No, not this:
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Christmas shopping
The last school function on Saturday before the vacation -- a cocktail party with visiting US parents and Italian families. Most teachers in school gave little presents to every colleague, so we had to do last-minute Christmas shopping at the little market, called Mercatino di Natale, two dozen tents set up at the square near our house.
No, not this:
No, not this:
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Rain
No one remembers when exactly the rain started -- probably 2 weeks ago. To be fair, there were a couple of hours when it stopped and the sun came out, and we even went for a walk. Was that on Sunday? Venezia is flooded; the Tiber rose by 10.5 meters and threatened to flood Rome. A woman drowned in her car in a tunnel.
ROMA IN GINOCCHIO,TEVERE IN PIENA:IN UN GIORNO PIOGGIA DI UN MESE
TG1 barcone disancorato, tevere in piena 12.12 ore 12.12
Finally, this morning the sun came out. Viterbo emerged clean and refreshed, a little wet...
This is the persimmon tree (cachi in Italian, pronounced "kaki") that we noticed last time and wanted to photograph but couldn't because of the rain.
At about 3pm it started raining again... Two days of school left before the Christmas break.
ROMA IN GINOCCHIO,TEVERE IN PIENA:IN UN GIORNO PIOGGIA DI UN MESE
TG1 barcone disancorato, tevere in piena 12.12 ore 12.12
Finally, this morning the sun came out. Viterbo emerged clean and refreshed, a little wet...
This is the persimmon tree (cachi in Italian, pronounced "kaki") that we noticed last time and wanted to photograph but couldn't because of the rain.
At about 3pm it started raining again... Two days of school left before the Christmas break.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Orvieto
We left our camera at home on this second trip to Orvieto on Friday, expecting (correctly) that there are enough good pictures on the Internet. Also, it has been raining all week, and I was not in the mood to fuss over the camera. M simply chose to forget hers at home.
It was a school trip by bus; we drove by the flooded banks of the Tiber; on that day it rose by 12.5 meters in Rome! We only had time for lunch and to see the cathedral and the archeological museum on the central square.
The lunch at the yuppy-ish Caffè Montanucci on Corso Cavour (recommended for "great sandwiches" by our Latin teacher, a big foodie) turned out to be a total flop: overpriced, the place didn't have any decent bread, so it was impossible to order sandwiches. We carefully avoided it last time, but it would be not polite to leave now. M ended up with a rather cold vegetable soup (€ 6.80), I -- with some rather cold vegetarian pasta (€ 6.80).
There are indeed good pictures of the cathedral on Wikipedia, initaly.com, and, for example, at
http://www.paradoxplace.com/Perspectives/Italian%20Images/Montages/Umbria%20&%20Le%20Marche/Orvieto/Orvieto%20Duomo.htm
http://www.paradoxplace.com/Perspectives/Italian%20Images/Montages/Umbria%20&%20Le%20Marche/Orvieto/Orvieto%20Duomo%20Inside.htm
http://www.paradoxplace.com/Perspectives/Italian%20Images/Montages/Umbria%20&%20Le%20Marche/Orvieto/Orvieto%20Duomo%20San%20Brizio.htm
Either we have overdosed a bit on the church stuff, or Luca Signorelly's frescoes in the Brizio chapel are indeed a masterpiece, but we found the chapel pretty revolting, especially the smaller medallions showing with gusto gruesome scenes of clubbings, hackings, and impalings of sinners. Normally you have to pay 6.50 euros for the privilege to see the chapel.
The archeological museum holds the Faina collection, which by itself is not great (unless you are seriously interested in ancient coins), but the detailed explanations give an interesting insight into the amateur archeology (that is, pilfering of antiquities) in the 19th century Italy.
Finally some sun this morning.
(If all this sounds a little like grumbling, recall that we've been in Italy for a while now, four months to be precise.)
It was a school trip by bus; we drove by the flooded banks of the Tiber; on that day it rose by 12.5 meters in Rome! We only had time for lunch and to see the cathedral and the archeological museum on the central square.
