The Fall of Rome (ours at least)

Kathy here-
Last days in Rome. Having avoided some of the biggies (David in Florence and the Vatican in Rome) and now avoiding the question of whether to try to get to the Sistine Chapel before leaving Italy altogether we finally settled for a couple of lesser sights and then a trip to the modern and fabulous Auditorium Parco della Musica (above), which I have longed to go to since seeing a photo in our Lonely Planet Guide to Italy (more on previous blog entry). So we got to The Pantheon, which was a highlight for me; such incredible dimensions and beauty and proportion.

While trying to get to the Trevi Fountain from there, which really should have just been around the corner, we stumbled across the Piazza Navona which was a long, rectangular public space that featured the best hip hop dancers I have ever seen, a strange man dancing while setting up his finger puppet show (didn't stick around to catch THAT sure-to-be-scintillating show), brides and grooms looking for photo ops and a ton of artists painting and selling their paintings, some of which were pretty good!
We did finally make it to the Trevi fountain (ok we grabbed a cab which took us the long and circuitous but necessary route). It really is huge and beautiful and is fed by one of the oldest aqueducts in Rome but is absolutely surrounded by swarms and swarms of people and their cameras. I know, I know, we are included in that bunch. Hard to get near it though, so we gave up and enjoyed the aforementioned best gelato in Italy.

The next day we kept our reservations at the Borghese Gallery (the second best museum in Rome apparently, and really not crowded at all). We took public transit and not realizing how big the Borghese Gardens are and forgetting how ridiculous the signage is here, basically had to run through the gorgeous grounds to get to it in time for our reservations. We arrived sweaty and grumpy. It WAS amazing, especially knowing it was someone's residence. An incredible collection housed in rooms with gorgeous painted ceilings. After leaving there it was off the the Spanish Steps, very close by. Another disappointment, although perhaps another time of year and it would be less congested. Really, it's a bunch of stairs. We went up and down, looking for somewhere somewhat affordable and interesting to rest our weary bods and quench our thirst. After passing the expensive and empty wine bars, and the full and crappy looking trattorias, we found a dark enoteca with a big wooden bar. Good looking men of all ages behind the bar, waiting to dish us out a plate of antipasti from the ten or so bowls laid out on the bar of olives, cheeses, meats, breads, sun dried tomatoes. Yummy. And a dozen or so wines by the glass. In the menu I mean. At Iris' request we sat at the bar (she loves to watch how they do things) and quickly settled in. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that they were playing some great 80's music -for me at least:) Now happily cooling down, eating, drinking and groovin' we decided to stay and ordered a great thin crust pizza with olives and fresh anchovies. Yummy. Then, on to Paulo Nutini at the Auditorium. A great and BUSY end to the trip.

Transit of Venus

Rory - Got day passes for the Roman transit system, a steal at 4 euros a day for each of us. Took it out to Renzo Piano's Auditorium: three adjacent concert halls, quite organic looking, each building more than a little resembling a whale (very like a whale, or so said Polonius). The shapes said whale, the colouring and finish could be whale, in fact the skin covering the three halls was very like a whale's skin. Taking shade under the overhang where the skin separated from the building, we could look up and see the skeleton. We saw a sequence of laminated, curved wood ribs -- a ribcage -- holding the skin on. There were even little intentional tears in the skin here and there, perhaps to ventilate areas or to offer hidden views.



Learned that the Standards Trio with Jack deJohnette, Gary Peacock and Keith Jarrett would be playing inside one of the whales that very night, though for a princely sum. Learned also that a Scottish pop star with an Italian name and a sometimes Jamaican accent would be playing that night, at more plebian prices, in the open-air amphitheatre nestled among the whales and backing onto an excavated floorplan of a house from millennia past. We went for the pop, bought tickets for the Paolo Nutella show that night, and got back on the bus in search of antique treasure. Incidentally, the bus to and from the Auditorium has no number, but rather just a letter. It is the M bus and that stands for Music. First city bus that any of us had ever seen named for music. Co-incidentally, while riding the M, we crossed paths with a bus called the 310 Muse; then later, the extravagantly named 90 EXPRESS L.go LABIA.
L.go? Let's go? L.go would be short for Largo. Our dictionary defines largo as a small piazza. But it gives a couple of alternate definitions too: wide,and open sea. The Roman bus poetry was getting a little too intense. We never got on the 90 EXPRESS.     

