Europe trip (Part 11): Siena

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:



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

About the photo above: we came across a wedding while in Siena (when we meant to visit Siena, that is), and I happened to find myself standing beside the official photographer when I snapped this photo just before the happy couple turned and went inside a restaurant.



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:



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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Europe trip (Part 10): Lost in Siena

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

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

As you can see from photo above, we visited the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I confess I was more impressed by the tower than I expected to be. Impressed that it hadn't toppled over, that is.

Intended to be a regular vertical tower, the construction of the Tower of Pisa began in 1173 but started to lean soon after, caused by bad design with a mere three-meter foundation in weak, unstable subsoil. Here's the base of the tower:



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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Europe trip (Part 8): Cinque Terre

Had fun with Allison and Jodi last night! It was good to catch up. I also tuned my harp yesterday; I've been neglecting it recently, I'm afraid. Now that sessions at the Tranzac are over until the fall, I'm going to focus on practising some harp pieces in addition to reviewing my whistle tunes.

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

And now we come to one of my favourite places during our trip to Europe: Cinque Terre (see above photo).

Cinque Terre consists of five small villages along the rocky coast of eastern Liguria in northern Italy. Here's a map of the area in Wikitravel; it has many steep slopes which have been cultivated into terraced vineyards. The coastline, five villages, and the surrounding hillsides are all part of a national park by the same name.

There are very few cars in the villages since the area is not easily accessible by road. Visitors usually leave their cars outside the town area.



On the way to Cinque Terre, we passed some mountains which I thought were snow-covered until Ginny said that the white was marble. Marble. How cool is that? Beckett later told me that apparently Michelangelo carved some of his statues from marble out of this area.



We visited Manarola, one of the towns in Cinque Terre and arguably the oldest, with the cornerstone of the church dating from 1160. According to this Wikipedia entry, Manarola is often mistaken as a fishing village. I can see how easily this misconception could occur; there were boats everywhere.

Manarola is traditionally a wine-producing town, however....a dry white wine named, not surprisingly, "Cinque Terre." Cinque Terre also produces Sciacchetrà, a prized dessert wine made from prime grapes dried to the point of holding only a few drops of sweet juice, and limoncino, a dessert wine made from steeping lemon peels in pure alcohol and then added sugar and water to make a liquor.



Cinque Terra has some of the best coastline hiking trails in the world. The path from Riomaggiore to Manarola is called the Via Dell'Amore (or roughly "Lovers Walk").

The scenery was amazing. I'm glad they had railings on the trail or I'm sure I would have happily wandered off the cliff into the Mediterranean, staring at the hills and the sea:



The trail goes as far as you can see in the distance, then to the next town. I'd love to come back to Cinque Terre someday, not only for the beautiful scenery but also to do the entire trail between all the villages.

We bought fruit drinks at Siamo alla Frutto; I chose a freshly made Apple & Cardamom lemon drink from this menu while Ginny and Jeff selected from the Almond Milk selection. We sipped our cold drinks as we walked, admiring our surroundings.

View from part of the trail:



Don't you wonder what's hidden in that small cave near the top of the picture?

Being so close to the ocean, of course, I had to order seafood for dinner. Ginny and I shared this mixed seafood platter at Trattoria Bar il Porticciolo while Jeff opted for a pesto ravioli which was also very tasty.



I didn't recognize some of the fish on this plate, and it was the first time I ever ate fresh eel...everything tasted delicious. On this trip, my other food firsts included pigeon, rabbit and wild boar. Jeff and Ginny had their usual after dinner coffee. This is what you got when you asked for "coffee" in Italy:



Jeff and Ginny both enjoyed it, but it looks like sludge to me. :-) According to this site, ordering coffee in Italy is like ordering expresso in North America. Coffee tastes different depending where you go in Italy; all regions like their own coffee the best, of course. Cappuccino is regarded as a breakfast coffee; only children and tourists drink "milky" coffee like cappuccino after 10 a.m.

Anyway, you can find more about Cinque Terre in the Wikitravel site and Cinque Terre's tourist consortium site. Ostello Cinque Terre is the largest hostel in the area, and apparently there the Monastery of S. Bernardino above Corniglia (one of the villages) offers accommodation for about 60€ per room.

Here is some other travel info I found about Cinque Terre:

Travel Resources for le Cinque Terre
The Cinque Terre Trail System
Travelers Digest: Cinque Terre (includes accommodation list)
The Cinque Terre


To be continued...

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Europe trip (Part 7): More Florence

I've started two new writing projects. Every morning, I wake up and feel excited about going to my office to work. I feel like the luckiest person in the world.



To the right: More experimentation with the Scratchboard tool in Corel Painter. I'm much happier with this attempt than an earlier one.

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

Back to Florence...

If any of you are planning a trip to Italy and plan to visit well-known museums and galleries, I strongly recommend checking out whether you can buy tickets in advance (online, for example). You'll probably still have to line up, but not nearly as long as the regular line, like this one at the Uffizi:



You pay extra for advance reservations, but it's well worth it.

