Italy | The Travel Lady In Her Shoes

Traipsing Through Tuscany- The Piccolomini Pienza

On Our Way to Pienza

From Monticchiello we are off to Pienza, a small town that we can see on the hill in the distance. Pienza, is on a hill, but after arriving in the town, walking here is on flat ground. Unlike Montepulciano, which is all up hill, Pienza is flat. There is a parking lot outside of town, but since it is full, we drive closer to the school and find a spot there. Walking to the Town Gate, Porta Prato, I stop and admire a beautiful lawn and garden. Before I know it an older gentleman came from the porch of the house and down to his gate to talk to me. He speaks Italian and when he realizes I am an American, he thanks my husband and me for saving Italy in WWII! Then he opens the garden gate and offers me a tour of his lovely flower garden. It was beautiful and just one of the many flower gardens in this small village. Directly in front of Porta Prato is a public garden and the fragrance here is unbelievable! The lawn is surrounded in a small bush hedge covered in white blossoms that are so fragrant! I tried asking everyone and no one knew what that bush was and even my elderly gentleman friend was gone when I went back by his house to ask him, as we made our way out of town. Darn! That’s what I will always remember about Pienza, the flowers and the fragrances.

Enea Silvio Piccolomini (1405-1464) was born in Corsignano, the small town on a hill overlooking the Orcia and Asso Valley. In 1458, Piccolomini became Pope Pius II and when he returned to his home town, he decided to transform the town with the first humanist concept of urban design, (Renaissance) with the aid of Bernardo di Matteo Gamberelli, known as Rossellino, ingenere di palazzo, of Pope Nicholas V in Rome. Rossellino was responsible for the overall layout of the town which consisted of a main street joining two town gates. On this basic structure he planned the major buildings around a town square, which served as an outdoor room, called the Piazza Pio II. The Piazza is surrounded by the Duomo, the Piccolomini Family Palace, City Hall with the Bell Tower, and the Bishop’s Palace. All were designed by Rossellino in five years time. In 1464 the work stopped because both Pope Pius II and Rossellino, the architect, were dead. What we see today was completed a century later. The town was renamed, Pienza after the Pope. What remains now is a mixture of old stone, potted plants, grand views and a fragrance not to be forgotten.

On Our Way to Pienza

A View of the Countryside Around Pienza

The Man’s Garden

The Entrance Park

Porta al Prato

The Porta al Prato

Crest of the Piccolomini Family

The Piccolomini Family Palace

I LOVE the Stonework

Narrow Street in Pienza

The Clock Tower

Clock Tower from Main Street

Wall Flowers of Pienza

Pienza Street

Cockscombs in Pienza

Flowers of Pienza

Cockcombs in Pienza

Trattoria Latte di Luna

Ironwork on Walls in Pienza

City Hall Bell Tower

Pienza

Pienza Art

Traipsing Through Tuscany – Monticchiello

Monticchiello

Under a Tuscan Sun Road

Monticchiello is a very small village on the way to Pienza. I love the zig-zag road with the tall skinny cypress trees, just like in the movie, Under a Tuscan Sun! Asking about these trees I found that the Cupressus Sempervirens are known in Italy as the Italian, Tuscan, or Graveyard Tree. The tree is known as a symbol for mourning and associated with death because it fails to regenerate when cut back too severely. It’s branches were also used to fumigate during cremation and were also suitable to making wreaths. They are often planted around cemeteries because their roots go straight down rather than spreading out, so little damage is done to the graves sites. Arriving in the village I am surprised to find a new sub-division of homes being built on the outskirts of town. It looks out of place, but I can see why one would want to live here. The beauty of the village is the landscape; soft, rolling hills, dotted with the cypress trees, under a bright lapis lazuli sky and the warmth of the sun. It is exactly what you imagine an Italian landscape to be. You can relax and slow down. No one is in a hurry here. The older village consists of pale ochre colored stone houses with pastel colored doors, surrounded by manicured gardens. The Church of Santi Leonardo and Chrisoforo dates back to the last half of the thirteenth century, with a structure of a single nave and three apses. It has a Gothic facade adorned with an oval portal with a rosette. Going up the hill there is the ruins of the Cassero Tower, from days long past. This is the place to be to get away from it all.