Panthing for New Roman Food

Kathy-- what a breathtaking structure!!!! Just entering it gave a feeling of such spaciousness it immediately melted away all the chaos of downtown Rome, which was right outside, as this amazing building is nestled in between a bunch of other buildings and narrow streets with only a small piazza outside to give any perspective on it. A naturally cool and likely amazing acoustical space, we were pretty mesmerized. Probably or favourite piece of architecture on the whole trip. Sacred in many ways for sure.
Rory -- Taking in the magnificence of the domed roof of the Pantheon with its oculus at the top opening to the sky, pouring sunlight in at ever-shifting angles onto the brilliant geometric facets of the volcanic-rock dome high high overhead.....sure does build an appetite. So we followed the guidebook to a great spot around the corner called The Sacred and the Profane, except in Italian.

It was once a church, with no dome and no oculus, but has been retrofitted so that we could sit and eat dinner a few metres above what was once the altar. Holy cow. (We did not have beef.) We did have a superfine Calabrian antipasti misto. Almost like a meze or a thali, with a procession of small silver dishes arriving oven-hot one after another, offering an array of southern Italian tastes and textures, some rich, some spicy, serving as a counterpoint to the solid loyal goodness of the Tuscan cuisine we had enjoyed so much for the last couple of weeks. We had eggplant cooked as if into a curry, but with mild and intriguing seasoning. Potatoes three ways, one of them resembling fries but much better. Hot pepper tomato paste dressed in olive oil. A lonely lovely fresh sardine. Crepes of some sort, filled, rolled, sliced and grilled, no clear idea of what was going on but two different types and darn tasty. Also good olives -- not as commonplace in Italy as we had expected. Sun-dried tomatoes. And a basket of hot, fresh flatbread -- a nice change from a steady diet of panini and other crusty breadstuffs. And a salad with it, mixing three very complementary elements: smoked ham, walnuts and arugula. Rucola is abundant and fresh and young in Italy, tender and spicy, and is usually translated into English not as arugula but as rocket. On this menu, however, it was presented as racket.   

Confessional

Kathy here-
So I lied. We didn't actually leave Tuscany when we left the villa Saturday morning. On the way to dropping the rental car off in Chuisi, we made a quick return visit to our favorite spot, Montepulciano, where Rory and I picked up two new rings we had commissioned from a lovely jeweler there on the Corso. Alessandro makes these very cool rings out of silver with Etruscan symbols on them. Etruscan history is important and  prominent in Tuscany of course,  and was a subject I studied and loved in high school. We chose one that resembles a circular pattern we know from Ghana. The Etruscan symbol is called "Patera" which is an offering plate symbolizing libation and sacrifice. Seemed like an appropriate symbol for us, this being our twentieth year together. ha ha. Libation and sacrifice, no kidding.  The richest paradox.  :) They are beautiful and we celebrated with our last three cappuccinos in Montepulciano, then headed for the car return, and train to Rome.

The other lie, was that the favorite gelato place I talked about with locations in Siena and Florence,  has now been replaced by a STUPENDOUS shop called San Crispino near the Trevi Fountain here in Rome. Insanely amazing gelato with the most interesting flavors. We were stuffed with an awesome meal I hope Rory will blog about, but all three of us indulged once we saw the offerings at this gelateria. Like our other favorite, all the ingredients were fresh and organic. The guy behind the counter was even tossing/flipping the cups before filling. He was so fast and fancy, he was like an award winning bartender or barista.  So, I know you are wondering just what flavours did we have? Iris had hazelnut and limone; Rory had licorice root and fig, and I had ginger-cinnamon and honey. Unbelievably gorgeous flavors. We may have to go back tomorrow, even though the Trevi Fountain is like Niagara Falls, there are so many tourists and tourist shops (lovely fountain though).
OK that was my confessional. Ciao.
     

Goodbye to Tuscany

Kathy here- what  a dinner!!  We celebrated our last night here at the villa with a spectacular dinner. Prepared by Kathleen and Iris and Rory. The girls worked studiously for HOURS chopping tomatoes, mushrooms, lettuce, shopping for a beef bone (eventually given for free from the butcher in Radda), writing menus, picking local herbs, organizing the shifts, and generally just getting the perfect vibe together for a fabulous Tuscan meal. They have watched the locals carefully and practiced with two different and yummy breakfasts, so they are well versed in the challenges and tasks. Plus, they had the-oh-so-professional aprons given to us at the cooking class on Tuesday in nearby Lecchi. After a cool swim, we dressed for dinner and opened a couple of local bottles of wine, one 2004 Reserva from the lovely Gattavecchi woman a couple of weeks ago in Montepulciano,  and then a couple of current award winning Chiantis from "the next hill over", 2000 and 2003. We then proceeded to the menu:
Bruschetta
Mushroom salad
Mixed salad
Tomato salad (sold out)
Potato salad
Risotto with chicken ( stewed in the aforementioned beef knuckle)
Mixed dessert platter (fresh local apricots and chocolate wafers )

Awesome. We cannot believe we are at the end of our week here. It has flown by. For the O'Nyons, they are headed to Venice, and then to the coast for more Italian adventures, while we are headed back to Rome, before flying back to Canada on Monday.  

