Italy Continued. Liz. See Bologna and Automobiles for Mike.

 

Italy continued.  

Why are we in Italy? Because my German mother told us to go there. 

Weather is better than Germany's and the ruins are amazing.  

 

"Orvieto is a city and comune in the Province of Terni, southwestern Umbria, Italy situated on the flat summit of a large butte of volcanic tuff. The site of the city is among the most dramatic in Europe, rising above the almost-vertical faces of tuff cliffs that are completed by defensive walls built of the same stone called Tufa." en.wikipedia.org
We toured underwhelming caves used for pigeons, actually basements underneath nearly the entire town. But Orvieto's museum was sensational.

Our dramatic bed and breakfast and the character of the streets made me wonder about staying a month. If I spoke Italian or they spoke English...

We stayed in a gracious bed and breakfast in this building.

From Orvieto, Umbria we took a train to Asissi. In our train car were 3 Italian American women going to Perugia. I was very happy to chat with American women travelers who visit Italy almost every summer. We had to change trains and we were unprepared to get off. The train stopped so very briefly it surprised even these seasoned travelers (with twice the luggage that Mike and I carried.). Mike was the only one ready to get off and he was frustrated when I ignored him and trusted them. We got off at the next stop and regrouped. While Mike ordered a coffee in the station's café an Italian-American lady figured out the bus schedule. Before Mike could finish his coffee we boarded a bus for a Euro, returned to our connecting station and caught the train to Asissi with time to spare.

Bus Driver resembled a Thelen.

Asissi's Got Talent!

In Asissi the Information Station guide told me to buy groceries in lower Asissi, that upper Asissi is far more expensive. We took the bus to our Airbnb above a gift shop in the heart of upper Asissi. We walked up, up, up a cobblestone paved hillside pulling our wheeled carry-ons and carrying backpacks and groceries past an impressive Cathedral. The cobblestone path forked up another steep hill. Mike stayed with the bags while I tried to figure out exactly where we were staying. We were the only guests our lodgings during an annual festival aimed at developing local youth. A medieval pageant featured local performers. A competition between the teenagers in upper and lower Asissi awards prizes and recognition. The whole region turns out to see the performances, costumes, singing, acting and awarding of prizes. Assisi's got talent! We were lucky to be guests in Asissi during this community event.

We met a British couple so passionate about the local chorale music that they rent an apartment in Asissi to either see performances live or stream the concert performances into their apartment. We also met a retired teacher couple from Kernersville, NC touring by motorcycle. He taught motorcycle safety. And they toured with a tiny box with only changes of socks and underwear.

The downside of the town's event was that the Temple of Minerva was blocked off for the performances. After loving the Etruscans in Orvieto I guess that Rick Steves sent us here for more than St. Francis of Asissi. I really regretted missing Minerva.

Not Renaissance Garb! Mike was told. They are wearing medieval costumes.  

"The Temple of Minerva (Italian: Tempio di Minerva) is an ancient Roman building in Assisi, Umbria, central Italy. It currently houses a church, Santa Maria sopra Minerva, built in 1539 and renovated in Baroque style in the 17th century.
The temple was built in the 1st century BC^[1] by will of Gneus Caestius and Titus Caesius Priscus, who were two of the city's quattuorviri and also financed the construction. The attribution to the goddess Minerva derives from the finding of a female statue, although a dedication stone to Hercules has been found, and the temple was likely dedicated to this male semi-god.^[1] In the Middle Ages the temple housed a tribunal with an annexed jail, as testified by one of Giotto's frescoes in the St. Francis Basilica, which portrays the church windows with bars."

 

 

Cathedral in Upper Asissi

Temple of Minerva the day after.

 

Next stop Siena.

We arrived in Siena to discover that the train is adjacent to a large shopping mall. I got groceries once I figured out that our hostel was at the end of 10 flights of escalators. While shopping I observed a small dog in a grocery cart. First time I ever noticed a pet in a grocery store. Our hostel was a block from the top of the escalators and served the most nutritious (oatmeal, cannelloni bean salad and black bread) breakfast to date, a relief from the refined carbohydrates (white bread and croissants) of southern Italy. We wandered around a fortress and then headed for the square.  

