Glady's Italy Journal - April 2007
Assisi, Italy - from bus
Assisi
The approach to Assisi is just spectacular. The road follows the flat plain and suddenly from behind the tree you see Assisi rising suddenly from the flat ground. The Basilica of St. Francis tops the left side of the mountain, and the hill town tops the center and right.
St. Francis was born to a rich silk merchant. As a young man, he liked the good life. In the army, he fought against Perugia and was captured and imprisoned. This period of imprisonment changed his life. Once home, he sold his father's silk and gave the money to the poor. He wanted to live life like Jesus; people thought he was crazy at first, but later, after several miracles, he developed a following and established his monastery. He did not stay in Assisi; went many places, including Egypt. He wanted to stop the Crusades.
Agnese told us that many professionals come here from all over the world to become priests or friars; she herself is a theology student there, just taking a break now to work.
The bus took us to the highest point of Assisi, and we visited the Temple of Minerva museum first. Amazing - temple steps and columns still in place, in spite of the earthquake-prone location. The interior rooms and stone ceilings have been in place since 1st century. The temple served as mausoleum and contained Roman gravestones. Photos were allowed - rare in museums, and I took several. The most interesting gravestone had a large phallus on top! Another told of a 20 year old soldier killed in battle, and one, a father's stone, showed a small family at home.
We walked down to the Basilica of St. Francis, where arrangements had been made for us to use their new hand-held recorded audio guides. We had used these in UK and liked them. These were a new system, and we were not able to use them. There were HUGE crowds of kids here, and we moved through rather quickly. Then we got a little lost going back up hills off the main roads. Had lunch at a Trattatoria. I had pasta with porcini mushrooms (delicious!), and Larry lasagna. I ordered a red wine, which turned out to be a small pitcher - three glasses. Larry was forced to help drink it. That helped us have a good nap.
On the plain below Assisi is the church commemorating the place where St. Francis received the word, and where he died. Agnesa said this church is a church built over a smaller, older church. It is "not so old - 1500's!"
Michael organized our final dinner in Perugia at the "best" pizza place in town, Mediterranean Pizza. The whole group of us went except Agnese who had the night off. She had told us it's a lie that pizza was invented in the U.S. - it comes from Naples/Napoli, her home town. We sat with Ron and Sue. Fun people! Then we all went to the American Bar and sat together in a side room. Jolly group. We had bonded! Lots of laughter and joking.
"By thee wee..." a frequent expression by Agnese. Michael did a devastating mimic of it.
Leaving Perugia on the bus... I noticed that the countryside was smoggy - a change from 1950's when I visited Italy as a child. Few cars and industry then - prosperous now! Like California, if the morning was foggy, the smog was worse. Using my camera, if I neglected to use the Landscape setting (which filters haze), you can clearly see the smog.
On the bus Agnese informs us... The Roman army was defeated (a rare occurrence) by Hannibal (North Africa) in 3 BC. Gubbio was a longtime ally of Rome; Perugia its enemy.
The Umbrian countryside is gently rolling green hills, almost all of it cultivated. Agnese tells us some crops are corn, beets, fava beans, and wheat. The Chiana valley below Tuscany was marshland drained by the Etruscans. Cows from the region, Chinana beef, make wonderful Florentine steak (pronounced "stack" by locals.)
Umbrian cuisine has three elements: Olive oil, wine, bread. Umbrian foods include soups, fruit, bruschetta, beans, and a local string pasta unlike pastas of the south. Pasta is mixed with beans. Foods are simple with few ingredients. Local specialties - Pecorino (sheep's milk) cheese, pan forte (strong bread), salami with fennel. We loved the salami and cheese.
Cortona, Italy
Cortona
This is the town from "Under the Tuscan Sun" book and movie. Market day! We first went to the Etruscan museum, which was behind the municipal building you see in the photos with steps leading to an imposing front. The museum had just opened and was at first deserted. We learned that the red, roof tiles used all over the world today originated with the Etruscans! We saw forms for making the tiles, and some original Etruscan tiles - invented centuries before the Romans, and the exact same design is used worldwide today.
Out of the museum and into the sunshine of the outdoor market. I bought a grape-design tablecloth. Our friend Barbara noticed that it was made in Bulgaria - but never mind. I BOUGHT it in Cortona! The butchers and cheese mongers have stainless steel trailers whose sides open up to make a sun/rain shade, displaying their refrigerated cheeses or hams. I took a photo of a red-faced ham/salami butcher who looked like a Renaissance painting of a butcher!
As usual, we tired of site seeing early, and stopped for a Cappuccino at an outdoor table just yards from the Piazza. Barbara joined us. I noticed how well-dressed the grandmas were here and everywhere, wearing stylish skirts and jackets, hose and nice shoes and handbags - often accompanied by granddaughters in jeans! The grandpas tended to gather in a shady place with chairs or seated on an inviting ledge or wall, passing the hours away.
The olive oil farm!!
This was a highlight of our trip. The site had been an olive pressing mill and farm since 1350, and is today a working mill and farm. The mill building still in use dates from the 1400's. In the early days, there was a man-made lake/reservoir up the hill behind the building to capture spring rains and provide water to turn the mill wheel. The reservoir and mill wheel are now gone, but the olive pressing business is alive and well, run by electricity. On the site, they grow and press their own olives, but also press olives from surrounding farms. In the late fall, neighbors bring in their olives (picked green from trees), bring wine and food, and all sit in the small sitting room by the fire for far longer than the two hours it takes to press the olives. The manager of the current operation is Jonathan Arthur , originally from Cornwall (and sounding like it!) He wanted to raise his family here. His 16 year old daughter took 1/2 day off from school (on Saturday! Italians go to school 6 days a week!) to help serve us. Jonathan said schools are excellent, no crime, kids are adored (127 adults to each kid) and families are close and multi-generational. Their olive oil was in three foot high earthenware jugs that dated from 1400's.
Lunch in the ancient mill building included pasta en fumo (with pancetta ham). The dessert wine, called vinsanto, has a higher level of alcohol and sugars, made with the last grapes, saved until June to pick when they are actually raisins.
Siena, Italy - Piazza del Campo
Siena
After Cortona, we road the bus to Siena. This is where we stayed for the rest of the trip. Again, we took day trips to surrounding hilltop towns.
Siena has no river, no seaport unlike most cities. It is on the road to Rome, both from Paris, and from the East. In the Middle Ages when people began to take pilgrimages or go on Crusades, they passed through Siena. Siena started the first bank to exchange the money for the travelers - 1472 - and that bank is in business today. Banking was and is the source of the city's wealth. Siena is the wealthiest city in Italy.
The city has the world's oldest hospital: 1,000 years old. As early as 1300, the hospital housed and educated orphans. They were ahead of their time in social services.
The Duomo (The cathedral of Siena)
In the 13th and 14th Centuries, Siena was the largest city in Europe - bigger than Paris, and the most prosperous. They proudly began construction of the Duomo - spectacular, colorful, ornate, church. Plans from that time were for it to be the largest and most spectacular in Europe. Duccio di Buoninsegna, one of the most famous medieval artists, painted "The Madonna" in 1308. Duccio's six meter, round stained glass window has amazing intensity of color and clarity of design. Amazing mosaic floors depict Christian stories, and also pagan scenes that "predicted Christ's coming." Pisano did statues for the exterior, which has recently been restored. It is richly ornate: gold, and color, and gingerbread-like detail. And this pre-dates the gothic! The ambition to make this the largest, most elaborate church was dashed - the plague of 1400's killed 2/3 of the population, and dashed Europe's economy.