Siena

Kathy here- Since our villa is only thirty minutes from Siena (more without GPS, especially getting out of the city) we managed two half-day trips into the lovely and ancient city. it does have an amazing history, full of rival city wars, horse pageantry and strong links to Rome. All seven of us went in the first time. Try moving seven people from the Stadio parking down to the stunning Il Campo Piazza (shaped like a kitchen sink, so aptly described by the Lonely Planet guidebook). We all thought our respective three and four person excursions were challenging, but this was even funnier. So, maps in hand, stopping here there and everywhere, including our new favourite organic gelateria "Grom", which we had first discovered in Florence, we slowly made our way into the large square. We went to the Museo Civico, which among other items, houses the famous "Effects of Good and Bad Government" frescoes by Lorenzetti. While mentioned in the guidebooks, it was Michael's suggestion that made me want to go, having had lots of political discussions with our American friends, and knowing Curtis would also enjoy it. I must say it really is thought provoking. This fresco was to promote the idea of prosperity through justice and so in the room where the city council met, one wall is windows and the other three depict the effects of good and bad government. Of course, good government is painted directly across from the windows and receives the most illumination. Very cool. I loved it and bought several cards and posters to bring back.
We did some shopping, had cold drinks; Lois and Kathleen climbed the Torre del Mangia (city tower), and we all waved to them from the piazza below.
Rory and I took the kids to a very traditional trattoria to get started ordering on dinner while Lois and Curtis hoofed it up to the Duomo for a brief visit. They LOVED it and said it easily rivaled Florence !!!!!!! We all ate together some lovely and traditional Tuscan food and then headed back to the villa.
Lois and I returned Friday to Siena for a mom's day out, as I really wanted to get a chance to see the duomo as well, and it did not disappoint. especially the colourful and intricate inlaid marble floors with lots of beautiful designs, surprisingly not all sacred,I enjoyed a small statue of Paul, done by Michaelangelo before he was whisked back to Florence to begin his David. Lois and I did a bit more shopping, had a great snack with wine on a very sloping street, shared the table with a young Italian couple and next to a French foursome (who were mightily confused and then impressed when Lois asked them en Francais to take our photo). A great day and city.

Dinner in Radda

Iris and Kathleen here-
Last night we got dressed up and went out for dinner in Radda.
We ate at a fancy restaurant!
Iris had dumplings filled with ricotta cheese and spinach on top of a tomato bread sauce. Kathleen and Emma had ribbon pasta with traditional meat sauce. And their parents Lois and Curtis had tuna and strips of beef. Then for dessert me and Iris each had a chocolate soufflé. They were delicious!!!!!!!
Then we came back home and went to bed. Night, night!  

Enoteca

Lois here- yesterday Kathy Curtis and I made a requisite tour of the enoteca otherwise wine tasting. We visited three spots-each giving us a different experience. The first spot was down this very old cellar alley way. Not sure of the age of the architecture but it was very interesting. Thank heaven the location was glorious cause the gent who was introducing us to the chianti in the region was less than enthusiastic  aka without any personality.  I made a little fool of myself when i asked where my glass was cause he made us share glasses. I mean what's that all about. I had to explain my unfamiliarity with sharing glasses. I mean I am used to better things.  i want to say he gave a damn but he didn't. We didn't purchase from the first place but Kathy did.  The second locale offered four tastes of very nice wine  with graduated flavor and escalating price. The guy did not speak more than a few words of English but was very smiley.  We purchased a bottle from this place. The third was the best mostly because the guy was informative  He is an organic wine producer. When we asked where his vineyard was located he responded with "over the next hill" literally  He was explaining how his grandfather lived till 95 while drinking a litre and a half of wine (organic wine of course) until he died and that was the explanation for his long life.  Needless to say, between the three of us, we purchased a few bottles that we drank the next night. You will read about our great final meal together on our last night at Tuscany in another blog entry  We all figured we would have something to bring either home or to the next location from the enoteca but alas it has now all been drank. I am signing off now with the lovely memories of wine tasting with friends and my man.      

