Posts under Travel

I Vivai di Pistoia

Posted by Serena
May
28
2009
Pistoia is probably one of the old Tuscan towns least visited by tourists, largely because of its rather industrial setting. However, the few intrepid, or ‘accidental’ tourists who penetrate the ‘cement jungle’ of the periphery, including the extremely misguided attempts at ‘modern’ architecture which my mother described on a recent visit as “una grande schifezza”, will find an historic centre that is almost perfectly intact. Behind it’s medieval walls lie some fine, but rarely viewed examples of Pisan and Florentine art, reflecting Pistoia’s position between these two great rivals.

Pistoia has a long and interesting history, which I will spare you in this blog, but you may be interested to learn why the name Pistoia has a slightly familiar ring to it: Pistoia is the town that gave us the word ‘pistol’. Originally surgical knives were manufactured there, then daggers, and finally in the 16th century pistols. Today it specializes in trains and vivai (plant nurseries), and anyone who has traveled along the A11 autostrada between Pisa or Lucca and Florence will have marveled at the seemingly endless fields of miniature cypresses, olives, pines, and a myriad other ornamental shrubs and flowers. In fact this zone is Italy’s most extensive area of vivai.

Many of the vivai operate on an industrial scale, catering for larger contracts, but some of the smaller ones are open to the general public, and you can pop round to buy a couple of gerani (geraniums), un vaso di basilico o prezzemolo (a pot of basil or parsley), or even perhaps una palma (a palm tree).

If you regularly read my blogs you will know that we are keen gardeners, unfortunately however Lunigiana, the area where we live, isn’t noted for it’s ornamental plants. In fact the local motto could well be “se non lo si puo’ mangiare, non vale la pena coltivarlo” (“if you can’t eat it, it’s not worth growing”). So for us, a day trip to the vivai di Pistoia (the nurseries of Pistoia) was like taking a couple of kids to Disneyland. We do of course have an orto (vegetable garden) which provides us with our fresh pomodori, cipolle, aglio, zucchine, carciofi, bietole, patate, melanzane, e cosi’ via (tomatoes, onions, garlic, courgettes/zucchini, globe artichokes, leaf beat, potatoes, aubergines/egg plants, and so on). But we also have our ‘giardino d’amore’ (garden of love), as our neighbor mockingly likes to call it (ma non c’e’ niente di mangiare!), and in order to develop it, and in particular our custom built ‘block the nosy neighbors’ hedge, we need plants that we can’t get in this neck of the woods.

Not many shopping experiences can give so much pleasure for so little expense. In fact even if we had spent nothing and come away empty handed (apart from a few leaves of sage and mint that just happened to come off in my mother’s hands) we would have been quite content. A warm sunny day spent strolling amongst rows of brightly colored multi-formed plants, bathed in a stream of almost narcotic scents, the pungent flavor of gelsomino, caprifoglio e rose (jasmine honeysuckle and roses), what more could one ask?

So what did we buy? well, three lovely bushes for our ‘anti-neighbor’ hedge: un oleandro (an oleander), un lauro ceraso (a waxed laurel), and un pinco pallino (a flapdoodle, i.e. we can’t remember the name of the last one: in Italian we use the fictitious name ‘pinco pallino’ to mean ‘Joe Blogs’ or someone whose name we can’t remember). We also bought three stunning gerani for the wooden plant trough that my husband made, and elicriso (curry plant). And we still had change from 40 euros!

By the way, if you are interested in finding out about Pistoia, and what it has to offer, have a look at the following web sites for a start, the first is in Italian and the second is English: http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pistoia  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pistoia 

 

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Lucca: Villa and Palazzo Guinigi

Posted by Serena
May
25
2009

A couple of weeks ago we went to my hometown, Lucca, to visit my parents, and while we were there we decided to take the opportunity to visit one of Lucca’s many historic buildings. We opted for the Museo Nazionale di Villa Guinigi (National Museum of Villa Guinigi), which we hadn’t been to for many years, and I must say that it was an extremely pleasant rediscovery, not least because it was very quiet and tranquil after our previous day’s frenetic visit to Firenze, in fact we were the only visitors! The Museum houses artifacts ranging from the prehistoric to the late Roman period, and a collection of art works dating from the Middle Ages (Romanesque, Gothic and early Renaissance periods), up to the 18th century. These works were all created either by local artists or by artists who worked in Lucca, and they have been gathered from churches, palaces and private collections. Amongst others there are works by Jacopo della Quercia, Donatello, Matteo Civitali, Botticelli, Filippino Lippi, Guido Reni, and Giorgio Vasari. Of particular interest are the fine works in inlaid wood by Cristoforo Canozzi da Lendinara (15th century), which were originally the doors of a cupboard from the sacristy in Lucca’s Cathedral. These multi-colored intarsi (marquetries) are a kind of trompe-l’oeil of views from various Lucchese windows depicting the town as it appeared in the 15th century.

