Overnight in Umbria

What a difference two hours of travel makes, the driving time from frenetic Rome to bucolic Umbria.  We arrived early enough for coffees at Aldo's in Panicale where we spent our vacations in 2006 and 2007.  We missed seeing Beth Johansen and James Aponovich, he being the Painter Laureate of Vermont. They come to Umbria every year to do photo realistic pencil sketches.  We then travelled to Paciano from where we wound our way down narrow dirt roads to Il Fontanaro.  We were met by Giovanni and his fiancé who are getting married in June at the church in Paciano. Lucia was at the church service to restore good relations with the priest after her daughter Alina had announced to the priest that she was agnostic.  While waiting for Lucia, we were given a tour of the property including the mill where they process their olives into award winning olive oil and a wine cellar loaded with the finest wines of Italy and a selection of foreign wines which usually includes a cab-sav from Cloudy Bay. 

Next we hosted Lucia and her sister at lunch at Il Casale where I had made a reservation in the name of Carlo da Canada and the owner Josefina recognized us after so many years.

After lunch we checked into our accomodation which was drop dead beautiful.  In the evening we returned to Il Fontanaro where Lucia prepared a a saffron risotto accompanied by sautéed artichokes and followed by a desert of strawberries that tasted like they had been picked an hour earlier. 

On Monday morning we went back to Aldo's for coffee and a breakfast croissant and then to the market in Chiusi.  On the way home we stopped in Orvieto to visit the cathedral.  

The picture below is the view of Orvieto from where we ate our panninis for lunch.

Life Italian Style

Gail Flitton sent us a great video on the difference between Italy and the rest of Europe. After seven weeks here we can vouch for its accuracy.

http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CDwQtwIwAg&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dvf1NUbzeVHY&ei=Sf9jU4PhOM7zoASW44KACg&usg=AFQjCNGmXb0Mpe4udPJquQWg4j7RtoNdqw&bvm=bv.65788261,d.cGU

Today (Saturday) we visited a decommissioned power station which now houses Roman sculpture and  mosaics.  The hall housing two ten cylinder Diesel engines driving 6,500 KVa generators is lined with statues.

Several statues caught our eyes. 

As did the mosaics.

Following the visit to the power station, we went to EATALY, a multi floored complex devoted to food, wines and restaurants.  We ate a the fish place.

Galeria Borghese and the Gardens at Tivoli

On Tuedsay we visited the Galeria Borghese.  Like the Vatican Museum, reservations are needed to visit the galleryand must be booked well in advance.  But unlike the Vatican Museum they do not let a hoard of visitors in at the same time.  Napoleon bought at fire sale prices part of the Borghese family art collection which is now at the Louvre in Paris.  What remains is still most impressive, particularly the sculptures by Bernini and the paintings by Caravaggio.  Below, Daphne is saved from being ravished by Apollo when her father turns her into a tree.

Below is a painting by Caravaggio of his young friend and good drinking buddy.

Today we drove to Tivoli to visit the gardens at Villa D'Este, the country home of the son of Lucrezia Borgia.  These are probably the most grandiose of all renaissance gardens and are over the top in every way.  Bob and Nancy Hunt cuddle next to la Fontana dell'Ovato.

Below is a view of the garden taken from above the Fontana di Nettuno

We lunched in Tivoli at Ristorante Sibilla di la Mura Luigia where the outdoor seating area is adjacent to the ruins of two Roman temples.  The antepasta trays also are spectacular.

Two outside walls are festooned with plaques commemorating the visits to the restaurant of just about every member of European, Asian and Middle Eastern royalty.  In spite of this, the place is good value for the money.

The City of Saints

With a million and a half pilgrims in town for the beatification of two ex popes, we decided to mainly stay out of town and when we did go into town on Saturday we visited the ghetto which was pretty well a pilgrim free zone.  