Fawlty Towers

Rory - Bianca, Bianca. What a gal. She, the proprietor and gardener at our villa. We didn't expect to see much of her during our week at Aia di Ama.  She lives elsewhere in the area and said she'd be by early Monday morning to water the plants and clean the pool -- all this communicated without the benefit of English on her part, or Italian on ours.  So we thought we'd see her once during our week at the villa. She keeps a nice villa, but she also keeps popping up at odd times and places, until finally everyone agreed that it was just a little odd. The first encounter was perhaps the most bizarre. I woke early Monday morning, went into the kitchen, opened the windows and shutters over the sink, looked down to pour a glass of water, looked up again to drink the glass of water, and there was Bianca standing outside the window, eye level, smiling directly at me, as close and friendly as if we were at a cocktail party, with nothing between us but the walls of her house. It was like the daily appearance of Jerome the Giraffe at the window of the Friendly Giant's castle (for those who like to rock). Remember? He could stick his head right into Friendly's castle and look around? Well just about the same with Bianca. It was a real Sesame Street moment -- like she was going to start counting to ten or singing the alphabet or something. But then out came the Italian, starting with "Buon giorno" and taking off from there, leaving me in the dust. In her kitchen. 
Another time I woke very early to the sudden and startling sound of water hitting the stone walkway directly outside our open bedroom window. 
It was the spill-over from Bianca's overly enthusiastic plant-watering on the terrace above our window. I took the opportunity to find her and bring her inside to check out the faltering wi-fi connection. She put all her plant-watering enthusiasm into this problem, asking questions loudly in dense Italian then turning her vocal energies to her cell phone, calling out loudly "Pronto!" and shooting off a volley to her figlio somewhere nearby. I tried to get her attention and mime to her the fact that people were sleeping upstairs, but it was too late: the first casualties stumbled sleepily down the stairs, miming to me "What the..."
I found the operating manual for the wi-fi router -- printed handily in five languages -- found the problem first in English, then in Italian, pressed it in Bianca's hands along with the faulty router and, as kindly as possible, showed her her own door, before any more sleeping house guests might appear. Faulty router indeed. We all laughed and agreed there was more than a little bit of Fawlty Towers at Aia di Ama.   

Be steak, ah

Rory - Home-made Bistecca alla Fiorentina here at the house called Aia di Ama near Lecchi in Chianti. We went to the Coop store in Radda. Nothin co-op about it; just like walking into a Metro in Ottawa except everything is in Italian and there are three ages of  pecorino sheep's milk cheese to choose from, and at the meat counter there is a butcher's block with a giant slab of lumbar (loom-barrrrrr) sitting out waiting for the giant cleaver to come down and make super-thick 
T-bone steaks out of it. We ordered two and were instructed to stand back as the butcher went at it.
 Decided to cook the steak Acquacheta-style, al forno a legna, in a wood-burning oven. Just happen to have one outside at Aia di Ama. Found some firewood already chopped and partly dried. It looked like mostly pieces of almond tree. Built a fire in the oven with all the skill of a new boy scout, using the few scraps of paper to be found around the house. Put match to paper, watched a flame grow under the wood, prayed to Akela, blew like mad, tasted the smoke of almond bark and paper, watched the flame die. Curtis came back with shiny pieces of cardboard box, our last hope. Lit the cardboard, watched the shiny coating turn into dancing blue and green flames, and then watched them die. Curtis went off in a last ditch search for paper. Started losing courage for the Bisteccaal Forno a legna and started thinking of the electric broiler. Curtis reappeared with a look of victory and enough paper to light any fire. "Shhhhhhhh......don't say a word" as he ripped the first corner off a very good and very useful roadmap of Italy. We both new that this was an inspired risk and that the folly of burning such a valuable navigational tool would surely spark a very great fire, and it surely did. The fire burned bright and quelled in time to give hot and steady embers to the thick steaks, and we all enjoyed wood-smoked bistecca and everything else delicious that came out of this Tuscan kitchen. And Curtis had the last laugh because he still has something even better and more useful than a good roadmap of Italy, and that is a GPS that tells him exactly where and when to turn and does so in perfectly good English. 

Musica

Rory - Outside Music. Right now, sunrise, Aia di Ama, there is an early morning concert featuring bird and beast, man and machine. The ostinato is played by unseen farm machinery in the valley below us.  Steady ticking hum from a tractor and intermittent whining grinding from the plow or something it is pulling through the vineyard.  The whining emulates the sounds of an unhappy ox pulling the same plow, mixed with the honking of geese. Another layer is a pretty regular chick-chick-chick-chick-chick-chick-chick-chick from birds closer at hand, underscored by the subtle tenor of pigeons, contraltos perhaps, rolling their R's.
One distant dog  sings in the register of the pigeons but with more percussive force.
An elaborate melody is repeated overtop at intervals by a lone bird. It could be taken as three bars of three perhaps.
A tractor climbing a paved road with a familiar slow upward glissando, repeated every time it changes gears.
Another farm vehicle keeping a steady beautiful interval, a low C it seems, with a whining high G two octaves above.  
Now the long slow arc of a distant train crossing the landscape, gathering steam as it passes through time, modulating gradually, fading partway, then stopping abruptly, proving it is no train at all, but something else.
A snare drum rattles into the soundscape in the form of a heavily laden wagon bouncing it's load over an uneven dirt road. Later another snare drum enters, an engine of some sort, playing a long fast roll. Then for a moment everything stops except the birds. The birds never stop. Now there are numerous elaborate melodies playing at once outside, too numerous, too elaborate to possibly explain.

