Bologny on Balogna

Wednesday we did a lot of driving.  We started with the small city of Arezzo.  There wasn't much to see except the wall around the original city that had a mammoth door.

 

Then on to Ravenna.  It was an overcast day with some light rain now and then, but not bad driving.  I have to tell you I am amazed at the autostrada.  It is a system of 4 to six lane highways throughout the country similar to our interstate system.  Some of the newer and wider sections are toll highways, but worth the price.  The speed limits range from about 55 mph in congested areas to about 81 mph on the open road.  Of course the Italians regard the speed limit as a speed suggestion.  It is nothing to have a line of cars pass you going 100 mph.  I felt like the pace car at Indy.

On the way to Ravenna you have to cross a mountain range similar to the mountains in West Virginia.  We must have gone through a dozen tunnels that ranged from a quarter mile to several miles long.  We took a different route back and found the same thing.  And the bridges were awesome.  Many were several hundred feet high and many miles long.

 Of course, I had to visit the namesake of my home town to find out why the founders wanted to name our city after this Italian seaport.  The tour book told us that at one time Ravenna was successively the capitol of the Western Roman Empire, the Visigoth Empire, and the Bysantine Empire for a span of 350 years starting in 402 AD, and was considered one of the greatest cities on the Mediterranean.

Now the original city remains inside its walls drawing tourists who want to see what is left.  The greater city is a modern seaport but with the typical Italian style of buildings.  The old city has several noteworthy remnants.

The Basilica di Sant'Apollinare in Classe dates from the 6th century and retains the beautiful mosaic tiled walls with depictions of processions from long ago.  The church itself is in rough shape with some of its beauty still intact in some areas.

Dante's Tomb is tucked in among the buildings.  His ashes were actually hidden nearby during WWII just in case the tomb was destroyed.

Maybe the statues that are on the front lawn of the old Ravenna Township school, now Brown Junior High, were inspired by these guys adorning the central park.

No trip to Ravenna would be complete without a visit to the leaning tower of Ravenna!  Well it is not as spectacular as the one in Pisa and not as easy to get to, but it does lean...even more than the one in Pisa.  There is yet another leanier in town, but we couldn't find it (we were tired).  Maybe we could get something like this to replace our flagpole.

A statue to Giuseppe Garibaldi, a famous general and politician of the 1800's, has a prominent spot in the middle of the city.

Yes, Ravenna has a post office.  I immediately recognized it as the Ravenna post office because when I went in there were only two people working the counter, one was playing solitaire on his computer and the other had a closed sign in front of him.

So long Ravenna.

On the way back we decided to stop in Bologna for dinner.  Bad idea.  First of all, Bologna, at least the parts we saw, doesn't even look like an Italian city.  It looks more like Cleveland.  Second, we couldn't find a parking spot anywhere.  People were parked on sidewalks, on the grass, double parked...what a mess.  We drove around for about an hour and gave up.  We ended up having pizza in Florence.

Today we stayed around home...our Tuscany home.  We visited several small towns and tried to find a vineyard that was open.  First we went to Castelnuovo Berandengo, a town maybe the size of Kent, sitting  by itself on a hill surrounded by fields of grapes and forests of olive trees.  The real reason for the visit was to shop at the open air market.  The main street was blocked off and lined with tables of vendors of every variety...farm products, fish, clothing, linens, etc.  

This picture shows only a few of the tables, because like most streets in Italy, it is not straight and you can only see a little bit at a time.  There was actually about a quarter mile of tables.

We went back to our apartment with our loot and decided to go back for lunch.  The market was just closing up at noon.   So were all the stores in the town!  In Italy it is the custom to close the stores at around noon so that the shopkeepers can go home for lunch.   Only the restaurants are open then.   They reopen at about 2:30.  So that's why the post office in Ravenna never has anybody working at noon!

So we just wandered about and took some pictures.  Below is a picture of some artwork on one of the buildings...no doubt by a budding master.  Then a picture of a building Pat thought looked cool, and then a picture of a typical street.

 We found a vineyard where the owner was kind enough to show us around and tell us about his wines.  The tasting room was an old press room where they pressed grapes and olives.  Pat liked the large earthen vats in front of the old presses.

Another little town waaaaay up on a hill was Villa a Sesta.  Not much there but it was nice to look at...especially the arched entryways through the wall that surrounded the town.

Let me finish with some pictures from another small town called San Gusme, perched on yet another hill, surrounded by grapes and olive trees.

 

Through the olive trees, way up on the hill you can see the villa of another grape farmer.

You want grapes, we got grapes!  Thousands of acres of grapes.

A driving day

Today we left the apartment at about 9:30 AM and returned at about 9:30 PM.  Most of that time was spent in the car on the autostrada (the equivalent of our turnpike) and other major streets.  Driving would be a lot easier if they had roadsigns naming the streets, but they don't.  You find your way around by signs pointing in the direction of towns or attractions.  We rarely knew what street or highway we were on.

The first stop was San Gimignana, a city famous for all its towers.  It sits high on a hill and all the streets are steep and walking was a chore.  At one time the town had 72 towers, but many were destroyed by warring factors and now only 13 remain.  The towers were built as refuges for the owners.

 

The beautiful town square (piazza) right in the center of the city made the climb up those steep streets worth the effort.  We sat at the fountain and ate our gelato as a reward.

When you visit this region of Italy, you just have to go see the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  I had always thought the photos you see are somehow doctored to exaggerate the tilt.  But that son-of-a-gun really does lean ....... A LOT.

Here is a picture of Pisa's Duomo (church) and in the foreground you can see part of the tower.  The wall of the Duomo is vertical so you can see how much the tower leans.

