Contrasts - 15 September 2009

We began the day just down the road from our overnight accommodation, at the Bascilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli (St Mary of the Angels – after which Los Angeles was named: major contrast!)
The Bascilica is a huge edifice build over two smaller structures. One, a chapel on the site of the original chapel the Pope granted St Francis for his work and worship and the second, a chapel built over the spot where St Francis died in 1226. (Major contrasts in size and décor.)

Of course, one cannot overlook the contrast between the simplicity espoused by St Francis as he rebelled against the decadence of society and the church, and the commercialization of the area around the whole St Francis story, the pilgrims and the grandeur of the churches that have been built in his name. Another contrast is San Francisco, named after the saint and, again, far removed from the message he bore.

But, “when in Rome” and all that, we needed to experience the full deal and after seeing where he lived and worked and the spot where he died we joined the hordes and filed past his burial spot in the crypt under the Bascilica of St Francis in Assisi proper. A contrast here is the insistence on modest dress, no bare arms, no shorts for men or women etc (as in many major churches in Italy) and yet one can often see drawings, statues or carvings of naked men and women in these same churches and Christ, himself, is usually only clad in a loin cloth.

We followed a tourist route through Assisi and also visited the Bascilica of St Clare founder of the order of the Poor Clares (think Santa Clara, California, for the contrast) and saw her tomb and various objects she owned or wore.

In contrast to St Francis' teachings, we were beguiled by a couple of very nice works by local artisans and so left Assisi considerably poorer than when we arrived; and in that respect we were similar to the great man himself.

We left Assisi and set the sat-nav to take us to Gubbio: the road was great until the sat-nav sent us off on a fairly minor road along a ridge, then directed us down something that was not much more than a goat track before depositing us on a motorway that seemed to start/end in the middle of nowhere – quite a contrast.

Although Gubbio is reputedly the most beautiful medieval city in Umbria, it is not so much a hilltop town as a hillside town as it spills down the hill from the Bascilica past the two large Palazzo on opposite sides of a square, down past the loggia and onto the flat land where there are the remains of a Roman amphitheatre.

Leaving Gubbio we took another minor, but very scenic route over the hills to Cortona crossing from Umbria back into Tuscany as we went. After exploring this small hilltop town and finally locating the street that has some of the oldest surviving medieval buildings in Italy we found a bed for the night just outside the town of Montecchio.

The photos would have been much better had our 4-month old Canon Powershot G10 not failed

On to Umbria - 14 September 2009

Leaving Tuscany we moved east into Umbria for even more hilltop towns, stopping first at Orvieto to see the Duomo with reportedly the most striking facade in Italy, Why is such a grand church tucked away in such an obscure location? For the same reason that many grand churches exist in odd locations; a 'miracle' occurred in the dim and distant past.

Not far away is the tiny little hilltop village of Civata, which is getting smaller all the time as the cliffs around it slowly erode. Just inside the gate is a grand facade that has nothing at all behind it, the villa having slipped down the cliff some years ago.

Likewise the access path disappeared and the village is now accessible on foot only across a bridge from the neighbouring town. The are very few permanent residents left but some of them run the most fascinating restaurant, the food is cooked over an open fire and the preparation rooms are really just alcoves off the main dining area.

We had just crossed the long bridge and got back to the car when the rain came lashing down so there was no sightseeing to be done in Bagnoregio, we just drove on to Todi which unfortunately did not live up to its description in the guide book. (but the cappuccino was fabulous)

Heading in the general direction of Assisi, we stopped off at Deruta, home of 'the best ceramics in Italy' and had a browse though a number of the workshop/showrooms, eventually leaving with a piece we hope will fit in our hand-luggage.

Our 4-month old Canon Powershot G10 died suddenly leaving us with inferior quality photos

Along the Via Francigena - 13 September 2009

Although not planned that way our stops seemed to always be on the Via Francigena, the Pilgrims route. The closest we got to genuine pilgrims was some walkers who were staying at the same accommodation as we were in Monteriggioni; the rest were tourists, like us, on a a much more rapid progression across the landscape.

Leaving the enclaves of tiny Monteriggioni we headed into the big city of Siena were we bumped into a procession that appeared to be something to do with the local saint day: to us it was much drum beating and banner waving.

After seein' Seina via a tourist trail and a look around the fortress we moved on to Asciano where, once again, banners were out and preparations were being made for their saint day festivities.

Very nearby is the Monte Oliveto Maggiore monastery so we made a short detour for a quick look at the outside as we had arrived after closing time and then moved on to San Quirico d'Orcia, a tiny UNESCO World Heritage town that seemed to be largely ignored by the tourists, but definitely worth a visit.

