Cortona

We drove to our final hill top town today, Cortona. This has become a popular stop because of the book/movie, “Under the Tuscan Sun”. Cortona also has as patron Saint, Margherita. The three of us visited the Etruscan treasures at the local museum. I took a couple of pictures of some ironware. The Etruscans were alive and well in BC times. I love seeing their artifacts because they have such beautiful detail, simplicity, and dynamism. The mosiac picture of Jesus came out of the same museum. We trudged our way up the hill to the basilica and resting place of St. Margherita. We truly felt like pilgrims by the time we had made our way through all the switchbacks (certainly more so than all those on tour buses who were parked by the front door :)). Our last tour day in Tuscany was a gratifying one. Tomorrow we drive back to Florence and say goodbye to Paula. Anne and I will then take the train to Rome.

Assisi

We took a drive to Assisi today and joined the tourists/pilgrims visiting St. Francis. It was another beautiful, sunny day and not too crowded in the basilica and St. Rufino. My pictures are from St. Stefano, a simple church that I found very peaceful, the scenery and the basilica. Enjoy!

A cooking class at Montestigliano

We hung out at Montestigliano today because we had a cooking class with chef Nicola Vizzari. The early morning gave me perfect lighting for some shots of the buildings and I took advantage of it, as you can see by my pictures. The chef and Paula are in the picture from the cooking class. Paula is learning how to soak and squeeze water out of day old bread to make a crumbly addition to a salad. We also put together the ingredients in dessert glasses for tiramisu. As you can see from the tray, we had a variety of successes for style in presentation. However, we agreed as we ate them that each dessert was equally delicious!

A sunny day in Tuscany

Today was a wonderful, sunny day in Tuscany. I had my camera out first thing in the morning to catch the views around Montestigliano. The ones with the fog were right from the open window in our kitchen. The building picture is also from Montestigliano. The three of us went to Siena today. Anne and Paula were well-behaved and went to the museum and the cathedral. I played hooky and walked around in the sun. However, did I get the best shot of a narrow street in Siena? No, this posted one came from Anne's camera. I guess it does pay to be good...:)

Hill Towns on Pasquetta

Yesterday we had pouring rain for most of the day; this continued off and on throughout most of today. We visited the small hill towns of Montepulciano, Pienza and Montalcino, not knowing what to expect because it was an Italian holiday, Pasquetta, for the day following Easter. The normal Italian tradition is to have a picnic. However, the rain drove the natives into the city streets and restaurants. With half of the businesses closed and the other half overwhelmed with the combination of tourists and rain-avoiding Italians, it made for surprisingly stressful day of working hard to find a place to park and a place to have lunch. However, the sun came out in the late afternoon and everyone's mood improved. My pictures are all from that point in the day. We were on top of the fortress wall in Montalcino and it was thrilling to see the landscape open up with the beautiful green fields and the mixture of sun and clouds. The three of us enjoyed a quiet evening in our home at the villa, making fresh pasta and a salad and sitting by the fireplace. Tomorrow we head to Siena to experience some of the big city action of the Tuscany region.

Montestigliano

It is Easter and Anne, Paula, and I are settled into our villa at Montestigliano. For those of you who do not know Paula Raschko, she is a good friend from the Seattle Women's Chorus who was able to join us for a our week's stay here. She flew in yesterday to Florence and we picked her up and headed to Tuscany. The villa staff are putting on a big feast today for Easter and are expecting 50 participants. The three of us took a walk around the estate today prepare for sampling the many delicious items without guilt. The pictures I have are of our living room, the view out our back door and one from our walk. We have a functioning fireplace and had a hearth warming evening last night. Buona Pasqua!

Florence

Anne and I have been in Florence for a couple of days and I have had a difficult time wanting to post. How can that be possible in such a beautiful city? Well, the biggest reason is that no museum allows picture taking—this knocks the wind out of my sails. However, today we went to the Palazzo Pitti which is chock full of wonderful art (which you cannot photograph) and an attached garden in which your only restricted from walking on the grass. Therefore, all my pictures are from this garden. I have one picture of me with Pegasus, my adopted symbol from childhood, and another of Neptune spearing a fish in a fountain. There is a good view of Florence proper. Also, a large head in the garden. Anne and I went in the afternoon to the “Specula”, a natural history museum that has detailed wax representations of human anatomy. You can google the museum and see pictures of full intestinal disclosure—taken by someone other than me. Anne and I have also been on a buying spree of fine Italian leather goods. I may end up posting our purchases tomorrow if I can't come up with something more interesting :)

