Siena with Lenore and Patrick

Toiano & the view from the cottage

This summer we have returned once again, to Italy; specifically to the Siena region of Tuscany.  Why? For so many reasons: first the country is extraordinarily beautiful. Neither of us are Italian or have any Italian ancestors that we know of, but the Tuscan landscape personally resonates with us.

It's not an untamed landscape: it has been cultivated and sculpted by humans for three thousands years--and we like the changes wrought.  Tuscan farmers are proud of their land and heritage, and they work hard to develop, use and preserve their land.  The houses, even the new ones, must harmonize with the history and setting & the town or "commune" makes sure the rules are followed. We love the Italian cypress and pine trees; sometimes so formal, other times random, but always purely Italian.

Tiziana's garden

The fields are carefully delineated and planted--this year wheat, the next sunflowers or corn.  Much of the land is devoted to olive groves and vineyards.  The look and cultivation of those are prescribed and time-honored: the grape vines are carefully pruned and trained and the olives trees, which may be a hundred years old or more, are trimmed and cut back every two or three years, so they are seldom more than 15 feet tall. In the spring everything is green and vibrant; the roadsides are a riot of red poppies.  Later the fields are golden brown and the yellow broom or "ginistra" is the predominant blooming color.

Last year we had stayed in a lovely country house, Casabella, and we had wanted to return to it again this year, but we were too late in making our request.  Marzia, Casabella's owner, however, came to our rescue and found us a cottage in the same community of Toiano: Tiziana's Cottage.

Tiziana's Cottage--from the gardens

Though smaller than Casabella, the cottage is so sweet and is surrounded by gardens filled with roses, lavender, and oleander--all in full bloom. With its many patios and niches, you feel as if you have several outdoor rooms and lots of extra space.  Olive, peach, cherry and other fruit bearing trees are scattered throughout. It is a delight to behold and a joy to walk and relax in. It has a small swimming pool, great for cooling off during hot afternoons.

All this beauty does take a lot of care and effort, and Tiziana spends much of her time doing just that, but she was never too busy to answer our questions or give us touring advice. But she was also very unobtrusive and allowed us our privacy.  Not only that but we learned she is a prime mover in one of the Sienese contrade (neighborhoods), Lupa.  She made arrangements for us to tour the chapel, headquarters, costume room and museum of the contrada, and we learned a lot about the Palio, the annual barebacked horse race run through the central Campo each year.  Lupa's horse has won a few times over the years, and the banners given to the winner are proudly displayed in Lupa's offices.  We were also invited to one of the contrada's suppers and dined with some of the members.   We felt very lucky to get on the inside of one of the proudest and most beloved traditions of Siena.

This year like last, we were lucky enough to be able to share our sojourn in Tuscany with friends; this time, Lenore & Patrick, whom we first met in Alexandria more than 35 years ago.  They arrived four days after us and were as thrilled as we with Tiziana's Idyll.

Siena's Duomo

There is so much to see and do in Siena and Tuscany, but we all agreed that one of the best things we could do was simply to relax and enjoy the cottage and garden and its picturesque setting as much as possible.

One of our favorite activities was to prepare a lunch or dinner featuring local vegetables, fruits, cheeses, meats, and, of course, wine and then eat in the garden.

That way the four of us were able to spend many hours in the garden, talking, swimming, and visiting--it had been more than ten years since we had last been with Lenore & Patrick, and there was much to talk about and to catch up--especially about our children and grandchildren. We each agreed that we have the cutest and smartest grandchildren ever.

Still, we wanted to share Tuscany with them.  Our first trip with any visitors is always to the city of Siena, itself.  We love walking through the town, although climbing its hills can be tough some days.

The Duomo, or Cathedral, is the prettiest and most interesting we know, and the Campo is a unique central piazza. After seeing those sights, we were able to take them to our favorite Siena restaurant, Osteria il Gatto Nero, where the pici, a local variety of pasta, is always great. We love the owner/chef, Marco, who has an extraordinarily gruff exterior, but is really a creampuff; he especially loves the ladies.

Another day we piled into Berlingo Betty and made the hourlong drive to Florence, parking just outside of town in Piazzale Michelangelo.

Florence

From there you get a fabulous view of Florence. In town, it is a madhouse of tourists- it is nearly impossible to work your way through the crowds at times and getting into the major museums like the Uffizi or the Academy requires long waits.

