Maura's Parents Visit: Spoleto & Orvieto & Civita di Bagnoregio

April 8th

Stop #3 on our road trip: Spoleto

We stayed the night in Spoleto only because my aunt Nancy used to spend time there with her in-laws' relatives.  Mom had been there once before when she was a teenager, so we figured we'd buzz through and see if she remembered anything.   I don't think she did.  We had a lovely dinner and then passed out while watching the movie Operation Petticoat (WWII submarine movie starring Carey Grant and Tony Curtis.  It's great, go watch it) dubbed in Italian.

In the morning we drove up to investigate this church that dad wanted to see.

This is the church of San Salvatore.  

It was constructed sometime in the 4th century.  

Dad for scale.

The church has an accompanying cemetery.  In Italy you are only buried for 7 years.  Then your remains are dug up and placed in a family mausoleum.  These mausoleums have a range of architectural styles.  Some are just vaults in walls, while others look like little medieval churches or modern sleek churches.  One even kind of looked like a restaurant.

We left Spoleto and headed over to Orvieto.

This concludes our adventure in Spoleto.

Stop #4 on our road trip: Orvieto

Oriveto is yet another little hill-top town.  

It turns out Italy is full of little hill-top towns and they're all older than dirt.

We found parking (maybe illegally, but who can tell?) and took the funicular up the hill to get to the historic Orvieto.  

I have no idea why there is a giant chalice and eucharist sculpture upon leaving the funicular station, but here we are. 

Orvieto is partially known for St. Patrick's Well.  A double helix underground well from the 16th century.  This is what I wanted to see.  We found an underground tour and decided that this must be the best way to see the well. 

More Umbrian countryside!  Weeeeeeeee!

Underneath Orvieto are hundreds if not thousands of caves and tunnels.  Because Orvieto sits atop tufo (a soft volcanic ash rock like substance), caves could be carved out easily by hand.  Some of the caves date back to the times of the Etruscans in 9th century BC.  The caves originally (and in times since) as siege protection.  There are many wells and dovecotes so anyone holed up in the caves had access to water and food.   The caves were also used as bunkers during WWII.

Our first stop on the caves tour - Mill and Olive Press.

One of many dovecotes.  Doves/Pigeons would roost in here, with access to the outside they were a self maintaining food supply.

Artsy photo!

As you can see, even though we are in caves below Orvieto, we are still quite high up in the countryside.

As we continued our tour, I kept wondering when we would get to St. Patrick's Well.   It turns out that the well was not part of this tour and in fact is just outside the funicular station but in the opposite direction in which we chose to go.  Ooops.

Since we had to make our way back through town to get to the well we stopped to look at the cathedral.  It was built in the 14th century. 

It has a big fancy facade.

Me for scale.

Some close up details of the carvings on the facade.  Look how pretty they are!

Inside the cathedral.  There's lots of ceiling space.

These frescoes encase the apse and depict Mary's life.

Easter flowers are still up.

This statue was inspired by Michelangelo's "Pietà."

Ippolito Scalza carved it from one block of marble in 1579.  

It shows Mary holding Jesus, Mary Magdalene at her side, and Nicodemus looking down upon them.

 

Supposedly, Scalza's son had passed away while he was working on this piece. 

This is the Chapel of the Corporal.

Here's the story:

A skeptical priest named Peter of Prague passed through a nearby town while on his way to Rome.  He doubted that the bread used for communion could really transform into the body of Christ.  During Mass, as he held the communion host aloft and blessed it, the bread began to bleed.  It dripped down his hands and arms and stained the altar cloth, or corporal.

The blood stained cloth is in the back there, in the center of the green bit.

This is the Chapel of San Brizio.

It is covered, floor to ceiling, and the ceiling, in frescoes.  It's a little intense.

It features Luca Signorelli's depictions of the Last Judgement and Life after Death.

This might be the "Elect in Heaven" piece, but I am not sure.  What I see is everyone looking away from the guy it the middle's bits.  He (you can only see his backside) is clearly proud of them, but everyone else is like "Ugh, Gary, put that away."

This scene is depicting demons shooting people with lasers.  

No, really, I have no idea what is happening here.

Fun with perspective!   Mom for scale, sort of.

And the outside of the cathedral. 

Once again we thought lunch might be a good idea, but didn't have a whole lot of time as it was getting late in the afternoon and we still had the Well, and a wine tasting to go to.  We tried to get into a restaurant that was suggested by Rick Steves, but it was taking too long.  We ended up getting boar sandwiches from their deli type thing instead.  I'm not sorry we did.  They were really good.

Finally the Well!

