Peggy here. What a day in Tuscany. Rosemary said (and I paraphrase) just the other day said that our wine knowledge could only be furthered by field research. We wound up today with a visit to a winery, purchasing a bottle of two-steps-up-from table wine and a dessert wine that I slugged down perhaps a little too hastily. We found the winery by signery; it was a modest former seminary. We had stopped just moments before at a fancier looking former castle-y looking place where two individuals were swilling and spitting and talking loudly about the wines and into some sort of opinion competition…I ran screaming from the place. It’s not that I don’t enjoy pretentiousness, but I like it better when the topic is something I know, and I don’t know wine.
Around every corner is a castle. They sit on hills and are impressive and protective and if you enter you occasionally find a sign that says “souvenir”. But more than likely you find old old buildings and a plaza, with a cathedral or castle door straight ahead and a fountain in the middle. The last one we visited today had a courtyard and was exactly what I imagined when a teenager and reading novels set in medieval times when men rode off to war and tried not to freeze to death and women rode off to childbirth and tried not to freeze to death. Not much happened in the courtyard until the guys came home with dead boar strapped to their horses and found beautiful women who were mere girls when they left. A lot happened in those courtyards. Read the books.
We found the village at Chianti and the leather good stores that goes with it. I made my first major purchase: a beautiful leather backpack that is roomy and lightweight. I am committed to the backpack because it balances and thought I’d never find one that I could stand in Seattle and now I don’t have to look. Kathy has a new wallet. This is the place to buy leather goods. I don’t know where they’re buying those boots, however. I’ll figure it out.
Tomorrow morning I have a private yoga session at our villa. It’s been 10 days since my last yoga class and I’m certainly feeling the need. What a beautiful setting for yoga. I’m not sure if the yoga instructor will know English but I can follow a yoga class like nobody’s business.
Kathy is in love with the Italian language. She carries around a translation guide. Rosemary speaks Italian now and saves us on an hourly basis. “Most letters get pronounced,” Rosemary says. I am not struggling with the language but am struggling on occasion with the cobblestone.
That’s it for Tuesday. We’re headed to Voltarra tomorrow. Kathy is excited about the alabaster turning. I’m excited about the yoga and the dessert wine. Rosemary is having a wonderful time and just showed us a knock-your-socks-off pictorial that she’s put together.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Catching up
It occurs to me we haven't said much about Rome except that it is a big, busy city. We had a fabulous private tour of the Vatican--about 6 or more hours. Some of you have heard my story of being in Rome nearly 30 years ago. I had just 2 short days and I wanted to see the Sistine Chapel. Unfortunately, the first Pope Paul (the pope who lived about a month after being elected) had died and a new pope was being elected. Elections are held in the Sistine chapel, so it was closed.
This time, I did get to see the Sistine chapel. There was a slight glitch though. Apparently some years ago a Japanese firm was hired to clean the artwork in the chapel. Apparently the Vatican did not wish to pay the company for their work, so they were given exclusive rights to photographs for 30 years. No one but that company is allowed to photograph the artwork in the chapel.
Well, I think I must've bumped the shutter button on my camera a couple of times because I somehow came away with a few photos. Here's one of Michaelangelo's The Judgement. Enjoy....
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Reading and Resting in Tuscany
We have had our 2nd full day in Tuscany, a day in which we took it slow. We had had 8 days of activity if you include the first day’s flight; flights can be a wrestling match. Kathy and Rosemary did laundry and grocery shopping. We ate lunch in a bar, which, in Italy, serves a fairly full range of good food. Fortunately, Rosemary has taken to the language and gets us in and out of places and gets us fed.
We met Susan, the proprietor of Montestigliano, the farm where we are staying. She is a charming Brit and gave us tips for getting along and not ticking off the country that is hosting us. Kathy, Rosemary and I are all deferential and polite people, so it isn’t as though we would have made enemies anyway, but being instructed in the niceties never hurts.
Susan has gone all out looking for a yoga class for me. She is thinking of a private lesson, one to be held here at Montestigliano. The rooms are perfect for yoga, with counters at many different levels and unused walls. There’s a yoga class tomorrow night in Sienna so I may just go to that, but it’s been 10 days since my last yoga class and it would be easier to simply have a private. There are Iyengar yoga teachers here.
Kathy got us up this morning to work out with our bands that she bought especially for the trip. We are walking a lot, but that certainly does not replace the workouts that Kathy and I have grown to love.
We have a library filled with bodice rippers but amongst the romances I found a book I’ve wanted to re-read: Who will run the frog hospital. It’s by Lorrie Moore. I read it years ago and remember saying when I put it down, “I wish I had written that.” It’s a rather dark story of two young women who are 15 years old in 1972. It is an observant book about being 15 and also about the times – 1972. The voice the book is written from is solid, never wavering and never falling into a false pit of cheerfulness. I have wrestled with the desire to fall into that pit as I’ve been writing and I’m glad to have an example of writing where the writer did not veer off on the cheap and easy path of hope based on nothing.