Fabbialla

We decided just to walk around and shop--Lenore in her work life puts on plays and musicals and is always looking for ideas for costumes.  In one of the market stalls, she noticed top hats--half an hour of bargaining later, she was taking home 12 of them!  Wish you could have seen the beaming smile on her face--she found a treasure and had made a good deal; even got a very cute hat for herself thrown in.

On another day we traveled to Fibbialla, Lucca.  Patrick has been working on his family genealogy and recently discovered one of his ancestors came from this little town sometime in the middle of the 18th century--and ended up working for Thomas Jefferson with his gardener at Monticello.

Pisa

Fibbialla is quite small, and we could find no trace of his family in the graveyard, but it was fun to explore the little town perched high up in the Luccan hills. We ended that day of exploration in Pisa, where along with the other tourists we documented our efforts to topple the Leaning Tower--it survived.

Val D'Orcia

We also made sure to show them Pienza, a tiny but picturesque town that has its origins in the 15th century when Pope Pius II decided to raze his native village and have a planned Renaissance town erected in its place--and to name it after himself. It is situated high above the Val D'Orcia, so the views from the town are spectacular.

Pecorino cheese shop

The town hasn't grown much since that time, so you can easily explore it in its entirety in an afternoon, including touring the Pope's summer residence and the small cathedral. The town is also the home to some of Italy's best Pecorino (sheep's milk) cheese.

Cooking with Danilo Becattini

One of our top priorities for Patrick & Lenore's visit was to take them to Poggio alla Croce and to introduce them to the Family Becattini.  We stayed in Poggio last year for a month and came to love the family.

Danilo, the father, is a wonderful chef, and although they no longer operate their family restaurant, he continues to provide  cooking lessons to friends and guests.

On the day of our visit, Danilo agreed to show us how to make pasta dough and then to use that dough to make spinach and ricotta filled ravioli. Patrick & Lenore were ready & attentive students & marveled at all that could learn from Danilo in just one morning.

At Castle Brolio

Part of the delight of cooking with Danilo is that he is such a cheerful and loving man, with charisma to spare--anyone who meets him instantly becomes his friend.

Though he speaks little English,  he is infinitely patient, and it is not at all hard to follow his instructions, even without the help of an interpreter, although on our visit a family friend, Antonella, did serve as our translator.  Of course, following the cooking lesson, we all sit down to a sumptuous lunch of what we made.

The trip to Poggio always includes a detour to Castello di Brolio, home of Count Bettino Ricasoli (A 19th-century politician and polymath and Italy's Thomas Jefferson), and, of course, drinking the superb Chianti Classico, which is based on Count Ricasoli's recipe.  Please don't think that the cheap Chianti that you have drunk in some Italian-American restaurant bears any resemblance to Chianti Classico, because it doesn't. They are two very different and distinct wines.  When buying Chianti Classico, always look for a black rooster near the cork.  It indicates official classico, and you will definitely taste the difference.

Patrick and Lenore's visit, like many good things, ended far too quickly for us.  After an all too brief eight days, we were sad to put them on their plane back to America--but hope they will remember their Tuscan interlude with as much pleasure as we.

Larry, Sue, Lenore & Patrick in Florence

Just a Taste of France

Berlingo Betty

In Frankfurt, we picked up our car--once again choosing to lease from Europe By Car.  This year we chose a Citroen Berlingo--a utilitarian, box-like, but roomy French built car.  Since John and Bonnie were still traveling with us, one of the most important criteria was that it had enough room for all of our luggage, and that it did.

It's even fairly comfortable, after learning to adjust seats, both front and back.  Rick Steves recommends leasing a car if you are staying more than a month, and, although not cheap, it is a lot more reasonable than renting a car, one reason being that you are fully covered by their insurance.

Larry w/ Charlie Chaplin (Lausanne)

It always takes just a little while to get to know a new car and its own peculiarities, especially the radio and the GPS.  This time, the dealer, who was very fluent in English, was kind enough to make sure that she (and we always think of the GPS as a she) spoke English. Stopping for the first time to put in fuel--got to remember that it takes diesel, not gas and what do they call diesel in Germany, France, and Italy--it's something different in each country. Why is it that we still can't find a decent classical music station? How can we get it to connect Bluetooth to the iPhone--still haven't mastered that.

