Wow, our 2 weeks in Tuscany, beginning the last week of July, were about the best time we've ever spent! We had the time to see a lot but also took time to relax and play at our rented villa and in the pool. It was such a great balance!
(For pics of our trip: www.flickr.com/clarke-family. There were too many to choose from for me post them in the blog.)
We flew into Rome and spent 2 days exploring the city. It was 100+, but we managed to keep from melting with frequent water breaks and a water spray bottle - we kept spraying the boys and the little breeze cooled us off (for about 5 minutes!). We walked all over, from the Coliseum to the Pantheon and from the Trevi Fountain (where we threw coins in, of course - so we'll be going back) to the Spanish Steps at night. We went to the Vatican, saw the Castel St. Angelo and crossed the Bridge of Angels. It was a quick 2 days, but we weren't going to be in Rome at all originally, so it was a bonus.
We drove north out of Rome to our villa in San Giovani Valdarno, in the heart of Tuscany. After two days touring Rome in the sweltering heat, we gave ourselves the next 2 days off. We stayed at the villa, swam in the pool, played games, got groceries and hung out! We were really ready for touring again on the 3rd day and we spent it in Florence.
We managed to miss the train to Florence (the trains after commuter hours don't run as frequently, and we were not awake during commuter hours) so we drove up. We went first to the Basilica di Sant Maria del Fiore (with it's Duomo). We walked around the outside, checked out the huge golden (replica) doors of the baptistry and then climbed (463 steps) to the top of the cupola. The frescos on the inner wall of the duomo are pretty amazing, especially viewed from the walkway that passes in two places on the way to the top. The view from the top was a good way to see the layout of the city.
After climbing down, we walked through the markets in the surrounding streets and squares. After picking up a few things we found a pizzaria and had lunch and a rest. Afterward we headed to the Academy and home of Michaelangelo's David. The boys were amazed at the size of the statue. Jordan remembered learning that David holds the stones for his slingshot in one hand and he pointed them out on the statue. The boys also thought it was cool to see the unfinished statues, with the figures "emerging" from the stones they were cut from. There were other interesting sculptures and paintings, and a photo exhibition, too. The rest of our visit we wandered the streets a little. Because we planned to return another day we head back to our villa before too much longer. Everyone was in the pool about 10 minutes after we got back. The next day we had "off" from touring and swam and hung out at the villa.
Our next day of touring took us south, toward Orvieto. We had seen the city on it's rocky crag on our drive north from Rome. We drove up to the central square near the "zebra stripped" cathedral with beautifully intricate, colored mosaic patterns along the outside walls. We wandered into the heart of the town from there, looking at all the ceramic displays and charming alleyways. We wound our way to the old caves where pottery was once made. That explained why most stores sold ceramics (not leather goods like some other towns). From the caves we headed across the city toward St. Patrick's Well, which is, well, a well. It was made when the pope was somewhat in hiding in Orvieto and wanted a source of water in the case of a siege. So a very big well was carved out of the volcanic tuff, with 2 corkscrewing passagways big enough for a donkey and cart to pass through them. This was done so one could be descending and another ascending at the same time. It's amazingly precise and detailed, and simple and deep. We hiked to the bottom (which was very cool and refreshing) and back out again (to where it was 100+). From there we walked back into town, had granitas (think slushie) to cool off, bought a few ceramics and headed on to Civita di Bagnoregio.
Civita is a very small town (12 official residents) and sits on a sort of rocky peak. The surrounding area is lower, making Civita stand out like an ant hill. It's a quaint town with lots of ivy and plants softening the stonework of all the buildings. Very picturesque and unique!
The next day was another day of "rest" and swimming, and had the added bonus as being the "boys and dad cook dinner" night! They picked lots of tomatoes, some zucchini, onion and garlic from the garden at our villa, and with some pasta cheese and sausage from the store made a lasagna from scratch. It was fun to watch them figure it out with Kevin's help and all had a hand in putting it together. It turned out delicious, too! It was the best lasagna we'd ever eaten. They made another one during the 2nd week.