Antonio da Sangallo designed and built St. Patrick's Well (il Pozzo di San Patrizio) between 1527 and 1537.   It is a double helix well, which allowed mules to carry empty vessels down and full vessels up without getting in each others' way.

It bears the inscription Quod Natura Munimento Inviderat Industria Adiecit which means something like "What nature stinted for provision, application has supplied."

248 steps down!

I'm in one of 72 windows.

Down and down and down again.

The light at the end of the tunnel (looking up from the bottom).

Dad getting stuck at the top.  The gate wouldn't turn without a good shove.

We left the well, took the funicular back down, and happily discovered that my car was where we left it.   After some confusion with the gps and directions we wandered out into Orvieto's winery district.

We somehow managed to find the winery we were originally looking for, Custodi.

Custodi's view of Orvieto.

ENHANCE.   

But seriously, look how massive the cathedral is compared to the rest of the town.

Vineyards!  They were just starting to bud.

Buds!

Dad and mom and Orvieto.

Inside the winery. 

This winery made an interesting juxtapostion to the Il Palazzone winery.  Il Palazonne has wood fermentation tanks and barrels.  They do everything by hand and have many people on staff to perform the manual labor.  Custodi is highly mechanized and only uses about 5 people to do all the farming, harvesting, and running of the business.

Chiara was our host and was very friendly.

After the tasting, we filled whatever space was left in my car with wine and headed off to Civita di Bagnoregio.

This concludes our adventures in Orvieto.

Stop #5 on our road trip: Civita di Bagnoregio

Full disclosure.  We didn't actually go up into the city.  I still had about a 3-4 hour drive to get us home and it was already late in the afternoon.  So we just stopped and took some fun photos.

This concludes our adventure in (to) Civita di Bagnoregio.

Once again we piled into the car, this time to head home.

This concludes our road trip adventure. 

For those who want to know where these places are in relationship to each other, here is a map:

Maura's Parents Visit: Assisi

April 7th

Stop #2 on our road trip: Assisi

We drove to Assisi this morning.  The day looked lovely until it started to rain, and then snow.  It was quite chilly up in the little town, but we braved the weather anyway.  I'm glad we did as it cleared up and became a lovely day.

We opted to do the Rick Steves audio tour of Assisi and by that I mean I read the transcript out loud as there is no easy way for three people to share one pair of headphones.

We started at the top of Assisi with the Roman Amphitheater and worked our way down. 

The Roman Amphitheater dates from the 1st century.  These are the 1st century laundry facilities.

This is a view of what remains of part of the amphitheater.  

The buildings around it were built in the 13th and 14th centuries.

A view down an alley looking out to one of the two castles.  

I think this one is Rocca Maggiore.

This is the snow descending the Umbrian mountains and trying to attack us.

I really liked all the plants that and hanging and growing on the wall.

Mom is bundled up against the snow and wind.

A quaint alley we passed through on our way to our next stop on the walking tour.

This is the Cathedral of San Ruffino (Cattedrale San Rufino).  Ruffino is the actual official patron saint of Assisi.  It was built in the 11th century and is considered to have one of the best examples of the Romanesque style.  

I liked the stonework details around the rose window.

The main door to the church has two lion statues on either side.  

One seems to be hanging out, but the other one.....

...is eating a Christian martyr.
Nom nom nom.  Tasty Christian martyr!

Other view of nom noms and the other lion who is just chilling out.

More views of Umbria.  Umbria is also known as il cuoro verde d'Italia or the green heart of Italy.

This was taken from the piazza outside of the Basilica of St. Clare (Santa Chiara), but we toured the church later.

This is one of the three arches of an old gateway that line this street.  

One is from 1265, one is from, 1316, and this one marks the Roman gate.

We made a pitstop for gelato and snacks.
Sooooooo many meringues!

Look at the size of this meringue!  It's as big as my head! 

This is on the wall...ceiling? of the old market.  

It's important because it depicts turkeys so it has to have been painted after 1492.  

Turkeys were not known in Europe until after Columbus returned from his voyages.

This is the church of Santo Stefano.  It is typical of a rural Italian Romanesque church.  Supposedly Santo Stefano's bells miraculously rang out on October 3rd, 1226, the day St. Francis died. 

After so many Baroque style churches, this simple stone church was refreshing and beautiful.

More plants on the walls.  I like the bright flowers of the cyclamens. 

Alright, I know this is what you were all waiting for.  

This is the Basilica of St. Francis (San Francesco).  The church was built on the site where St. Francis was buried.   This area had been known as the "Hill of Hell" because it was where criminals were executed, but now it is known as the "Hill of Paradise."

