More Ruins

We are nearing the end of our journey and will be flying out of Rome’s Fiumicino Airport to London.  On our drive from Sorrento to Fiumicino, we visited the impressive Herculaneum ruins in Ercolano.  (Ercolano, like much of Napoli, is not a particularly inviting place). Herculaneum was a village, while Pompeii was a large city. In comparison, it was much more relatable than the overwhelming size of Pompeii. The excavated ruins are better preserved here.  While Pompeii was covered in heavy ash, causing roofs to collapse, Herculaneum was hit by pyroclastic flows that preserved some of the organic material.  Apparently 75% of Herculaneum is still buried.

Rather than flying out of Fiumicino the same day as our arrival, our plans included a two night stay so that we could visit Ostia Antica (Ancient Ostia), the ruins of the ancient harbor city of Rome. Ostia was a working seaport city. Chiefly it was Rome’s largest port, but it, also, had salt flats. The city did a tremendous business in salt which was the only preservative for meats. It was a military fort, as well. As Rome gained control of the entire Mediterranean, Ostia’s importance wained. Unlike Pompeii and Herculaneum, Ostia Antica’s decline was heightened when Rome fell and the Tiber river changed course. Silting, by the river, caused the city to be two miles from the sea. Ostia was literally abandoned and a new port dug out further down the river.  This place is huge! Amazing!!  We just managed to walk the length of it and get back to the car before a violent thunderstorm started.

So if the volcanoes don’t get you, the rivers just might. Or a lightning strike.  Or rising sea levels or whatever.  All good things must end-even this blog!  We think that we are done with ruins for awhile!  Now we are going to enjoy a quiet evening in our hotel room with a nice bottle of Brunello di Montalcino.

Alla vita Italia! To Italian life! La dolce vita!!

Herculaneum With Vesuvius In The Background

Herculaneum Frescoes

Herculaneum Mosaic

More Herculaneum

Ostia Antica

Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast

Well we made the drive down from Civitavecchia and are comfortably settled into our latest agriturismo, Torre Cangiani.  We had wonderful views of Corsica as well as the blue, blue Mare Tirreno (Tyrrhenian Sea) and Bay of Napoli.  The drive was uneventful other than dealing with asphyxiation through the nearly 10 kilometers of Sorrentine Peninsula tunnels and dealing with the crazy death-defying scooterists in Sorrento.  Give me the autostrada any day.  I think that I am ready to drive most anywhere now.

Our agriturismo is located four kilometers west of Sorrento and has absolutely outstanding views of Capri, Ischia, Vesuvius, and all of the rest of the Bay of Napoli. The tower (Torre) was built in the 16th century to ward off Turkish pirates. The family has been here for hundreds of years. There are lovely ancient buildings all around the tower and on the property. This farm produces olive oil made from the ancient trees that surround the agriturismo, on the terraced hillsides, lemons-from which they make limoncello for personal consumption-and also raises bees for honey production.  Each day for breakfast, we’ve had the most delicious yogurt, topped with their own honey.  Simply scrumptious! 

Wednesday we made a trip to see Pompeii.  Probably not the best choice of days since November 1st is All Saints Day.  It seems that everyone was on holiday making for insanely crowded roads getting there.  (After all, how could we forget that this is a Roman Catholic country and consequently All Saints Day is very important in Italy?)

What an incredible place the Pompeii ruins are!  I’ve been wanting to see this first hand since our first visit to Italy and we’ve finally made it!  It is obvious that it was once a vibrant, beautiful city.  You can’t walk through the ruins without feeling the fragility of life and civilization. That feeling of impermanence persists through much of our travels in Italy.  After all, where is the Roman Empire?

We spent all of Thursday exploring and overspending in Sorrento.  The day started with us on one of those goofy looking city street tourist train rides to get an overview of the city.  Afterwords we took an ascensore (aka lift or elevator) down to the port to better see the old town walls and the ferries to Capri.  Then the real spending began.  Since Jan decided that she couldn’t go home without the beautiful Milano scarf that had her name on it, I decided that I couldn’t go home without the Firenze leather jacket that had my name on it.  After realizing that we hadn’t yet reached our credit limit, we then had dinner at Il Buco, a Michelin starred 

restaurant. Found in the wine cellar of a Benedictine Monastery, it was a feast for all the senses! As you would expect, the food was incredible, the wine selection overwhelming, the service impeccable!!  Reading the reviews, I saw mention of a perfect “dirty” martini. Ordered one and yes, it was perfetto! A marvelous way to end the day!

