Roma! Yikes

Today we rode the subway to the Vatican and did a tour for 3 hours.  And then we walked part of the way back, and later hopped back on the subway to return to the hotel.  Some pictures:

                                                              Subway "art car" packed to the hilt

                                               Vatican art museums:  beginning the tour

                               Ceilings and floors...  that seems to have been my particular focus:

                                             In the tapestry hall, the ceilings were beautiful too

                                                                            

                                                         La Pieta in St. Peter's Basillica

This is from an exhibit at the Giardini in Venice, the Biennale 2011, called La Pieta or Self-love

Many of the floors are intricate patterns of fine mosaic

                                                                In St. Peter's Basilica

                                   There is no possible way to capture the enormity of this space! 

                                                   This is towards the main alter area

The only time I ever toured the Vatican was in the early 70's while on a 4 1/2 month magical hiatus from "real life".   Seeing the Sistine Chapel was turned into a torture then because too many people were herded through it at one time and just sort of pushed you through.  I only remember being able to steal quick glances up towards the ceiling;  it was not a fun experience.

But this time it was better!  They have started some sort of process to control the number of people in the Chapel at one time and so now you can stand in one place and actually look up at the ceiling !  It's  pretty wonderful!  The only bad thing is that they are very militant about picture-taking, and so I have none to share with you. 

I shared that trip in the 70's with one who has a finely developed sense of social justice (and injustice).  He read the irony in the riches of the churches that the poor prayed for tenderness and mercy within.

                                                                    Jim, not much has changed:

                                            From the walk back towards the hotel:

The Spanish Steps

                                                         This concludes Day 2 in Rome

Greetings from Rome

Well, here we are on the last leg of  the trip.  We got to Rome just a couple of hours ago.

Yesterday morning we left Montepulciano and drove through hills and past farms (and later past the biggest lake I've ever seen) to get to our last walled town:  Montefiascone.  We found the hotel pretty easily, got some snacks from the market and settled down to rest and have some wine. 

The hotel is in another old palazzo, and is nicely done (though not done with the over-the-top opulence seen at Palazzo Squarcialupi).  Initially we were met by the...  really I don't know what you'd call him, other than sort of the King of  the hotel.  He presided over the place with a strong air of responsibility and formality.  Also, he didn't speak a word of English, nicely balancing my complete ineptitude with Italian. Initially he seemed austere and remote (which we imagined as disapproving), but he helped us move the car to a garage (no small feat getting me to understand how to get it there in the one-way network of alleyways) and also showed us how to get to a restaurant... which later proved to be closed.  Anyway, by the time we left this morning we were very fond of him and he was gracing us with a smile here and there... so we were feeling practically cherished.  It was all lovely.  Here is a picture of our friend Remo, Manager-extraordinaire of the Hotel Urbano V in Montefiascone:

Looking towards the front desk from the bar area where he made a special cup of cappuccino for  our breakfast

                                             The restored ancient mural on the ceiling

                                      From the rooftop terrace with the soon-to-be full moon

Our room was nothing spectacular, which is why I will not bore your with pictures of it.  However, the toilet was something to behold:  rimmed with gold and including the golden seal of the hotel:
I've never seen the likes of something like this, ever!

 
Here is a picture of Lago di Bracciano, the largest lake I have ever seen;  Montefiascone is on the eastern end of it

                                                        The lake went on for miles and miles.

Today (Wednesday the 13th) we drove to the airport outside Rome, left the car and took a cab to our downtown location.  We are within walking distance of pretty much every major thing to see in Rome except for the Vatican and perhaps the distant seven hills.  We took a short walk for a couple of blocks and found these sights:

                                                                Temple of Mars

We just had a good dinner at my favorite restaurant...  only about two blocks from the hotel.  Tomorrow very early we will see the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican.

Until tomorrow............

Brunello, Vino Nobile and Gregorian Chants

After breakfast this morning, we headed out of town with surprising ease and drove to Montelcino in search of Brunello... the wine for which that town is famous.  (Montepulciano has it's own claim to fame in the form of Vino Nobile).  We drove past golden fields of wheat interspersed with large swaths of sunflowers and olive trees, all held together by rows of cypress trees...  making a landscape like a great patchwork quilt.  The "quilt" is dotted here and there by large palazzos now turned into tourist accommodations or wineries, and very old churches.