The church is split into two parts, the Lower Church and the Upper Church.  The Lower Church was completed in 1230.  The remains of St. Francis were moved from their temporary location in what would become St. Claire's and interred in the Lower Church.   The burial place was concealed and kept secret for fear that the saint's remains would be stolen.  The Upper Church was completed in 1253. 

So the people who buried St. Francis in the Lower Basilica forgot to tell anyone that the remains were there.    St. Fracis was "lost" until 1818 when the remains were rediscovered.  

We toured the Lower and Upper Churches, but unfortunately photos were not permitted.

This is a statue of St. Francis by Norberto
(We did not know any of this at the time).  

It is showing him as a young man coming back after being captured during wars with Perugia in the early 1200s.  It's a different image of St. Francis than you normally see.  

Mom wanted to get a little statue or postcard or something of it, but we couldn't find it anywhere.

The Umbrian view from the Basilica of St. Francis.

The original 15th century and still used cloisters.  

It could house up to about 200 monks, but today it only has about 40 at any given time.

There was a little free museum off to one side of the cloisters.  

Most of it had church related items from ye olden days donated by pilgrims to the church.  

It also had several pieces from the Perkins collection.

Santi Nicola di Bari e Giovanni Gualberto
by Lorenzo di Niccolò (1392-1420)

I don't actually care for a lot of Renaissance and Pre-Renaissance art, but the 14th century stuff can be entertaining because everyone is super suspicious of everyone else.  I imagine this painting goes like this:

Nicola:  I bet Giovanni is thinking about stealing my rolls!

Giovanni: Man...I really want some of Nicola's rolls.  Maybe I can steal them later.

Angel:  I see you Giovanni!  Stop thinking of ways to get Nicola's rolls! Or possibly

or possibly:

Giovanni: Ugh, this book is so heavy, why couldn't I carry rolls instead?

Nicola: Why does he get a book?  I'm more important.  Look at my red robes!  Aren't they deserving of a book instead of these stupid rolls?

Angel: I have to fart.  Do you think they will notice?

San Francesco riceve le Stimmate (St. Frances receives the Stigmata)

by Antonio Aquillo (1441-1510)

I would call this painting "St. Francis flying his Jesus kite."

This is a fancy tapestry which also should be called "St. Francis flying his Jesus kite."

Looking down the green to the church.  The Norberto statue is hiding behind the olive tree.

Dad taking a good photo, mom being silly.

This is where mom goes shopping and dad and I go wandering off to look for a geocache.  I thought it was 30m away, turns out it was more like 300m and we may have gone up a hill side for no reason and gotten lost a bit.  The view was nice though.

The view.  

That is the Basilica di San Francesco d'Assisi to the left.

This was a sign on a snack stand we passed in our misguided wanderings.   I took a photo of it because they have stolen the characters of Phineas and Ferb, from the show Phineas and Ferb, to sell their tacos.  The show is great by the way.

This is an alleyway in the German area of Assisi.  

Bet you didn't know Assisi had a German area.

Earlier, dad purchased some watercolors of the town.   In our wanderings to find the geocache, I accidentally found the alley that was depicted in one of the paintings.  Imagine this in water color with some flowers along the wall and that's what one of the paintings looks like.

We did, eventually, find the geocache.  

It took a lot of sticking hands into holes in a wall, but again, the view was worth it.  

That is snow on those mountains in the back.

We met back up with mom, who had been waiting a bit for us.   This is her story of Finding Norberto:

As you know, we saw the large statue of the exhausted knight on the exhausted horse in front of the basilica with no sign explaining anything about it.  We looked in stores for post cards, we looked in the basilica gift shop, but there were no pictures or information regarding the statue.  We were perplexed and gave up.  

Later in the afternoon, while in a gift shop buying stuff to take back, I thought I would see if the sales clerk could tell me anything about the statue.  So I asked in the typical tourist way, slow and loud.  “In front of the cathedral”…. .  After several slow versions she finally responded “Si, Si in front of church”  I then asked “Who is the man on the horse”?  She responded with a blank stare until I bent over at the waist and hung my head and arms and looked exhausted. Her response was immediate “NORBERTO!”  “You know Norberto?” No, was my response and she said, “Famous Umbrian artist.”  She grabbed my arm took me outside and pointed me down the street and gestured to the left.  

Down the street and on the left we found an art dealer who carries Norberto’s art.  It was there that we learned that the statue is a depiction of  Francis when he returned from a crusade exhausted from the wars and excesses of his world. He then gave it all up and dedicated his life to God and simplicity.

