Effingham Epistle Eleven (EEE) Italy Sept. 2 through 20, 2006
by Newton Neely, Effingham, SC
On Sept. 2, 2006, Dr. Leigh Hursh, Dr. Joe Neely, and Newton Neely departed Columbia for a journey to and sojourn in Italy: Venice and Tuscany. The trip was arranged by Untours, who arrange flights, lodgings, and a rental car, but once you are there you are on your own to go where you want and do what you want. We did a three day Venice add-on at the beginning, so this epistle shall be broken into two major units: Venice and Tuscany.Venice
Our trio arrived late on Sept. 3 at the Marco Polo Airport, and took a water taxi across the lagoon into the city (at a cost of 100 Euros.) The annual regatta was on that day, so the Grand Canal was closed, and we had to go around the city and approach the hotel from the rear. Venice was hot and humid.HOTEL: Our Hotel was the Locanda-San Barnaba, about 100 yards off Campo San Barnaba, and is a converted 16th century palazzo. It has only thirteen rooms. Our room, which was on the second floor, looked over the garden where we breakfasted each morn on one side, and had a balcony over the canal on another. Some of the rooms and the Grand Salon had original frescos on walls and ceilings. The staff was super friendly and helpful. From our hotel it was about a twenty minute walk to Campo San Marco, across the Academy Bridge and through a luxuriant and luxurious shopping area. More about that later.
RESTAURANTS: It seems almost impossible to find a bad restaurant in Venice, although we did manage to find a mediocre one just off Campo San Marco. The first night we went to one recommended by the desk clerk, and it was wonderful and friendly and delightful. Had about a three hour dinner. There were other good restaurants in the square near the hotel, so finding a meal or a snack was never a problem.
SHOPPING: Leigh and Joe seemed to think that they had been commissioned to endeavor to improve the economy of Italy, and bought and bought and bought. Many of the shops traded in the same things, as in any tourist oriented locale. I bought a beautiful blue and gold Murano glass glass which makes a gin and tonic taste even better than usual. Leigh bought a beautiful mask, the handle of which was about 14 inches long, and was a rear view of a nude woman, all done in papier mache. She now has it displayed in a corner, between mirrors, accompanied by two prints of Venetian alleys.
EVENTS: On Monday morn we walked from the hotel to Saint Mark's Square, oohing and aahhing all the way. To think that this whole city rests on pilings driven into the ocean bed is mind-bending. Leigh and I had been there before, but upon entering Saint Marc's Square Joe was stunned, and announced that it was even better than he had anticipated. The place was jammed with tourists, but we espied San Marco Basilica and the Doge's Palace, and of course, all the restaurants and shops surrounding the square. After exploring a while we checked on the tickets for the concert we were to attend the next night, and returned to the hotel to meet Leigh's friend from Slovenia, Marion. We got back to the hotel and met him, only to have him announce that we were to meet his sister and parents in...Saint Mark's Square! So, we took the waterbus back, and had a nice lunch with them. Monday night we explored and had dinner in the area around the hotel.
Tuesday morning Joe and I set out to find the Teatro Fenice, the burning of which by arson in 1996 and subsequent rebuilding was the subject of John Berendt's (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil) book City of Falling Angels. The theatre was originally built in 1791, and had been burned, rebuilt, and redone several times. In 1996 it burned to the ground (or perhaps I should say water, since it is surrounded on three sides by canals) and due to Venetian politics and conspiracies took several years to rebuild. Unfortunately, we did not get to tour the theatre due to the fact that the Lancia Corporation had rented it for the day for a conference. Oh well.
Late Tuesday afternoon we went to tour the Doge's Palace, which dates from the 16th century. It is a massive, beautiful, awe-inspiring structure, with lots of art in the forms of painting, frescos, murals, sculpture. We crossed over the Bridge of Sighs (so called because the convicts, who had just been sentenced in a courtroom in the palace, would emit a sigh as they crossed, knowing they would never return that way again) and went all through the prison. Sorta' scary.
Tuesday night Leigh and Joe took me to dinner and a Vivaldi concert for my birthday. The restaurant we went to was the aforementioned mediocre one, and Joe had a dispute about service charges and tips, etc. They did seem to be trying to pull a fast one by telling us that tip was not included, and then a 12% service charge appeared on the bill. No other restaurant had a service charge. As a matter of fact, one of the nice things about eating and shopping and staying in Italy is that there are no sales or value added taxes.
The concerts was in a hall just to the left of the basilica as you face it. It was all Vivaldi, and ended with a lively rendition of The Four Seasons. We walked back to the hotel, and on the way saw the cello player from the group eating pizza on the sidewalk near the hotel.