The Museum is housed in Villa Guinigi, the house that Paolo Guinigi, Lord of Lucca, ordered built for himself at the beginning of the 15th century outside the town walls. The villa was intended as a ‘country’ alternative to their town dwelling, the Palazzo Guinigi, in Lucca. Whenever I think of the Villa Guinigi I have this image in my mind of the Guinigi family getting ready to move out to their ‘country house’ for the summer holidays: multitudes of servants covering all the furniture with white dust sheets, packing numerous crates with clothes and personal belongings, everybody getting into the carriages, and finally starting the journey out to the countryside, a journey that lasted probably … less than 10 minutes! In fact Villa Guinigi is situated only about a kilometer from the Guinigi’s town palace! and although it was originally located outside the Medieval town walls, it was later enclosed within the 17th century town walls thus becoming a ‘town house’. This magnificent villa was built in red brick, which was very expensive at the time, and has a portico on the ground floor, and trefoil mullioned  windows, supported by slender white marble columns, on the upper floor. The architectural style of the building is the typical Romanesque-Gothic style, which was fashionable in Lucca at the time.

The same style also characterizes Palazzo Guinigi, the splendid town palace built by Francesco Guinigi, father of Paolo Guinigi. A corner of the building is dominated by an imposing tower, now a symbol of Lucca, standing out as it does against the town skyline, with its crown of lecci (holm-oaks). Our Cicerone (guide) at the museum explained to us that, due to the fact that Lucca is built on a water table, at the time of Paolo Guinigi there were strict laws that prevented the construction of very tall and potentially unstable buildings (like the tower of Pisa for example). To overcome the problem Paolo Guinigi, Lord of Lucca, had trees planted on the top of his tower to make it taller, and thus demonstrate his wealth and power. Tourists who don’t suffer from vertigo can now visit the top of the Torre Guinigi (Guinigi’s Tower) and enjoy spectacular panoramic views of the town, making it well worth the effort of the climb. You can find some photos of the tower here: http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torre_Guinigi 

Buona visita a Lucca!

 
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Memorie Siciliane

Posted by Serena
Jan
17
2009

Recently I received a comment from a reader whose family is originally from Monreale in Sicilia (Sicily). These two names, Monreale and Sicilia, immediately brought back a stream of memories from a holiday I enjoyed many years ago in this beautiful region. My adventure started in Rome where I caught a night train to Palermo. Making my way to my reserved seat I found myself sharing a compartment with a young Sicilian lady, who was studying at a university on the Continente (as the Sicilians call the Italian mainland). We began chatting and during our conversation the Siciliana (Sicilian lady) informed me that it’s traditional to eat an arancino siciliano (a fried ball of rice resembling an orange) on the ferry during the crossing of the Stretto di Messina which divides Sicilia from the mainland. So it was that at 2 o’clock the following morning, with the train neatly ensconced in the massive belly of the ferry, I was awoken by my travelling companion to drag myself up onto the ponte del traghetto (deck of the ferry) in order to savour my first arancino. I must say that, as much as I hate getting up in the middle of the night, it was well worth it: the arancino was delicious and the view across the Stretto di Messina on that clear starlit night with the shimmering lights of Reggio Calabria on one side and those of Messina on the other was magical. At 8 o’clock in the morning we arrived in Palermo where a friend was waiting for me, and my discovery of this fantastic region began.

I come from Tuscany, a region in the center of Italy that for centuries remained relatively insular and free from foreign invasions, thus developing its own homogenous culture (language, art, architecture, etc.) in a ‘linear’ way without strong external influences. Sicilia, being an incredible melting pot of cultures was for me a completely new experience. Influxes of foreigners have followed one upon the other over the centuries, beginning with the Phoenicians (who founded Palermo in the 8th century B.C.) and followed by the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Arabs, the Normans, the German kingdom of Svevia, and the Spanish, until its eventual unification with Italy in 1860. Travelling through Palermo and its surrounding was like a voyage through a tapestry of time and cultures: the Christian church of San Giovanni degli Eremiti crowned with red Arabic domes, the Greek temples and theaters of Agrigento and Selinunte, the beautiful Byzantine mosaics of the Cappella Palatina, the rich baroque adorning many buildings and churches such as the incredible Chiesa del Gesu’, and the majestic Norman cathedrals of Monreale and Cefalu’. Many years later I was very surprised to find, in the Norman architecture of Southwell Minster in England, the same big round arches over the main doors, the same square towers, the same decorative overlapping motifs, all things that I had first seen in the hot Mediterranean ambience of Sicilia. The word Normanni (Normans), incidentally, means uomini del nord (Men from the North).

This mixture of cultures is still very much alive today: walking through the mercato della Vucceria in Palermo is like walking through an Arabic souk, while in the south of Sicilia you can eat the traditional North African dish of couscous. Albanian traditions and costumes are still preserved in Piana degli Albanesi, a small town 24 km south of Palermo founded in 1488 by Albanian immigrants. My friend took me there one day to taste the best cannolo siciliano, a delicious sweet made from a tube of crisp pastry filled with ricotta, candied peels and chocolate chips.

