Blatherings 2006 Archive - Debbie Ridpath Ohi (Twitter: @inkyelbows)

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Monday

Jun122006

Europe trip (Part 12): Rome

Monday, June 12, 2006 at 11:20AM

Above: This was a frequent sight in Rome...women dressed relatively formally, in a dress and high heels, riding motorbikes.

I've just discovered that I have not been getting some of my e-mail (including LJ comment notifications), still not sure why. :-( If you've recently sent me e-mail and have not yet received a reply, please do re-send just in case, cc:ing to my inkygirl@gmail.com account. Thanks!

Jeff and I enjoyed hanging out with Reid, Luisa, Michael and Ronnie yesterday afternoon. The photo to the right: Luisa made this pot herself, from scratch (!). She claims it's a reject, but I liked it so much she let me keep it. Thanks to Luisa for the fine lunch. Afterward, we browsed an Arts show at a nearby arts community centre where Luisa does her pottery.

I also just found out about a huge used bookstore modeled on New York's The Strand will be opening in Toronto this September. I'm looking forward to checking it out!

But back to my trip report, which is nearly at at end:

Part 1 (Paris) - Part 2 (more Paris) - Part 3 (Fonte de' Medici) - Part 4 (Montalcino and Montefiridolfi) - Part 5 (La Petraia) - Part 6 (Florence) - Part 7 (more Florence) - Part 8 (Cinque Terre) - Part 9 (Pisa, Fiesole and Volpaia) - Part 10 (Lost in Siena) - Part 11 (Siena) - Part 12 (Rome) - Final

Leaving Fonte de' Medici was hard; it had become home to us for a couple of weeks. But we were also excited about seeing Rome! We stayed at the Hotel De Petris (Via Rasella 142 - 00187) in Rome for two nights. Ginny parked her car at the airport and we took a cab into the city because we didn't want to have to drive in Rome. My friend Reid said he enjoyed driving in Rome when he and Luisa visited...he said everyone drove like him. :-)

We only had one full day in Rome, but I think we did fairly well at making the most of the time.

It helped that in Rome, it's nearly impossible to walk somewhere and not see something interesting. We wandered into Piazza di Pietra, for example, and were blown away by the gorgeous flowers (does anyone know what type these are?) exploding across the front of a building:

Then I heard music, turned, and saw this street musician:

...who was performing in front of Hadrian's Temple, which was built in 145 AD.

145 AD.

The immense age of some of the structures around us floored and humbled me. One of the things I loved so much about this trip, especially our visit to Rome, is how much more exciting history became for me; I hated history in school, found most of pretty dull.

In Rome, we were in the middle of it. Just as I had in the Notre Dame in Paris, I'd look down at the stone beneath my feet and wonder at the centuries of souls who had walked on that same spot. In Rome, I realized how many more centuries were represented.

The Pantheon, for example:

According to this Wikipedia entry, the original Pantheon was built in 27 BC-25 BC under the Roman Empire and it remains the best-preserved of all Roman buildings as well as the oldest important building in the world with its original roof intact.

Inside, the oculus is the only opening in the building that lets in light:

Exploring the Roman Forum ruins, we came across the remains of even older buildings like the Temple of Saturn below, which was established between 501 and 498 BC:

As we walked around the area, small dust storms like this one would whirl around every so often as tourists covered their faces. I was still getting Roman dust out of my clothes days after getting back from the trip, but it was worth it. :-)

Of course we had to explore the Coliseum:

Thanks to "Fifona"" on LJ for her Rome recommendations: We did find Tre Scalini but sadly didn't have time to try the chocolate bombe. We had lunch at Ristorante Virgilio Pizzaria Birreria in Camp di Fiori and browsed the wonderful market there. We tried visiting Gelateria San Crispino (Via della Panetteria 42), but it was closed both times...in the evenings, plus all day Tuesdays. We did go to Sant'Eustachio Il Caffe near Trevi fountain, where Jeff and Ginny had some of their fine coffee:

I also visited Giolitti (Via dei Uffici del Vicario 40) because of the intriguing "Sistine Chapel of gelati" description. They did indeed have many flavours, but none were labelled! In English OR Italian. Rather than pick randomly, I opted to sample gelato at other places in my continuing quest for good gelato.