Friday was our day to explore the Amalfi Coast.  We first set out for Positano, passing through numerous small villages on the peninsula. The views from the top of the peninsula were tremendous!  We could see into the Bay of Salerno at the same time that we could see into the Bay of Naples!  It always amazes to look up at the tiny towns built clinging to the nearly shear bluffs. How did they do that? I read that there has not been a building permit issued in Positano for 25 years. That is certainly believable! Rick Steves cautions about driving the Amalfi Coast and being stuck in heavy traffic, finding no parking, and being terrified of the dangerous road.  Perhaps since our drive was in November, there really were not any delays.  The lack of parking was an issue, however.  We found a few areas to stop for photo opportunities. We, also, found a restaurant- with attached parking lot-where we had lunch.  The lunch was incredible!  I ordered grilled squid, expecting something similar to the Calamari from home, but I got a whole grilled squid instead. Tasted so smokey!  The road did not seem that terrifying to us, perhaps since we had already survived Sorrento, Napoli and other Italian roads. Actually it was more like Big Sur-wish we had the MG

View of Capri from our agriturismo

View of Vesuvius from our agriturismo

Olive Harvest Netting

Pompeii ruins

Sorrento

Amalfi Coast

Civitavecchia

Our drive to Civitavecchia (chuh-VEE-tuh-vek-ee-uh) was uneventful other than the damage done to our kidneys and teeth.  Note to self, never drive Superstrada 1 (SS1) again!  Unlike the Autostrada, Superstradas are supported by taxes rather than by tolls.  And boy does it show!  The road was nearly as rough as some of the roads leading to our agriturismos.

Civitavecchia itself strikes us as a rather sketchy city.  There’s not much going for it other than having the port to bring in cruise ships so that tourists can visit Roma.  Our B&B was located a couple of kilometers out of town and was a pleasant enough setting, though.

The first reason for spending two nights here was to break up the drive from Volterra to Sorrento.  A more important reason was to allow us to visit two different Etruscan Necropoli.  (Necropole,  Necropoli  -  sorry thinking of Dana Carvey here).  The first one we visited, Banditaccia (ban-DEE-tach-ee-uh) Necropolis, was one-half hour north of Civitavecchia in the city of Cerveteri.  The second one, with painted tombs, was only 15 minutes south of Civitavecchia in the city of Tarquinia (tar-QUEEN-ee-uh).

Both of these sites were simply amazing.  The Banditaccia Necropolis dates back as far a the 9th century BC.  While most of what we saw here was the elaborate burial tombs, it also included family living quarters.  All constructed out of tufo. We skipped on entering most of the tombs as they were very difficult.  There were several spelunkers here, wearing lighted hard hats, determined to enter the most difficult tombs.  The Tarquinia tombs were unique in that  the interiors were painted. They have been called “the first level of Italian painting”. Most of these have been dated from the 7th to the 4th century B.C. The fact that the paintings have survived this long is amazing!  Of course they are being well protected now.  When leaving the Tarquinia Necropolis, we happened upon our very first view of an ancient Roman aqueduct.

Next stop, Sorrento, a four hour drive away.  Thankfully most of it is Autostrada.  Our longest planned drive while staying at the Sorrento agriturismo is a day trip to Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Banditaccia Necropolis

Tarquinia Necropolis

Roman aqueduct

Volterra

We were able to say arrivederci to our hosts, at Castello di Cosona, and pass along our wishes to Nonna. She is 96 now and keeps her mind sharp reading and doing crossword puzzles. Just amazing!  It is always heart-wrenching to leave our Scuola apartment here. Now we start counting the days until we can return!  Or perhaps we should count our friends, the sheep instead.  Greeting us upon our arrival was not enough.  They decided to block the road for us as we were leaving.  While the sheep were our friends, the sheep dogs were decidedly not.  Five of them came out and gave our Fiat hell while we were patiently waiting for the sheep to cross.  Next visit we will have to have some bistecca on hand to placate the dogs!