TRANSITION: On Wednesday morn a water taxi picked us up at the hotel and took us to the place were all rail and bus and auto traffic enters a departs Venice. We were to pick up a rental car at Avis. Joe and Leigh waited with the luggage and I went to the office to get the car. When the man brought it I mentioned to him that I hadn't driven a standard shift in thirty years, and asked if he could gives me some pointers. He pointed to the stick shift and said "There's the gears." So, I got the car as far as Joe and Leigh, we loaded the luggage, and set out on the Italian equivalent of the interstate which crosses the lagoon to the mainland. After a few minutes I seemed to get a semi-grasp on the driving of the car. However, I was unaware that much of the journey (about 200 miles) to Tuscany was through the Apennines Mountains: winding roads, 1000 tunnels, and semi trucks. And the Italians LOVE to tailgate. In fact, they seem to make a game of it. They get so close you couldn't get a sheet of paper between the cars, then they will drop back a couple hundred feet, and then come rushing up on your tail again. They do this over an and over until they can pass, or, as I often did, the driver in front pulls off the road and lets them pass.
Our trek took up past Bologna and Florence and Siena. At Siena we got onto a two lane road for the 18 mile trip into out destination town, Buonconvento.
Tuscany
BUONCONVENTO: Buonconvento is a perfectly charming, walled, medieval town of about 3000 residents. It is in a valley, whereas most of the towns in Tuscany are built on hills. Following the direction that we had been given by Untours, we turned right at the Shell station (outside the wall), proceeded through town, and about two miles out the other side to out hilltop abode.HOUSE: Our house was a 100 year-old farm house constructed of stone and brick. It was a two story house, and the ground floor originally was used for farm equipment and storage, but several years ago our hostess, Elisabetta, had converted the lower floor to living space. We were to meet her there at four o'clock, but, naturally, having been spawned by Alberta Neely we got there forty-five minutes early. Fortunately, Elisabetta must have had some Neely blood also, because she got there shortly thereafter. When we entered we found a beautiful, charming Italian country home. And it was very cool inside. (It was about 95 outside.) Joe asked if it were air-conditioned and she explained that it was not, but the construction was so solid, walls about 20 inches thick, that if we opened the windows at night to let in the cool air, and then closed the windows and shutters as the sun traveled around the house it would stay cool all day. It did.
We had a living room/entrance about 40 by 20 feet, a large kitchen, three bedrooms, and two baths. There was also a large brick terrace out back, that looked over the rolling Tuscan farm hills. We could see two ponds from the terrace, and were visited twice a day by a heard of 80 - 100 sheep. Lots and lots of birds and other wildlife. We spent a great deal of time mornings and evenings on the terrace.
The second floor of the house was another "tourist rental", as was another smaller building on the property, but we were the only ones there for our two weeks.
RESTAURANTS: Tuscany is rife with wonderful restaurants, and Buonconvento has its fair share. There was a bulletin board in the house where previous occupants left cards of favorite places, and we found a card for Mario's restaurant within the walls of the old town. We went there about 6:45 to eat, and were told to come back at 7:30. None of the restaurants in Tuscany, and I think in most of Italy, open until 7:30. When we returned at the appointed time we were taken about three doors down the street, through an alley, and into an atrium/garden with about 15 tables. This area connected with the back of the restaurant. We were the second table, but by about 8:15 almost every table was full. There was no printed menu, but our waiter, the grandson of Mario (he explained that Mario was dead, and his bosses were now his grandmother and his aunt; everybody working there was in the family) recited the menu to us, about six options for each of four courses. We had no idea what anything cost. However, we were not disappointed. We had a wonderful meal and two bottles of wine and it came to about 96 Euro. The place seemed to be populated with about half tourists and half locals. There were folks from Holland and Canada and New Zealand among other places. One guy from Holland bummed a cigarette from Joe, sat at our table (leaving his wife and another woman at their table) and stayed there for about 30 minutes. The Italian families there had kids ranging from infants up to the teens. The kids were running around playing and having a great deal of fun. The Italians seem to dote on their children, and they were everywhere. We went back there another night, but it was raining, so we ate indoors.
We found a little bar/coffee shop about three doors down from Mario's that became our favorite hangout spot. The bartender there, Andrea, was a speaker of English, and very friendly and charming. When he would see us walking up the street he would shout out and give us a big smile as we passed his place. On our last day there Leigh had to have her picture made with him.
Another of our favorite eateries I don't remember the name of, but it was one we found by chance after we had been to the Abbey of San Antimo, which I will talk about later. This, also, was a family operated place, and the food was delicious but simple. The thing that made this evening especially interesting was that two women from Scotland came in and sat at the table next to us. We started talking with them (they were involved in social work) and all of a sudden I noticed that one of them had on a T-shirt with the crescent and palmetto tree from the SC flag. They explained that they had been here last year, and went to Columbia, Charleston, etc. Now, is that serendipity?