Cloud Cover in Monticchiello

The Cassero Tower

The Village

My Favorite in Monticchiello

Bird Houses in the Stones

The Gardens

The Road to Monticchiello

The Cassero Tower

A Village Home

A Girls’ Garden

Church of Santi Leonardo and Christoforo

The Medici Bali

A view of the Hill Country from Monticchiello

Montepulciano Revisited

Our Apartment, San’t Antonio

We are back in Montepulciano, making it our base camp for exploring the surrounding hill towns of Tuscany. After renting a car in Florence and driving to San Gimignano, now here we are on Saturday evening getting settled in at Sant’ Antonio, the restored apartments on the grounds of an old monastery, in the hills around the village of Montepulciano. Late afternoon is spent meeting other guests from all over the world, who will also be spending a week here in Tuscany exploring. After our brief introduction to each other, the local maps were passed out, and we all decided to head out to the grocery store in Montepulciano before the store closes at 6pm. The store is not open on Sundays, so we must get in and get out if we want anything to eat or cook while we are at Sant’ Antonio. It was a mad dash to the grocery store! Parking is limited, and the store very busy, so we parked in the church parking lot and walked down to the store. A hint in the grocery store; we had to put one euro in the grocery cart to use it in the store and when we brought it back in we got the euro back. Also, do not touch the fruit or vegetables without putting on the plastic gloves that are provided! We were warned by our hosts about this! Although, when I shopped in the smaller shops up the hill in Montepulcinao, this did not seem to be the case. In the smaller shops the attendant was quick to help me with my selections.

We explored the hill towns during the day, all the guests going in different directions in their cars. It was fun to sit on the veranda in the evenings and over a glass of wine and nibbles find out where everyone went during the day and what they liked about the places they went to. Our neighbors to the left of us were German and Spanish. Our neighbors to the right Canadian, and in the family apartment a group, who came here every year from Hawaii. There were other guests in apartments here as well, so we were a large group of 25 or so. On one evening, during the week, we all came together to share an evening meal, prepared and served by our hosts, in the large meeting room on the premises. There was also a pool here in case you didn’t want to do a thing but relax. The other option is staying in the village of Montepulciano itself. Sant’ Antonio now offers apartments in town as well.

Inside our Apartment, San’t Antonio

The View from Sant’Antonio

The Meeting Room, Sant’ Antonio

Apartments at Sant’ Antonio

Apartments at San’t Antonio

The Pool at San’t Antonio

The Garden at San’t Antonio

The Olive Groves at Sant’ Antonio

San’t Antonio

Sant’ Antonio

San’ Antonio

San’t Antonio

Our Apartment, San’t Antonio

Another time I stayed in the Politian Apartments, when I came to Montepulciano to study Italian at the Il Sasso Language School. At that time, I didn’t have a car. The Politian Apartment was in the village. It was a huge two bedroom apartment with all the amenities, (washer, dryer, microwave, big stove and oven) and tastefully decorated with antiques. There was a beautiful walled garden that I enjoyed sitting in to do my homework. The owners were on the premises and more than helpful. There were other guests staying in other apartments, but I was up early and off to school so didn’t get to know them. We all seemed to have different agendas as they only stayed a few days and then were gone and replaced by new guests. The shops and restaurants are plentiful and the locals very friendly. Parking is LIMITED and outside of the village. The streets are pedestrian-only, but a tiny, tiny bus goes through town from the bottom of the hill to the tippy top. It only stops at the bottom of the village, (the entrance), a designated place in the middle, and the very top of the village. If you stay in the village be prepared to haul your luggage up, up, up the hill at some point! Pack light! For more highlights of Montipulciano see past blog posts about the Politian Apartments and the Il Sasso Language School. These are some reflections if you want to make Montepulciano your home base for visiting Tuscany.

Next we are off to the hill towns!

For More information about Sant’ Antonio Apartments see: http://www.santantonio.it

For more information about Politian Apartments see: http://www.politian.com

Traipsing Through Tuscany- Florence and San Gimignano

Palazzo Vecchio

Rooftop Sculpture in Florenc

The Window of the World

Thinking about our visit to Florence I can’t get over all the beautiful art we have seen in the Uffizi Gallery, the Pitti Palace, the Duomo Museum and the Accademia. I was especially excited over the artwork of Artemisia Gentileschi, (1593-1653) that SB pointed out to me in the Uffizi Gallery ( Judith Beheading Holofernes) and the Pitti Palace (The Conversion of Magdalena, Judith and Her Maidservant and David and Bathsheba). I first read about Artemisia Gentileschi in a book called, The Passion of Artemisia: a Novel, by Susan Vreeland. Delving into the themes of art, history and the lives of women, this is is a book that I thoroughly enjoyed. Gentileschi painted many pictures of strong and suffering women from myth and the Bible. Her works include victims, suicides, warriors and especially, the Judith story. When you read the book and then see her paintings, her real life and her paintings intertwine and give you perspective of the times and how this woman lived and painted, and why she did so. Even her style of painting called chiaroscuro, which represents a strong contrast between light and dark, gives us a glimpse of her life.