My vote for The Best Gelato In Rome is Gelateria Valentino (Via del Lavatore, 96, 00187 Roma - tel. 06 6783219 near the Trevi fountain). I sampled a LOT of gelato while I was in Italy, and I liked their the gelato and customer service the best. Their pink grapefruit gelato was amazing. Here are just a few of their flavours:

Here's the crowd at the famous Trevi fountain:

The crowd was even more impressive at the Vatican, so we opted to look at St. Peter's Basilica from the outside rather than go in. Later on we chatted with a couple at the airport who said they were there when we were, and waited about 2 1/2 hours in line to get inside.

One of the window displays in the (very) upscale shopping district Via dei Condotti. Items in this display:

Dress: 1625 euros (CA$2311.11)
Bag: 2700 euros (CA$3840)
Sandals: 780 euros (CA$1109.33)
Watch: 2350 euros (CA$3342.22)
Belt: 480 euros (CA$582.67)
TOTAL = 7935 euros (CA$11,185.33)

During our wanderings, we came across I Colori Di Dentro ("The Inside Colors") at Via dei Banchi Vecchi 29, 00186 Roma), a wonderful little shop and art studio. The artist is Maria Grazia Luffarelli, who specializes in original and print watercolors. We loved her work because it was bright and cheerful, very much like Maria's personality. We ended up buying a number of prints as well as the three mounted prints she's holding in the photo above. Maria is also a children's book illustrator. More info about Maria at her Web site.

On our last evening in Italy, Jeff and I took Ginny out for dinner at a restaurant of her choice. She chose L'eau Vive di Roma (Via Monterone 00186 Roma, ph: 06-68801095, near Piazza Navona & the Pantheon), a place she had heard about from a friend. Run by a society of French missionary nuns, the restaurant is known for serving good classic French cuisine. Apparently Pope John Paul II dined here when he was archbishop of Krakow.

I ordered lettuce soup with toasted nuts, leg of lamb, and chocolate mousse for dessert. Like the food we'd had on the rest of the trip, it was excellent. I was especially surprised that the lettuce soup was so delicious; I had ordered it out of curiosity.

Partway through the meal, everyone stopped to sing Ave Maria. The nuns dressed in traditional costumes had handed out flyers with English, Italian and French versions of the song and there we all were, tourists and locals alike, singing along in a moment I found surprisingly touching. All proceeds from the restaurant go to charity.

Rome was a place that deserved to be explored in more than one day. So many things to see and so little time! I'd like to come back when we can visit at a more leisurely pace.

Hm. I've been saying this a lot during my trip reports, haven't I? At this rate, Jeff and I would have to LIVE in Europe for several months to properly appreciate all these places but even then I suspect we'd only find more we'd want to come back for. It's part of why I love traveling.

But more on this in my next Blathering, which will conclude this trip report.

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Sunday

Jun112006

Europe trip (Part 11): Siena

Sunday, June 11, 2006 at 12:06PM

So Jeff and I have a gas barbecue now! Many of you experienced bbq types are probably shrugging and thinking, "So what?" but we're gas barbecue virgins. I've already been happily poring over the grilling cookbook given to us as a housewarming gift by our friends Alison and Jeff.

Last night we used it for the first time and had grilled steaks we picked up during our walk around the neighbourhood yesterday, topped with blue cheese from the cheese shop, with coconut rice and Caesar salad. Yum.

Back to my trip report:

Siena is a medieval town in Tuscany, Italy which was originally settled in the time of the Etruscans (c. 900 BC - 400 BC). According to this Wikipedia entry, the Etruscans changed central Italy by using irrigating to reclaim previously unfarmable land and their custom of building settlements in heavily armoured hill-forts.

