Perugia

In between Cinque Terre and packing to go home, we managed to squeeze in a day trip to Perugia, a city in Umbria, up in the hills about 2 hours southeast of Florence.  Theresa had been there 20-some years ago with her sister and mother and remembered a nice city square and interesting escalators that took her up past Etruscan ruins.  The Etruscans were a people who inhabited the areas north of Rome at the time Rome was founded.  In the end, the Romans won and the Etruscans got swallowed up in the much more powerful empire.  But they left a lot of artifacts behind, mostly funerary.

Row after row of Etruscan funeral urns at the Archaelogical Museum

Perugia was one of their strongholds, so there are also a lot of stout stone walls and foundations still hanging around.

The Augustinian Gate.  The bottom third is Etruscan, most of the top is Roman (they destroyed Perugia when it took the wrong side in the civil war after Julius Caesar's murder), and the arched porch on the very top is Renaissance.

A part of the old city wall - from bottom to top: Etruscan/Roman/medieval (brick).

The historical center is a typical walled medieval (or earlier) town set waaay up on steep hills.  They have several sets of escalators to help tourist up and down.

These are the escalators that Tre remembers

The train doesnt go up there, so we took a bus up and a cute new people-mover back down.

The old city does indeed have a nice piazza flanked by a cathedral.

and a fountain (every city should have a fountain):

The city is bodaciously hilly:

Tre didnt want to tackle this kind of steps, so while she people-watched I wandered around a bit.

Great views from some of the walls

An old aqueduct that's been turned into a pedestrian walkway

Whole blocks of an underground city, formed when one of the popes decided he just had to build a palace over top of them.

Of course, as every chocoholic knows, Perugia is where Perugia chocolates come from.

 What the world needs......chocolate sandwiches!

We'll just leave it to you to guess whether we actually bought any to bring home...

But our trip must have been blessed because on the way home it poured, and when we looked out the train window...

...A RAINBOW!!!!!

All Good Things Must Come To An End

Today is the last day of our three months in Italy. We are spending it by cleaning our apartment and packing. Tomorrow we will have been abroad 90 days.  As of Day 91 we would be persona non grata having not gotten a visa to stay longer.  While we are registered with our embassy (an online process), we didn't want to go through all the problems of getting a visa. We've been told that Italy doesn't make it easy.  They always seem to come up with a new piece of paper you just have to have for the first 3 or 4 times you go register with the police.

So what have we learned about Italy in our 3 month individual study program?

1.) Don't even attempt an immersion language school unless you are well grounded in another romance language.  It can get ugly.  And when you go watch their Italian movies and they tell you there are subtitles?....The subtitles are in Italian, too.  The Italians have been using their hands for thousands of years to say what they mean.  It still works.
2.) If you are female, dye your hair.....preferably red if you are older.   Grey hair is not a color choice for older women.  Doesn't matter if the dye causes your  hair to thin out.  Dye it anyway.  Grey hair is absolutely verboten.  Only those stupid Americanos have it.
3.)  If you are older, do not expect any young Italian male to give you his seat on the bus.  Canadian men...yes. German men....maybe.   Italian woman.....yes. 
4.)  Believe it when people in Italy tell you where you should visit.  They've lived here longer than you have.  They know the burgs that should be avoided.  If you insist on going, however, they will demonstrate how to hold your pocketbook so it won't get stolen.
5.) The money is as follows:  All denominations below 3 Euro are in coins.  The smallest paper money is 5 Euro.  No matter what you purchase, the cashier will ask for change (coins).  Must be some kind of coin shortage.
6.)  No matter what the food, it will probably be better than what you get in America.  You may still lose weight because you will walk to wherever you are going...including restaurants.  There is something to be said about a country that has far more gelato stores than McDs.
7.)  Just because it's a church doesn't mean you can see it for free.  This is especially true of Florence.  Chances are you will have to pay at least 3E to 8E to see their treasures.  Sometimes they don't charge you to get in, just to turn on the lights so you can see where you are going.
8.) Just because it's a regional dish doesn't mean you are going to want it.  Lampredoto, probably one of the most famous dishes of Florence, is the 4th stomach of a cow.  No thank you very much.  Bistecca Florentina is a 2.2 pound steak cooked less than 3 minutes and is basically raw on the inside and sprinkled with oil and salt.  Don't ever expect butter with your incredibly great bread.  Oil-yes.  Butter-why would you want butter?  (Even this didn't dissuade Ken from eating bread - the man who will eat a plain pat of butter whenever he can .)
9.)  Don't believe the US Food and Drug Administration when they brag about having the world's safest food supply.  Would we feed our babies raw egg at one year of age to see if they have an egg allergy? This is a common recommendation of Italian pediatricians.   There is rarely a case of salmonella in Italy. 
10.)  Where else could anyone come and, when they do their shopping, stand in the cashier line with the local beggars of the area?  Stores like beggars.  They have lots of change.   