Tomorrow we’re visiting a gothic abbey and just generally tooling around. It’s fun to see Kathy’s reaction to Catholic settings. Rosemary and I are both recovering Catholic girls and “get” the message; Kathy has funny questions about the meaning. We’re all interested in walking around the farm, which is quite beautiful and quiet.
We have internet access and expect to blog every day. We’re in Tuscany for a few more days and then it’s on to Cinque Terre. See you tomorrow, everyone!
We met Susan, the proprietor of Montestigliano, the farm where we are staying. She is a charming Brit and gave us tips for getting along and not ticking off the country that is hosting us. Kathy, Rosemary and I are all deferential and polite people, so it isn’t as though we would have made enemies anyway, but being instructed in the niceties never hurts.
Susan has gone all out looking for a yoga class for me. She is thinking of a private lesson, one to be held here at Montestigliano. The rooms are perfect for yoga, with counters at many different levels and unused walls. There’s a yoga class tomorrow night in Sienna so I may just go to that, but it’s been 10 days since my last yoga class and it would be easier to simply have a private. There are Iyengar yoga teachers here.
Kathy got us up this morning to work out with our bands that she bought especially for the trip. We are walking a lot, but that certainly does not replace the workouts that Kathy and I have grown to love.
We have a library filled with bodice rippers but amongst the romances I found a book I’ve wanted to re-read: Who will run the frog hospital. It’s by Lorrie Moore. I read it years ago and remember saying when I put it down, “I wish I had written that.” It’s a rather dark story of two young women who are 15 years old in 1972. It is an observant book about being 15 and also about the times – 1972. The voice the book is written from is solid, never wavering and never falling into a false pit of cheerfulness. I have wrestled with the desire to fall into that pit as I’ve been writing and I’m glad to have an example of writing where the writer did not veer off on the cheap and easy path of hope based on nothing.
Tomorrow we’re visiting a gothic abbey and just generally tooling around. It’s fun to see Kathy’s reaction to Catholic settings. Rosemary and I are both recovering Catholic girls and “get” the message; Kathy has funny questions about the meaning. We’re all interested in walking around the farm, which is quite beautiful and quiet.
We have internet access and expect to blog every day. We’re in Tuscany for a few more days and then it’s on to Cinque Terre. See you tomorrow, everyone!
Castillino and Chianti
Today we took a short drive north of Siena to a little town called Castillino in Chianti and had a fabulous lunch. It was like eating art only it tasted better! These towns are incredible--the old and the new. I'm in love yet again. Here are a few pics from the last few days. Today we drove through a gate into Monteriggiano that the car barely cleared. It was the tightest space yet. I would hate to scrape up our cute little Alfa Romeo. More tomorrow after we visit Volterra! Peggy is having her very own yoga class here at Montestigliano in the morning before we venture out.
Ciao-Kathy
Ciao-Kathy
Monday, April 7, 2008
Finally, a day of rest
I just took some fabulous photos from the terrace where we are staying outsie of Siena, but for some reason, I can't find them on my camera disk at the moment, so Treve Fountain in Rome will have to do.
We finally have fairly reliable internet access. What a relief. As you may imagine, I have been going through withdrawls!
Italy is wonderful, although I must admit, getting around has been a bit more complicated than I remembered. Today we have been doing mundane things like working out with our bands, doing laundry, shopping at the market in San Rocco il Pilli, and getting acclimated to the area. Susan, who is our host here at Montistigliano, is a Brit who's married to one of the Donate brothers. The Donates own the farm (still a working farm producing wheat, sunflowers, and of course, olive oil. They've restored a number of the buildings on the 3,000 acre farm and rent them out to vacationers like us. Tomorrow we will undoubtedly go to Volterra and perhaps San Giamiani.
Driving through the medieval cities has been quite an experience. One minute you are squeezing your way between 2 stone buildings and the next moment, you are in a huge piazza filled with hundreds of people, shops, gelatarias and souviener stands. We are allowed to drive in these areas usually restricted from traffic because we have a 'disability' permit. At times it is quite harrowing. I've yet to turn the wrong direction down a street, which would undoubtedly be disasterous. There is barely room for one car and a couple of pedestrians, let alone 2.
I must go find my photos. More later...
-Kathy
A Melonball in Paradise
Greetings from Sienna. We arrived in Tuscany late yesterday afternoon, driving up to our farmhouse, Casa Adriana, at Montestigliano. We fled Rome and drove the freeway on a sunny day. It is cold here, but bright. We will be billed for our use of heat at the villa. In Rome, we were billed in restaurants for the use of glasses and silverware, so we are not surprised that heat costs.
Rome has left me speechless, so I will turn to talking about anything but Rome except to say that those ruins are too cool and that basilica is the best basilica I’ve ever been in. And hats off to Raphael and thanks for painting yourself into School of Athens. And thanks to our tour guide Rosanna for putting the School of Athens fresco into a context that brought it more alive than I could have hoped for. I wondered why Raphael would paint the Greeks and now I see the larger message.