The lunch at the yuppy-ish Caffè Montanucci on Corso Cavour (recommended for "great sandwiches" by our Latin teacher, a big foodie) turned out to be a total flop: overpriced, the place didn't have any decent bread, so it was impossible to order sandwiches. We carefully avoided it last time, but it would be not polite to leave now. M ended up with a rather cold vegetable soup (€ 6.80), I -- with some rather cold vegetarian pasta (€ 6.80).
There are indeed good pictures of the cathedral on Wikipedia, initaly.com, and, for example, at
http://www.paradoxplace.com/Perspectives/Italian%20Images/Montages/Umbria%20&%20Le%20Marche/Orvieto/Orvieto%20Duomo.htm
http://www.paradoxplace.com/Perspectives/Italian%20Images/Montages/Umbria%20&%20Le%20Marche/Orvieto/Orvieto%20Duomo%20Inside.htm
http://www.paradoxplace.com/Perspectives/Italian%20Images/Montages/Umbria%20&%20Le%20Marche/Orvieto/Orvieto%20Duomo%20San%20Brizio.htm
Either we have overdosed a bit on the church stuff, or Luca Signorelly's frescoes in the Brizio chapel are indeed a masterpiece, but we found the chapel pretty revolting, especially the smaller medallions showing with gusto gruesome scenes of clubbings, hackings, and impalings of sinners. Normally you have to pay 6.50 euros for the privilege to see the chapel.
The archeological museum holds the Faina collection, which by itself is not great (unless you are seriously interested in ancient coins), but the detailed explanations give an interesting insight into the amateur archeology (that is, pilfering of antiquities) in the 19th century Italy.
Finally some sun this morning.
(If all this sounds a little like grumbling, recall that we've been in Italy for a while now, four months to be precise.)
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Sorrento / Amalfi Coast 12/5-8 -- Friday
The occasion for the trip was Isabella's talk to a group of practitioners at a rehab clinic about emotions or something like that. She always takes Fabrizio with her; the kids are now too big and not interested. So they invited us to go along. The rehab clinic is located in the mountains above Amalfi Coast, between Naples and Salerno. The organizers booked a room for Isabella in a four-star Villa Soglia ("villa threshold") in Castel San Giorgio; we booked a room there, too.
We left Viterbo on a 2:30 train and arrived to Isabella/Fabrizio's place around 5. It was raining like crazy. Fabrizio had parent conferences and came home late. So we left home around 6:30 and made it to Castel San Giorgio around 10:30 at night.
There was a restaurant open on the main street (Adinolfi Restaurant). It looked pretty fancy -- the kind of place with 3 wine glasses in front of each setting. In such places they often don't give you a menu, so you have no idea what you might end up spending; our Italians are too proud to ask. We ordered pasta frutti di mare and two seafood plates to share for the "main dish" -- octopus on potatoes and mussels, a bottle of wine. (No pictures from that meal -- everyone was too hungry.) It turned out to be good and very reasonable (18 euro each) -- put everyone in a good mood.
When we found our hotel we just crashed.
We left Viterbo on a 2:30 train and arrived to Isabella/Fabrizio's place around 5. It was raining like crazy. Fabrizio had parent conferences and came home late. So we left home around 6:30 and made it to Castel San Giorgio around 10:30 at night.
There was a restaurant open on the main street (Adinolfi Restaurant). It looked pretty fancy -- the kind of place with 3 wine glasses in front of each setting. In such places they often don't give you a menu, so you have no idea what you might end up spending; our Italians are too proud to ask. We ordered pasta frutti di mare and two seafood plates to share for the "main dish" -- octopus on potatoes and mussels, a bottle of wine. (No pictures from that meal -- everyone was too hungry.) It turned out to be good and very reasonable (18 euro each) -- put everyone in a good mood.
When we found our hotel we just crashed.
Sorrento / Amalfi Coast 12/5-8 -- Saturday
For some reason Fabrizio called us at 8 to say that he was at the breakfast room. OK. We got up and explored first the breakfast...