One of Gentileschi’s works, David and Bathsheba, completed in 1635, had been found after centuries of deterioration, in a storage deposit area of the Pitti Palace, revealing decay, color flaking, due to improper storage conditions, and humidity damage. The re-evaluation of the Gentileschi’s courageous life and works were brought into focus with the attention of the Florence Committee of National Museum of Women in the Arts, who decided to fund the restoration of David and Bathsheba. Today, Gentileschi is regarded as the most progressive and expressionist painters of her generation.

Thinking of that book, brought to mind another book, called The Birth of Venus, by Sarah Dunant. This historical novel of Florence is a story of love, art, religion and power as told by Allessandra Cecchi when her father brings a young painter to paint the chapel walls of the family’s pallazzo. This story is told while Florence is caught in a state of turmoil imposed by the fundamentalist monk Savonarola, who is seizing religious and political control and the Medici State, with it’s love of luxury, learning and art. On our walking tours of Florence we learned a great deal about the Medici family and Savonarola. Recalling that book, brought to mind The Lord’s Supper, painted on the wall of the Santa Maria della Grazie Church in Milan, which I have been lucky enough to see.

I was curious to learn how all this beautiful artwork was saved during WWII. Now, I am currently reading, Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue a Nation’s Treasures from the Nazis, by Robert Edsel. In particular I am interested in, General Karl Wolff, a German officer, who risked his life to save the collections of the Uffizi Gallery and the Pitti Palace. Robert Edsel also wrote, The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History, now made into a motion picture of the name, The Monuments Men.

Skyline of the Hill Town

The Walled San Gimignano and Porta San Giovani

The Towers of San Gimignano

The Wall Fortifications of San Gimignano

Skyline of San Gimignano

San Gimignano

Defense at the Rocca

The Olive Garden

Layers of Different Bricks

Wall Flowers

The old Buildings

The Loggia

San Gimignano

The Duomo

The Buildings of San Gimignano

Tower in San Gimignano

The Walk Through the Town

One of the Towers

Tower in San Gimignano

The Streets of San Gimignano

San Gimignano

The Fountain

The Old Fountain Outside San Gimignano

San Gimignano, twenty-five miles south of Florence, will be our first stop on our way to Montepulciano, where we will be making our home base for our Tuscany visit.

The parking lot outside the main gate, Porta San Giovanni, was very busy as we approached. The village itself is pedestrian only. Getting in the car parking queue we had to wait for a car to come out before we could go in and take the spot. One in, one out. San Gimignano gives you a glimpse of a real Italian countryside experience, but with just enough shops and restaurants added to make it interesting for tourists. The towers are restored replicas of the original, but they look authentic.

San Gimignano is a small, walled, medieval hill town with fourteen towers of various heights, replicated of the original seventy-two. Before the walls were developed around the town, these towers were a refuge, when ruffians and rival city states were sacking the town. If under attack, the tower owners would set fire to the external wooden staircase, leaving the sole entrance to the house and it’s strongholds, unreachable. Today you can see all these tiny slit entrances way up on the second story of the towers, minus stairs to get to them. Also, notice that the buildings are made of different colored stones and brick. Heavy stones were used for the bottom floors and lighter cheaper bricks for the upper floors. In the year 1300, about 13,000 people lived within the walls. In 1348, a six-month plague left the town with 4,000 survivors. Crushed and demoralized, the town came under Florence’s rule and was forced to tear down it’s towers, and the trade route was re-directed away from San Gimignano. The town never recovered and poverty drove the well-preserved city to be as it is today.