Tuscany spreads before us. We spent the day in Sienna, part of it in their splendid plaza after walking through the narrow streets and guessing how old the buildings are. I can only imagine what the interiors of the buildings are like. My question remains: why, in the buildings that surround the plaza, are the verandahs built from the second floor only? Is it a question of balance? Is it because the second floor houses a large common room and Tuscans who were visiting would spill out onto the verandah to drink and chat? Why not the top floor? Buildings around the plaza are 5, 6, 7 stories high…why not put the deck off the penthouse?
I am a fashion conscious individual and am sorry to say that I brought some of the wrong clothes. The Italians sure know how to dress. I’ve never seen so much brown and olive and such a lack of your bolder colors. Nobody here looks like a popsicle, except perhaps me. Territory Ahead outfitted me with among other things a melon colored sweater, which I wore today. Tall boots are a big thing here and are oftentimes tucked into the boots (sorry Vanessa). You won’t see sweatpants and matching sweatshirt, nor anything in pastel or stripes. On one of our excursions to the Bellevue Mall Territory Ahead, Kathy chose an apple green confusing weave sweater, which fit me to a “t”. I bought it but returned it unworn a week later, a wardrobe choice that I thanked a certain higher power for when I entered one of the many fantastic churches here in Italy.
You will remember my dislike of crop pants expressed daily on our road trip through Texas and Oklahoma. I have seen only one pair of crop pants and, yes, perhaps it is a seasonal thing, but I am sure that these Italians do not show up anywhere in fruit-colored floods. As we closed out last year’s roadtrip, I delivered on what I promised – I designed America’s Ugliest Outfit. I have spotted Italy’s Most Cool Outfit and almost asked for the autograph of the woman wearing it.
The churches are incredible and we are still at the point in our journey where we go into every one we see. There is something to be said for churches outdoing each other. The one that gets my highest mark is the church celebrating St. Minerva. It had relics and marble and all kinds of reminders of how Sorry we should all be.
Italy is paradise and I am happy to be here. We are working on internet access, which is turning out to be more difficult than we had imagined. That’s why our blog is off to a slow start. But we expect to blog on a much more regular basis. Ciao!
Peggy
Rome has left me speechless, so I will turn to talking about anything but Rome except to say that those ruins are too cool and that basilica is the best basilica I’ve ever been in. And hats off to Raphael and thanks for painting yourself into School of Athens. And thanks to our tour guide Rosanna for putting the School of Athens fresco into a context that brought it more alive than I could have hoped for. I wondered why Raphael would paint the Greeks and now I see the larger message.
Tuscany spreads before us. We spent the day in Sienna, part of it in their splendid plaza after walking through the narrow streets and guessing how old the buildings are. I can only imagine what the interiors of the buildings are like. My question remains: why, in the buildings that surround the plaza, are the verandahs built from the second floor only? Is it a question of balance? Is it because the second floor houses a large common room and Tuscans who were visiting would spill out onto the verandah to drink and chat? Why not the top floor? Buildings around the plaza are 5, 6, 7 stories high…why not put the deck off the penthouse?
I am a fashion conscious individual and am sorry to say that I brought some of the wrong clothes. The Italians sure know how to dress. I’ve never seen so much brown and olive and such a lack of your bolder colors. Nobody here looks like a popsicle, except perhaps me. Territory Ahead outfitted me with among other things a melon colored sweater, which I wore today. Tall boots are a big thing here and are oftentimes tucked into the boots (sorry Vanessa). You won’t see sweatpants and matching sweatshirt, nor anything in pastel or stripes. On one of our excursions to the Bellevue Mall Territory Ahead, Kathy chose an apple green confusing weave sweater, which fit me to a “t”. I bought it but returned it unworn a week later, a wardrobe choice that I thanked a certain higher power for when I entered one of the many fantastic churches here in Italy.
You will remember my dislike of crop pants expressed daily on our road trip through Texas and Oklahoma. I have seen only one pair of crop pants and, yes, perhaps it is a seasonal thing, but I am sure that these Italians do not show up anywhere in fruit-colored floods. As we closed out last year’s roadtrip, I delivered on what I promised – I designed America’s Ugliest Outfit. I have spotted Italy’s Most Cool Outfit and almost asked for the autograph of the woman wearing it.
The churches are incredible and we are still at the point in our journey where we go into every one we see. There is something to be said for churches outdoing each other. The one that gets my highest mark is the church celebrating St. Minerva. It had relics and marble and all kinds of reminders of how Sorry we should all be.
Italy is paradise and I am happy to be here. We are working on internet access, which is turning out to be more difficult than we had imagined. That’s why our blog is off to a slow start. But we expect to blog on a much more regular basis. Ciao!
Peggy
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