Tuesday, May 9
Today is the start of our tour. We’re meeting our group at 3:00, so we have time to change hotels and explore some more. We went to the Intenational Marionette Museum, which is near the hotel. Marionettes in all sizes and styles from all over the world. Some seemed to have only 2 stiff supports and one string for one arm. Others had an elaborate mechanism of many strings. There were Thai dancing puppets, Vietnamese swimming puppets, abstract puppets for avantgarde theater, life-size Japanese puppets and more. The only disappointment was that we weren’t abel to see any of them in action, except for a few videos.
We walked to the port and saw the ancient wall, then grabbed some panini with proscuitto and very nice tomatoes. We wandered through the market we had visited previously. This time it was seafood—giant swordfish with the head displayed, whole octopus, and a lot of fish we didn’t recognize.
We met our group on the rooftop of our hotel. After introductions and procedures, we all walked through another market area, along narrow streets between old houses. We went into a door that seemed no different from any other and found ourselves in a different world. Above us on the balcony was the Contessa, ready to welcome us into her palazzo.
Her husband is descended from royalty and his family has owned this house since the 16th century, when it was build atop the ancient city walls. She doesn’t know how many rooms there are (that’s the definiton of a palazzo). She has restored it beautifully and gives tours to fund the work. There is also the only tower remaining from the ancient walls within the house. She gave an entertaining and enjoyable tour. Now, as we see the old buildings in this town, we wonder what’s inside. It could be abandoned, or it could be a palazzo.