Our walk takes us through the Porta San Giovanni up to the Piazza del Duomo, and the church itself, which features Sienese Gothic art_ Old Testament to the left___New Testament to the right. Further up the hill is the is Sant’Agostino Church, built by the Augustinians, who arrived in 1260. Here there are English speaking friars, who are happy to tell you about the church and their way of life. We stop and have lunch at the Locanda di Sant’Agostino, right next door to the church on a beautiful small piazza. The restaurant serves typical Tuscan home cooked meals, which would be paninos, pizza, pasta and insalatas, served with a local fruity white wine. Walking back down the hill, along the ramparts, there are superb views of the Tuscan countryside. Soon we are inside the Rocca, originally another walled defense area, now a small walled garden of olive trees, where a group of men are singing and playing instruments. I loved our time in San Gimignano, but it is time to move on to Montepulciano. For more interesting history and scenes of Sam Gimignano, view the movie, Tea With Mussolini, a 1999 drama of the plight of American and English expatriate women during WWII. Most of the scenes are of Florence and San Gimignano, where the movie was filmed. In particular it reveals the artworks inside the Duomo of San Gimignano and how the women came to be there and tried to save the art. For more readings about the war and art see my blog postings on Milan, https://cadyluckleedy.com/2014/02/14/one-day-in-milan/ and the War in Val D’ Orcia, https://cadyluckleedy.com/2013/04/11/war-in-val-d-orcia near Montepulciano. See you next in Montepulciano!

TTT, Traipsing Through Tuscany

Today starts a new Series in Italy, called TTT, Traipsing Through Tuscany. Traipsing through the hill towns to be exact. Getting off the beaten track has been some of our best excursions! A bit of advice, we flew into Florence where we took a cab into the city. So we will begin in Florence. After spending a week here we went back to the airport and got a rental car to drive on through Tuscany and the hill towns. We spent a week in Montepulciano. As a home base it was perfect. We explored surrounding hill towns, always coming back to Montepulciano in the evenings, and then we drove on to Rome. We dropped the car off at the Rome Airport and took a cab into Rome, where we stayed another week. Much easier! You could not pay me enough to drive in the bigger cities and spend a great deal of time just looking for a place to park. There aren’t any parking spaces to be found! Save yourself the headache!

Florence, by far is my favorite biggish city in Italy. It is easily walkable, with museums, restaurants and shopping galore. If museums are not your thing, there is plenty of beautiful outdoor art such as sculptures, icons, buildings, bridges and churches to keep you interested. One of the rituals, near our hotel, was a woman artist who sketched daily with colored chalk on the pedestrian-only street. This was truly a street scene because her sketching would cover a large section of ground. She would work on it all day. It was beautiful! Very early the next morning between 4am and 5am the street cleaners would come through with their brushing machines and brooms and wash it all away. Around ten in the morning she would start again with a new scene. Unbelievable!

To see the highlights of Florence we took walking tours that also included the museums. We tried for months to get tickets for the major museums and there were none to be had online. They were available through tour groups. In the end it worked out well because we never had to stand in line to get in the museums, and there were long, long lines. The downside is WE could have spent more time IN the museums, hours and hours. The tour group went to the major and most appealing exhibits, and that would be fine for most. The four tours we took were offered by Art Viva. They were the Original Florence Walk, the Masterpieces of the Uffizi Gallery Tour, and the Original David Tour. These walks are long, at least three hours each with additional time added for the museums! Wear comfortable shoes! The English speaking walk leaders are very knowledgable, and we stopped occasionally for a cuppa, (wine, coffee, tea) always at good locations for people watching! We took three tours in one day and I was pooped, but from then on we knew where everything was and went back to the areas we wanted to spend more time in on other days. On another evening we took the Original Evening Walk in Oltrarno, which included a wine and olive oil tasting! We had a wonderful time on these walks and there are many to choose from!

On this visit we stayed at the Hotel Davanzati, a small boutique hotel located near the Uffitzi Gallery and right across the street from where the Original Florence Walk started each morning. This was good because we didn’t have to walk a great deal before we started the walk. Entering a doorway in the historical area there are a number of stairs to climb to reach a tiny elevator that takes you to the reception area and then to the upper room floors of the Davanzati Hotel. The owner and his son were there everyday to recommend restaurants and sights to see, provide maps and answer any questions we had. The breakfasts and late afternoon wine/happy hour gatherings were a big hit. The rooms were tastefully decorated and immaculate. After a lovely week in Florence we were in a rental car and on our way to Montepulciano, to get a taste of the countryside, the hill towns, and the slower pace of Italian life. See you in San Gimignano!

