Napoli and Ercolano

Our time in Tuscany over, we traveled almost four hours south to the Naples area.

What a world of difference!

In Siena, both in the city and in the countryside, we felt surrounded by beauty—natural and manmade.

Naples, on the other hand, feels squalid and ugly, and finding beauty often proves a difficult task.

The city possesses some handsome buildings and interesting architecture, but there seems to be little civic pride and anarchy too often triumphs over order and well-being. Many buildings and statues are covered with graffiti and garbage seems to go uncollected for days on end.

In our time in Tuscany, we almost invariably happened upon people who were open and helpful and who projected a sense of well-being and friendliness.

It was often the reverse in Naples. Few passers by meet your eye and not infrequently your Buon Giorno or Buona Sera is is greeted by stony silence and a hard stare.

Food and wine, which continuously offer a treat for the eye and palate in Tuscany, time and again failed to deliver in Naples. The wine at times proved almost undrinkable and the cuisine uninspiring. Even the pizza was pretty non-descript and ordinary.

True, we did have pleasant interactions with some Neapolitanos; our AirBnb hosts were kind and helpful and the folks in the bakery downstairs wanted to practice their English or help us with our Italian. In addition, they also served tasty croissants or "cornetas” as they are called in Italy.

The bar or coffee shop next door made great capuchino and served delicious gelato as well. So it was not all bad.

We did enjoy our visit to the archeological museum that is full of incredible treasures from antiquity, including a lot of art rescued from Pompeii an Herculaneum.

The Capella Sansevero is chock a block full of baroque sculpture, but photos are not allowed so you will need to go to the link to see what it looks like.

But a one day visit to the City of  Naples was all that we cared to make, leaving much left unexplored, perhaps. But we didn't have the appetite for more.

On our final day in the area, we opted to visit Herculaneum or Ercolano instead of the larger and more visited Pompeii.

For us it was a wise decision. It was a fifteen minute drive from our apartment, if you don't count the 30 minutes lost in Rosina, the modern town which surrounds the site.

Rosina is just as ugly and blighted as the rest of Naples, and we were happy to finally find the archeological site and parking area.

We opted to hire a local guide, who approached us in the ticket line, offering to give us a tour for 12 euros each, if he could form a group of 10 or more, which happened within five minutes or so.

He introduced himself as Paulo, and he proved a good guide, full of information about the history and art in the town that was buried by super-heated mud by the same eruption of Vesuvius  that destroyed Pompeii in 79 BC.




With Paulo's expert guidance we saw enough of Ercolano in  two hours to get a good idea of the life and times of the period and place.

Ercolano was a much more wealthy and exclusive town than Pompeii, so the houses there tended to be larger and nicer than their counterparts in Pompeii.

Pompeii covers a much wider area and would have involved much more walking, something we wanted to avoid. Ercolano can be absorbed in a shorter, more leisurely visit.

Many of the houses still have intact murals and mosaics whose colors and designs are nearly as vibrant beautiful as the day they were engulfed by Vesuvius’ power and fury.

We learned a lot, were not too tired, and were  intrigued enough by Paulo's excellent tour to want to learn more about Ancient Rome and the daily life of the Romans.


And it was a beautiful day, the crowds were much more manageable than we would have encountered in Pompeii, so we counted it as a perfect day sightseeing.

Herculaneum

Traveling Companions & Great Friends 

This past month traveling with six friends, some of whom we have known for many years and others whom we have just begun to get to know, was a delight and an education.  

Thanks to all of you—Mart & Bob, Carole, Jennifer & Steve and Blythe—for making it a memorable and fun-filled adventure! Let's do it all again—real soon.

Starting with Paris, where longtime friends and oft traveling buddies, Mart & Bob, let us join them in a delightful apartment, near the Metro and in a neighborhood full of shops and restaurants. We shared four fun days highlighted by a full day at Giverny and another at Chartres—where we also got to meet their childhood friend, Barb.

Then it was onto Tuscany, where we all gathered at Casabella and Casabellina and met our wonderful hosts Marzia and Renzo.

Anna, everyone's favorit guide,  gave us an introduction to the city of Siena, its history and especially the Palio and the Contrade, especially her contrada, Lupa. 

Some of us even took the challenge to climb to the top of what was to be the largest church in Christendom, only to be thwarted by the Black Death and hubris. 

Others of us were just contented  with shopping or drinking our new favorite an Aperol Spritz.

 Oh the meals we enjoyed together, some days it seemed like the pasta or wine couldn't get any better, 

only to discover another great dish or wine at the next hill town...

or the next... 

and then we learned to cook some great Tuscan food ourselves...

Did you ever think we would visit Elba? 

We weren't quite able to find the real  Naplolean, but it was a great island visit, neverthe less.