After our play day and yummy lasagna dinner, our next touring day started with Siena, in the heart of the Chianti region. As we crossed over the hills from where we were staying, it was amazing how suddenly we were in obvious wine country. Vineyards, wooden casks at driveway entrances, and old-looking wine estates. We first headed to the main square. It is sloped and shaped almost like an arena. There's a horse race each year around the square where riders wear medieval costumes styled like the old ones worn to represent the prominent families. At the lower end of the square is the city hall and tower. The tower in Siena is one of the highest we've climbed. And, it has parts that are barely wide enough to get though and low enough that Andrew had to duck to keep from hitting his head. But the climb was worth it for another great city view from the top of the tower.
Next we walked around Siena's "zebra church" and decided to go into it. The floors were covered with marble scenes, huge paintings were hung along the walls and there were statues and carvings everywhere. There was a "library" which had large books with large print and musical scores. We think these were medieval song books. They were precise and beautifully illustrated, with vivid colors. The walls and ceiling of the library were covered in frescos.
When we'd seen enough of Siena, we continued on our way to the small, walled city of Montereggioni. This was a defensive post for Siena to guard against armies from Florence. The city wall is still in tact, as well as many of the 14 towers along the wall. We were able to walk along a section of the wall and see what the soldiers saw as they scanned the horizon toward Florence watching for signs of an attack.
Last on our day's agenda was San Gimignano, another medival, walled city north of Montereggioni. San G. is larger and has many buildings with their towers intact. The story there is that the big families of the town started building towers bigger than their neighbors, to show their "larger" status. At one time there were 70 towers, about 14 of which are still standing. Because the "one-upsmanship" was getting out of control, the city put a limit on the height of new towers being built. (Of course, some ended up higher than the limit anyway.) San G had lots of shops and felt pretty "touristy". Kevin and the boys think they had the best pizza of the trip there from a shop on the main street. We drove back late in the day along the Si-Fi (road between Siena and Firenze/Florence). Late at night, below a full moon, we had an almost-midnight swim in the pool.
We headed back to Florence for another visit next. This time we parked along the south side of the Arno, not far from the Pont Vecchio. A class of painters was just setting up along the river, angling toward the bridge. There were about 8 women and a man who seemed to be the instructor. We crossed another bridge and went toward Piazza della signoria. This piazza is filled with sculptures and fountains. The great thing was that some of the statues were of references the boys know and that tied it in for them better than some other random "art" we've been seeing. One well-known character was Perseus with Medusa's head (which Cosimo put up as a warning of what would happen to anyone who thought about attacking his city). There were also pieces with Hercules, a centaur, and a fountain with Neptune surrounded by water nymphs (tribute to Florentine success at sea). An interesting series of statues of women depicts the women of Florence through time, each with a different style of dress and head piece.
From the piazza we headed down to the Pont Vecchio. It was very crowded and lined with jewelry shops. Along the open parts of the middle of the bridge, we saw (not for the first time) locks attached to the low wrought-iron fence surrounding a statue. Not just a few but large clusters of locks with couple's names written on them. One was even engraved with a couple's names and a recent date - like a wedding date. We got into a conversation with another visitor and a local and found out that couples put their names on the locks and lock them to the bridges or other places around the city and the legend is that if you do that the couple will always stayed "locked" together. There must have been thousands of them - every so often city workers will come and cut all the locks off, and then there's room for new ones to be added.
At the other end of the bridge we stopped to look at the paintings a woman was starting to put out for display. We liked 2 small ones of different styles but couldn't choose between them. So we bought both and took a pictures of the boys with the artist.
We continued from the end of the bridge toward the Baboli Gardens, but unfortunately it was closed (it was the first Monday of August and they close the first Monday of the month). So we steered back into the middle of town to find the gelato shop owned by the family who owned our villa, Gelato Caribe. Others told us that their shop is where the locals go for the best gelato. And it was the best we had in Italy (we had some nearly every day). It's a small shop but the consistency and flavor of their gelatos was delicious. Because we were renting the villa from them, we were given 2 containers of it each week with 2-3 flavors in each. We were very spoiled!