Driving in Europe is not cheap.  Many of the major roads, especially in France and Italy, are toll roads and a two hour trip can easily cost 15 to 20 Euros.  Filling up the tank will set you back 75 Euros--but we think we are getting 15 kilometers to the liter (50 miles to the gallon?).

On our last day with John and Bonnie, we were all up at 6:00 in the morning, said goodbye to Edda and Helmut, and then off to the Frankfurt airport.  Gracie the GPS lady got us back to the right  terminal and on time.  We unloaded and said goodbye and headed back to the highway to drive to Segny, France to visit with our friends, Avril & David Quarrie. David thought it should take six hours.

Swiss Alps

Ten hours, and lots of rainy weather and twisty mountain roads later, we finally arrived at their lovely home, which is located just over the French border from Geneva, Switzerland.  Why ten hours to go 500 kilometers?

Well, we didn't have a paper map: we didn't have any idea really how we should get there except that we knew to avoid driving in Switzerland--there's a 40 Euros tag needed just to use Swiss roads; and we were still getting to know all of the intricacies of GPS navigating (like avoid toll roads or not, etc).

Despite being three hours later than expected, we were greeted with big hugs, some lovely French wine, and a delicious meal; and great conversation as well.

We met David and Avril more than 20 years ago while Scottish Country Dancing--they are both lovely, lovely dancers, super teachers and wonderful people. They moved to Europe more than a decade ago when David was recruited to work for CERN--he was part of the team that proved the actual existence of  Higgs Boson particle. Recently retired, he is still involved in some other projects on a part time basis.

Avril & David in the car he built:  Lulubell

Avril retired a few years ago, and in addition to dancing and teaching, she has created an extraordinarily beautiful garden at their home. 

We so enjoyed walking through the garden with Avril, listening to her stories about all that has been involved in creating this special place--a lot of hard work and planning--and eating some of her produce, including strawberries and spring salad. Some of the time while Avril worked in the garden, David built a three wheeled kit car in their garage.  Both really love tooling around the countryside in Lulubell, and the response from passersby is lots of fun. David gave Larry a short demo-ride around town--what fun!

French landscape

At two nights, our stay with them was too short (at least we thought so & we hope they did), but it included a spectacular driving tour (not in Lulubell--she only hold's two) along the shores of the Lake from Geneva to Lausanne and through some of the surrounding Swiss Alps.  On the second evening, Larry joined them for a dance class in Geneva. Their dancing colleagues were an eclectic, and inviting group of British ex-pats and French Swiss. It was great to be back on the dance floor.

After class, we returned to their home for a late supper--all the while talking and catching up on years of activities since we were last together.  Sometimes, visiting friends that you haven't seen in a long while can be awkward, but to quote David,  "it seemed like we had just picked up on a conversation that ended last week, not 10 years ago." We hope that our next visit together will not be quite so long in coming.

Mont Blanc from David & Avril's

We left the next day at mid-morning, with a plan to meet up with David and Avril in the Ardeche region of France, where they were teaching a dance weekend. We left them early so they could work on their lesson plans and to give us the opportunity to see more of the French countryside.

We certainly saw a lot of the French countryside--with telling Gracie the  GPS lady to avoid toll roads, our four hour trip took nearly eight. The scenery, though, was often spectacular, with much of it quite rugged and almost wild.

One aside: although the French seem to maintain their farms nicely, they are much less concerned about how their homes and buildings look.  Compared to the immaculate, T-squared look of the typical German village, French towns and farmsteads look neglected and in need of a good coat of paint.

Tiziana's in Tuscany

When we started out, we had thought that we might participate in the first part of the Ardeche dance weekend on Saturday morning before leaving for Italy. However, having had a long day of driving the day before, consulting with others, and re-looking closely at the map to see the nearly 600 kilometers we had to cover, we decided that there would be no more dancing for us this time. We needed to get on the road early, as even taking the toll roads, we were facing a 10 hour drive to Tuscany.

We were glad we did as it was a long and tiring journey, but as we drove up to Tiziana's Tuscan farm house, we knew it had been worth the long drive.

Waldfischbach

Johanna, Helmut & Hans Bennevart

From Bavaria we traveled to the Palatinate and the true ancestral home, Waldfischbach, where to this day stands the house where Sue’s great, great, and on and on grandfathers lived.  Most were carpenters or blacksmiths.  

