Toadally Let Down - 20 September 2009

Today we enjoyed the quintessential British Sunday afternoon drive. A leisurely start from London took us to the Chilterns, starting a circular drive in Cookham. This is the birthplace of Stanley Spencer, an artist born 1891, and we enjoyed looking around a gallery with a selection of his work, including his last unfinished canvas which was on loan to the gallery for the current exhibition.

Cookham is also the home of Kenneth Graeme, and we hoped to find a shop selling “toads”, as we felt this would make a suitable mascot. But none were to be found, we even tried a garden centre called “Toad Hall”, but still no success.


Continuing on along the Thames, and fortified by the traditional Sunday pub lunch at Caversham, we visited Mapledurham House & Water Mill. This house was built in the Elizabethan era, in the traditional E shape. It has a very tranquil, backwater-on-the-Thames feel to it.

Taking a 'Butcher's' at London - 19 September 2009

Today was the annual London Open Homes, and we once again enjoyed a look at various places in the City of London. This area has endless fascination, with its many historic buildings. We headed for a tour of the Bank of England, but a look at the queues quickly changed our minds, and instead started with the Butchers' Hall. This added to our interest kindled with previousl visits to various Livery Company Halls. The Butchers have a number of links with New Zealand, which made it extra interesting. Apart from various Maori objects there was a glass screen designed by John Hutton of NZ and their Court Room was panelled in NZ beech.

We followed this visit with a walking tour led by a very knowledgeable City of London Guide. His knowledge of London's history, made the walk of alleyways very interesting as well as informative. We crossed the route of the Tour Of Britain cycle race twice during the walk.

After a visit to a hotel with an amazing marble former Masonic Temple tucked away inside it, we set out on a self guided tour, which was perhaps the highlight of the Open Day for us. Broadgate is a new development within the Square Mile, full of sculptures, public areas, and a water feature. We found this such a fascinating contrast to all the historic areas we had previously visited.

The day ended in a very different new public building – the O2, where we saw the show 'Ben Hur Live'. This was an attempt to recreate the epic story, first made into a film 50 years ago, into a stage production. Although the critics were damming with their faint praise, we thoroughly enjoyed it. The huge arena at the O2 was turned into village scenes full of people and interest, with entertainers and regular village activities; then the sea where the galley where Ben Hur served his sentence was attacked by pirates and finally into the Roman arena for the chariot race with 5 chariots, each drawn by 4 horses. It was really quite an amazing spectacle.

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.