... then the hotel. Actually both were quite nice. The hotel is an old villa, furnished with lots of fake (and maybe a couple of real) antiques:
... statues on the front lawn, good views:
Having delivered Isabella to her workshop, Fabrizio took us to Ravello. It is very near the coast but a little higher up in the mountains. This is the standard postcard view of Ravello:
We started with the cathedral. The number of columns on the pulpit stubbornly refused to match the description...
Finally, Fabrizio discovered that he was reading about the wrong cathedral... Anyway, this one has on display San Bartolomeo's blood, which miraculously liquefies every year on July 27th! It also has pretty funny old mosaics. Goodbye, Jonah...
Hello, Jonah...
On to Villa Rufolo, built in the 13th century and then modified and remodeled many times, so it has a little bit of everything:
We all had a good time, especially Fabrizio, with his wife away:
At lunch time we went to fetch Isabella, but took wrong turns several times. When you ask for directions, people say "sempre dritto", even though there is not a single straight road in that area. "Sempre dritto" quickly became a private joke. So we arrived late and everyone was hungry, and the restaurants were closed. We looked for the recommended "La Terrazza" for a while ("sempre dritto"), but it was closed too. Finally, Fabrizio got distracted and took a wrong turn, so we ended up on the autostrada heading towards Salerno. This caused a quick "recalculation" of the route and plans -- by Isabella: their GPS stayed at home with the kids. She called the Dal Pescatore restaurant in Vietri sul Mare (on Amalfi Coast), which she knew from some scientific gathering, and we went there. The waiter actually remembered Isabella and Fabrizio. We ended up having a good, late, slow lunch of seafood and pasta.
M wanted to buy ceramics for a while, and Vietri turned out to be just the place, with a huge factory / show room. Some people sort of liked the place...
... others less.
But it made someone really happy:
When we finally left for Casale Antonietta, our Bed and Breakfast near Sorrento that Isabella had booked for us, it was already quite late, and there was a lot of traffic. We arrived around 10:30 and discovered that the final stretch of the route to our B&B was an alley the width of a car plus six inches on each side, with a stone wall on one side and barbed wire on the other, and with nasty turns. Fabrizio and Isabella didn't like that one bit -- they have a brand new Japanese car. What if someone comes from the opposite direction? Anyway, we made it up safely. A friendly Polish guy who works there put us in a tiny two-bedroom cottage -- a far cry from Villa Soglia.
Not a chance to go out that evening again, of course, but we had had a late lunch and we had some fruit with us.
A long day!
The next morning the weather improved, we discovered a lemon orchard on the property...
and good views of Vesuvio...
So the mood improved, even though Fabrizio kept grumbling about the cheap place and the narrow alley.
... then the hotel. Actually both were quite nice. The hotel is an old villa, furnished with lots of fake (and maybe a couple of real) antiques:
... statues on the front lawn, good views:
Having delivered Isabella to her workshop, Fabrizio took us to Ravello. It is very near the coast but a little higher up in the mountains. This is the standard postcard view of Ravello:
We started with the cathedral. The number of columns on the pulpit stubbornly refused to match the description...
Finally, Fabrizio discovered that he was reading about the wrong cathedral... Anyway, this one has on display San Bartolomeo's blood, which miraculously liquefies every year on July 27th! It also has pretty funny old mosaics. Goodbye, Jonah...
Hello, Jonah...
On to Villa Rufolo, built in the 13th century and then modified and remodeled many times, so it has a little bit of everything:
We all had a good time, especially Fabrizio, with his wife away:
At lunch time we went to fetch Isabella, but took wrong turns several times. When you ask for directions, people say "sempre dritto", even though there is not a single straight road in that area. "Sempre dritto" quickly became a private joke. So we arrived late and everyone was hungry, and the restaurants were closed. We looked for the recommended "La Terrazza" for a while ("sempre dritto"), but it was closed too. Finally, Fabrizio got distracted and took a wrong turn, so we ended up on the autostrada heading towards Salerno. This caused a quick "recalculation" of the route and plans -- by Isabella: their GPS stayed at home with the kids. She called the Dal Pescatore restaurant in Vietri sul Mare (on Amalfi Coast), which she knew from some scientific gathering, and we went there. The waiter actually remembered Isabella and Fabrizio. We ended up having a good, late, slow lunch of seafood and pasta.