The Skyline of Florence

Florence

The Parking Situation

Streets of Florence

Michelangelo-Pieta

The Streets of Florence

Entrance to Hotel Davanzati

Streets of Florence

The Duomo

Streets of Florence

Outdoor Dining

Our Room Entrance

The Steps to Hotel Davanzati

Entrance to the Room Floors

The Duomo

Ponte Vecchio

Locks of the Heart

The Rape of the Sabine Women

The Food

The Duomo

Inside the Duomo

Medici Doors

For more information about Hotel Davanzati see: http://www.hoteldavanzati.it

For more information about the Art Viva walking Tours see: http://www.italy.artviva.com

One Day in Milan

San Bartolomeo by Marco d’Agrate

We are on the early morning commuter train from Varenna to Milan. We are meeting up with a private local guide, Lorenza Scorti, who knows the city’s history well. We have marked off certain sights we would like to see. We are hoping Lorenza has been able to get us tickets to get into the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, where Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, the Last Supper, is housed. One of the leading families of Italy during the Renaissance, the Sforza Family of Milan, hired da Vinci to decorate the dining hall of the Dominican monastery that adjoins the church. Ultimately, the Sforza family was bribing the monks with this gift so the monks would allow their family tomb to be placed in the church.(Which never happened) The fresco began deteriorating within six years of it’s completion due to the experimental technique used by Leonardo. Bombing during WWII left only one wall standing in the church. The wall of the Last Supper. Truly a miracle! In 1999 a 21-year restoration project was completed peeling away 500 years of touch-ups, leaving the masterpiece intact.

Lorenza meets us at the central train station and after going up several escalators in the fashionable shopping area of the train station, Lorenza buys tickets for the metro and we are off! It is early morning and the streets are quiet. First stop, the Duomo, with a forest of spires on its roof, is the fourth largest church in Europe, after the Vatican’s, London’s, and Seville’s. The church was built with Pink Candoglia marble, rafted in from a quarry 60 miles away. We went past this quarry on the train when we went to Cinque Terre. Marble is still extracted from the sight. Inside the church is a beautiful marble mosaic floor and looking up we see The Quadroni, (large paintings on canvas, each about 20 by 26 feet) depicting the life of St Charles Borremeo. The paintings have been brought out and displayed for a special anniversary in the church. The 1st cycle of paintings (starting in 1602), The Facts of Life of Blessed Charles, consists of 28 paintings depicting his life, and were painted by seven different artists. The 2nd cycle, The Miracles of St Charles, consisting of 24 smaller paintings of his miraculous works and healings, were all painted between December 1609 and November 1, 1610, when Charles was canonized. These paintings were displayed for the first time together on November 4, 1610, when the paintings of his miracles could be shown after he had been declared a saint. Now they are only displayed on special days in the church and we were fortunate to be able to see them.

The Duomo

An impressive, detailed statue of San Bartolomeo Flayed (1562), by Marco d’ Agrate, is upfront and center in the church. That is his skin draped over his shoulder!

After the church, we are delighted to be shown a small museum in a private palazzo. I have wanted to see what was behind those big oak doors! Following Lorenza, we are lead through an intricate laid marble entryway and up the stairs to the private apartments. Today there are collections of clothing, shoes and those little bitty one woman carriage/carriers that were lifted on the shoulders of servants to whisk one about town and prevent your dress and shoes from being soiled. Boy were those women TINY! On the outside of the palazzo is a beautiful fresco above the rim of the windows. (See the video I made)

The Palazzo

Inside the Palazzo

Next, we walk to the La Scala Opera House and museum, the world’s most prestigious opera house! All that red velvet! Following that we head to the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, a four story glass domed arcade on the main square, featuring all the Italian high end shopping stores and great for people watching as well. It was the first building in Milan to have electric lighting! Oh how Italians love fashion! Around the center dome patriotic mosaics symbolize the four major continents and the mosaic marbled floor reveals the city’s symbol, a torino. (little bull) Here locals step and twirl on the bull for good luck.

Inside the Galleria

Il Torino

We go to a local pizza restaurant and I am so glad to sit. The one person pizzas are HUGE (enough for three people) and we wash it down with good red wine.

Afterwards, we make our way to the Sforza Castle, previously the residence of the Sforza family. It is now a museum of ancient art which features the last and unfinished Pietà, by Michelangelo and the Sala della Asse, frescoed by Leonardo da Vinci, who worked for the Sforza family as a painter, sculptor, and hydrologic engineer. Seventeen layers of whitewash are slowing being removed to reveal the entire mural by da Vinci, sections having been discovered on the walls as late as 2013.