Volterra is an island in the sky and the road to it is like driving through Big Sur. Simply dizzying! Our previous visit here was only a couple of hours, so this time we spent a couple of days to better explore Etruscan history.  Evidence of the Etruscan civilization has been found in central Italy dating back to 900 B.C. Traces of Etruscan ruins and museums can be found in many villages and towns. Tombs and artifacts are still being discovered.  They were far more advanced than their neighbors, as represented by their mining of metals (800 years before the Bronze Age) for making ingots for trade and some very finely crafted jewelry. They drained and irrigated land that became the fertile breadbasket of Central Italy. Some of the most famous Etruscan sights are Circus Maximus in Rome, the necropolis and underground tunnel dwellings in Orvieto, the Etruscan gate (Porta all’Arco, from the 4th century B.C.) in Volterra. 

On our first trip to Italy, Volterra inspired me to write that this was a castle and the people were living day-to-day ordinary lives just as the rest of us-except they get to do it in a castle! A walled castle! Going to work, shopping, cooking, sleeping-in a walled city/castle!! Quick wake me up-we just did it! It is as beautiful and historic as Orvieto, just more rustic. We stayed in the wonderful La Locanda Hotel-well, wonderful until the locals decided to have a meeting outside of our windows at midnight-located just inside the city walls.

We spent most of our time here moving between the various Etruscan and Roman sites and museums. The highlights were the Roman Amphitheater and the Etruscan Museum.  And since Volterra is the Alabaster capitol of Italy, the Alabaster Museum. The Alabaster artwork is beautiful, as well as its practical applications. Many churches’ windows were outfitted with Alabaster so thin as to allow light through.

We could only look upon the massive Medici Fortress from the Archaeological Park, as the fortress is being used as a maximum security prison for special prisoners, keeping them far away from their Sicilian families.  (With some serious planning we could probably break Tony out). While the Archaeological Park is a delightful treed green area in town, it is also home to archaeological digs of Etruscan temple foundations going back to 1500 B.C.

Had a snack at a local bar called Vena di Vina whose ceiling was decorated with donations of bras and a VW body! Kind of strange but it worked.  A Rick Steves pick. Found our favorite apertivo spot and re-energized! They have monumental music-La Traviata-this weekend, the Tartuffo Bianco (white truffle) festival, major shopping for all fashionistas and a fabulous restaurant scene. We had dinner at one of the top ones-Del Duca. Oh my! Bo can’t get enough wild boar (Cinghuale) and I had Pigeon (Squab as known to the rest of the world and quite possibly harvested from one of Italy’s pigeon crowded piazzas). It actually tasted quite a bit like  goose breast. We had a local wine that was a blend of Sangiovese and Merlot-mouthwatering! Desserts were equally delicious. Bowen had his favorite Creme Brûlée w/Rhum flavor. I had the Semi Freddo with crumbled amaretti. Both were amazing! 

Next up a brief stop at a Civitavecchia B&B, which we will be using as a base to explore 2 very important Etruscan ruins.  Then enough already with the Etruscans.  We’ll move on to Sorrento and the Almalfi coast to enjoy La Dolce Vita!

Our Friends Saying Goodbye

Volterra Main Street

Volterra Side Street

Volterra’s Roman Amphitheater

Porta all’Arco

Etruscan Museum

Medici Fortress

Vena di Vina

The Heart of Toscano

What a joy-being able to spend a day doing nothing except what you want to! This is the first time we have done absolutely nothing on a trip! NOTHING! Just read, wrote postcards, had an easy lunch, an aperitivo. And then, IT happened! For those of you who read our first blog, you may remember that upon our departure from Cosona, we included a photo of leaving our friends, the sheep. As we left, they came to say goodbye in the field below us.  Today, they came back to greet us and totally surrounded our agriturismo apartment!!  Literally, they surrounded the building! There must have been a few hundred in total, along with the sheep dog directing operations. It was hilarious!  When we first arrived here we remarked that the Cosona family appeared to have been paying more attention to the shrubbery, keeping it properly pruned.  WRONG!  Our welcoming committee of sheep quickly mowed down most everything except the rosemary and the sage.  Since the field below our apartment is freshly plowed, awaiting the planting of winter wheat, they either decided that the meals were better here or they really, really missed us! We prefer to believe they just missed us! Shortly afterward, a huge thunderstorm moved in with very heavy rain and hail. We were so relieved not to be out driving or sightseeing. It made everything a little more cozy! You may not hear anything for a while, as this is the place where we completely shut down. What vacation means.