Finally, we landed in Lucca which was the capitol city of the Holy Roman Empire for a time.  The city is surrounded by a magnificent wall that is 40 feet high and 115 feet thick.

In the picture above if  you look closely you can see two people walking at the base of the wall, to give you some idea of the scale of the wall.  In the picture below you can see a roadway for jogging, cycling, etc that is all around the city on top of the wall.  The wall is 2 and a half miles in circumference.

We had dinner in Lucca at a nice little restaurant.  They served me some wine and I was feeling pretty good afterwords.

Tuscany

Ahhh, to have a car and wi-fi!  Today we left our little piece of heaven for a couple of hours to strike out on our own and visit Siena and Florence.  For sure the trip was too short to really experience either city, but the trip was full of beautiful images.  You can hardly drive a mile before taking a picture of the contryside.

  After driving around Siena twice trying to find the old city center and then a parking space, we walked the streets of the city and found its most famous landmark, Piazza del Campo.  It is a huge concave area in the shape of a shell with the bottom of the shell in front of a huge church.  In the picture below, Pat is taking my picture sitting in the piazza as I am enjoying her gelato.

 

Then another hour north to Florence.  We will visit Florence again when we take the train to our next destination on Sunday.  The main geographic feature is the Arno River that divides the city.

The buildings of the north side of the Arno seem much brighter and cleaner that many of the cities we have been through.  Maybe they are newer.  The river itself is quite dirty looking and has an odor similar to the one I have when I open my septic tank...yuch!  

One of the eight bridges of the city is called the Punta Vecchio which means literally Old Bridge.  It is distinguished from the others by the fact that the bridge is covered by jewelry shops from end to end.

It is not very attractive from the outside, but the inside is awesome, with store after store of dazzling necklaces and gems.

 

And of course just like all the other cities, these people like their motor bikes.

Here are a few more pictures of our farmhouse on the top of the hill.

And finally the view from our door into the patio covered by a beautiful rose trellis.

Pantheon and Capitoline Museum

Yesterday was our final day in Rome, so we visited some areas we missed on our tours.  The Pantheon is a wonderfully preserved building which you will recognize if you have seen the movie Angles and Deamons.  It is the building with the free standing dome with the huge oculus at the top.  It is a place of worship now.  There are many outstanding works of art that are too numerous to post here.

 

The Pantheon, built in 27 BC is the oldest building in Rome that is still intact.

Next we walked to the Capitoline Museum which houses many of the treasures of the region.  The most important item is a huge bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius on his horse. 

Again, there are hundreds of pieces of artwork on display, enough to make your head spin.  The statue below was interesting to me.  It depicts some poor soul that pissed off one of the roman gods and he was bound in this position to remain for eternity.

Rome is a very clean city.  There is never any litter or trash on the street...even though there are Americans here.  The reason is that they clean the streets and pick up the trash and empty the trash containers every day.  There is an army of workers that sweep, drive trash trucks, run sweeping machines, etc.  You know they are there because they all wear uniforms.  The first time I saw one of these guys, I thought he was a fireman because of the uniform...see below.

Different workers wear different uniforms...highway workers wear the same uniform in yellow, city road crews wear red, etc.  It really gives a professional look to the government employees.

Today we got our rental car (a Lancia) and drove to Siena.  The toughest part was getting out of Rome.  The guy at the car rental company said just drive straight down the road the car was parked on to get to the main highway that circumnavigates the city.  Well friends, there is no such thing a straight road in Rome.  And most of the roads are one way in the opposite direction of the way you want to go!  It took us about an hour and a half of wandering around to accidentally finding our way out.  There are few if any street signs to help you.  The names of the streets are carved into the sides of the buildings at the second story level, not on signs where you can see them.  By the time you see a street sign, you have just passed the street you were looking for!  It really makes you appreciate the bus drivers and the taxi drivers.

Eventually, we arrived at our apartment...a few rooms in an old farmhouse near Siena.  It is a fantastic place with stone walls inside and out and a view to die for.  The old couple who own the place are just adorable.  They only speak a few words of English, but we managed to comunicate well enough to check in and get directions to a restaurant.

Before we could even sign the rental agreement, the old man, Mario, opened a bottle of his wine and a bag of cookies and toasted our arrival with us.  He proudly said, "Faccio il vino, e Lei fa i biscotti",  which means I make the wine and she makes the cookies.

Pompei

Tuesday we had a guided tour of the ancient city of Pompeii which is situated east of Naples.  In about 79 AD the volcano Vesuvius erupted, spewing volcanic ash over everything in the area, completely burying the city of Pompeii.  The devastation was so complete that the city was not rediscovered until the 16^th century.  Since that time archeologists have uncovered and cleaned up about 25% of the city.   The ash killed every man, woman, child, and animal in the area, and only the stone buildings and streets remain.  All of the wooden structures were completely destroyed. The ash preserved some of the stucco walls which were painted with murals.

Interestingly, many of the people and animals were left as shells, the flesh and bone completely burned away.  The archeologists were able to fill the shells with plaster to cast an image of the people in the exact position they were in when they perished.

The remarkable preservation lets us see exactly how the city was laid out, and provides clues as to how people lived in those days.  For example, the city had running water, provided through lead pipes that are clearly visible.  There are ruins of temples, a huge forum area, shopping areas, courts, etc.

A well preserved home that was apparently owned by a wealthy family has painted plaster walls, an atrium, mosaic tilled floors, and an altar for the house gods. 

A well preserved spa had hot baths, with heated floors, and work out areas. 

There was a huge theater that had acoustics so good that people in the top row could easily hear the orators on the stage below.

It is clear that this city was built using a master design.  It was built in a beautiful setting in a valley between a chain of mountains and Mt. Vesuvius.  The views from the forum area are fantastic.

That's Mt. Vesuvius in the background.