The walk from Casabella thru the Tuscan hills  that Steve discovered for us was great fun, just glad that Carole didn't take one or all of the kittens home with her.  Will  we see crazy mop headed chickens again? Could they be Polish chickens?

The birthday party for Sue was perfect...and the napkins, the most thoughtful of gifts, and your  driving all over Tuscany to find the napkins was above and beyond. 

The Birthday Party dinner for 14, including our hosts, Marzia & Renzo, and four new friends they introduced us to, was a stellar and memorable night and one we will long remember and cherish. 

The food and shopping were so good at Monteriggioni that we had to return twice. 

Bob certainly wins the prize as the most dedicated sketcher, as well as the most appropriately dressed ; it was always fun to see how his artist's eye interpreted what we were seeing and experiencing. 

Larry enjoyed having his skills and leadership being recognized and rewarded—but is still wondering why you didn't always follow his directions?
 

But all good things do come to an end, so we spent the last week saying goodbye. 

First to Jen & Steve at the Orvieto Travis station. Then we were six...

and five, 

and finally you all left us, but our journey continues but with  new traveling partners, John & Bonnie (Sue's brother and sister in law.)

In the next couple of weeks we will be exploring a little further afield in southern Italy and Sicily...so stayed tuned.

Colle di Val d’Elsa

Colle di Val D’Elsa is a charming little hill town, less than a half hour's drive from our base in Sovicille, perfect for a leisurely day of sight seeing and eating. We visited there during our fourth week in Tuscany,

 After a harrowing search for parking—Larry nearly drove off the side of a cliff and had to back down a narrow drive, with the help of a helpful and providential local resident, avoiding both a pole and a large medieval looking building, while trying not drive off the cliff. 

Once safety parked and our nerves under control, we took the elevator to the upper and older part of town.

There we found a town seemingly frozen in time—that is if you ignore the cars and electricity, which on this quiet day was fairly easy to do.

The main thoroughfare is lined with 16th & 17th century palazzi, built by Florence's Medicis and their allies.

The 17th century Duomo is lovely—particularly when you open the door and hear the parish organist practicing. We all sat down in an available pew to listen. Wondering on a bit more, we stopped at a beautiful little bridge.

There a friendly citizen obligingly  offered to take  our picture—we are only six now, since we said goodbye to Steve and Jennifer a few days prior to our visit to Colle —but we really liked the photo.  

Restaurants were few and far between, but we finally stumbled onto a lovely little Enoteca, or wine bar, that also served simple Tuscan fare. 

It was another great experience, with Patricia and Pietro, the owners, treating us like friends and family. You Can imagine how good the wine was. 

Our final stop in town (after the compulsory gelateria)  was to visit a small,  crystal museum and shop—Colle is the heart of the crystal industry in Italy—someone told us that they creat something like 90% of  the lead crystal produced in Italy.

There we met Guido who showed us some of his crystal creations—which we just had to buy.

Below the museum, we spotted an old fountain which is called the smiling fountain, for obvious reasons. 

You crank the "tongue” back and forth to  pump the water.




A perfect day—like so many we have enjoyed these last three weeks.

Cooking   with Danilo

During our second week in Siena, we all traveled to Poggio Alla Croce, where some years ago we met the Becatinni Family—Danilo, GianCarla and Lorenzo and Rina and Dario,GianCarla's parents and doting grandparents to Lorenzo.

For many years, Danilo, with the help of his family, operated a great little restaurant in the town, but with the grandparents aging and Lorenzo now working full time in the fashion industry, they decided to close the restaurant. 

Today they concentrate on hosting tourists visiting the area in the four apartments that they own in the town, which is only 10 miles from Florence. 

However, Danilo, who  is a wonderful traditional cook, misses cooking and whenever the opportunity permits, is happy to show visitors how to make great Tuscan food, like ravioli, panzanella, and tiramisu.   

These are the dishes he demonstrated in a three hour cooking lesson. Simple foods but they have to be done right. 

Mart, Jennifer, Steve and Blythe were the eager students. 

Sue, Larry, Carole and Bob served as cheerleaders and photographers.  

It was a fun time when some of us discovered cooking talents we didn't know  we had, while others of us decided that it was almost as much fun to watch a cooking lessons as to participate in one.  All of us really enjoyed the results of the lesson. 

Danilo asked us to dine in the family loggia that looks out to Florence in the far distance ; he joined us for coffee  and dessert and regaled us with stories and pictures of the family and of their many guests over the years. He is a true gentleman, comfortable  with his guests, and despite not being able to speak English, seems to communicate with ease what needs to be said. It was experience we will all long remember.

We all got to share in the meal created by Danilo and his willing  students, dining in the Becatinnis beautiful loggia...

with its beautiful vistas of the Tuscan countryside. 

The cooks were rightfully proud of their accomplishments!