I also treasure some funny moments from this holiday such as the evening we went to watch a play performed live at the Greek archaeological site of Selinunte: it was a Japanese play performed in the original Japanese! Nevertheless, sitting on the ancient Greek stone steps under a clear sky at sunset looking down towards the verdant valley and the sea beyond was  quite a spectacular show in itself, even if a bit hard on the posterior after a while. Another amusing memory belongs to the day we were visiting the Cattedrale di Palermo: a little old man approached us and started telling the story of Santa Rosalia, patron saint of Palermo whose remains are preserved in a massive silver urn. In the middle of his monologue the old man suddenly exclaimed: “If you give me 1000 lira I’ll tell you the weight of the silver urn”. Of course we just had to know, so we gave him the money and he told us the enormous figure that, unfortunately, I can’t for the life of me remember.

 
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Acqua Alta a Venezia

Posted by Serena
Dec
2
2008

On Monday this week acqua alta (high water) reached 156 cm above its normal level in Venezia, creating a lot of damage and discomfort to the city and its population. The whole of the lagoon was flooded and the passerelle (gangways), which are normally set up to allow people to walk on in the event of a flood, were floating. Shops and ground floor businesses were invaded by the murky water, and rubbish and other objects were washed away, while gondole and vaporetti (ferries) could not travel. There are some photos of the flood on this page of the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

This is not a very romantic image of Venezia, but it is reality, a reality that its citizens have to live with due to the unique nature of Venezia, which is built on a series of islands just above sea level. Because of its shape the Adriatic Sea, on the coast of which the city is located, is subject to greater sea tides than the rest of the Mediterranean. If we add to this the heavy rains of the past few days and the strong winds that drive the seawater inside the lagoon and prevent it from returning to the sea again, we get a very dramatic situation. There are also other factors, both natural and man-made, that contribute to the problem of the acqua alta, such as the fact that since 1897 (the year of the first official measurement) Venezia has sunk by 23 cm, and that the industrial area of Porto Marghera was built by reclaiming land from the sea. Originally Marghera was an area of very low islands, which allowed the water to flood over them, working like an expansion tank for the lagoon.

Theoretically these floods could be prevented by a pneumatic barrier system called MOSE (Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico), designed to isolate the lagoon from the sea in the event of a combination of an exceptionally high tide and extreme weather. However the works, which were begun in 2003 with a planned completion date of 2012, have been criticized by environmentalists because of the ecological impact that they are having on the wildlife of the lagoon. For more information about this project see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOSE_Project

 
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A visit to the Archaeological Museum in Florence

Posted by Serena
Nov
29
2008

The first time my husband came to Italy I took him to Firenze (Florence) of course. I warned him before hand not to dress like a tourist (no shorts or sandals, no cameras dangling from the neck) because I intended to take him to a place that is very important to me: not the Uffizi, not Palazzo Pitti, but the Museo Archeologico.

I worked at the Archaeological Museum for three years as a part time cataloguer of Egyptian antiquities. Every morning during the summer I would walk from the railway station past Santa Maria Novella, Santa Maria in Fiore and the Battistero, through Piazza SS. Annunziata and enter the back door of Palazzo della Crocetta where the Museum is located. I’d then go through some of the exhibition rooms passing, along the way, the Chimera di Arezzo and greeting the bronze sculpture of the Arringatore (the Orator) before arriving at the storerooms, where boxes and boxes of Egyptian artifacts were stacked up on both sides of the corridor and just about everywhere in the office. The Museum houses the second largest collection of Egyptian antiquities in Italy, the largest being the Museo Egizio di Torino, which is itself one of the biggest in Europe.

Once at my desk, with a ruler and a caliper I’d start measuring and describing in detail all sort of objects, from vases to amulets, from ivory spoons to make-up pallets. I loved to turn these beautiful 5,000 year old zoomorphic pallets over and over in my hands, to feel the smooth texture of the grayish-green polished schist stone.

There were some memorable moments in my job, like the time I couldn’t resist trying on a 3,000 year old faience ring that got stuck on my finger! After a few moments of panic I managed to get it off without breaking it. Another ‘interesting’ moment came when I had to catalogue a mummified human left foot! I can still visualize the nail of its big toe sticking out from the linen bandages. I must admit that this time I tried to handle it as little as possible and I wore a pair of disposable gloves.

A visit to the Museo Archeologico is well worth while even if you don’t have the opportunity to rummage through the boxes in the storerooms. Aside from the Egyptian collection the Museum houses one of the biggest collection of Etruscan antiquities in Italy, amongst which are some exquisite pieces. In the Galleria dei bronzi (Bronze Gallery) are some famous monumental bronze sculptures such as the Chimera di Arezzo (5th cent.BC) and the Arringatore (3rd cent.BC).

The Museum is housed in Palazzo della Crocetta, built in the 17th century by Giulio Parigi for Maria Maddalena de’ Medici, sister of Prince Cosimo II. A corridor links the building with the nearby church of SS. Annunziata. This corridor was constructed to allow the Princess Maria Maddalena, who was physically deformed, to attend religious functions without being seen by the public.

If you happen to visit the museum on a Saturday morning and fancy a breath of fresh air there is a lovely 18th century garden designed by Francesco Romoli who was head gardener of the Giardino di Boboli at Palazzo Pitti.

 

Buona Visita!

 
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