More outside music, three days ago in Siena. Walking in the fading light of day through small unknown streets in search of our small unfound car, we heard the growing sound of a cello being lovingly abused by it's owner. When we reached the cello, the bow was bouncing and scraping against the strings, inserting rough percussive interludes between passages of lovely melody more usually associated with the cello. A lovely warm interlude in our rushed effort to get onto the road before dark, which was unsuccessful in any case, and we should have stayed for more cello abuse.

Another string player, yesterday in Firenze. Old man sitting on a low stool in the shade in narrow Via Ricasoli playing simple tuneful repetitive unadorned fiddle music, unadorned but for a wonderfully microtonal trill at the end of every line. I asked in best broken Italian if this was music of Firenze. He answered in much better Italian, no, then waved his hand into the distance and said something including the word borgata Ah.......village. I made a big circle with my arm, meaning village from around here? And he said si, and graze for the euros that dropped in his violin case.

Another street player in Lucca a week ago. A beautiful tall, buff, smiling young black man, ready for a leading role, played impossibly good, nuanced, exciting accordion music with no apparent effort to a crowd of diners at a nearby cafe in a little piazzale. We speculated as to whether this was an electronic gimmick requiring only the push of a button -- one button once and not many buttons in precise rapid succession. He finished, approached each table for a coin or two, pocketed them and went on his way. Another accordion (called fisarmonica here, with a soft s) played at two separate sightings in Lucca, with much less musical panache or depth, but by a man who could certainly play the part in a cheap Italian movie.

No shortage of music around here, and no wonder. The language itself is deeply musical. Something as simple as a friendly volley of insults between two young men in the main corso in Riomaggiore (which is music itself when you roll the R's and soften the G's and hold the E for an extra beat) turns into an aria. And it doesn't hurt that the setting is as beautiful as any opera stage set come to life. The great composers like Puccini and Verdi and filmmakers like Fellini, they didn't make it all up. They just watched and listened and took notes.

   

Malborghetta (bad little village?)

Rory - Ristorante Malborghetta in Lecchi in Chianti. Lovely Simone Muricci sharing his small kitchen with seven of us yesterday, showing us the basics of Tuscan cuisine. Cinghali, wild boar marinated in milk, vinegar, water, rosemary, sage, juniper, cloves. Three parts red onion, two parts minced carrot, one part celery, too much olive oil, way too much salt, very tasty. Also tomato paste. Garlic, chives, parsley, oregano sauteed in more olio. Mix it all together. Stew long. He told us of a customer once sending word back to the kitchen of foreign object in their dish of boar. Turned out to be lead from the hunter's bullet and the customers were pleased to know they were getting the real wild thing and not the tame boar they might get elsewhere. He also told of his grandmother who gave him first first taste of Tuscan cuisine, and how she herself refused to eat asparagus. They tried to grow asparagus in the family garden. Every year they would plant the seeds and sprouts would appear, but then nothing. Eventually it was revealed that she would let the chickens out to feed themselves in the yard and send them straight to the asparagus sprouts, and then later throw her hands up in feigned innocence.     

at the Villa in Chianti

Iris, Kathleen, and Emma here-
We met up this past Saturday at a Villa in Tuscany. When we arrived, we hopped straight into the pool at our house! It was the perfect temperature- nice and refreshing after a long, boring car ride.
So far, we have...
Went into the town of Siena. There, we shopped, looked at museums, Kathleen and her mom Lois climbed up the Civic Tower (660 steps!!!!), went out for a nice dinner, and of course... Ate GELATO!!!We saw amazing views!
And... We watched Espagna (Spain) win the FIFA World cup 2010 against Netherlands (Holland) 1-0!!!!!!!!Kathleen had her Spain shirt on and everything! And when they scored, she ran around the whole house, then we all went swimming in the pool 'till 12:30a.m!!!!!!!!

