We will add in more of Florence which is ALL OMG but today we left there and arrived in shangrila, so to speak. After leaving Florence -- in a CAR -- yea (and Bruce fits in it! yeaaa) we went to San Gimigano which is a preserved medieval city on a hill top and worthy of its rep ! A MUST for future visits. From there we had a rather mad dash about(65K up and down and all around) trying to find a COOP super to buy food and then to get it to ----------heaven. We are on top of the world in a medieval hill top "town" if you will, where we can see the sun rise and/or set -- that's how high. We are in a place with full kitchen, bed and full bath (and cable we don't touch) in a structure probably built before Columbus sailed boat! There is a full park near the pool and much more --- all for less than a common room. (How happy is skinflint Bruce!) We are thrilled, having done the helter skelter of Siena and Florence. With our own kitchen we were able to cook porcini mushrooms, pasta with spinach, etc and have it with a nice Brunello. Now we will sleep and hope the weather forecast for tomorrow is wrong. (rain)
Then, the wandering around the Tuscan hills begins.
CIAO !
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Duomo in Siena
The Duomo is one of the most popular tourist spots in Siena and it is easy to see why. Unfortunately our camera failed to capture the magnificance of the building, but we tried. The outside is covered with black and white stripes made of marble. There are touches of pink marble as well. The walls are covered with many different animal and people statues. 
Inside the Duoma, one doesn't know whether to look up or down. The floors are covered with beautiful marble "tiles". Each of the animals below is made up of mosaic patterns. Having done a fair amount of tiling in the past few days, it is incomprehensible as to how difficult and time consuming these must have been.
There is a whole room devoted to illuminated sheets of music. It often took a year to complete just one page they are so intricate. The walls were covered with religous paintings. The ceilings were beautiful blue vaults with stars. Around the whole cathedral were sculptures of all the popes; below are just a few of them!
Inside the Duoma, one doesn't know whether to look up or down. The floors are covered with beautiful marble "tiles". Each of the animals below is made up of mosaic patterns. Having done a fair amount of tiling in the past few days, it is incomprehensible as to how difficult and time consuming these must have been.
There is a whole room devoted to illuminated sheets of music. It often took a year to complete just one page they are so intricate. The walls were covered with religous paintings. The ceilings were beautiful blue vaults with stars. Around the whole cathedral were sculptures of all the popes; below are just a few of them!
Siena Day 2
We woke, had breakfast and worked on the blog -- then set out about town. Without a map even a seasoned Sienese would get lost in this place! The streets wind all over, change names, go up and down (think San Francisco on a smaller scale) and are NEVER wider than 16 feet. The stones ("pavement") are many hundreds of years old and are worn in ways that make one amazed by the number of high heels being worn by the young women.
We will devote a complete posting to the Duomo, our main stop of the day -- a magnificent cathedral made entirely of local rare marbles.
Before going to the Duomo we worked or way through the streets to the once a month Antique Market where we found a magnificent collection of stalls devoted to -- white elephants. It was a total bust but fun to see anyway.
Feeling a bit hungry we went back to a tratorria that had posted a handwritten note "Soupe de Porcini Oggi" on the door. It sounded so good to us that we waited and waited, only to be told it was all gone. We managed a couple of substitutions and thne went back out to the Duomo and other destinations.
We walked way across town to Piazza Lizza to check on the logistics of taking a bus to Florence tomorrow and gained so much confidence that we went ahead and bought due billeretti per Fierenza per la Rapid 231R !! All we have to do tomoorow is get to La Lizza withour suitcases!
At one point on the way back to the hotel, we came across a group of musicians enjoying a couple of beers and entertaining the crowds. They were clearly good and clearly having a good time.
We took in the sunset on the hotel rooftop before going to a near by locals dive for a fantastic dinner -- one of the best so far. Up on the roof, we met a couple from British Columbia, two sisters from Cape Town, South Africa and a photographer who works the Lonely Planet publications. Dinner included Porcini soup (at last), fried green tomatoes, and a couple of other excellent recommendations from our waiter. We forgot our little dictionary and so are still unsure as to what it all was, but it was great!
We will devote a complete posting to the Duomo, our main stop of the day -- a magnificent cathedral made entirely of local rare marbles.
Before going to the Duomo we worked or way through the streets to the once a month Antique Market where we found a magnificent collection of stalls devoted to -- white elephants. It was a total bust but fun to see anyway.