The Uffizi is a famous art gallery and on our must-see list for Florence. It was a thrill to see paintings like Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Primavera in real life. I -loved- the main hallway. This is definitely an art gallery I'd like to re-visit when we have more time.

Speaking of art galleries, Jeff and I ended up buying two paintings in Florence:



The artist is Mercurio Colledanchise, whose work was being displayed in Tuscany Painting Studio D'Arte (Via Ghibellina 113/R - 50122 Florence - Italy, Tel: 055 283949 ). We both liked these paintings because they reminded us of the wonderful Tuscan countryside, and house painting reminded us of the drive up the hill to Fonte De' Medici.

At this point, of course, we realized that we'd have to buy another suitcase to get our paintings home. :-)

Jeff and I enjoyed chatting with the artist's wife, Angie Brooksby, whose work was also on display in the gallery. Mercurio didn't speak English, but he shook our hands and thanked us after we bought his pieces.



During one of our visits to Florence, we saw a flag throwing ceremony; I had heard about these, and was pretty excited that we had stumbled across one. Flag throwing is pretty big in Italy, and there's even an Italian National Flag Championship with categories ranging from under twelve years of age to adult.



Luck seemed to be on our side during the entire trip. We just happened to walk into the square just as the flag throwing ceremony was beginning. A medieval parade was going by just as we entered a street. The weather was amazing and it only rained twice: once when we were going inside a cathedral (it stopped by the time we left) and once when we had already decided to stay at "home" in Fonte de' Medici all day to rest.

Or perhaps it wasn't entirely luck. I've found that my enjoyment of a trip is usually heavily based on attitude of those involved, which is why if badstuff happens, I've found it best to let it slide by and make it an interesting trip anecdote instead of letting the incident colour the rest of my trip. And if goodstuff happens, I embrace it! :-)



I was curious by all the Pinocchio references I kept seeing in Florence until I found out that the Italian author, Carlo Collodi, lived in Florence. Apparently Collodi originally envisioned an ending to the story where Pinocchio is caught and hung by his enemies (!), but his editor asked that he add chapters at the end to make it more suitable for children.



When we had dinner at the Trattoria Borgo Antico in Florence, there weren't enough smaller tables to accommodate the three of us (Jeff, Ginny and me) so they sat us with strangers. I've noticed this practice is much more common in Europe than North America. It was a tad awkward at first, but then a giant plate of seafood arrived for the German couple at the end.

"Wow, that's a lot of food," the woman next to me commented.

"Yes, and that's just my appetizer," the German man said with a big grin. "I didn't know it was going to be so big!"

Conversation flowed more easily after that. The couple next to us was from Scotland, here for the weekend without their kids. The blonde woman at the end didn't know much English; I wish I had been sitting next to her, so I could practise my German!



Yesterday, "fifona" asked in Livejournal about the difference between ice cream and gelato. The term does seem to be interchangeable in some places, so I was confused enough myself to do some research. First off, I found many articles that referred to some types of North American "gelato" as "Italian style ice cream." Here's what else I discovered:

According to this source, gelato has no air added during the creation process, while ice cream has varying amounts of air. The softer ice creams tend to have a lot more air, sometimes almost 50%. Gelato recipes usually include more egg yolks, more milk and less cream. According to this northern Italian, "In Italy there's no ice cream, only gelato." According to the Wikipedia entry for "gelato", true gelato has no cream.

Hm. This issue definitely bears more research, don't you think? I think it's time I visit Hollywood Gelato again (1640 Bayview Ave. 416-544-9829)



But ahem, I digress. Back to Florence...



Above photo: Jeff reminded me that E.M. Forster's Room With A View was based in Florence. Quite a few of the apartment complexes in Florence proudly declared that their rooms had views as well. I was amused by Amanda Snyder's comment in Flickr when I wrote this. Her response: "I dunno Debbie, I'm totally focused on the aggro guy in the great shoes."

In many tourist areas (we noticed this in Rome as well), historical buildings under constructions would often hanging canvas images of the real thing in front of the scaffolding:



Florence is a town best explored on foot rather than in a car or tour bus. The traffic is heavy, and trying to find parking is a nightmare. Here's some advice on driving in Italy.

We opted to skip the climb to the top of the Duomo after chatting with the Scottish couple the previous night. Apparently the view is great, but the climb can be a bit harrowing for anyone who's claustrophobic... you're stuck waiting in on narrow, steep stairs with people closely packed behind and in front of you as people on top take their turn.

I decided to enjoy the Duomo from the outside instead. :-)



Above: front window display of Sam's, a shop in Florence that sells American products. Apparently it's very popular.

Like Paris, there were so many things and places in Florence I would like to come back to see someday, like the Galleria del'Accademia, and spend more time in the Uffizi and the Boboli Gardens. I'd also like to take more time to just wander through some of the less crowded streets.

You can see the rest of my Florence pics here.

To be continued...

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