In an act of considerable vanity, Pope Pious II completely redesigned his birth-town, Pienza, as a utopian “New Town” and it remains an outstanding example of Renaissance architecture. The tourists certainly knew about this stop-over. We could happily have spent the night there but Montepulciano, the home of our favourite Italian red wine, was calling so we moved on.

Montepulciano is the highest of the Tuscan hill towns and is a rabbit-warren of twisting streets on many levels. Parking is restricted to areas outside the city but our hotel had parking available and fortunately our host offered to take me to our car and lead me back to the hotel parking. I am not convinced that even with the aid of a sat-nav I would had found my way back through the maze of one-way streets, alone.

The photos would have been better had it not been for the failure of our 4-month old Canon Powershot G10

Touring Tuscan Towns – 12 September 2009

After our croissant and coffee breakfast we set off for Volterre, the first of our four Tuscan hilltop villages that we were to visit today. Being there fairly early in the morning we beat any tourist rush that there may be and the town seemed like a 'regular' town with normal shops selling normal stuff to normal folk. This certainly did not hold for the next town.

We visited the Palazzo Viti, one of the finest private residential buildings in Italy. However, after seeing so many wonderful ceilings in England painted by imported Italian artists we were surprised at how under-whelming the ceilings were in this Palazzo. Nevertheless it was an impressive home, still lived in by descendants of the Viti family.

The entry ticket entitled us to a sample of local produce at the bar in the cellar below the Palazzo. There was local salami, 60-day and 6-month old cheese and a glass each of wonderful white and red wine. None of it was from more than 20km away. (The food-mile police would be very proud of us.)

Leaving Volterra we plunged into tourist territory by arriving at San Gimignono. Eventually finding a carpark, we joined the thronging tourists wandering along the streets lined with shops all selling tourist oriented Tuscan goodies.

The town is remarkable not only for its hilltop position but also for its distinctive skyline made up of 14 towers; all that remain of the original 72 mediaeval towers built by the feuding families each seeking to out-do the other for the highest tower.

Leaving the tourists behind we wandered into a different world when we visited Colle de Val d'Elsa. There may have been some other tourists around but they were few and far between so it seemed we had the narrow streets and cobbled passageways to ourselves as we explored.

Setting off for Siena we drove straight towards another hilltop village vista of walls and towers so a quick detour was called for and we stopped at Monteriggioni. This tiny gem of a medieval hilltop town was built in 1203 and still retains its complete set of towers and city wall.

Both Monteriggioni and San Gimignano are on the pilgrims route from Canterbury to Rome which passes along the via Francigena.


Monteriggioni appealed so much that we decided to stay the night and found a delightful room in one of the old buildings in the town.

Apologies for the poor photo quality but our 4-month old Canon Powershot G10 failed

Fire and Stone -11 September 2009

Last night as we returned from our walk we noticed a pall of smoke across the sun from a fire somewhere. This morning the smoke was filling the valley and there was a scattering of ash on the car. The airspace seemed busier than Heathrow as planes and helicopters ferried water from the bay to fight the fire; and our hosts were at pains to explain how we should leave Levanto to ensure we were not held up by traffic problems caused by the fire.

We managed to escape both the smoke and the traffic problems, discussing the destruction we had seen yesterday and the reports of fires in California, Spain, Greece and Australia and the seeming ease with which fires change course and trap motorists etc, as we headed southeast over the hills towards Lucca.

Just off to the side of our route was Carrara, home of the white marble so we detoured for a quick look at the quarries and the seeming wholesale destruction of the mountainsides behind the town before resuming our route to Lucca.

After a look around Lucca where we saw the workmen installing a few of the thousands of candles that were to be used in Sunday's procession of St Martin, we went over a pass and dropped down to the plains around Pisa. We had intended to visit Pisa on our last day of the trip but needed to buy a memory card so that we could use the phone as a standby camera since our fabulous new Canon had failed. So we detoured into Pisa and managed to locate a computer store and suitable memory card.

Since we were there, and it was sunny, it seemed foolish to drive away without checking out the tower. Thus we joined the throngs of tourists in the 'Square of Miracles' looking at the Duomo, the Baptistry and naturally, the famous Leaning Tower. Most of the tourists seemed to be taking the obligatory photo of their companion 'propping up' the tower, or 'pushing it over'.

So, now we had competed the circle, climbing one of the most famous buildings in the world clad with marble from the quarries we had been at in the morning. Climbing the tower is a weird mix of feelings as you circle the tower: some sections are overly steep and some, although you are ascending stairs, give the impression that you are 'climbing' downhill; all very odd.