We had gone to the airport on Friday night to pick up our guests, Bob and Nancy Hunt from Arlington, Va.  I had set the airport desk for National Rentacar, which is located in a tower across a bridge from the airport, as our meeting point.  As we had arrived early, I ignored Lynne's advice, and decided to be cute and meet them as they exited the baggage hall.  Somehow we missed them among the mob of arriving pilgrims and I had pocket dialed my phone to shut off the ringer, so I didn't receive their call from the National's parking garage where they had gone after they couldn't find us at the desk.  We went back to the desk where I saw I had missed a call and we finally sorted things out.  This morning sitting at the same table Bob and I could not get our phones, with their Italian SIM cards, to ring when we called each other but my phone rang when Nancy with her USA SIM card called me.  Only in Italy.

On Sunday we watched the ceremony at St. Peter's on Italian TV and were surprised to find out that we missed the actual moment when sainthood was bestowed on the two ex popes.  In the afternoon we visited a huge plant and flower sale at an agro Turismo near our appartment.

Today, all the museums were closed except one good one that we had already visited.  So, Bob and Nancy headed into town to visit that museum and Lynne and I headed out to a golf course where we finished playing just before the heavens opened up.  We had the weather in mid March that we expected to have at the beginning of May and now we are having the weather we expected to have in mid March.

Where have those Etruscans gone?

Since the last post on Monday, it has been a fairly quiet week.  On Tuesday we had our language exchange with Crisitiana and her friend Giulia, a delightful 84 year old resident of Trastevere who worked for 20 years as the secretary of Crisitiana's boy friend.  As Giulia does not speak English it was a one way exchange, pretty much all in Italian.  In the evening we celebrated Lynn's birthday for which Bob McConnell cooked up a feast which featured artichokes alla Romana and a spaghetti with scampi.

Wednesday was a down day and except for a session at the golf practice facility we spent the day here catching up on our reading.  Today, after dropping off Bob and Isa at the airport, we headed to Cerveteri to find out what happened to all the Etruscans who used to live there. It turns out that tens of thousands of them were buried in the nearby necropolis.

We spent the morning walking through this incredible city of the dead, taking in a video at the presentation center followed by a tour of three of the more important tombs, including the one where the Euphronius Krater, a marvelous Greek vase was found.

Until recently this was a prized possession of the  Metropolitan Museum of Art, but has now been returned to Italy where it is on display at the Villa Giulia in Rome.  The circular tombs of the necropolis are not built up.  Instead, the tufa around them was carved out to leave a tufa cylinder into which a tomb was hollowed out and then a sodded dome of soil was placed on the top of the cylinder.  An exception was the Rilievi tomb which was dug deeply into the tufa and accessed by a stairway.

The interior of this tomb was by far the most spectacular.

The Ragein Trajan

The emperor Trajan owes his column and his fame to the two wars he waged against the Dacians who were a primitive barbarian tribe who lived in the forests of Transylvania.  He also left his mark on downtown Rome with his forum and with his market that we visited today. Trajan's market has all of the characteristics of a multi level shopping mall. 

The best thing about the place is the spectacular view that visitors have of the Romn forum area.

Back at the appartment, Lynne is studying Italian on Duo Lingo

Easter Weekend

Good Friday was not just good, it was excellent as it included a game of golf and lunch at Terre dei Consoli.  We were welcomed by the golf pro who is from Montreal and the General Manger came around to our table at lunch to present us each with a bag of golf tees.

Friday night, Bob cooked up a Spaghetti with a Scoglia (from the reef) sauce which was equal to the one Lynne and I had eaten the day before at Trattoria Buoni Amici.

Saturday was cool and wet and Lynne and I stayed in doors most of the day.  In the late afternoon Lynne, Isa and I started watching an Italian film which turned out to be a over 5 hours long and must have originally been a TV series.

On Easter Sunday we drove out into the country to the medieval village of Calcata, a place Lynne and I had visited several years ago.

The village is now full of small restaurants and boutiques but nothing too chic or over the top. Today it was popular Sunday destination for families.  See New York Times article. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/travel/28dayout.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

The highlight of the visit was when Lynne spotted an apparition of the Virgin.  Until 1983 the village church was home to a unique relic, the foreskin of Jesus.  The locals claim it was stolen by the Vatican.

The visit to Calacata was followed by a picnic in an olive grove.  After lunch we drove over to Anguilera on Lake Bracciano for a promenade and geletos.  On the way home Bob picked up fava beans and artichokes for a pasta tonight.