So tomorrow we get up around 5:50 AM (we hope....the alarm clock has been a little iffy lately.), get dressed, cart our 150 pounds of luggage to the curb (Ken needs the body building exercise) for the taxi and head out to the airport.  We are supposed to be home by around 7 PM EDT Tuesday night.  But we all know how plane travel is now-a-days.  Just hope we are home some time this week.

To all of you who have followed our blog, thanks for coming along with us.  To Julia, who has taken care of our house for us even though the refrigerator and the golf cart chose to conk out, there is a special place in Heaven for you.  To Bud, our neighbor, who is manning his computer to see just when we will get in so he can pick us up at the airport, how can we thank you enough?  To our son Dan who took care of our mail and paid our bills while we were gone, you get a bye on reading the blog which you won't know because you don't read the blog.  And to God who has kept us safe and obviously put angels in our path to keep us safe and help us on our journey......you made your presence known in so many ways.

Now it's home to grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, bagels, and good friends.  The last was the most missed.

The Cugini (Cousins)

Theresa still has relatives in Italy.  They live in the hills outside Florence in a town called Barberino Di Mugelo and we can attest to it as great place to be.  With our Italian being so poor and the cousins having spoken very little English the last time we were there, we were very hesitant to go and saved it for the end of our trip hoping we could improve a bit.  We didn't, but the trip was still a wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon.  Since some of cousins need to deal with English speakers in their jobs they have been studying English and communication was a lot easier this time. 

Gas is even more expensive than it is in the states.  We really didn't want them to make the 40 minute car ride into Florence and then try to find where we were.  In fact only a limited number of cars with stickers can even come into the area and driving with so many pedestrians in the middle of the street is difficult.  We found out that Barberino, once a sleepy little town, now has a discount designer shopping mall with some of the most expensive names in fashion.  There's a bus that travels a few times daily from Florence to the mall.  So, we got in touch with the cousins, got ourselves invited and took the bus.  Worked great.  We were met by Antonio, nephew of my cousin Rosaria.

Rosaria is a distant cousin and I have to explain some family history in order for you to see my connection to her.  My grandfather's mother died when he was 8.  His father, left with a few children to care for, hired a housekeeper.  This woman had been raped by a former employer and was left pregnant. Since the employer was a man with high social standing, no one believed her.  She needed to support herself and her son and my greatgrandfather needed someone to care for his children.  She turned out to be a wonderful woman and the kids loved her.  Soon their father did, too.  He was a prominent man in the community (Pietrapertosa, I believe).  He wished to marry the woman and the town frowned upon it saying she was not worthy of him because of her out-of -wedlock child.  So, I believed he moved to Castelmezzano and there they married and had more children.  One of these children was my grandfather's brother, Antonio.  Even though he was a half-brother, Antonio and my grandfather could have passed for twins.  Zio (Uncle) Antonio and Zia (Aunt) Rosa have died, but their one remaining daughter, Rosaria, lives in Barberino and is about my age.  They also have a son, Rocco, who lives in Turino and was once the police chief there.   A sister, Michelina, died a few years ago.   Zio Antonio and Zia Rosa had three children before WWII and lost two to tuberculous and malnutrition during the war.  After Antonio returned from being a war prisoner in Britain he and Rosa had two more children, Rosaria and Rocco.  I've never met Rocco.

Rosaria and her family used to live in Castelmezzano.  The South doesn't have a lot of work and Rosaria's husband, Giovanni, is a stone mason.  So the family came north to Barberino di Mugelo. 

Rosaria and Giovanni

 Giovanni is retired from being a stone mason. Their house is filled with his tile work.

 Giovanni's hunting dog, Billy
 

 Rosaria, Me, Giovanni, and Ken

 The Grandchildren.

 While at Barberino there was a town festival.  Italians will use any excuse to have a festival.  We asked, but still have no idea why they were celebrating this time.  There were strolling singers and musicians, a juggler, animals, birds, and a pasta demo.

 What's a festival without a pasta display?

 Rosaria and Giovanni's grandsons with their son-in-law....and the goats.  I don't remember their names either.

The strolling singers.  Of course there's an accordion, too.  There's ALWAYS an accordion.

Here are some of the next generation that showed up that day.  Since her sister has died, Rosaria is the unofficial mom for that bunch, too.

While we offered to take Rosaria and Giovanni out to dinner, they would hear none of it.  Instead Rosaria made a huge amount of orecchietti (little ears) from scratch, a fabulous sauce, roast beef, some cheese and fruit and tiramisu for dessert. No one makes better tiramisu than Rosaria.  Of course there was coffee, tea, wine and "of course you must have room for a cookie or two."

They were all surprised that our children lived so far away from us, especially our son.  As one of the cousins said, "Boys never leave the mama here."  As Rosaria added  "Family is everything."  That's a credo she lives by.

