by colorful lights, to join the locals strolling and greeting each other. Ciao, ciao!

When the weather is good this place is crawling with German and American tourists. Right now it’s just our group and the locals, which we are enjoying. It’s worth suffering with the cold.

 

Wednesday, May 8 2019 - Homes of the poor and resourceful

Hundreds of years ago the king taxed landowners based on the number of houses on their land. The peasants were allowed to build only one particular type of house, cylindrical walls of mortarless stone and a tall conical roof held together by a finial on top. When the tax collector came by, the landowner would remove the finial and it would all fall to rubble and he’d say, “What houses?” This clever tax dodge has left some areas of southern Italy with what look like fairy houses. While they were meant to be temporary, they have lasted hundreds of years. We visited Alberobello, where many of these houses have been repurposed as shops and restaurants. In fact, we had a lovely wine tasting in one, with a spread of local antipasti to complement the wine.

We continued to Matera, where we are staying in a cave. People have lived in caves there from Neolithic times to the early 60s, enlarging and improving them over the centuries, adding rough facades, giving the place a Biblical look. More tomorrow.

 

Thursday, May 9, 2019 - The cave dwellings of Matera

People lived in these dwellings without water or electricity until the 1960s. Behind these facades are individual caves, originally with places for the family and for their animals—a donkey for hauling, pigs for meat, goats for milk and chickens for eggs. They had a barter economy and little contact with the rest of the world. There were thousands of them, but the rest of the world did not seem to know they existed until the 1950s.

We are temporary cave dwellers for two nights. Thankfully, we have water and electricity, not to mention a canopy bed, a jetted tub and a patio with an amazing view of this other-worldly place. Each room of our hotel was formerly a home to a family and their animals. We look up at the rough rocks of the ceiling and walls and are thankful for the comforts we have.

 

Friday, May 10, 2019 - Greek temples in Italy

In ancient times Greater Greece extended into Italy, where we now find some of the best-preserved Greek temples. This is the Temple of Athena in Paestum. We had seen pictures of temples like this, but it’s only when you walk in them that you realize how massive they are. We not only walked around the outer peristyle, as the ancient Greeks did, but entered the inner temple, as only the high priests could do. The columns are not exactly evenly spaced. The Greeks did this intentionally to give the appearance of equal spacing when seen from a distance, countering the effects of perspective to give the symmetry and regularity that they loved.

We endured a harrowing minibus ride along the cliffs on a narrow road to arrive at Positano on the Amalfi coast. Imagine California’s Highway 1 with Italian drivers!  We will spend the next two nights in Positano.

 

Saturday, May 11, 2019 - The Amalfi Coast

Take the cliffs of Yosemite, add some charming houses and ancient churches, put the whole thing at the beach, and you have the Amalfi Coast. It is stunningly beautiful. Of course, every beautiful place in Italy seems to be built on a steep hill, so once again there are many stairs to climb. I am building big, strong thighs from all this climbing. (No, the big thighs are from all the pasta.)

We took a boat from Positano to the town of Amalfi, a lovely trip along the coast. There we walked the narrow main street filled with people mixed with occasional scooters, cars and buses. A few times we had to throw ourselves against the shop walls to keep from getting run over. This is good practice for Naples, which we hear is a traffic free-for-all. When we weren’t dodging scooters we admired the majolica tile that is a tradition here and ate gelato (four gelato stores in a row and another right across the street).

Back in Positano we went below the church to see the remains of a sumptuous Roman villa with elaborate frescoes, buried by the same eruption of Vesuvius that took our Pompeii. Above that was the medieval church and above that the Renaissance church that is used today. Amazing layers of history throughout the entire region.

 

Sunday, May 12, 2019 - Sorrento and Pompeii

We were amazed at the size of Pompeii, which is currently only about 2/3 excavated. It is a dense grid of streets supporting a variety of businesses. We could see Pompeii behind it, at least what is left of it after the top half blew off in 79 AD, covering much of the surrounding region. There are still some beautiful and interesting mosaics and frescoes, as well as body casts of those who died, frozen in the moment.

We are now staying in Sorrento, a nice coastal village. We took the local train to Pompeii, where we shared a car with a bunch of loud, drunk men. Ah, local color. Tomorrow we will brave the same train and go to Herculaneum.

Monday, May 13, 2019 - Herculaneum

More Roman ruins today. We took the local train (without incident), about an hour each way, to the excavation of the fancy ancient resort of Herculaneum, destroyed in the same eruption of Vesuvius that took out Pompeii. The difference is that the intense heat at Herculaneum seared the wood and thus preserved it, so there are wood structural elements still standing, including two-story buildings. While much smaller than Pompeii, the buildings are more complete and give a greater feel for being in a city. There are lovely frescoes and sculptures and the Roman equivalent of fast food joints on every corner. There is still much not excavated, since most of it is under the modern city of Ercolano. There is a magnificent villa underground, explored but not excavated, that has been reproduced as the Getty Villa in Malibu, California.

In the evening, the whole group of us went to dinner at the home of a big local family, including a couple kids and a cat. We went through their lovely garden and were then seated in a big dining room at a long table, big enough for all 26 of us. We toasted each other with wine made by Papa from local grapes, then the antipasti came--tomatoes with pesto, mushrooms, broccolini with sausage, sautéed zucchini, roasted peppers. More kept coming, all delicious. I lost count, but someone said we had 15 different dishes, including lemon chicken for the main course, probably not including the tiramisu dessert and homemade limoncello after-dinner drink. Mama mia! What a feast.

 

Tuesday, May 14, 2019 - Naples splendor and squalor

We went directly to Naples this morning, the Capodimonte Museum. This is a palace filled with Renaissance art and baroque rooms. Naples was magnificent when the Spanish Bourbons ran the show. There are also amazing, baroque churches everywhere.

We got lessons on walking in this crazy city—walk determinedly in large, tight groups and stare down the drivers. The narrow streets, the graffiti, the wild scooters was a little scary, and a fascinating contrast to the glory of the past.

We capped the evening at a folk music club with amazing musicians. Neapolitan music is not just O Sole Mio.

 

Wednesday, May 15, 2019 - Naples of ancient times, the Counterreformation,              and today

Not another baroque church! I longed for a plain room with no decorations at this point. Interestingly, it turned out the church, a private chapel of a prince, held secret messages through Masonic symbols in the statuary. The Counterreformation was cracking down on intellectual inquiry. The prince and his followers were keeping it alive, hidden among Church icons.

Next, we went to the archeological museum of treasures from Pompeii and Herculaneum. The Bourbons discovered the sites and took sculptures, frescoes, mosaics and silver for their palaces. Later the sites were excavated. Common objects, such as tools, very modern in appearance and function, were added to the collection. We were impressed with how much the Romans knew 2000 years ago and wondered what else they knew that never came down to us.

Later we went off in search of the real, modern Naples, the one with the bad reputation for crime and filth. We got lost and found ourselves in the so-called Spanish Quarter, a hodge-podge of narrow streets, hanging laundry, tiny shops and crazy motorcycles. It was so atmospheric and fun that we didn’t mind that we never got where we were going.

In the evening we had another feast, the farewell dinner of the tour. Great trip and great group of people.

 

Thursday, May 16 - Arrivederci, Roma

Tomorrow morning we fly home from Rome. We spent the morning wandering the streets of Naples, had our final pizza in a hole-in-the-wall mama-and-papa pizzeria, then took the fast train to Rome. We spent the night in Fiumicino, a fishing village by the airport.