Tuscany Tour; end Fall Break

Photos: Roman ruins beneath San Giovanni church,  Mom and I at CasaNova Vineyard,  Guinigi Tower. 

Time continues to go crashing by.  My Fall Break week is over, Mom has come and gone, and only two months of school left.  Our plans for going to the South of France fell through so we had to come up with a Plan B spontaneously.  We had a wonderful week seeing some of the jewels of Tuscany.  We tasted wine, ate truffles, 31 year old balsamic vinegar on ice cream,  whole seabass and gilthead (Orata), rabbit stew, king prawns, eggplant, tomatoes & mozza, pasta (mom), cappuccinos and croissants, tiramisu, gelato... :-)  Food is very important in Italy.  

Lucca and Greve were both great towns.  Even Florentines love Lucca - it is just the right size.  And has a fantastic art supply store.  Oh yes, and chocolate.  Because I was missing out on the 83 steps to my apartment while away, I decided to climb the Torre Guinigi (Guinigi Tower).  Towers were built to show the wealth of various families. The Guinigi family dominated the silk industry in the middle ages.  In its heyday Lucca had 160 towers (r.steves).  Right - so i climbed the 227 steps to the top which has trees and incredible views.   Mom chose to pass and take my photo from the street below with her new ZOOM.  

We went to an excellent Mozart and Puccini concert in San Giovanni Church.  Puccini was from Lucca (Madama Butterfly, La Boheme).  The floor of the 12th century church has excavated layers of Roman ruins below the existing floor.  Amazing!!  The entire city sits on similar ruins. 

We shopped of course, but didn't buy much. Mom didn't want more to lug home.  My Italian boots remain elusive.  And speaking of shoppping, we spent one day in Florence so visited IKEA.  I NEEDED a comforter.  Lunch was also notable: baked salmon, veggies, large salad, and red wine.  Almond tarte for dessert.  I am loving my new warm cover (though it doesn't help the big sag in the mattress).  

There is so much more.  Mom got to visit one of the SRISA campus' and met my photo instructor and a few folks.  She amazed me by climbing the Stairs from Hell several times.  We tried to get flights to Madeira to see Mike and Sundowner.  900 Euros each plus hotel seemed steep for a two day visit!  

Ended the week in Rome where it was in the mid to high 20's Celcius.  Friday night we went to see Trevi Fountain which is spectaclar, had dinner outside at a small trattoria, then walked to the Spanish Steps.  Taxi back to hotel.  We shopped a little on Saturday but we had our luggage with us (luggage deposit had a gigantic line).  We parted ways at Track 24 in Roma Termini as mom headed off to her airport hotel and I caught my train back to Firenze.  :-(   Fantastic week.  

In the meantime...

No time to write or figure out why this is underlined.  Photos from the last few days:  Siena, Greve In Chianti, CasaNova vineyard, Linda-Jean&David in Florence.  

Lucca, Mom & The Week in Review

Autumn!  It's difficult to tell in Florence (due to the lack of trees and the 24-27C temps lately).  But we could tell in Lucca on our day trip Saturday.  It was meant to be a shopping trip - for coats and boots, but we forgot to calculate 'the siesta'.  We arrived around 1PM, had lunch, but the shops didn't re-open until 3:30.  I found a couple of sweaters. The other shoppers did much better.  

As always: a lot of churches...and motorcycles! 

6:30 train to Florence. Salmon dinner. 

 

The week was busy with classes, various dramas in other apartments.  Mom, Joan & Lois were in town for two nights.  I got to spend an afternoon with them, have lunch and do a little shopping in San Lorenzo market.  Their tour is keeping them very busy - sounds like fun.  They headed off to the Amalfi coast and then Rome.  Photo of us on roof of Astoria Hotel with Duomo in back.  

Cinque Terre

Ah... Cinque Terre ( "five lands" - villages) of rugged coast on the Italian Riviera west of La Spezia.   5Terre is a UNESCO world heritage site and a National Park.  There is no vehicle access - only train, boat or foot.  Michel and I were there in /03 and loved it.  I got to see a bit more this time.  

 We took the 8AM train to Monterosso where we toured/photographed (some/one swam! and it wasn't ME), then had a two hour feast of seafood, salad, patate fritte, local wine, followed by Lemoncello for dessert.  Sadly...we were all too full to do the 90 min. hike to the next village - Vernazza.  Hopped the train and toured around there.  That's where the fantastic waves were crashing over the breakwater.  It was unusually rough. 

Walked from Manarola to Riamaggiore along the "Via dell' Amore" as the sun was setting. Very romantic!  ha.  Caught the last train out; transfer in Pisa...train delays...back to Firenze around 11PM.   Giorno fantastico!  

 http://www.parks.it/parco.nazionale.cinque.terre/Eindex.html

Sorrento, Naples & Pompeii

The cold that's been going around finally got to me but it didn't damper my trip south.  We took the train to Naples then Sorrento where our hotel was.  Sorrento - known for it's lemons - was a cute little touristy town on the coast.  We went out for dinner on Friday night to 'Da Emilia'  right at the waters edge.  Fantastic seafood, service and lemoncello.  

Saturday breakfast at 8AM then the Circumvesuviana (the train that goes... around Vesuvius!) to Pompeii.  Pompeii was incredible.  Approx 20,000 people died there in 79AD when Mount Vesuvius erupted and created this time capsule.  Truly awesome - I took a lot of photos.  We only toured about a quarter of this former 'colony' of Rome.   We all (15) raced off back to Sorrento to catch a ferry to Capri (pronounced KAHpree).  Beautiful island.  Dinner and gelato back in Sorrento. 

Sunday:  Up for 8AM breakfast again then the Circumvesuviana to Naples where we had a tour guide show us some of the sites.  Naples is famous for it's churches and pizza.  It is so different from Florence and Rome - much poorer but still beautiful.  Naturally lunch was pizza.   We had to catch the train (Eurostar) back to Florence at 4PM.  Back to study for Italian quiz on Monday.  

Note 1 - all photos above from Pompeii.  Lots more on picasaweb.

Note 2 - Spike Lee in town on Tues. promoting his new movie.  A few folks met him at the press conference.  

Studio l'arte a Firenze!

3 Photos from my walk-about last weekend.  The giant 5 Euro cappuccio... lesson learned.  Don't sit down for a large coffee in a high tourist area.  Busy week with classes.  Projects are starting to pile up.  We have a postcard project using a pangram and the letterpress, a  Memory game project that we have to print two lino cut images.  The class will all do two and we'll create a game and all get a copy in a clam shell box we make.  I have to do a presentation on an alternative processes photographer and print 5 GOOD B&W images for my Symbolism project.  I'm thinking of dropping drawing!   Naples and Pompeii this weekend.  

Karen C and Paula T arrived in Florence yesterday.  Gave them a quick tour of the San Lorenzo Market and a cell phone/internet spot.  Paula forgot her cell phone charger.  Having dinner with them tonight.  

Mike/Michel arrives on this continent today!  So close...and yet so far.  

Must run.  Devo andare! ciao

Photo Meditation

First - we have hot water!  Went out again on Tuesday.  

Second - I forgot how much I loved being in the darkroom!  The smell of the chemicals (true!), the quiet and the rocking of the trays while watching your photo come to life.   I"m happy with how my negatives came out - I seem to remember how to take photos on Manual.  Eccellente!  

Book arts/Printmaking: Sewed up my sketch-notebook with coptic stitch instead of pamphlet.  And made accordion books in class.   Will post photos soon.