Some feel that this original matrilineal-focused Pagan society was one of the reasons why Roman Goddesses such as Diana and (with the arrival of Christianity) the Virgin Mary came to be of such importance to many Italians. We saw Virgin Mary pictures everywhere, tucked into the most unexpected places, like the end of this otherwise ordinary-looking street:

The Romans founded a town called Saenna Julia on the site of a pre-existing Etruscan settlement, and this Roman origin helps explain the town's emblem: a she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus. "According to legend, Siena was founded by Senius, son of Remus, who was in turn the brother of Romulus, after whom Rome was named." (From this Wikipedia entry) You can see this emblem in statues and other artwork all over Siena:

Statue of Romulus & Remus in Siena, Italy

Sadly, the main facade of the Siena Duomo was under construction when we visited, so we only got to see the scaffolding cover instead:

But we did get to see the bell tower, with its interesting combination of black and white marble. Black and white are the symbolic colors of Siena, derived from the black and white horses of the city's founders.

The cathedral was originally designed and completed between 1215 and 1263 on the site of an earlier structure. Here's a photo of what was originally intended to be a massive addition, planned in 1339, that would have more than doubled the size of the structure. Sadly, the Black Plague in 1348 killed off many of the people in Siena. That plus the discovery of some major construction plan faults halted construction permanently. The floor of the nave now serves as a parking lot and museum.

We strolled through Piazza del Campo, a shell-shaped town square paved in red brick and marble:

This square is famous for hosting the Palio di Siena (known locally as the Palio delle contrade), the best-known palio in Italy. The horse race is held twice each year on July 2nd and August 16th, during which time Siena is packed with fans and tourists alike. Here's an overhead photo of what the square looks like during the race. (!) Apparently there's also a huge pageant before the race.

Each rider represents one of the contrada, or districts, in Siena.

The contrade were originally set up in the Middle Ages for military purposes but are now simply areas of localised patriotism. With rare exception, you can only become part of a contrada by being born into it. This means that sometimes members of the same family belong to different contrade, depending on where they happened to be in the city when they were born.

Every contrada has its own museum, church, fountain and animal symbol. The photo above was taken in the Panther contrada, for example. Traditionally, Panther residents were grocers and chemists and Panther colours are red, blue and white. Other contrade include: Aquila (Eagle), Bruco (Caterpillar), Chiocciola (Snail), Civetta (Owl), Drago (Dragon), Giraffa (Giraffe), Istrice (Porcupine), Leocorno (Unicorn), Lupa (She-Wolf), Nicchio (Shell), Oca (Goose), Onda (Wave), Pantera (Panther), Selva (Forest), Tartuca (Tortoise), Torre (Tower) and Valdimontone (Ram). You can find out more about the contrade of Siena here.

(Above: supposedly the smallest window in the world)

Yes, I realize I'm going on a bit long about the contrade, but I find this social structure fascinating. Each contrada is sort of like a big family, responsible for its own. From an article about Siena :

"You are born into the contrada of your parents, are baptized in your contrada's open-air font, learn your contrada's allies and enemies at an early age, go to church in your contrada's oratory, almost invariably marry within your contrada, spend your free time hanging out in the contrada social club, and help elect or serve on your contrada's governing body. Even your funeral is sponsored by the contrada, which mourns your passing as family. In a way, it's like a benevolent form of Hollywood's mythical Mafia--but no contrada tolerates unlawfulness, and as a result Siena has a shockingly low crime rate."

A couple of scenarios immediately come to mind: A mother-to-be experiencing early labour pains when she is in another contrada...does she hurry home to make sure her offspring is born into the family contrada? How deeply does the rivalry go between contrades? Is it limited to the palio, or is marriage outside of one's contrada frowned upon? A Romeo-Juliet situation immediately comes to my mind, of course -- I'm such a romantic sap.

While in Italy, I read Too Much Tuscan Sun : Confessions of a Chianti Tour Guide by Dario Castagno and Robert Rodi, based on Dario's experiences as a guide. I found all the typos (probably from the translation) distracting but still enjoyed Dario's enthusiasm and love of Italy, especially when he talked about being part of the Caterpillar contrada in Siena.