The town probably looks much the same as it did a hundred years ago—just a bit bigger with a few more 20^th century signs and businesses on the main street.

There are a goodly number of family members still living there, but we stay with Edda and Helmut Roschy whose children, Birgit (married to Manfred), Marlys (sig. other, Klaus Peter) and Uli (married to Patrick) and grandchildren, Amelie, Johanna and Max we have gotten to know. 

John, Ayla & Edda

Edda, without seeming to break a sweat, managed to prepare incredible German meals for us throughout our stay, often serving 15 or 20 at a time. What gracious hosts are she and Helmut. 

Alexander & John

This visit we all missed Peter Roschy, who died two years ago. It was our first visit to Germany without him, and that made us all a little sad, but we will always be so grateful for what he did to bring the families together.  On a happier note, Alexander and Stephan, his sons, made a special trip to Waldfischbach to see us. It was good to reminisce about Peter with them as well as catch up on their lives and careers. 

Martin, Elsa & Family

Other cousins, Fritz and Hilda with children Volker (married to Brita) and Elka (married to Martin) with grandchildren Phillip, Kevin, Kieren, and Mara (non-German names--guess Martin's country of origin) own and run the local pub.  

Edda's Garden

We always have a family gathering there and love eating the the “flammkuchen”, which is kind of like a very thin crust pizza with various topping s.  Needless to say, the beer flows at “The Kaiser”. 

We spent several beautiful evenings on Edda’s patio complete with small fireplace admiring her amazing garden.  She has a green thumb worthy of the Green Giant.  

One of the Chagall windows

Marlys was so kind to serve as our tour guide and trip planner--taking over ably the role that Peter had managed before. We toured some places in the area, including Pirmasens, but one of our best memories from this trip will be of Mainz and, especially, St. Stephen’s church where Marc Chagall created nine glorious, very blue stained glass windows when he was in his 90’s.

At St. Stephen's

What a sight to behold!  After his death another artist completed many other windows all in blue, so that the entire chapel is bathed in blue light. 

Such a lovely and serene place to visit and spend a few moments of quiet reflection.

Traveling with the Cousins

We traveled with Werner Bennevart and Hans and Elizabeth Bennevart, still more cousins and delightful people.  

Larry & Marlys in Pirmasens

Our time spent with all the families is a joy, and we are happy that John & Bonnie have succeeded in uniting us all.

With the Munich Roschys

In front of Bayer (not Boyer) statue

Members of Sue’s ancestral family came to America in the 1870’s from a small village in SW Germany, Waldfischbach.  

Castle at Landshut

Twenty years ago, her brother, John, found the village and re-united with cousins who hadn’t heard from anyone from America since after WWII.  

They were delighted to find American cousins, and we were delighted to find them.  

Since then we have visited back and forth and gotten to know one another well.  Returning is like a wonderful homecoming.

View from the castle

One part of the family lives in Munich, and that was our first stop.  Ilsa and Manfred Roschy have two children, Sabina (married to Korbinian) and Helmut (maried to Reiko) and four delightful grand children, Valentin, Miriam/”Mimi”, Anna and Karolina.  

Tallest all brick steeple in the world in Landshut

They are Bavarians and very proud of it. Manfred and Ilsa are extraordinarily kind and attentive hosts.  

Ilsa, no matter what the time, how many hours we have ridden around sight seeing, or how tired she or we might be, always manages to serve delicious and nutritious meals.  

German breakfasts are always good and hearty, but Ilsa's, with its varieties of breads, jams, and cold cuts, are a wonderful way to start the day. 

Manfred delights in showing us the beautiful, green countryside and sharing some of Bavarian's hidden treasures, and this trip was no exception.  

John, Manfred and Sue

Bad Toelz

We were taken to an old castle in the medieval town of Landshut, to several typically Bavarian restaurants, on a driving tour that included a beautiful lake (Tagernsee), and to a picturesque village (Bad Toelz) that hasn’t seemed to change much as time moves on. (Apologies for mangling the German place names.)

Town Hall

Bavaria is so prosperous these days and the cities, like Munich, are studded with modern architectural marvels, but the Bavarians also take great pride in their land and history.  Visiting many of the villages and towns is like walking back in history, hundreds and hundreds of years.