Cinque Terre

As our final overnight excursion, we chose the region of Cinque Terre, on the west coast of Italy, between La Spezia (home to Italy's largest naval base) and Genoa.  The region consists of five towns (hence its name, "five lands") perched precariously on rocky cliffs and until the late 1800's when a rail line was built, was accessible only by steep, treacherous footpaths.  The footpaths are still there, fortunately in somewhat improved form, and hiking them between the towns (1 to 2 kilometers apart) provides the major tourist attraction in the area.  The other attraction is the sea itself, and one of the towns, Monterosso where we stayed, has a nice beach as well.  The scenery of the area is magnificent.  (We've used that word a lot, but it's all true.)  The rocks in the area have been tortuously folded and twisted by the mountain-making process in the collision of Africa and Europe.  Italy was caught in between.

On our way there by train we passed through Carrara, home of the famous marble.  As you can see, the mountains are white with it.

Here are slabs of marble waiting to be made into countertops or tombstones

And statues waiting to be liberated by future Michelangelos

Monterosso, where we stayed, is the most touristy of the five villages of Cinque Terre.  It actually has a nice sand and rock beach.  It was much more comfortable to walk if you had some shoes on your feet.

In the summer this beach is packed.

"Il Gigante", the statue holding up the terrace at the end of the beach is a local favorite.

The view of the beach from the other end of town

One feature of all the towns, and Monterosso was no exception, was that they are all built on hills that are too steep for most car traffic, so most rooms are reached on foot by going  up steep staircases.  We had rented an apartment that the agent assured us was "only a few steps from the shore".  A few turned out to be 143 stairs.  The agent did take pity on us and paid for a cab to take us and our suitcases up there.  The up side was we did have a great view.

The view from our apartment terrace

It was a full moon that evening, and the moon reflected off the water to make a romantic sight.

We took our bathing suits hoping that we'd get a swim or two. but the water was still too cold for us to do much more than wade.  The hearty Germans (of which there were an abundance) were braver, and even engaged in "clothing optional" bathing.  Two older guys took great joy in diving in, swimming out a short way and tossing their suits to their wives. 

Cinque Terre is noted for sea life; people made their living (before tourists) fishing, especially anchovies.  We had our own marine life experience: while wading we were attacked by a giant octopus!  Well, OK, it wasn't that giant, but the head must have been 6 or 8" across.  And we weren't exactly attacked, but it was surprisingly aggressive.  Theresa saw something in the water (the water is very clear there) and asked, "What is that? A star fish?"  It moved a bit, and it became clear it was an octopus.  Then it started moving toward us...  You could say we scurried rather quickly for shore, and it came right up to the water's edge, partially exposed.  Then, having established its territorial rights, it zipped away into deep water leaving us newly respectful of the creatures of the sea!

The next day Ken went on the ultimate Cinque Terre experience - hiking between towns - while Theresa relaxed. The 143 steps was what she considers a strenuous hike and enough of a workout.   Despite it only being 2 kilometers to the next town (Vernazza) the guide listed it as a 2 hr walk, and it took me every bit of that.  Not only was the trail quite steep, especially in the early part where it ascended to about 400-500 feet,

On the way up I passed steep hillsides covered with grape vines

The view back to Monterosso.  That's a piece of our trail hanging out over the cliff.

The view down - early in the climb!

In a few places they had these mini-cog railway "trains" to haul stuff up.  Some people actually live along these trails.

It was also quite narrow, barely one person wide and a shear drop down.

That's just about one foot wide!

And the trail was quite crowded, especially at the start, so you had to find a little niche in the hillside and squeeze into it to let oncoming traffic pass.  But the views were phenomenal.

Still looking back at Monterosso

And still looking back

And finally Vernazza pulled into view

And then Vernazza got closer

And there was an abundance of wildflowers everywhere.

One feature of the hike that couldn't be captured on film was the variety of languages heard.  In addition to Italian, there were a lot of Germans and French, as well as a few Brits and Americans.  People would be chatting in their own language as they approached, say "Buon giorno" or something comparable to you in Italian or English, and then resume their chatter in their language again.  It was quite a polyglot.

I had lunch in Vernazza and wandered about the town a bit.  It was a pretty town, and even hillier than Monterosso.

I decided to hike on a bit further to get some additional views of the town.

and the sea ahead

And then turned back (I wasn't up for another 2 hours to the next town!) and took the train back to Monterosso.

The following day we took a boat trip on the "ferry" that links the towns.

Again, more drop-dead gorgeous scenery unfolded.

The "cave" at the left is actually a connection to the train tunnel that runs along the coast here to connect the towns to civilization.

The little town of Corniglia perched way up the cliff never makes it down to the sea.  You can see how folded the rocks are.

And the town of Manarola

and finally, Riomagiore, where we disembarked

This was obviously a fishing town, by the boats lined up in the main square!

Unfortunately, Riomaggiore was so steep and riddled with stairs that we had a hard time getting around, so we took the train back to Monterosso and strolled around the older part of town there until it was time for our train back to Florence.

A typical street in old Monterosso

and the ever-present striped cathedral with rose window

Lovely trip and well worth the time getting there.