The Sforza Castle

The Last Pietà

Our last stop of the day is Santa Maria della Grazie Church and we are thrilled to find admittance tickets waiting for us! The church is now hermetically sealed, so you go through sections of air filter stations, filtering the air from the outside, until it is deemed pollutant free and we are admitted. At last, a group of twenty, is turned out into the refectory for 15 minutes at a time. In the Convent, where the work on the end wall was started in 1495, the mural, measuring 180 inches by 350 inches, represents the scene of the Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples. Completed in 1498, the mural specifically portrays the reaction given by each apostle when Jesus said one of them would betray Him. Working a new technique, dry plaster rather than wet, and choosing to seal the stone wall with a layer of pitch, gesso and mastic, da Vinci painted the sealing layer with tempera. Due to this method the piece began to deteriorate a few years after he finished it. As early as 1517, the painting was starting to flake and by 1556 it was deemed “ruined” and so deteriorated, the figures were unrecognizable. In 1652, a doorway was cut through the painting, so the monks could get to the kitchens easier. This door was later bricked up, but can still be seen as an irregular arch shaped structure near the center base of the painting. In 1768, a curtain was hung over the painting to protect it; but instead it trapped moisture on the painting’s surface and whenever the curtain was pulled back, it scratched the flaking paint. In 1821, Stefano Barezzi, an expert in removing whole frescoes from their walls intact, badly damaged the center section of the mural before realizing the work was not a fresco.(Painted on wet walls) He then attempted to reattach the damaged sections with GLUE. From 1901 to 1908, Luigi Cavenaghi completed a thorough study of the structure of the painting, then began cleaning it. On August 15, 1943, the refectory was struck by a bomb, but a protective structure of sandbags and an additional wall in front of the painting protected it from bomb splinters. Pictures of the damage to the church line the walls upon leaving. It was the only wall left standing. We leave Milan and return to Menaggio by train and then ferry, weary but so thankful we have been able to see some of the greatest art in the world.

For more information on a private tour of Milan contact Lorenza Scorti at lorenza.scorti@libero.it

A Boat in Bellagio

Bellagio Water Front

Bellagio Ferry Dock

Bellagio Waterfront

Today we are off to Bellagio for a day of boating fun. Bellagio is by far the most touristy of the three villages we have spent time in. Walking to the right from the ferry, we find souvenir shops and tourist traps galore. These shops are not so much my cup of tea so we walk on to the beautiful Villa Melzi Gardens, filled with exotic plants and flowers and Neoclassical sculpture right along the lake front. We walk the entire length of the garden, to the concrete pool that now sits empty. The walk along the white pebbled garden path is outstanding!

Villa Melzi Gardens

Our next stop is the Enotecha Cava Turacciolo, for a wine tasting. (to boost my nerve to get on the speed boat you see)

Enoteca Cava Turacciolo

The Wine of Enoteca Cava Turacciolo

The Food at the Cave

At the Piazza Mazzini dock, where the wooden boats of the Bellagio Water Taxi are docked, we check in with Jennine and Luca.

Luca’s Boat

Luca’s boat is immaculate and gorgeous. Take off those spiky-heeled shoes please, do not mar the brilliantly restored mahogany wood! We zoom to the villas along the lake; past Richard Branson’s villa, (Virgin Airlines owner) past a huge sign in front of a villa that reads “No George”, meaning this is not the villa of George Cluny, as some believe. Villa L’Oleandra, George’s villa is located in Laglio, Italy, on the western shore of Lake Como.

We depart our speed boat at Villa del Balbianello, for an English speaking tour of the villa and grounds. Situated on a romantic promontory overlooking Lake Como, the villa, built for Cardinal Angelo Maria Durini, at the end of the 18th century, sits on the property of a former old Franciscan Church. Be sure to see the inconspicuous door inside the villa that leads to an underground tunnel, an escape route for the Cardinal, that ended up in the hills above the villa. After passing through the hands of many owners, who each placed their own personal touch to the villa and gardens, it was bought by Guido Monzino. Today the villa consists of his vision, and art collection of landscapes painted on glass (utterly unbelievable) and his mementos of his expedition to the North Pole and Mount Everest. Monzino was the leader of the first Italian expedition to climb Mt Everest and has dedicated an entire floor of the villa to this collection. In 1988 he died, leaving the villa as it was when he owned it, to the Italian National Trust. I found especially interesting the lower floor apartment, designed for his mother, who lived with him, and the modern kitchen on the ground floor. Also, his gardeners were left stipends for the rest of their lives, with the directions to maintain the grounds as they were when he lived there. Note the tree that is so large, the gardeners must climb inside it to prune it and keep it in it’s lovely shape. The villa and grounds have also been the choice for movie directors. It was filmed for movie scenes for Casino Royale, a James Bond thriller, and Star Wars: Episode II. Truly, a must see at Lake Como! Enjoy my video of the boat trip from Bellagio!