Garden near Lake Tagernsee

In the company of all the family we had such a good time.  Our last day with them coincided with Father's day in Germany, so the entire family gathered at yet another wonderful Bavarian restaurant, along with some two or three hundred other Bavarians, many in traditional dress.  The schnitzel, wurst, kertoffle, salad, beef and pork dishes were all sumptuously good.

The lake from "artist's corner"

In the course of the three hour meal, we got to visit quite a bit and to get to know these German cousins just a little bit better, and what a treat. We are not the best of correspondents, so having the time to catch up and really visit was lots of fun.

Sue, who really delights in being with young children, made a contract with Valentin (9 years old) to come back in two years when he promised to speak English to her.  

The Bavarian Roschys with Reiko holding the important contract

Sue’s side of the contract was promising to listen.  Kind of one-sided, but Valentin loved it. We definitely plan on returning.

Valentin, Mimi, Anna & Karolina

Andalusia "Family Vacation"

In La Alhambra, Granda, Spain

Coming back to Andalusia (Southern Spain) after forty years was somewhat of a shock.  Many things have certainly changed.  The region and people are more prosperous, but still not as prosperous as their fellow Spaniards in Barcelona and Madrid.

First impressions made when arriving at a new up to date airport or riding on a modern, sleek highways make you think that it is just like the rest of Spain or Europe; the sense of the old Andalusia, however, does return, once you spend just a little time there.

Andalusia is a place unto itself--almost timeless--and the people are quite different from their fellow countrymen.

For one thing, they are much more aloof and distrustful of others and a little less quick to warm up to visitors than their Spanish cousins--something we experienced 40 years ago, and something that doesn't seem to have changed too much in that time. Just underneath the veneer of modernity, their Islam influenced history is very evident.

One reason for returning to Andalusia was that we wanted to make sure that John and Bonnie got to see La Alhambra: the 13th century Moorish Palace in Granada.  While we were in Barcelona we learned that you needed to get tickets ahead of time as it is one of the most visited sites in all of Spain.

We finally procured tickets for Saturday morning at 10:00 which would be cutting things a little close as we were not scheduled to land at the Granada airport until just before 9:00.

Fortunately, the plane actually landed a few minutes early, and while the others waited for the luggage, I (Larry) hurried out to the car rental counter to procure the car. It is a small airport, so the counter is right outside of baggage claim.

The young woman at the desk was charming and helpful, and spoke really good English. She recommended full coverage and renting a GPS, both of which I opted for--big mistake!  (The car that was originally to cost us less than 200 euros ended up costing more than 600 for three days--but that's another story!)


She handed me the keys and the obviously outmoded GPS, and told me that the Nissan Juke was in lane number 15; walking out to the lot, I thought that a Juke was not going to be big enough for the four of us and our six pieces of luggage and assorted other bags.  Well, it wasn't, but as the time was now 9:30, we decided that we needed to get to the Alhambra rather than argue about the car.

With the location already keyed into the GPS, we actually managed to make it there just before 10:00 o'clock--only to find the entrance swarmed with hundreds of folks waiting to get in, but we had no idea which group was ours.

Frantically scrambling from one group to another, we were finally directed to the Welcome Center. Thanks to technology (we'd bought the tickets online), they were able to locate our group and send us back to the meting place. Apparently there are so many people wanting to see the place that the authorities have restricted the entrances to three times a day: 10:00; 2:00 and 6:00.

Very few individual tickets are sold and almost everyone has to tour the site with a group.  You are introduced to your tour guide and given a little radio transponder with earplugs which enables you to hear your guide without their having to compete shouting with all of the other groups.  And there are a lot of other groups.

Our memories of touring La Alhambra, 40 years ago, are of walking around a nearly deserted, somewhat neglected, 13th century Moorish complex.  We remember marveling at the gardens and some of the beautiful courtyards, but most of all, feeling that we had the place to ourselves with all the time we wanted to spend there.

Not so today. There must have been 500 or more people touring the complex at the same time as us--each in a group of 30 or so people.

The Alhambra is a huge place, and our tour lasted more than two and one half hours, much of which we felt like we were on a forced march.  It was almost impossible to see the interiors of some of the buildings because of the crowds, and there was no time to linger at a beautiful view or contemplate the many years of history that the place holds.