The last weekend, Sept. 15, 16, 17, was the beginning of the fall festival in Buonconvento, and they had all sorts of special events: plays, concerts, etc. They also put up tables in the streets and alleys, and for sixteen Euro you could get a four course meal, including wine. We went Sunday night, and there must have been about one million kids running around, just having a ball. Two little boys had dolls that they were throwing up in the air and banging on the stone street and, just in general, mauling. One of the little boys, about five, was named Miko, and when his friends ran off and left him he sat down by a planter, knees drawn up, elbows on knees, hands of each side of his head, and pouted and was very sad. However, a few minutes later when the others returned he cheered up instantly and very quickly became rambunctious again. He grandmother came around trying to calm him down, but by that time he and his friends were running in and out under the tent flaps, and paid her no heed at all.
On our last night in Buonconvento we traveled to a nearby town, Chuisi, and ate at La Fattoria, a farm house converted into an eatery, on the shore of a lake. They had a buffet antipasto course, followed by three others. The food and the atmosphere were outstanding.
SHOPPING: Needless to say, the shopping spree continued throughout Tuscany. We each bought a small Pinocchio (which in Tuscan means pine nut or kernel) since he was from Tuscany. Leigh bought clothes at a shop called Artelier, which she insisted on calling "the artillery place." The supermarket in town was called the COOP, pronounced co-op. We went there about every other day since we had breakfast and snacks at the house. We bought wine and cheese there to have on the terrace as a nightcap each night. Everywhere we went there were things to buy, and Leigh usually did. But she insists it was always good stuff, with the possible exception of the grasshoppers made of palm leaves that scared her when she unpacked them.
EVENTS: The first event was our orientation meeting on Thursday morning after having arrived on Wednesday, Sept. 6. Harriet, out local Untours person, had tons of information for us, and explained about parking in Siena and Florence, road rules, people to be wary of, etc. I think we were the only ones staying in Buonconvento, but others in our "group" were staying in nearby towns.
Buonconvento has two museums. The Museum of Sacred Art, and the Agricultural Museum. The art museum is amazing for a town that small, and had some absolutely beautiful paintings, sculptures, and reliquaries. The agricultrical museum show how the farming was done in the area, and told of all their products, their lifestyle, and their history. Very Interesting.
The next day we went on an Untours sponsored event to the Abbey Monte Oliveto Maggiore. This is a Benedictine monastery founded, I think, in the 12th century. We had a local guide who took us through, showing us the frescos in the courtyard which date fro the 15th and 16th centuries, the library, the refectory, and the church. We had lunch in a restaurant connected to the Abbey.
On Saturday morning, Sept. 9, to celebrate Jamie Neely's birthday, we hired a guide, Leslie Smith (from England), to take us to a cheese farm and an organic farm in the area. At the cheese farm we saw the whole cheese making process. Their cheese is made from sheep's milk (this farm had 800 sheep on 200 hectares [a hectare is equal to about two and a half acres]), and from the same milk they make about twenty varieties of cheese, from very soft and mild to very hard and sharp. They also do cheeses with mushrooms, chili peppers, herbs, and add different bacteria to create various flavors. They also made wine, and we asked about eight different cheeses and three wines. Of course, we all bought cheeses.
We had lunch at the organic farm after having met their cows, pigs, goats, dogs, and cats. (We saw beautiful cats everywhere we went, and dogs everywhere. They seem to dote on their dogs as much as their children.). The meal, to the delight of Leigh, was vegetarian, and consisted of six courses, and about a dozen different veggies prepared in a multitude of ways. The farm is part of the WOOF network, and most staff (except for owners, of course) are volunteers who stay for room and board from a few weeks to a year to learn the farming methods of Tuscany. They come from all over the world. We chatted with two, one from Seattle (he was a chef) and a girl from Vienna.
That evening, to continue the celebration of Jamie's birthday, we attended an Etruscan banquet in a nearby town, Murlo. Murlo is a small, walled, medieval town and one can walk every street in the town in 15 minutes. The event started with a tour of the Etruscan museum there, which was amazing for a town of that size. Well, for any size, really. After the museum we were seated in the square of the town, and the banquet began. We had six courses (including rabbit and wild boar and spelt zuppa which was wonderful) and six wines. There were singers and dancers; drums, pipes, cymbals. A professor of Etruscan history gave a lecture on the history of the area. Unfortunately it was all in Italian. But we enjoyed the slides that went along with it. The meal lasted almost four hours.
On Tuesday of the second week we drove into Siena. The place was PACKED with tourists, but we did make it to the Duomo and the Palio, and had a really nice lunch, but didn't hang around too long.