For Information about Villa del Balbianello and Enoteca Cava Turacciolo see: TripAdvisor

For more info about the Water Taxi Tours see: http://www.bellagiowatertaxis.com

For more info about the Villa Melzi Gardens see: http://www.giardinidivillamelzi.it

Romancing the Stone Part II, Menaggio

Menaggio

What a wonderful first night we had! Our apartemento, Le Eriche, is perfect. With the bedroom shutters and the salon shutters open, a lovely perfumed breeze fills the air. What a way to wake up to the beautiful sunshine! Today we are headed down to Menaggio, via the local bus. It will pick us up early right outside our retreat or if we want to go later in the day we will walk down the road to the big curve. See (La Bella Lingua post for more info on that) Menaggio is picturesque and quaint with buildings of soft colored patinas of ocher, watermelon, cantaloupe and sage that seem to float in the sunlight. Menaggio is also the place to stay to avoid the hot, hot, hot afternoon sun rays. Of our three favorite villages, Bellagio, Menaggio and Varenna, it is the only village draped in shade late in the afternoon. We enjoyed walking the promenade and eating at the outdoor restaurants along the beach. There is also a boat rental shop here, in case you want to rent your own boat to motor to the other villages and sights, without taking the ferry. Here are some of my favorite pictures of Menaggio!

Menaggio

My Favorite!

Heaven!

The Shore Square

Shore Square

Fun Along the Shoreline

Fun for Everyone!

The Promenade

The Restaurant

Here is what we came home to every night! I can not say enough wonderful words to describe the stay we experienced at the Apartment Le Eriche ! Thank you Piero and Fiametta!

Il Salotto

La Camera da Letto

La Cucina

Il Bagno

Apartment Le Eriche, Via Per Barna, Plesio, Italy or see TripAdvisor under their B&B of the same name.

Romancing the Pizza Stone III: The Cooking Class

The Wharf at Varenna

I have a pasta maker/roller/flatener (my made-up word) that has been stashed under one of my cabinets and as yet, has never been used. Making pasta looked so easy when I saw it demonstrated at the local Saturday market in my hometown! I thought if I took an Italian cooking class that I would finally get the hang of pasta making. On this beautiful Italian day we (SB is manly enough for this) are headed to Varenna, (population 800) to a cooking class with Chef Moreno at Ristorante Il Caminetto in Perledo. He teaches the basics of Italian cooking including pasta and regional specialties. The ferry has become our friend. Every morning we are up and out the door to the bus, chatting with the Italian nannies as we all head down to Menaggio. Then at the dock we sip more latte, espresso or Coke (for SB) and watch the world go by as we wait for the ferry to arrive. I could really get used to this lifestyle!

Varenna is even more laid back then Menaggio. I love the grand yellow hotel at this dock location too. It seems very large, but when you look at it from the side, how narrow it is! Check out the video I made! There are several groups of people mulling about the dock and soon we see a man in a chef’s apron, who has come to reign us all in. His son’s have arrived in various vehicles from the mountain village to retrieve us and take us to the restaurant. I can see why on the trip up. I thought the drive to Menaggio was twists and turns, but this road comes in first place.

At the Restaurant Caminetto we are greeted with wine and home made cookies as we wait for everyone to make it up the mountain. Chef Moreno washes up (his hands and arms) and washes down the wooden table ( a good 20 minute scrub) while chatting along the entire time about his life in the village and life as a chef here. Then he begins to prepare the dough: flour, scant water, eggs, flour, knead, eggs, flour, knead, roooooooooll! Repeat! And repeat! Rooooooooooooll every which way with the longest, skiniest rolling pin I have ever seen! What no pasta maker? He would never consider it! We started at 10 am in the morning. We laughed, we roooooolled, we pinched, we patted, we made sauce with tomatoes from his garden, and we ate several servings of our makings and drank a lot of wine in between! We had the best time and then finished up with a stroll through the petite mountain village. It was 4pm! Taxis have been dispatched to return us to Varenna. We have a woman cab driver. She looks like a housewife who got the call to come fetch us. I can’t believe they have cab service here!