At the end of our tour, we were all exhausted and disappointed.  We could never recommend the experience, even if the Alhambra is one of the marvels of the history as their publicity claims. Like so many places we have visited--the Vatican, Trevi Fountain, or Cinque Terre, there are just too, too many tourists!

Our own version of Family Vacation

Tour over and it was time to squeeze back in the car; literally squeeze--John and Bonnie were in the backseat with three pieces of luggage stacked up between them.  We keyed in the address to the apartment and merrily set out for our lodgings.

Twenty minutes later, after wending our way through the very narrow streets old Granda, we found ourselves stuck between two buildings on what our GPS claimed was the street leading to our apartment.

Just in the nick of time, a local woman stopped us and told us, what should have been obvious, that this really wasn't a street and if we went any further, we would end up driving down some very steep stairs just meters ahead.

Granada, from a hill above our apartment

Frustrated and cursing our out of date GPS, we called our landlady, got other landmarks and started out once more; but again, within 15 minutes, we were totally lost and obviously in the wrong part of town.

 Finally, after a couple more calls, she suggested we stop a taxi and ask them to lead us to the place.  That strategy worked--we would have never found the place otherwise, because the street really isn't a street, but a "cuesta" or staired lane that is impossible to drive on.

Once in the apartment, we found it to be reasonably comfortable, although the WIFI never worked very effectively and the showers had limited hot water and leaked all over the bathroom floor. Those caveats aside, it was very centrally located just off Elvira street, so touring Granada was fairly easy.  Having a great little vegetarian restaurant just next door, Paprika, made it even better.

We enjoyed exploring some of the steep streets just behind our apartment and seeing some of the old, old neighborhoods with many of the houses and structures dating from the 13th to 16th centuries. Still, our most lasting impression of Granda is that it seems pretty seedy and run down.

Andalusian countryside

So we were happy to leave Granda after our two nights stay.  We had parked the car and not used it while we were in Granada, but once we reloaded and realized once again just how crowded it was, we decided to drive back to the airport and plead our case for a bigger one.

Surprisingly, the car rental people were very understanding, and we ended up in a BMW SUV with a built-in GPS, so our ride to Cordoba and then on to Sevilla seemed like luxury!

Riding across Andalusia, it looks and feels like the US southwest or northern Mexico.  It's very dry and punctuated with dramatic mesas and hills. No wonder the Spanish conquistadors felt like home. Mostly rural, there is lots of agricultural development, but you can go miles without seeing a town or other settlement.

Cordoba provided a pleasant half day interlude.  The 13th-century La Mesquita, originally built as a Muslim mosque but converted to a Christian cathedral after the conquest, is well worth seeing.

There were quite a few tourists, but nothing like the mobs we had encountered in Granda--and there are moments when you are alone in one section or another and you could actually get a sense of the history and grandeur of the setting.

A Catholic cathedral was plunked down in the middle of it, sometime in the 14th century, but fortuitously much of the old structure was left untouched. We spent more than an hour ambling through the entire complex.

After a pleasant lunch, we returned to the car and completed our drive to Sevilla without incident.  This time the GPS got us to our apartment, although the streets in the old quarter of town do seem to get progressively more narrow as you wend your way in, and the GPS had not wanted to take us to our apartment numbered 3--it turns out that's because the street becomes a pedestrian way in front of our building. But we made it without dealing with the maddening detours and dead ends of Granada.

Alcazar de Sevilla

Our AirBnB apartment in Sevilla was one of our most disappointing on this trip, if not ever.  Although conveniently located and close to lots of the historic sights, it was not very clean and many of the appliances were not in good working order.  Still we did enjoy our stay; there is much to see and do in the city, and two days were not nearly enough.

The Sevilla Cathedral was huge and quite interesting, with many treasures and fine works of art, including Christopher Columbus's tomb. We also enjoyed visiting the Alcazar, finding it more rewarding than the Alhambra. Many of the rooms are almost as old and quite as lovely as any that we saw at the Alhambra, and there were lots fewer tourists, so the experience could be savored and enjoyed much more thoroughly.

We enjoyed walking the streets, sampling the foods, and like Barcelona, there were quite a few street musicians and entertainers.  Among the most interesting were two young Flamenco dancers whom we discovered on our last evening in the town, providing a lovely final impression.