Feeling a bit hungry we went back to a tratorria that had posted a handwritten note "Soupe de Porcini Oggi" on the door. It sounded so good to us that we waited and waited, only to be told it was all gone. We managed a couple of substitutions and thne went back out to the Duomo and other destinations.
We walked way across town to Piazza Lizza to check on the logistics of taking a bus to Florence tomorrow and gained so much confidence that we went ahead and bought due billeretti per Fierenza per la Rapid 231R !! All we have to do tomoorow is get to La Lizza withour suitcases!
At one point on the way back to the hotel, we came across a group of musicians enjoying a couple of beers and entertaining the crowds. They were clearly good and clearly having a good time.
We took in the sunset on the hotel rooftop before going to a near by locals dive for a fantastic dinner -- one of the best so far. Up on the roof, we met a couple from British Columbia, two sisters from Cape Town, South Africa and a photographer who works the Lonely Planet publications. Dinner included Porcini soup (at last), fried green tomatoes, and a couple of other excellent recommendations from our waiter. We forgot our little dictionary and so are still unsure as to what it all was, but it was great!
Sunday, September 19, 2010
First Day in Siena
In the morning we got up, finished packing, were served a final breakfast by our wonderful family of B&B hosts (Papa , 75 and son and daughter) as they showed us today's press coverage of the wedding! It thrilled them to have such wedding guests in their 1 star lodging! They even packed a bag of food for us to have on the train to Siena -- I now think, because they knew what a journey it would be!
We left the Statzione at 10:20 for 9 stops on the way to Pisa. There we changed trains -- having arrived early, and did not have to wait the hour we thought we would. Of course that meant a mad dash up and down stairs to get to the correct binari (track) dragging our ridiculously heavy bags. Off to Empoli and there we had another lucky 3 minute rush to next train to Siena (8 more stops but lovely Italian countryside) and made it to Siena only 4 hours after leaving Santa Marguerita, Liguria. On the trip we passed through Carrera, FAMOUS for marble and saw acres of countertops destined to high end kitchens in America and everywhere else.
Arriving in Siena we knew we had another $10 ; 1 mile cab ride to our hotel as the Statzione is way out of town and even with nothing to carry we would never have found our lovely hotel. Siena is an untouched midievel warren of narrow streets and alleys and we traveled down many of them before arriving at our destination.
After checking in, we took off about the town -- up and down and all over, through the main square, the Piazza del Campo, where twicea year there is a wild and very competitive bareback horserace between the 17 'Contrada' the fiercly loyal neighborhoods of this virtually unchanged 14th century city.
We left the Statzione at 10:20 for 9 stops on the way to Pisa. There we changed trains -- having arrived early, and did not have to wait the hour we thought we would. Of course that meant a mad dash up and down stairs to get to the correct binari (track) dragging our ridiculously heavy bags. Off to Empoli and there we had another lucky 3 minute rush to next train to Siena (8 more stops but lovely Italian countryside) and made it to Siena only 4 hours after leaving Santa Marguerita, Liguria. On the trip we passed through Carrera, FAMOUS for marble and saw acres of countertops destined to high end kitchens in America and everywhere else.
Arriving in Siena we knew we had another $10 ; 1 mile cab ride to our hotel as the Statzione is way out of town and even with nothing to carry we would never have found our lovely hotel. Siena is an untouched midievel warren of narrow streets and alleys and we traveled down many of them before arriving at our destination.
After checking in, we took off about the town -- up and down and all over, through the main square, the Piazza del Campo, where twicea year there is a wild and very competitive bareback horserace between the 17 'Contrada' the fiercly loyal neighborhoods of this virtually unchanged 14th century city.
In each contrada, the city lights are different, "reflecting" the contrada. This is the dolphin contrada.
Bruce in front of Il Campo site of a twice yearly horse race. We went by a photography shop which had amazing pictures of the races. They bring in dirt for the "track" which must be quite a feat as the dump trucks can not be very big and so it must take many, many loads. The horses race madly around the track and judging from the pictures, there are no holds barred and many falls. The center of the track is a mass of humanity
Walking through one of the only empty streets in Siena!
We tested the local cuisine at a locals' place -- wild boar, porcini "funghi" and grilled eggplant -- and turned in wishing we had hit this area during a better turn of weather. Tomorrow, we will view all the beautiful buildings, churches and paintings.