Well we ventured out after a day of rest.  Unlike our last visit to Tuscany, we decided it was time to see Siena.  Not a completely simple task since pretty much all of the city is in a ZTL.  But we finally figured out how to enter a parking garage that was reasonably close, actually inside the old city walls.  In case I haven’t mentioned it before, ZTL’s are very stressful!

Once parked we made the walk to Il Campo, the most unique piazza that we have ever seen.  It was constructed as an amphitheater with city hall on a side and the merchant buildings and restaurants fronting the rest of the square.  It has been described as Siena’s living room.  That description seems accurate with people lounging on the bricks everywhere! Anyone who uses a crayola, knows the color “burnt Sienna” and it certainly is! The most interesting thing, regarding the piazza, is that the famous Palio horse races are held here every summer.  This is a competition between a selected ten of Siena’s seventeen neighborhoods. Apparently 60,000 people are crowded onto the square to observe what is a no-holds-barred medieval moment. The race is three circuits of the piazza, approximately one kilometer.  The winning neighborhood-contrada (cohn-TRA-da)- apparently goes berserk.  Sigh, we wish we here to see it. Next time!

While there are many sights in Siena, the two that most intrigued us was the Il Campo and the Duomo. This church reminds me of the Duomo in Orvieto-which is my all time favorite-but is definitely in  the top 5. The outside is magnificent in white and green striped marble-as are the multitude of pillars inside. The current structure was started in 1215 and was under construction and artistic decoration for over 300 years. There are enough Renaissance paintings and statues to house a museum. Michelangelo, Bernini, Donatello, Nicola Pisano (the Giotto of sculpture), Duccio, to name but a few. Every piece in the Duomo was one artists centerpiece.We have seen a multitude of beautiful churches and each one has had one outstanding feature. The feature of this Duomo was the incredible marble floors! I have never seen anything like them-anywhere! For nearly 200 years, artists paved the floors with scenes from the Old Testament and allegories. It was difficult to pay homage to so many of the famous artists who's work was all around us. There is much more of Siena to visit, but for a first time we saw exactly what we needed to see!

Ah, Orvieto! A favorite of hill towns! The scenery from below, driving up and inside the town is quite dramatic. Tuscany is justifiably famous for its hill towns, this one, however, is in Umbria. The town sits a thousand feet above the valley floor, majestically rising on its tufo throne. Tufo is a light tannish-yellow colored volcanic rock. It is soft enough to carve out caves and to make dwellings and then hardens after exposure to air. Many hill towns (including Rome and its famous landmarks) are on tufo. Orvieto is my favorite not only for the beauty of the Duomo and the town, but because of its Etruscan heritage. Thousands of years ago, the Etruscans began building hill towns-for protection. It is said that the first king of Rome was an Etruscan. They were, in part, responsible for teaching the Romans the terracing of wheat and vineyards. More on the Etruscans later. This was our 2nd time in Orvieto. Rather than driving up like last time, we took the funicular. Fast and easy-not the hair raising twists and turns of streets not built for cars!! Since we had pretty much seen and done everything last time, we just went to the Duomo, had lunch, saw an Etruscan temple ruin and fort and went ceramic shopping. Orvieto is famous for its ceramics. You can see/buy ceramics most everywhere in Italy. If you look at the label, it will say Orvieto. Just can’t say enough! If Italy is in your future, this hill town is a must!!