M wanted to buy ceramics for a while, and Vietri turned out to be just the place, with a huge factory / show room. Some people sort of liked the place...
... others less.
But it made someone really happy:
When we finally left for Casale Antonietta, our Bed and Breakfast near Sorrento that Isabella had booked for us, it was already quite late, and there was a lot of traffic. We arrived around 10:30 and discovered that the final stretch of the route to our B&B was an alley the width of a car plus six inches on each side, with a stone wall on one side and barbed wire on the other, and with nasty turns. Fabrizio and Isabella didn't like that one bit -- they have a brand new Japanese car. What if someone comes from the opposite direction? Anyway, we made it up safely. A friendly Polish guy who works there put us in a tiny two-bedroom cottage -- a far cry from Villa Soglia.
Not a chance to go out that evening again, of course, but we had had a late lunch and we had some fruit with us.
A long day!
The next morning the weather improved, we discovered a lemon orchard on the property...
and good views of Vesuvio...
So the mood improved, even though Fabrizio kept grumbling about the cheap place and the narrow alley.
Sorrento / Amalfi Coast 12/5-8 -- Sunday: Paestum
In the morning we headed to Paestum, south of Salerno, to see the ancient Greek temples of Poseidonia. It is a picturesque and romantic place, especially on a bright sunny day:
The temple of Hera here is apparently the oldest and best preserved Doric temple in the world:
The Romans built Paestum on the ruins of Poseidonia...
... but they eventually abandoned the town because it was impossible to defend and unhealthy: malaria. No malaria now -- we had a very healthy picnic lunch on the Roman ruins: prosciutto, mozzarella di bufala, caciocavallo, capicola, a bottle of wine...
(Poseidonia was founded by the Sybarites, you know...)
Golden ratio?
Well, sort of , if you find the right line...
On to the archaeological museum. It has interesting wall paintings from the nearby necropoli. These were discovered during WWII when the Americans landed on the beaches of the Gulf of Salerno and needed to build an airstrip. An American lieutenant on the site happened to be an archaeologist and he identified the tombs and managed to save them from destruction.
What is this? A pagan Annunciation? Our knowledge of Greek mythology proved lacking.
It got dark early and we went back to Sorrento. The Christmas season is already in full swing:
We stopped for half an hour at the free Christmas concert at the town hall, attended mostly by the locals...
and caught a couple of favorite Rossini arias and extremely passionate soprano renditions of O Sole Mio and, of course, Torna a Surriento...
After the concert, Fabrizio wanted pizza (to be in Naples and not to have pizza?!) His theory is that pizza is too simple for restaurants and so they don't make it well. Fair enough. He thought he found a rustic enough place (three large wooden tables with benches, no tablecloths), and everyone was expecting a good pizza/beer/wine supper...
... but it turned out to be a fregatura.
I didn't drink much and managed to deliver us and the car safely along the killer alley back to our Casale Antonietta.
The temple of Hera here is apparently the oldest and best preserved Doric temple in the world:
The Romans built Paestum on the ruins of Poseidonia...
... but they eventually abandoned the town because it was impossible to defend and unhealthy: malaria. No malaria now -- we had a very healthy picnic lunch on the Roman ruins: prosciutto, mozzarella di bufala, caciocavallo, capicola, a bottle of wine...
(Poseidonia was founded by the Sybarites, you know...)
Golden ratio?
Well, sort of , if you find the right line...
On to the archaeological museum. It has interesting wall paintings from the nearby necropoli. These were discovered during WWII when the Americans landed on the beaches of the Gulf of Salerno and needed to build an airstrip. An American lieutenant on the site happened to be an archaeologist and he identified the tombs and managed to save them from destruction.
What is this? A pagan Annunciation? Our knowledge of Greek mythology proved lacking.
It got dark early and we went back to Sorrento. The Christmas season is already in full swing:
We stopped for half an hour at the free Christmas concert at the town hall, attended mostly by the locals...
and caught a couple of favorite Rossini arias and extremely passionate soprano renditions of O Sole Mio and, of course, Torna a Surriento...