The Wedding Reception
After the service we walked back to the vans and were returned to Santa Margherita to the huge Villa Durazzo for the wedding reception. The locals of Camogli greatly enjoyed watching the parade of the wedding party and guests as they made their way through town.
The villa is a 17th century palazzo richly decorated with stutues and rare marbles, wonderful Venitian chandeliers , and as everywhere, lots of Trompe d'Oiel. We learned the reason for so much of the elaborate decoration was to avoid the taxes that would come with the real thing! At the villa, Spumanti (NOT Champaigne or Cava) flowed like the proverbial water. A forty foot table was covered with truely fantastci "antipasti" including various tartars, mini "pitzettas", tempuras, etc. Then the dinner and toasts -- the cake appeared at midnight preceding a late night dancing to live music.
As the battery in the camera had died, we made a quick detour to our hotel to get the charger in order to be able to take more pictures. As a result, we had to walk up the hilly driveway through the grounds to the reception. The driveway was lined with statues and beautiful trees.
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The main reception room was on the second floor overlooking the grounds and the sea. Every room had a different but beautifully intricate glass chandelier. The ceilings were covered with paintings.
Looking out ove the piazza at the entrances. The design is made of white and black rocks.
Ivor stood patiently waiting for pictures with his father and his new father-in-law.
The villa is a 17th century palazzo richly decorated with stutues and rare marbles, wonderful Venitian chandeliers , and as everywhere, lots of Trompe d'Oiel. We learned the reason for so much of the elaborate decoration was to avoid the taxes that would come with the real thing! At the villa, Spumanti (NOT Champaigne or Cava) flowed like the proverbial water. A forty foot table was covered with truely fantastci "antipasti" including various tartars, mini "pitzettas", tempuras, etc. Then the dinner and toasts -- the cake appeared at midnight preceding a late night dancing to live music.
As the battery in the camera had died, we made a quick detour to our hotel to get the charger in order to be able to take more pictures. As a result, we had to walk up the hilly driveway through the grounds to the reception. The driveway was lined with statues and beautiful trees.
.JPG)
The main reception room was on the second floor overlooking the grounds and the sea. Every room had a different but beautifully intricate glass chandelier. The ceilings were covered with paintings.
Looking out ove the piazza at the entrances. The design is made of white and black rocks.
Ivor stood patiently waiting for pictures with his father and his new father-in-law.
Wedding at Church
The wedding was WONDERFUL. We took a cab through a downpour one kilomiter to a hotel where a van would pick us up (BTW - taxis are NUTS! That mile cost 15 dollars -- but there was no choice) and then took the van to Camogli, over a mountain pass winding all over where we were delivered to the shorefront prominade -- only in a drizzle -- where we then walked about 1500 yards to the beautiful church, built in the 12th century (think 300 BC --Before Columbus!) The service was in two languages - back and forth and was attended by friends from 26 countries and every continent except Antarctica!
The cathedral was beautiful and filled with great detail.
Claudia and her father walked down the aisle together at the start of the ceremony.
Two of our favorite guests were Edith and Myles who hail from the Turks and Caicos Islands. We have had the pleasure of their company in Colorado as both of them have learned to conquer the slopes. Bruce is trying to persuade Myles to become the first member of the TCI Winter Olympic Team as he has become quite the racer!
The cathedral was beautiful and filled with great detail.
Claudia and her father walked down the aisle together at the start of the ceremony.
Two of our favorite guests were Edith and Myles who hail from the Turks and Caicos Islands. We have had the pleasure of their company in Colorado as both of them have learned to conquer the slopes. Bruce is trying to persuade Myles to become the first member of the TCI Winter Olympic Team as he has become quite the racer!
Friday, September 17, 2010
Rehearsal Dinner at "The Stanbrook Villa"
?The rehearsal dinner at the villa was an awesome affair. There were people from all over the world in town to celebrate the wedding. Julia and Clive invited many of them to a wonderful evening at their home for the week.
There was a long table filled with delightful Ligurian specialities all of which we sampled extensively under the tutilage of Manuel.
One of the "decorations" on the table were edible flowers made of filled mini-croissants.
The pizza oven was put to good use. Two different types of pizzas were served; both of which were delicious and flavored with a tinge of smoke.
There was a long table filled with delightful Ligurian specialities all of which we sampled extensively under the tutilage of Manuel.
One of the "decorations" on the table were edible flowers made of filled mini-croissants.
The pizza oven was put to good use. Two different types of pizzas were served; both of which were delicious and flavored with a tinge of smoke.
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