Door to Hostel.



 

Walled Gateway to Siena, UNESCO World Heritage site.  

Inside the Hospital Museum, the Complesso Museale in the heart of Siena.

Just one of the funerary artifacts below the Hospital, Complesso Museale in Siena

Cathedral in Siena
 

   

We climbed to the top of Siena's bell tower with ease conditioned after all our days of walking.

 

 If we were to tour Siena over again we would tour the archaeology museum first and then if we had the energy we might climb to the top of the bell tower. Siena has an amazing subterranean archaeology museum that in hindsight is cold and damp but utterly amazing. Reliquaries of gold, silver, and precious gems from the Imperial Chapel in Constantinople acquired in 1359 explain why Siena matters. The reliquaries were used to bless the crowds in the square.

View of Square in Siena.

Lots of gold in this reliquary.

Splendid Room in Siena's "Hospital" Museum

The Hospital Museum.



Wherever we looked up, down or around our eyes feasted.

A woman with 2 children. We just watched 2014 "Boyhood". Nothing is so ideal as 1 child or more real than 2 children.   

 

A turtle holding the weight of the world is a theme of Mike's favorite author Terry Pratchett.
Here we see source for English fantasy writer. 

From Siena we headed to Florence for 4 days. Our Airbnb was a quick train ride, 2 stops from the center of town. We arrived in the time to see Michelangelo's David. We visited the Uffizi, the greatest museum of its age and the most important museum in Florence.  The Uffizi is the museum of the Medici.

In Florence Mike's brother Fred emailed that the San Bernardino Police Dept. had written and that our 2007 Chevy Silverado had been stolen from the storage yard and recovered. That cast a long shadow on our trip.


Mike refused to buy a selfie stick.

Ponte Vecchio is a Medieval stone bridge with jewelry and souvenir shops.

Fine bronze.



Best of the Uffizi

Leonardo Da Vinci was a native of Florence.

Leonardo's genius in Florence.

Uffizi marble busts wow-ed Mike's inner craftsman. One of 100's.
 Check out the toga made from multicolored stone. 

Again I cannot look up and down often enough to keep up with all the splendor.

Medici Mama

Galileo Exhibit

Kitsch in Galileo Museum





The breadth of humanity's development displayed in Florence is daunting. My skill to blog falls far short of the instruments, lenses, tools for measurement, music, writing, navigation, etc...

Pisa was a train ride and insignificant. We quickly returned to Florence and finished the day in the Medici's archaeology museum.  Florence is fun thanks to loads of international art students. It is any trust fund baby's dream come true..  

 

Qick trip to see the Tower of Pisa

 

Black pubic hair or a cover up? I don't recall.

 

Medici artifact. The Medici were benevolent dictators and knew that they stood on the shoulders of giants.  

Hard-to-photograph artifacts. Low light must be preservative.

The Medici deeply appreciated/looted from the Egyptians.

After Florence I dream on Egypt. But onto Cinque Terra.

What's Cinque Terra? Cinque means 5. Terra is town. Among the 5 towns we stayed in Vernazza because Rick Steves said so. I booked our dinky $65 per night, no view room with a small fridge directly from the inn keeper. No booking sites, eg. hostel world or booking.com offered rooms in Cinque Terra. Cinque Terra's locals have voted Communist and as such do not allow corporations to skim off of their labor. We felt no need to do a lot of hiking since we never had to pay to hike on a trail before. We enjoyed the scenery. Until now weather was fine but cooler by the shore is a truism with overcast days along the west coast of Italy. Cinque Terra is the closest thing to an Italian national park. Many spoiled and totally unprepared hikers. Restaurants were expensive and hiking paths crowded. We got groceries and internet in La Spezia which was actually more interesting to us than Cinque Terra.

 

Tide crashing Vernazza's waterfront.  