Last day in southern Italy

Anne and I took our last bike ride on our Siciclando self-guided bicycle tour by visiting some other seaside towns and a grotto. We ended with an early dinner (we got a bar to take pity on us and serve us food at 6:00pm) and Anne got a nice shot of a full moon over Otranto. One of my pictures is of Anne peeking through the window of a local castle. Also included a couple of pictures of the grotto. Enjoy! Tomorrow we take a taxi ride and plane flight to Florence.

ride to Otranto

Anne and I got a van ride this morning, along with our bikes, to the town of Lecci, This reduced our journey to Otranto, a seaside resort town, to 31 miles, It is palm Sunday and we got to observe a street procession by a local church in celebration of the event. There are several large cathedrals in Lecci, so they all had something special going on for the day. We hopped on our bikes and had a pleasant ride with a good tail wind to boost our speed. One of my pictures is of Anne going ahead of me through a tunnel of trees. After our arrival in Otranto, we visited a local castle and then took some pictures of the setting sun giving a good glow to the foliage surrounding a tomb of eight hundred Christian martyrs. The death of the martyrs occurred during a time of Arab control of the region. This is another reminder of how close southern Italy is to the middle east, Africa, and Greece. Northern Italy and southern Italy truly seem like to different countries in their historical ties and resulting cultures.

Locorotondo, Ostuni

We rode through another trulli city today, Locorotondo, on our way to Ostuni. Anne and I were able to get some pastoral and valley pictures of the trullis along the way. The blooming wild flowers also increase in number as spring progresses, so I could not resist a shot of a field in full bloom. Our final destination, Ostuni, is nicknamed the "white city". It is within a few miles of the Adriatic coast. All the houses in the historic centre are only painted with white lime paint. It was finally warm enough that we could strip down to short sleeves and sit in the sun while eating our typical reward for a completed ride--a cup or cone of gelato. We expect to eat some fresh fish tonight because of the close proximity to the coast. Tomorrow, we are going to spend a full day riding the northern coastline.

Alberobello

After a 43 mile bike yesterday we spent today strolling around the town of Alberobello. Along with Matera, Alberobello is also on the list of UNESCO historical preservation sites because of the uniquely built homes called “trulli” (pronounced “truly”). Our hotel is a trulli and is truly nice (the opportunity for puns throughout the day were truly trying of Anne's patience). I have pictures of the town and a couple of the inside of our hotel. The roofs are made from slabs of limestone carefully split to lay nicely on the roof like shingles. The walls of the homes—also limestone—are up to a meter in thickness to be able to support the weight of the roofs. Lofts were traditionally built into homes to create sleeping quarters for the children. One truly has the feeling that a hobbit or a dwarf will pop out in front of you at anytime :). The historical area of the town gets many Japanese visitors because Japan has a sister city that also has homes made of natural local materials.

Food, Matera

I guess I have kind of neglected the food element--it is Italy, right? So, here are some food shots/information. The picture of the cappuccino is a work of art done by a barista at an Illy cafe in Matera. You can see “Matera” written on the foam, as well stair steps and the sky. There is also a fine pizza I got last night at a local osteria. Finally, Anne is happily holding up a piece of bread. Why is she so happy? This bread made in Matera is famous for its extraordinary taste, fragrance and digestibility. The flour is obtained exclusively from local types of durum wheat, mostly selected among those descending from the “Cappelli” wheat. Anne, who has gluten allergies, has had no problems digesting this bread. Of course, she is already contemplating how to get the flour from here to home.

Catana, Matera

After a couple of days rest in Catana, a university town in Sicily, we took two plane flights and a train ride to Matera in southern Italy. This will be the beginning of our one-week self-guided tour supported by Siciclando. We were issued our bikes and route maps today. Our luggage will be moved for us as we change hotels throughout the tour. Two of the pictures for today are from some gardens in Catana. I posted the one of the cactus because I have never seen one in bloom outside of my home. The other is a “garden clock”, which I thought was pretty clever. The other two pictures are from Matera. Matera is a medieval cave town. The old homes were a collection of cave dwellings and remodeled grottos. An ingenious system of canals regulated the flow of water and sewage throughout the caves to make them successful dwellings until the 20th century. Then the population dramatically increased and overwhelmed the systems. Diseases spread and the infant mortality increased to 50%. The Italian government intervened in the 1950s and moved the town's residents out of the caves into more traditional housing. Now the cave housing has been modernized for preservation and tourism. One of the pictures is the focal point of the town, a duomo sassi. The other is attempt to show the odd mixture of cave material and “tufa” (limestone) that make up the buildings. Of course, Anne happens to be posing in the picture ;)