Above: A pigeon refreshes itself at the 15th century Gaia fountain (Fountain of Joy). The fountain replaced the original fountain, which was of the goddess Venus. Venus was blamed for the outbreak of the Black Plague, however, and was destroyed and buried outside the city walls in hopes of ridding Siena of her "evil influence."

We visited the Palazzo Pubblico (town hall) while we were in Siena, and were mightily impressed by the series of frescoes inside. Jeff was especially tickled to see the original painting, "Siena," upon which the game was based.

I found Siena to be a wonderful town with a rich history, full of interesting places to explore and see; Jeff and I both want to come back here someday for a longer stay.

Next Blathering: ROME and the final leg of our trip.

To be continued...

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Saturday

Jun102006

Europe trip (Part 10): Lost in Siena

Saturday, June 10, 2006 at 1:05PM

I forgot to mention that while in Florence, I picked up a small sketchbook and some water-soluble pencil crayons at one of the many art supplies shops in the city. Throughout the rest of the trip, I had fun doing quick sketches of objects, scenes and people around me, sometimes in ballpoint pen, sometimes in coloured pencils.

It's a different experience to sketch with paper and pen than on the computer. Most importantly, you can't erase mistakes. I figured it was good practice for me. :-) I will probably use some of these sketches and photos as the basis for more polished pieces.

I've also been tweaking my trip reports as I post them, usually because I've realized I've forgotten something, or want to add a link. I've added a mention of our visit to the Leonardo da Vinci exhibit in Florence, for example, and the Etruscan ruins in Fiesole.

A survey for all you trip report types out there (and yes, filk conventions count): Why do you post trip reports? For me, it's partly wanting to share my experiences and photos with other people, but also for my personal archives.

Sometimes I'll go back to my reports of trip to Japan or our canoe trip down the Nahanni River out of nostalgia, or to look up something I've forgotten. I love getting letters from people who have enjoyed my reports or found them useful in some way. And I get a huge kick out of e-mails from people who have seen the photo at at the bottom of this page, for example, who canoed down the Nahanni and saw the small paddle that my group hung in an old cabin in Deadmen Valley.

But back to my Europe trip report, which is nearly at an end.

Part 1 (Paris) - Part 2 (more Paris) - Part 3 (Fonte de' Medici) - Part 4 (Montalcino and Montefiridolfi) - Part 5 (La Petraia) - Part 6 (Florence) - Part 7 (more Florence) - Part 8 (Cinque Terre) - Part 9 (Pisa, Fiesole and Volpaia) - Part 10 (Lost in Siena) - Part 11 (Siena) - Part 12 (Rome) - Final

One of our favourite places during this trip was the city of Siena. The first time we visited was by accident.

I'm not a driver but as far as I could tell, it's pretty easy for a tourist to get lost in Italy. You definitely need to get the most detailed maps you possibly can before setting out on road trips; we found that out the hard way. :-) Maps all tend to indicate numbered roads, but you rarely see signs with those road numbers. Instead, major intersections will have town signs pointing in different directions...hence the need for the detailed maps with town names. BUT these will also often be mixed in with other signs, like restaurants, spas, post offices, grocery stores, farms, hotels and other points of interest. There also seems to be no standard colours or design to the signs, so it's sometimes difficult to pick out the relevant signs when you need them.

You may be happily cruising along a road, for instance, then suddenly find yourself confronted with an intersection of signs like this one:

Because of the cars waiting impatiently behind you, you only have a few seconds to choose a direction. Once we came to an intersection where a sign on one side of the road said that Siena was 2 km ahead, and a sign on the other side of the road indicated that it was 22 km ahead. Here's a good site on how to navigate the roads and read road signs in Italy.

All this preamble, of course, is a feeble explanation of how we got lost on the way to Montalcino and ended up in an area of Siena that was supposed to be closed to outside traffic, finding ourselves in a state of growing panic as we drove down streets that seemed to be getting narrower and narrower, barely large enough for Ginny's car to fit through:

We couldn't turn around. There was nowhere to pull aside and check our inadequate maps. And as we got closer to the center of town, the number of tourists wandering down the streets increased, making it even more difficult to navigate.