Today, we got the chance to cook a professional meal for ourselves! We took a cooking class! We made 4 courses which were;
Homemade Bruschetta (bru-sketta) topped with liver heart paste, and some topped with regular tomato topping.
Next, we had a Ravioli course (,which we all agree was fantastic!). We took some ravioli dough and stuffed it with a ricotta cheese and spinach filling, and then spread egg yolk on one edge to seal it together, then freeze them for a bit. when the ravioli is finished in the freezer we smothered it in tomato sauce!
Our next course was wild boar with white beans! It was delicious!
And finally, for the dessert, we made chocolate souffle! The souffles were so yummy! When they were done in the oven, the inside was melted chocolate, the top was covered in sugar with chocolate drizzle on the plate! It was all wonderful!
As you can see, we have had a wonderful time so far, and we will tell you more later!
Ciao!   



Kathy Here- Just wanted to add my praise to the wonderful cooking class! Simone loves food, loves food chemistry, loves teaching and is very patient in his small kitchen with seven people. We were there from 9:30am to 3:30 pm. He brought us into the restaurant which was closed for the day, offered us coffees, water and then presented us with an apron each, complete with our names and the date (in Italian) embroidered on each one. We were hooked. We cooked for three hours then slowly ate each of the courses one by one, with a wine he had chosen for each, pausing to enter the kitchen to put the finishing touches on each dish. It was heavenly.

Juliet's House

Iris here-
We had a great day yesterday!
It started off by us having a wonderful croissant at breakfast, and then drove off into Verona.
When we got into the city, we got a tamarin (A strong but delicious type of fruit) granite (Like a snow cone), sat in the central park, and did some emailing.
After we were done that, we went to grab a shawarma at a little take out place, and then we took it to some steps in front of a church and sat and ate. It was delicious!
We then made our way onto Juliet's house. I had just seen the movie Letters to Juliet, so I was really excited to go see the actual thing!
Before you get to the actual lot where her house is, you go through a tunnel which is full of graffiti with a whole bunch of names on it. It was really cool! There is a small courtyard with a statue of Juliet and I posed with her and my Mom took a picture.  Dad and I then went into her house. It was a an old medieval stone house. we only got to go in one part of the house but from the view of the window, we got to see the other half and there are tons of rooms. When we were finished checking out all the rooms and paintings in the house, we got to go onto the balcony and my Mom took a picture of us from below.

On the way back to the parking garage, we stopped at her tomb.  After we bought our tickets, my Mom and I headed out into a courtyard with a wishing well and an engraving with the story of Romeo and Juliet. We went down the staircase into two small rooms joined by a door thing where it was very cool. On the other side of the wall, is Juliet's tomb, a long plain stone rectangle. We took more photos!!!! 
It was one of the highlights of my trip!!! 

Magical Madama Butterfly

Kathy here- Last night was magical! Seeing Puccini's Madama Butterfly in the open air Roman Arena was a great way to end our short stay in Verona. After resting in the afternoon, we showered and came back to town. Pretty much all our clothes were dirty at this point, since we have been unable (or unwilling maybe) to find laundry services since we left Montepulciano. However, at the bottom of my suitcase I happened to have one little black dress left that I had not worn (too hot for black most of the time). Dressed it up with a beautiful scarf a friend gave me, and voilà ready for the opera.....Iris of course had carefully planned and saved her favourite outfit for Verona, knowing we were going to Giulietta's house, so she looked amazing and, well, Rory being Rory with his groovy new haircut and tall lanky frame can look suave in anything. So were ready. And people do dress up! We had noticed the evening before, people arriving to the Piazza in long gowns, high heels, even the odd suit or two. So we purchased some sandwiches, a delicious and generous slice of lemon and pine nut torte and stuffed it into our backpack containing wine, beer and drinks and headed across the Piazza to the Arena. Far from the opera scene at home, this more resembled a rock concert or sporting event with hawkers outside selling everything, including plastic cushions to sit on the stone seats. So we bought three, complete with a Verona Arena logos. Inside, we climbed up into the cheap seat section where we had purchased, about three quarters of the way up. While we were seated on stone, the next section down had plastic bucket chairs, and the floor section had red carpet and folding seats, for those with reserved seating who breezed in just before the 9:15pm start. We enjoyed our picnic, surrounded by lots of tourists but also lots of Italians, and several more vendors, hopping up and down the stone steps, selling programs, gelato, drinks etc. As the light was fading, people began lighting the little candles everyone had been given upon entry, by passing the flame from one to the next. Soon most of the arena was glowing with small lights. Magical. There was a full orchestra in the pit, including five harps and a great percussion section featuring four lovely nipple gongs of different sizes. A costumed large gong player showed up on stage to play the conductor in. The orchestra tuned up, and the opening scene began. Nothing was amplified and though we were far up we really could hear everything, down to the quietest pianissimo. The exquisite soft orchestral ending to the second act, with all the stage lights dimmed, and the shimmering of fake stars mingling with the real ones overhead took our collective breath away, and in the moment of silence following that act, someone from way across the arena called out " Bravito!", speaking for the whole audience.
We did make it to the end, which was just before midnight, at which point Iris climbed up to the top step of the arena with our iPad and proceeded to connect to the rest of the world via wi-fi. I took a photo of that. Magical, indeed.