Bowen was absolutely brilliant-for a change-yesterday (ieri). We wanted to stay close to Cosona, but visit some wineries in Montalcino.  But through his use of Google Maps he saw that there were a few out of the way wineries shown with links to their websites.  So with much bravery, he called a couple of them in the morning.  Of course none of the answering parties spoke English.  But, the accomplished Italian speaker that Bowen is, he was able to communicate well enough to set up an appointment for an afternoon tasting at one of them.  When we showed up for the aforementioned appointment no one answered the door.  However, the winery next door let us in for a tasting of their excellent vino.  After we had purchased a few bottles of their wine we encountered the original winery as we were leaving.  (They were literally on top of one another). So we had yet another (and originally scheduled) tasting.  As it turns out, both wineries are related (from the same family) but do not get along.  We think that the first winery poached us from the second.  After two tastings it’s a good thing that Toscana roads are so curvy. Otherwise someone might have thought that we had drunk too much vino!! We are so elated to be in the Crete Senesi (CRAY-tay-see-Nay-say), again! The panoramas in every direction-reminds us of the Palouse in eastern Washington.

Our Friend Welcoming Us Back

Why does the sheep dog look like a sheep?

Il Campo

Duomo

Orvieto

Orvieto Duomo

Orvieto Street Scene

Lucca

Being in Piemonte is always a joy. Being in Piemonte during the fall wine and white truffle festivals is a dream come true! It is with heavy hearts that we move on. The weather is agreeing with us-from sunny and high 70’s to 50’s and complete white-out fog overnight. It makes everything soft and misty, quietly hushed. The hazelnut groves are shrouded in the mist and look like creatures  from “Mars Attacks”! We make our way south, to Liguria. Just on the outskirts of Genoa (Genova), The sun breaks through and we have a complete view of the Bay of Genova and the Ligurian Sea!! The water and sky are the same color and the horizon is simply awash in azzurre.

Lucca is a city that we visited 3 years ago, on our way from the Cinque Terre to Firenze (Florence).  We only spent a few hours and vowed to return. Now we are here overnight. Lucca was a part of the Roman Empire from 180 BC. It is Italy’s most impressive fortress city-despite the fact that it has not been involved in a war since 1430. There is a perfectly intact wall that still surrounds the city. This is a WALL! You can walk around the entire city. The wall is as wide as a highway! Such a sight to see and then to look out. Lucca has a population of around 90,000 and numbers 70 churches. That is a pretty hefty ratio! One of the most beautiful is the Cathedral of San Martino. It hosts gothic arches, Renaissance paintings and stained glass. In the style of the 11th century, the exterior is of striped white and gray marble and matches the interior columns. The ceiling and nave frescoes are still bright and colorful. Truly, one of the most beautiful in all of Italy!

Unlike when we last visited Lucca, we had enough time to partake of an event that is unique to Lucca.  We attended a one hour concert of Giacomo Puccini’s operas, at Chiesa San Giovanni (which is the family church of the Puccini’s). Lucca, being Puccini’s hometown, is now home to the world’s only permanent festival-Puccini e la Sua Lucca (Puccini and his Lucca)-celebrating one of the greatest opera composers of all time.  While we haven’t ordinarily been big opera fans, it was an extraordinary event, nevertheless. Jan’s father, Ralph, would have been pleased and very surprised! This one’s for you, Dad-just wanted to make sure you knew that she loved it!  The tenor, Stefano Cresci, was simply incredible.  How does any person voice such range and power?  As an aside, our limited Italian actually allowed us to understand some of the lyrics. 

We ended the evening blown away by the music and the food afterward. We had dinner at Al Corso. It was recommended to us by a local chef. Mama Mia!! What a fabulous treat! Every part of the menu was local and organic! We had a local Sangiovese wine which was fruit forward and yet soft, with a very long finish. A new love! We split a warm seafood salad which had so many Mediterranean delicacies. Bo, of course, had the Bistecca and I had suckling pig-cooked almost 24 hours! I have never, ever in my life had such pork!! I am going to work on this recipe at home. I may have to build an outdoor spit! Worth it!

So, we have traded hazelnut groves for olive groves. We are ready for new adventures in Toscano and think Toscano is ready for us!! Our favorite agriturismo, Cosona, has welcomed us home with open arms. I just want to cook and drink in the countryside of this amazing part of this amazing country. So blessed to be able to spend so much time here!

No More of Our Favorite Road

Hazelnut Grove

The Wall

Cathedral of San Martino

Puccini Concert Setting

Guinigi Tower

Old Town Lucca Street