Back in Varenna, we stroll to the left of the dock, into the neighborhoods, to find the local train station. How about that tree? Then we back track and go to the right of the dock into the village shopping and main restaurant areas. Eventually on another day in Varenna we would go to the tippy top of town and visit the local church and eat pizza under giant smooth barked trees. This is HEAVEN!

For information about Chef Moreno and Ristorante il Caminetto visit: http://www.ilcaminettoonline.com Price includes transportation to and from the Varenna dock landing, the lesson, and lunch including wine, cookies and coffee. A must do!

Romancing the Water and Stone

The Angel in the Train Depot

For a Valentine’s posting I was thinking of the most romantic spot I have journeyed to. For me it would be Lake Como, Italy. The romance begins on the journey to get there. This vacation offered everything I consider romantic, a lake and the mountains. The Zurich train depot set the tone for our vacation. It was one of the most artistically pleasing train stations I have ever been in. The compact green Italian train departed from a lively open warehouse-looking building filled with shops and restaurants and a large flower stall.

Sunflowers

The Shops in the Warehouse at Zurich Train Station

The train ride through tiny mountain villages and lakes in the Alps from Zurich to Como went by very quickly because the scenery was breathtaking. We arrived in Como just in time for an afternoon glass of wine before embarking a Rapido-Hydrofoil to go from the bottom left leg of Lake Como up to the split in the lake, to one of the triangular points of the lake, Menaggio.

The Walk from Como Giovanni Train Station to the Dock in Como

The Hydrofoil Dock in Como

Como Lakeside

During our stay on Lake Como we would be exploring Bellagio and Varenna also. The hydrofoil stopped at several small villages along the lake and it was exciting to see what the other villages looked like from the waters edge. Villas, surrounded with immaculate gardens and landscaping, were most impressive! After each stop, to let passengers off, I would tick the villages off in my head. Well we didn’t pick that one. Next…..

When we got to the dock at Menaggio, I knew I had picked the right place. Near the shore and the landing area for the hydrofoil and the ferries, was a hip coffee/pizza/breakfast restaurant with outdoor seating. This spot would be our favorite spot for morning cappuccino, espresso or latte while we waited for the ferry to take us on various excursions. We would just sit and watch the seagulls and the early strollers. Nearby was a beautiful yellow villa, Hotel du Lac, and across from that the grocery store. Perfect! (For more insight into grocery shopping in Menaggio see the post, Il Negozio di Alimentari)

Soon after arriving at the dock in Menaggio, about 4 hours behind schedule, but right on time following Italian time, we were met at the wharf by our host, Piero. Six months previous, I had asked to rent one of his rooms in his B&B, but it was full. He had suggested an apartment, that he and his wife also rented out, since were staying over a week, and we agreed. We were not exactly sure what we would be getting. Piero had a tiny hatchback car, so we piled the luggage in as best as we could, but SB still had to scrunch up and fold himself over the luggage (and we travel light) that had to be squeezed in the back hatch seat. With Piero and I buckled in the front seats, we set off up the hill. We went up and up, curve, up, up, curve, tight curve, back up and take a second go at the curve-turn combo. Up, Up, past San Marco, past Ligomena, another tight curve. Stop. Here we are and the rest is history!

For a week we lived in an outstanding apartment on the mountainside of Menaggio with a heavenly pool and a dream view of Lake Como. Our neighbors, who stayed in other apartments, came from all over the world. We had the best time getting together in the evenings by the pool and trying to figure out what everybody was saying! It was fantastic! Enjoy the view!

PS. We traveled from Zurich, Switzerland to Como, Italy because after leaving Lake Como we would be spending a week in Interlaken, Switzerland. You could fly into Milan and take a train from there to Como to get a hydrofoil to the other villages along Lake Como.

For information about the apartment see: Apartment le Eriche, Via per Barna, Plesio, Italy.

For the B&B see: B&B Eriche, Villa alla Grona, Menaggio, Italy or view on TripAdvisor

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Travel, Gardens, Food, Photography, Books, Shoes

Posts tagged ‘Italy’

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One Day in Milan

A Boat in Bellagio

Romancing the Stone Part II, Menaggio

Romancing the Pizza Stone III: The Cooking Class

Romancing the Water and Stone

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