It was inside the art dealer's gallery also that we discovered that a smallish (~12" or ~30cm) statute was a little out of our price ranges.  Instead of slumped over Frances statues Dad got me a print of the Basilica di San Francesco d'Assisi, which I find very calming and relaxing to look at.  He and mom purchased a painting of Norberto's that depicts the monks going through the town.

They are both fun pieces.

We toured the church that has the cross that changed St. Francis's life and we able to see many pieces of his, and St. Claire's clothing.  I was amazed it was still around and in as good of condition as it was.  Material doesn't usually hold up well through the centuries and these garments are about 800 years old.

This concludes our adventures in Assisi.

We piled into my car, which was now packed with wine, art, and our suitcases, and we headed off to Spoleto for the evening.

This concludes our adventures for today.

Maura's Parents Visit: Montalcino

April 6th

As you may or may not know, my father has a great appreciation for wine.  Since we have an "in" with a small winery up in Montalcino (you may remember it as the one we took Dan's parents to) we decided to do a road trip to Montalcino, Assisi, Spoleto, Orvieto, and Civita di Bagnoregio.  Our first stop is Montalcino!

It's easier to have proof I was on an adventure when someone other than me has a camera.

We had about an hour to kill before our wine event, so we wandered around in the blustery and cold hill-top town of Montalcino first.

Another cute little church.  

I wonder how many churches I will have visited by the time we move back to the USA.  

I don't even take photos of everyone I go into.

I found this statute in Montalcino.  I have no idea what it's on about.

Look how cute the little town is.

Rolling Tuscan countryside.  It was beautiful.

The wind was particularly vicious up by the Montalcino castle thingie.  

But it was worth the buffeting for this view.

While wandering we thought lunch would be a good idea.  Unfortunately, so did everyone else.  Every restaurant was packed and we didn't have the time to wait.  We finally found a little sandwich shop in which we elbowed our way onto a standing table and scarfed down our food.  Wine tasting on an empty stomach may have proven entertaining, but not good for driving to our hotel afterwards.

With our wanderings completed we headed over to Il Palazzone to meet Esther.  My mom had been getting ambiance and horses, it was now my dad's turn to get something he wanted.  Wine.

The fermentation tanks of Il Palazzone.  Dad for scale.

The doors into the storage and tasting room.  Il Palazzone produces wonderful Brunello.  Our guide?...taste master?...host?  let's go with host.  Our host, Esther, was wonderful.  We talked about Brunello, but she and my dad had some lovely discussions about Rieslings as my dad's wine group is having a Riesling tasting this Fall.  Esther is German and had much to discuss about the German wine.  After the tasting we crammed my little car's trunk (Citroen C1) full of wine.  We had planned to bring Dan's car, a station wagon/sedan hatch back thing because it had more room, but it was in the shop.  I may or may not now be holding wine for my dad until we move back to the USA. 

Our hotel for the evening was about 20 minutes outside of Montalcino at Castello Brunello in Sant'Angelo in Colle.  We had an apartment to ourselves.  I thought it was too cold to use the pool, but a little boy also staying at the hotel thought otherwise.  I think it must have been heated or he is secretly a polar bear.  

The view from my room.  I could get used to this.

It was too early to eat dinner, so we went wandering for a bit around town.  

Ugh. Sorry.  I keep giving you photos of terrible views.  

Why does everything have to be so picturesque and green and rolling?

So many quaint farms and rolling hillsides it could make you sick.

This town has a church, two restaurants, and is home to about 160 people.  We ended up getting drinks in a tavern/quick-e-mart style place where dad purchased some lemon shortbread cookies.

After our drinks we made our way back to the hotel for a nap.  

There's lots of evening naps in Italy, for me anyway.  

I think it's because they don't eat dinner until 8pm at the earliest.  

What else are you going to do? 

Mom wanted a picture of our room from the outside.

Dad is quite pleased with his cookies.

Wandering back to one of the two restaurants we had to go through this old city gate.

I mostly liked the light changes from one side to the other.

Oh look, more glorious vistas.

The sun was starting to set and I was trying to get all the colors, 

but I didn't have a tripod, so it's not great.

The sun set and we went to dinner at Trattoria Il Pozzo.  We each picked a tasting menu and it was all quite delectable.  I had the most delicious asparagus flan.  I didn't even know you could have savory flans.  I didn't even know you could have flan that wasn't just a vanilla custard thing with some sort of sauce.  It may be one of the best things I have eaten in Italy.

Tomorrow we will adventure out to Assisi and stay the night in Spoleto.

This concludes our adventures in Montalcino and for the day.