When we headed back to our car, we were happy to find that the painting class was still there after 4.5 hours! We took some time to look at each of the paintings. It was cool to see the difference between the styles of all 8 paintings! A few were very realistic and others were more impressionistic. Some seemed better than others. One woman had done her piece in pastels on black paper and it had a very unique look to it. Very intense, dense colors.
On the drive out of town we wound up to the top of a hill on the south side of the Arno. From there we had a fantastic view of the city skyline, the Pont Vecchio, Baboli gardens and the river. Very impressive.
Two days later we headed west out toward the Mediterranean Sea. We planned to be in Pisa in the evening for a trip to the top of the tower, but we wanted to start our day swimming at the beach. Our landlords recommended we go to Castiglioncello and we found the "beach" there. (The beaches in no way resemble what an Oregon would think of as a beach. It was small, crowded, and rocky. But it was also warm, light blue water, and in Italy, so we dealt with it.) We spent some time at along the rocky beach, swimming in the water. Then we moved to another area with some small cliffs where the boys spent hours jumping off. They loved being able to jump off/dive off/flip off the cliffs with some other kids. And it was a beautiful setting! We could see Alba (Napoleon's exile) and another small island off the coast, and the water was such a vivid lighter blue.
Later in the afternoon we showered off and packed up for the drive to Pisa. We were able to drive into the walled city area to park and walked over to the leaning tower. It was fun to see the boys reactions as they realized just how much the tower is leaning. We had time to walk around, watch people pretending to push the tower over for photo opps, check out the surrounding area and get some dinner. Around 7:30 we were in line, tickets in hand, to go up in the tower. Groups of 25 or so are allowed up in the tower for about 20 minutes. We all marched up the spiral steps, peeking out as we rose toward the top. It was fun to notice the the pitch as we wound up - on one side it felt like we were going almost flat and on the other side it would seem steeper. On the "sides" we pitched either left or right. The stairs are worn to one side or the other from everyone "leaning" their way up. The boys commented on how weird it was to be up so high, on something that was leaning, with only a small railing to keep us from falling. We had timed out tour to be at the top a little before sunset. It was a beautiful night and the city was glowing. Gorgeous view! Before long the guard was ushering everyone back to the stairs for the climb down. We could have stayed at the top for hours!
The next 2 days we enjoyed hanging at the villa and driving through some small nearby towns. In the evenings we drove up into the hills, one night using "the force" to find a way to the top of the hills near our villa. We were able to get to a tiny town, way up high, where there seemed to be a youth event, a party or dance in a central building. There were 5 or 6 old men sitting on benches along the side of a small square, talking and watching the night unfold. As we started back down the hill we had a wide view of the valley, with light twinkling here and there in the dark. We stopped at Loro Ciufeena, a small town perched on the steeply cut edge of a stream/river. There were a couple of stone bridges crossing over to the main part of the town and a gelato store was at the foot of the bridge. The owner had lived in England for years and then came back to Loro Ciufeena, where she and he husband grew up, and now had the gelato store and 2 bars in the town. There was an old mill a little further down the way, but it was too dark to see much detail on it. The town had good out-of-the way vibe and we went back the next night, too.
On our last day in Italy we drove back south toward the airport in Rome. We made one stop on the way to see the city of Arezzo. We started at the basilica of Francesca, where Piero della Francesca painted a cycle of frescos depicting the Legend of the True Cross. The frescos are impressive and full of symbolism. All the walls of the basilica were covered in frescos, but unfortunately not all are in good condition, with huge portions having fallen away over time. We walked throughout the city, looking out from the walled gardens at the high end of town, past the cathedral and through a couple of squares. We didn't have a long time, and needed to continue on to Rome, where we caught our flight back to Belgium.
Our two weeks in Italy were great. It was such a good pace, to have the play days in between the touring. And although it was extremely hot (hovering around 100 most of the time) the heat was surprisingly bearable. Truly a unique experience.
This year Mother's Day was on a Saturday for me. (Kevin was in Oregon that weekend and on Sunday one of the boys had a basketball tournament all day). So we made an adventure of it one day early. The boys and I went to Paradisio, an hours' drive south into the French-speaking half of Belgium. Paradisio is a huge nature and animal park. A couple of the boys had been there for a school trip and raved about being a very cool place.