After the concert, Fabrizio wanted pizza (to be in Naples and not to have pizza?!) His theory is that pizza is too simple for restaurants and so they don't make it well. Fair enough. He thought he found a rustic enough place (three large wooden tables with benches, no tablecloths), and everyone was expecting a good pizza/beer/wine supper...
... but it turned out to be a fregatura.
I didn't drink much and managed to deliver us and the car safely along the killer alley back to our Casale Antonietta.
Sorrento / Amalfi Coast 12/5-8 -- Monday
In the morning, not very early, we left our B&B and headed to the place called Sant'Agata sui due Golfi in the center of the Sorrento peninsula:
From there you can see both the Gulf of Naples and the Gulf of Salerno. A nearby monastery, called Deserto, has a belvedere, but, unfortunately, it was closed in the morning, so we could see only one gulf, the Gulf of Naples. It is prettier, anyway, with Capri, Ischia, and Procida, Naples and Vesuvio. (We saw both gulfs later from the road.)
From Sant'Agata we decided to go to Positano on the Amalfi Coast.
A rest area on the road...
... is decorated by funny pictures on ceramic tiles...
... and some cheesy Neapolitan poetry:
Fabrizio took this picture at one of the "scenic outlooks"on the road to Positano:
(Believe it or not, some assholes dump garbage over the rail, here!)
Positano itself is more vertical than horizontal:
Our visit to town was not very successful, though. Fabrizio, for some reason, decided to park a mile away, above the town. By the time we walked down it was already 1:30 and we realized that we might miss our planned 5 pm train from Rome to Viterbo. So we skipped the planned picnic lunch and hurried back to Rome, watching the clock and eating sandwiches in the car. By the time we got close to Rome it became clear that we would miss that train, anyway, by a few minutes. I proposed to go to Fabrizio and Isabella's house and have tea. Isabella then calmed down considerably and said we can check e-mail there, too. An hour later they drove us to the station and we took the 7 pm train...
... and were home by 9, "stanchi ma contenti."
From there you can see both the Gulf of Naples and the Gulf of Salerno. A nearby monastery, called Deserto, has a belvedere, but, unfortunately, it was closed in the morning, so we could see only one gulf, the Gulf of Naples. It is prettier, anyway, with Capri, Ischia, and Procida, Naples and Vesuvio. (We saw both gulfs later from the road.)
From Sant'Agata we decided to go to Positano on the Amalfi Coast.
A rest area on the road...
... is decorated by funny pictures on ceramic tiles...
... and some cheesy Neapolitan poetry:
Fabrizio took this picture at one of the "scenic outlooks"on the road to Positano:
(Believe it or not, some assholes dump garbage over the rail, here!)
Positano itself is more vertical than horizontal:
Our visit to town was not very successful, though. Fabrizio, for some reason, decided to park a mile away, above the town. By the time we walked down it was already 1:30 and we realized that we might miss our planned 5 pm train from Rome to Viterbo. So we skipped the planned picnic lunch and hurried back to Rome, watching the clock and eating sandwiches in the car. By the time we got close to Rome it became clear that we would miss that train, anyway, by a few minutes. I proposed to go to Fabrizio and Isabella's house and have tea. Isabella then calmed down considerably and said we can check e-mail there, too. An hour later they drove us to the station and we took the 7 pm train...
... and were home by 9, "stanchi ma contenti."
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Sunday, Tarquinia
Rain and thunderstorms in Viterbo, but a warm, mostly sunny day in Tarquinia, just a few kilometers away. You can see the sea from here. Etruscan necropoli: we missed a few "fun" tombs on our last trip.
Taking pictures with 300-year-old olive trees in the background:
For some reason wild dill grows really well around necropoli.
Then the archeological museum:
See the Saturday post for the description of the evening activities.
Taking pictures with 300-year-old olive trees in the background:
For some reason wild dill grows really well around necropoli.
Then the archeological museum:
See the Saturday post for the description of the evening activities.
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