Ticket for Hiking



Ligurian Seashore

Vernazza viewed from the hiking trail.  

 

 Next stop Bologna and Automobiles.

 

Mike took the Motorstars Tour in Bologna. This is not recommended by Rick Steves but it is obviously right for Mike. We stayed in sleekly modern hotel in an industrial city where rooms are typically paid for by business expense accounts.

 

 

Mike here: This museum and factory tour was a pure gift from Liz. It really wasn't necessary but it sure was nice. It's a gearhead's dream. Lamborghini and Ferrari have produced some of the most beautiful and fastest cars in the world and they are all on display here. Knowing gearheads as they do, there were also engines on display in all their naked glory all over. You could cruise the street for years and not see half of the cars shown in these 3 museums. 3 because Ferrari had enough overflow to fill the barn outside Ferrari's boyhood home and dedicate it to Ferrari's personal hero, Luciano Pavoratti. On the hour, the lights would dim and you'd stand in the dark for 15 minutes listening to opera. All that and factory tours, too. Lamborghini showed us through almost the entire assembly line.  The only area hidden from us was the engine machining area. Darn. Ferrari was a different story. The tour bus was allowed to cruise through the 1 kilometer square factory complex where every Ferrari, street or race, is assembled. No pictures, even though we were on the bus. If you want a walking tour you need to first order a Ferrari, then you are cordially invited to follow its assembly.

 

On my way back to our College campus room I asked directions of a man in the street. On finding out I was a tourist he led me behind an apartment building into a little park with glass cases in it. The
 story is that while building the apartment complex the workers kept digging up pre-Roman artifacts. Most went off to museums but a representative sample was kept where they were found.

Antiquities pop up all over Italy.

Local excavation exhibited near our bus stop near our hotel in Bologna.

Bologna is divided into student space and business space. We were in a dorm type space where lots of engineers convened. Good conversations over a pitiful breakfast of refined carbohydrates (white bread and croissants) and animal products. I complained about the lack of fresh fruit and whole grains.
While Mike took the Motorsport Tour I shopped and did laundry. I bought an international phone card and we followed up with calls on our insurance claims for our truck and trailer.

Next stop: Venice May 21-25, 2015

We arrived by water bus and stayed in an Airbnb with Luigi and his son for $90 per night. We were a 10 minute walk from the Ducal Palace. That Luigi had Wi-Fi was the only out and out lie. Luigi learned English from American GIs. By staying on the island we lived as Venetians. More experiential than if we had commuted from the surrounding suburbs. I had visited Venice with my mother, sister and brother-in-law over Easter 1999 and we stayed in a German hotel by the Lido, a beach.
Overcast. Needed more blue sky but colorful city.

Our room was here.



Ducal Palace in Venice 

Now that's a doorway.

 



Beautiful archways surround a grand square.

 

Patriarch is a common modern art motif  that appeared again in Cologne.

  

 

Rowing Clubs met from throughout Europe.

 

We experienced a boating weekend with only manpowered vessels, no engines allowed. Teams from all over Europe filled the canals.

Venice recognizes the stateless. Refugees exist. Passports do not define humans. Venice has a bridge near the palace dedicated to the stateless.


Banner on building featuring an exhibit. Note that Asian Girl Scout has a Michigan Badge. .

  

Mike and I live in a 5th wheel, a lifestyle confined to 300 square feet. We parted with many possessions in order to fit into a travel trailer. But Mike left behind mostly books while l parted with more finished goods. Paradoxically now we travel to look at the treasures of other peoples. Consequently I wince at/do not enjoy TV programs like PBS's Antiques Roadshow or American Pickers. The fascination over profiting from "stuff" is so great that Pawn Stars and American Pickers are broadcast even in Asia and Europe, wherever English programs have channel. I do not want to consider the value of past possessions and weigh their worth against the value of my freedom to travel.   
Rains fell and by the end of the stay I'd caught a cold. Time to sit on a bus and cross over the Alps to Austria.