Finally Ginny asked help from a trio of older Italian gentlemen who were chatting on one corner. None of them spoke English, but she managed to convey the fact that she wanted to go in the direction of Florence.

"FLORENCE?" one exclaimed in obvious horror, slapping his head and rolling his eyes. I can imagine what was going through his head. These silly tourists had somehow managed to get themselves lost in the center of Siena, and how on earth was he going to explain how to get out of the city if we didn't know each other's languages?!?

It would have been SO easy for him to shrug as if to say, "Sorry, can't help you." Instead, he told Ginny (who fortunately knew enough Italian to understand) to stay where she was, that he would get his car. Then this sweet man patiently led us through maze of narrow streets through Siena and back out to the highway. We would never, ever have been able to find our way out on our own. I'm sure we'd still be sitting there now, dehydrated and sun-baked, slowly mummifying in the Tuscan sun and eventually becoming part of an exhibit warning unwary tourists of the dangers of setting out on a day trip inadequately prepared.

But I digress.

As we followed him, we desperately tried to think of a way to thank him but in the end, there was no opportunity. I did write down his license number and kept my eye open when we did come back to Siena, in the small chance that we ran into him again.

This event happened on our second day in Italy and ended up, in a strange way, being one of the highlights of our vacation for me. I know this man was only one Italian, but his generous action definitely helped set the tone for the rest of our trip.

And Siena will always be one of my favourite places in Italy. :-)

More about Siena in my next Blathering...

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Friday

Jun092006

Europe trip (Part 9): Pisa, Fiesole and Volpaia

Friday, June 9, 2006 at 11:51PM

Buildings nearby also seem to have stability issues:

Legend has it that Galileo dropped two cannon balls of different masses from the tower to demonstrate that their descending speed was independent of their mass, but some believe this is only a myth (that Galileo used this tower, not the physics part).

Some attempts to straighten the tower made the lean only worse. In 1990, the tower was closed to the public and was only reopened after a decade of corrective reconstruction and stabilization efforts.

I suppose they were in a quandary. They needed to stabilize or straighten the tower enough so that it wouldn't endanger the lives of residents and tourists, but if they managed to straighten the tower completely, well...the Non-Leaning Tower of Pisa wouldn't be nearly a big a tourist draw, would it? Here's one of the many vendors near the Leaning Tower (useful in case one couldn't find the right purse in Florence):

I found some of the "souvenirs" somewhat bewildering:

Though we didn't climb the Tower of Pisa (15 Euros per person seemed a bit steep), we went inside the Pisa cathedral:

According to this article, Galileo supposedly observed the lamp in this picture swinging and that the lamp always required the same amount of time to complete an oscillation, no matter how large the range of the swing. "Later in life Galileo verified this observation experimentally and suggested that the principle of the pendulum might be applied to the regulation of clocks."

During our trip, we also visited Fiesole, an ancient town and episcopal perched on a steep hill overlooking the Arno and Mugnone valleys some 8 km northeast of Florence. Here's a photo that Jeff took after a hilltop climb:

We visited the museum, where we explored Etruscan ruins in an archaelogical park. The 2000-seat theatre in the photo below was discovered in 1809, excavated from 1873. It dates from the 1st century B.C.

The 1st century B.C.!!

I thought it very cool that it was obviously still being used for some kind of performances, since men were setting up for something while we visited:

Another town we visited during our trip was Volpaia, to have lunch at a restaurant that a friend of Ginny's had recommended.

Above: sunset from Ristorante La Bottega in Volpaia, where I had Grilled Aubergine With Mint, and Wild Boar With Olives.

Here's an interesting article about a woman who drove to Volpaia with the purpose of eating at the same restaurant. I love her attitude about getting lost:

"Don't worry about getting lost because no one is ever truly lost in Italy. It's only the momentary distractions from the history and the culture, added to the sights and sounds emanating from a vibrant landscape, that frequently overwhelm the senses and cause one to merely, 'think' they are lost."

We got lost several times in Italy. The most memorable time was in Siena...but that's a story in itself, for the next Blathering. :-)

To be continued...

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