Leaving Pisa we set off in the general direction off our next destination and stopped at Ponsacco where we eventually found what appeared to be the only hotel in town and a bed for the night and a highlight meal; Gnocchi with shrimps and orange; absolutely fabulous.

5 Photo ops and 1 major problem – 10 September 2009

Or, “How Canon ruined the most scenic walking route in Europe”.

Today was 'the' day: we were walking the Cinque Terre, or 5 Lands. These are 5 villages that are built into clefts in the precipitous rock faces that form the coast of this area of Italy. In the past the only access was by sea and a footpath. Now a train line joins them all, bringing masses of tourists, who come to walk the footpath.

End to end it is 7 miles (11km) and about 5 hours walking. We decided to walk east to west so took the train from Levanto to Riomaggiore to begin the walk.

The first town, Riomaggiore, is a great introduction to the area. We walked to the marina, checked out the upper town, and then we set of for the 30 minute stroll to Manarola, This is on a super-highway track, clearly designed for the day trippers so that they can go home and claim that they have walked the Cinque Terre.

We looked around Manarola and then disaster struck. Our 4-month old Canon G10 Powershot failed catastrophically as the CCD receptor stopped working. So here we were, 30 minutes into a 5-hour trek along a beautiful stretch of coastline with colourful villages tumbling down verdant terraced hillsides against an azure blue Mediterranean sea on a gloriously sunny day and we had no camera. “Thank you, Canon” - not!

With a heavy heart, we trudged on to Corniglia where it was large enough and touristy enough to at least sell cheap horrible disposable cameras.

The sections from Corniglia to Vernazza and from Vernazza to Monterosso al Mare are designed to 'sort the men from the boys'. The footpath to the east had been quite civilised and did not get too far from sea level, apart from the climb up the 380 steps to Corniglia.

Corniglia to Vernazza was described as the greenest section of the walk and we were looking forward to seeing the terraced hillsides with their 7000km of stone walls and vineyards and olive groves and so forth. However, a fire on the Sunday before we arrived had reduced great swathes of this section of the hillsides to ash and the footpath had only just been reopened so, in spite of no decent camera, (did I mention Canon are not my favourite company today?) we did feel privileged that after finally making it to the Cinque Terre we were not turned back.
The highest point on the footpath is between Corniglia and Vernazza but the roughest part of the footpath is the section between Vernazza and Monterosso al Mare. The temperature for the last two sections was in the high 30s so by the time we arrived in Monterosso al Mare at the end of the footpath we were fairly done-in and after exploring the town were quite pleased to collapse on the train for the short ride back to Levanto.


More photos of Vernazza are available here by kind courtesy of Young Jee Filer who we met on the trail.

A close run thing - 9 September 2009

The major highlight of today was actually arriving in Italy, but it was a close run thing. Because of some fortuitous bus connections we arrived at Stansted a full hour ahead of schedule so had a leisurely coffee and breakfast snack before sauntering off to the gate with ample time to spare and were well towards the front of the non-priority queue for our Ryanair flight to Genoa.

What we had forgotten was that when Ryanair relaxed the rules and allowed non-EU citizens to check-in online, they had added an additional stupid step to the process and forced non-EU citizens to get a stamp on their boarding passes before they went through security. This stamp signifies that the holder has a valid travel document (i.e. passport), something that anyone with normal vision can check.

The flight was announced, the priority people boarded and then it was time for the rest of us. We took our turn only to be told we did not have the stamp and the only place the stamp can be obtained is on the street side of security.

So began the mad dash, with 20 kilos of hand luggage, back from the gate through the departure lounge back to security – from the wrong side. A kindly soul let us out though a locked door back to the initial checking desk where we were, again, let out through the barrier and pointed at check-in desk 94.

Fortunately there was no queue at desk 94 and our boarding passes were soon emblazoned with about 8 stamps and the race back began. The initial checking man had said to return to him so we did and were passed through but then had to do the full scan thing again. We had barged past a bunch of people thinking we were immune this time around but, no, it was back through the scanners (fortunately without having to remove boots, belts and laptop and liquids from luggage, as per first time through.) What the people in the queue that we had barged past thought, I have no idea.

So then it was full pelt back through the departure lounge and off to the Gate arriving just as the last person in the queue was being processed. The relief with which we collapsed on to the plane was immense. Amazingly we had made the round-trip in under 12 minutes.

But enough of our stupidity, what about Italy?

Our first stop was Camogli, a fishing village tucked away off the main road where we enjoyed a relaxing snack, Then it was on to Levanto to find some accommodation for the night.