One of the most interesting town was Pienza, atop a mountain and walled and very beautiful. A wonderful restaurant there had been recommended to us, La Latte di Luna (Milk of the Moon). We got there early enough to make a reservation, and went back at 12:30 for a scrumptious lunch. The couple at the next table, from Boston, were celebrating their son's having entered college: Elon College in NC. Leigh bought bars and bars of soap in Pienza to complement the tea towels she got in Siena which were handmade and sported traditional Tuscan patterns.
Leigh became obsessed with the public restrooms. Most of them are not friendly to the feminine gender. Many just holes to stand over and let fly. However, after much research, Leigh declared the restrooms in the Florence train station to be the best in Italy. Each urinal or stool had ultra-violet light cleansing it, and there is an attendant cleaning up after you almost before the tank refills. However, they cost 70 Euro cents, so after this discovery she spent a great deal of time making certain she had the correct coinage to relieve herself.
The most inspiring thing we did was to attend a Rite of Three Sacraments and Vespers at Abbazia di Sant' Antimo, a ninth century Fransiscan monastery founded by Charlemagne. He was traveling through there with his army, and many of the soldiers came down with a mysterious disease. He prayed that if they were made well he would establish a church there. They did and he did. The church is a wonderful example of Romanesque architecture. Both of the services were chanted in Latin. The acoustics in the church were wonderful, so that one monk singing sounded like five or six with all the reverberations. Three of the nine monks had colds, and the same reverb was in effect when a monk took out his handkerchief and blew his nose so that it sounded like thunder. We all bought CD's of the monks doing the Gregorian chants. This was the evening we met the ladies from Scotland who had been to SC.
On Saturday and Sunday (Sept.. 16 and 17) we took the train into Florence, about a two hour trip. On Saturday our main objective was the Uffizi, and on Sunday the Academy where the David resides. The Florence train station is a mad house! The two museums were very crowded, but it was worth the hassle to see the works that are contained therein. We also did the Ponte Vecchio, and visited many shops, squares, and went to the Museum of Archeology. By then end of Sunday we were very tired and very glad to get to the quiet and solitude of our hilltop farmhouse.
Monday we went to the Abbazia San Salvatore, so we had visited the three main and most important abbeys in Tuscany. The abbey is in the town of Abbadia Salvatore, atop a mountain, and is very difficult to find. It is in the center of town, and dates from the eight century, and was a stop for the pilgrims coming from France to Rome and then Palestine. The interesting thing about this abbey is that below the main church is a crypt that had been completely covered with dirt but then excavated. It has 53 columns supporting the ceiling and no two have bases or capitals that are alike. It was an absolutely beautiful, awe-inspiring place. There was a service going on in the church, and I asked a local man if we could go into the crypt during the service, and he took us in, and then showed us the courtyard of the monastery, and then took us into a closed-off area where they were doing reconstruction and excavation and showed us a view (we were on a mountain top) that made one gasp in awe. It was after this that we went to the La Fattoria on the lake mentioned earlier.
Tuesday morning, the 19th, we got ourselves together, loaded the car, and after having a visit from Elisabetta (who brought us each a gift) headed into Florence to stay at a hotel close to the airport since our flight on Wednesday was at 10:15AM, and we had to be there three hours before flight. On the way into Florence we tried to visit the medieval walled town with fourteen towers, San Giminagno, and we got there, but after driving around for about forty-five minutes and being unable to find a parking place decided to just stop by the road and have lunch and head on in to Florence. We just got off the highway a few miles farther on and found a place for lunch. The restaurant sat down in a holler, with a cobbled drive at about a forty-five degree angle. I worried on the way in about getting out. Well, I should have. The cobbles were slick, and with the standard transmission the power was hard to get up, and the car choked and we had to back back down four times, before I finally backed up far enough to get a "running start" and finally made it to the top of the drive. Joe was standing on the highway watching for traffic to signal me when to come out, so we had to pick him up and we were then on our merry way. In the restaurant we had met a couple from Philadelphia who were on their honeymoon. They had been married on Jamie's birthday, and seemed really glad to have somebody else to talk to in English. We ate in a neighboring hotel that night, and arose bright and early to start the trek back to the wonderful US of A. The flight from Florence was an hour late taking off, the flight at DeGaulle (which is a MESS with all the construction going on) was late taking off, and the flight from Atlanta to Columbia was late taking off. But, we finally made it back to Columbia a little after eleven PM, got a cab to Leigh's, had coffee, hopped in Joe's car, and arrived in Florence (SC) about two PM. No matter how wonderful the trip, there is no place like one's own bed!
This epistle barely scratches the surface of the trip, and in no way captures the essences and the ambiance and the warmth and the friendliness that we encountered. You all just have to go there to get the full impact!