Verona: A Romantic Comedy Of Errors!

Rory here -  Verona is proving to be a rather remarkable stopover on our journey. We took Iris's lead on this one. She recently saw Verona in a movie, a love story, so maybe love has brought us here. That, and a growing frustration for Iris that we were making all the decisions, which after all is the usual way of the world -- parents call and kids respond -- but this world is a little different. So we ditched plans for Siena and headed northeast away from Cinque Terre (chink-way tare-ay) for our one foray outside Tuscany and Rome. Our hosts in  Montepulciano had looked puzzled at the trade-off when we told them of the change of plans. Siena is famously beautiful. They encouraged us to at least visit the mediaeval town of Sabbionetta, en route to Verona: a lovely very old town, they said, and still intact much as it was when it was built by order of a 16th century duke with a vision of utopia. We took the bait. But utopia is over-rated and naturally bound to disappoint. It started before we arrived. The road to utopia was cut short when we arrived at the bridge that would takes over a small river and on to utopia. The bridge was being repaired and we were turned back. The detour was about twenty minutes too long, redeemed only by the curiosity of driving nice winding narrow paved roads, elevated on dykes about three metros above the surrounding tiny farms. The road divided the farms into irregular shapes and suggested regular flooding of the area, but begged the question: what of all the little farm houses down there and all the little farm people in them? Never mind, on to utopia, where probably there are no floods nor other problems.  The real trouble with utopia is that it simply can't last. And so we arrive, four, five hundred years later and it's virtually a ghost town. Just about the only people we see are the men gathered in a local sidewalk caffe bar, talking among themselves, perhaps about nothing, or the same old thing, or maybe utopia or Thomas More, who knows, and paying special attention to the sight of a Canadian woman passing through view on the other side of the street. There's little else to keep us in Sabbionetta, except hunger which is met with a less than ideal lunch (though, admittedly, a rather spectacular pineapple sorbet) and so we soon hightail it to Verona.
Verona turns out to be sort of a perfect destination at this point in our trip. The old city has a rather grand boulevard that passes through arches and gates and around vast circles of traffic, like all the great European cities, funnelling into a carless historic centre with a rare tree-lined piazza looking up at the impressive ancient Roman Arena. It's like a small, relaxed, clean Rome. Some would bristle at the thought, but a little Roman chaos goes a long way and these travelers are happy to walk on cobbled streets that are so clean they shine, and happy to sit in Piazza Bra' for a relaxing hour with no thoughts of pickpockets and hustlers.
(By the way, Rome is brilliant.) 

We spotted a poster for an opportunity missed by mere days. Stevie Wonder played the Verona Roman Arena just days before we arrived. That would be a great evening for anyone, even those of our friends who can't stand Stevie Wonder. For the serious set, though, there's opera under the stars and we have just bought tickets for tonight's staging of Madama Butterfly. We just saw Puccini's hometown Lucca, now we'll see his most beloved opera -- in an ancient stone arena, apparently designed for excellent outdoor acoustics, and with a bottle of wine and a bottle of limonata, can't wait. The coolest thing is this. The opera runs in repertory, with a different one each night: Butterfly, Aida and two others. To strike the set, the crew must lift giant set pieces out of the arena by a crane a and a put a them a down a in a da piazza. (Sorry). So we walk through Piazza Bra'
among giant pagodas and sphinxes and pharaohs and whatnot, all surrounding an ancient stone colosseum that appears to be crumbling, and some of it looks fake and some of it looks real and it's all completely surreal and wonderfully discombobulating. It looks like terrorists finally targeted Disney and hit their mark. About time. 
Between forays into the old city, we drive out to our pastoral digs at Corte Boaria.
That's bovaria with a 'v' that eventually just went away. Cowland. We're in an agriturismo motel. Bizarre. Wonderful. Our hosts have kiwi orchards, vegetable gardens, ducks that will snap at your ass if you don't watch it, and a kind gentleman farmer who works with them and shows up with a rustic little harvest basket full of the best hairless peaches we could ask for. Not nectarines, mind you -- pescas (peshas). And we didn't even ask. We're out in the country, but we take our car fifty metres along this tight little country road between fields and orchards and a grotesque vision appears and rises and swells before us:


It is GALASSIA Verona UNO, a mall to challenge any you have ever seen. Garish huge signs and billboards high atop the galassia, and modern chic everything in air-conditioned comfort inside.  They call it a hypermarket. It's actually a welcome change from one darn picturesque mediaeval hilltop town after another -- it gets harder and harder to tell them apart -- but we hustle out of there because really, you see one, you've seen the mall. We're here for Verona and we're here for love. Romeo e Giulietta. Back into the walled city for more.
Last night we stayed too long, admiring the night lit Arena, enjoying a fine pizza Veronese and chicory rocket salad (radicchio and arugula in abundance in this crazy country) and the passing parade. Forgot to either buy a map of the town, or ask directions, or actually remember how we got into town in the first place. So we deserved to get lost. And we'd had too much fun, so we deserved to get cranky. After stubbornly driving in circles for forty-five lousy minutes, determined to beat this one on our own, we finally submitted to a hotel front desk somewhere in the nether regions of outer Verona. A clerk with a good but belated chance for a part in a Fellini movie offered to help us in his best broken English. There's no way he'd have heard of Corte Boaria, so we asked for directions to GALASSIA Verona UNO and said we could find our way from there. surely everyone knows the GALASSIA. He looked at us like we were crazy and said it was much too late, the mall is now closed. Chiuso. (Cue-so). We said no, just direct us to the mall, we can find our way from there. He said, where you from? Canada? Maybe in Canada you malls open late, not Italy. We said, no, we don't want to go shopping, just direct us to -- and then an American voice cut in. Grisly and tired looking, dude said, how far is it? We guessed (or lied) and said ten minutes. He said, I've got a GPS in my car, let's go, follow me. We went for a joy ride in hot pursuit of his little sports car, u-turns and all, as are generally involved with GPS when you punch in start and finish points and request SHORTEST ROUTE. And we were home in no time. God bless the dude.  

Change of Plans

Kathy here-
So since we started planning this Italian trip when Iris was seven (!) she did not contribute much to the itinerary. But once here, she expressed a keen desire to go to Verona, perhaps because its the famed city of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet? Just maybe......
So we changed our itinerary ,and instead of being in Siena for two days we drove north through the mountains and landed in the beautiful Verona, where we are staying at an Agriturismo just outside the city. An unexpected and lovely change of plans.....stay tuned!

Cinque Terre Day 2

Iris here-
We started off our day by having a wonderful breakfast in our hotel, Hotel Villa Argentina, in Cinque Terre, and then my mom and I went for a "hike". It wasn't on dirt, we just went to another one of these towns on the coast called Manarola about 20min. from here, but we walked! it was on a walkway called Via Dell'Amore, which is on the side of the cliffs. It's called that because amore is love in Italian, and couples go there and put their names on padlocks (again!). We decided to go there to try a different swim in the Mediterranean Sea!


When we got there, we put our towels on the concrete boat launch, and went in! It took me a while to get in, but eventually I got there! It was really deep and rocky.There were a whole bunch of teenagers jumping off rocks and things. It was fun to watch. We stopped on the way back for a cold drink, in a cafe right on the cliff. 

The Coast

Kathy here-
We left the lovely Lucca this morning, and took a short but dramatic drive along the autostrada towards the west coast. Heading north at La Spezia, we began the twisty and breathtaking ascent to Cinque Terra, five villages nestled into and onto rugged cliffs that are joined only by train and a protected National Park hiking trail. The drive was hair- raising and we arrived at the first village, Riomaggiore, where we had booked a small hotel room. Rory had to park our car in some elevator kind of building where we won't see it until we leave. Still Italy but with Mediterranean sea air, unbelievable views and slow(er) pace of life. Two days ahead of us to just sun, swim, eat and climb MORE steep roads and pathways. as for food, lots of octopus on local menus, (even take out!), shrimp, crawfish,mussels ,and sea bass. This area is also the home of foccaccia,from simple with olive oil and salt,to pesto (also a local specialty), fresh anchovies and tomatoes, olives, capers.....you get the idea. For lunch we grabbed a few of those , some local white wine, beer and Fanta and walked to the sea for an amazing picnic. 

After lunch we took a ferry type yacht that stopped in each village, finally dropping us at the northernmost of the five villages, Monterossa.

A true Mediterranean style resort town,with big beaches featuring entrance fees, umbrellas and chairs to rent and cabana boys. The full on experience of row upon row of sunbathers. Tomorrow we will try the free and more rugged swimming options. 
There really is a regional train that tunnels crazily from village to village and is super cheap.  Of course they are not totally reliable but we finally got one around 8:15 pm that took us back to Riomaggiore in about ten minutes, costing only four euros.