We spent some time exploring Montelcino, and tasting Brunellos.   We bought some wine and then headed over to Sant Antimo to the ancient cathedral which houses some of the last Benedictine monks who sing prayers in the form of Gregorian Chants.

The chanting was quite beautiful too!!  Eight monks file into the church and sit facing each other in groups of four.  They sing back and forth.  I don't know how they handle the spiritually-inclined but tone-deaf supplicants.

We stopped for dinner at a family restaurant very close to the Monastery and had some pasta, salad and some mighty wonderful roast pork (sliced so thin you could probably read through it).  Lovely dinner!  And then we drove back to Montepulciano and only had to retrace our route once before getting ourselves back to the hotel.  No pedestrians were actually maimed in the process... although we noticed that one couple lept across the road to get out of our way, leaving their camera on the wall behind them.  I can't even imagine what they would have done if I'd been one of those young Italian male drivers careening around the corner on two wheels!

Tonight is our last one in Montepulciano.  Tomorrow we head for Montefiascone... our last stop before dropping the car off at the Rome airport.

See you in the morning.

Mueble Evoe, Montepulciano

So, true to our plan, we've spent today roaming the streets of this beautiful town.  Here are some of the sights:

The Sax Wine Bar:  we had lunch here on the first day while we were walking and completely lost

                                            The 13th Century Cathedral on the Piazza Grande

                                               The craft street again...  imagine driving through this!!!!

                                            Church seen from the walls of Montepulciano

                                               Houses outside the main walls

                                                            More hills!!!!!  They are everywhere.

                                                       Geraniums against the ancient walls

                                                                                                                                                                                 The Piazza Grande (a tad less grande with the concert apparatus)

                                                        Our room at the Meuble Evoe

It's true that the room here doesn't have the excessive opulence of the previous one, but it's comfortable and has everything we need.  Also, the family who runs it is warm and genuinely concerned with our comfort.  Plus, their restaurant is rated #4 out of 35+ Montepulciano restaurants on TripAdvisor, and locals rave about it....  Perfect!

Our arrival into Montepulciano

This is a walled village, slightly larger than the places we've been so far, that I have loved for a long while.  And I knew that it would be a challenge to A) find the hotel  and B) drive to a hotel-specified parking space.  That's because the streets are a maze of one-way only lanes the width of hiking trails.  OK.  So we got here probably around noon, parked the car in public parking outside the walls,  and began following the arrows to our hotel:  the signs looked serious and helpful until you tried to guess which street the arrow was actually pointing to.  And for an added challenge, the hotel where we planned to stay had a very small sign, and the restaurant beneath it had a different name entirely.  So we got a lot of hiking in before finally entering a restaurant to ask directions and finding out that it was indeed THE restaurant.  So, shock all around I'd say.  But the games hadn't even begun...  because then the owner drew on a tourist map how we should negotiate the warren of one-way streets in order to finally arrive in front of the hotel.  Honestly, I was concerned...  having been caught up in this town more than once.  But we set out, found the car and began our assault upon the streets of Montepulciano.  I can not adequately describe in words how narrow, steep, and sharply angled these lanes are.  And add to that the fact that hoards of people are walking in them, not to mention the street vendors who take up at least 1/3 of the width in many places.  Well anyway, we got ourselves almost there three times, but ended up in various other locations/predicaments.  The worst was this:  driving actually through a lengthy craft fair with just enough room to miss swiping the wares off the tables with the car mirrors.  The street narrowed and narrowed, with stall proprietors having in some cases to move their seats out of our way.  We ended up in a church parking lot and then had to walk back down through the fair to see how we might get free from  the position in which we found ourselves (with the least threat to the life and limb  of the inhabitants).  Finally we did find a way through and got to the designated parking space.  Our reward was a Gin and Tonic, and I don't mind admitting that even thinking of moving the car from its current position gives me hives.  We've agreed to just walk around this town tomorrow while we recover.

                                     This is the craft-show street that we drove down!!

I

San Gimignano and surprising evening entertainment

Yesterday (Friday the 8th of July) we drove to the medieval walled village of San Gimignano.  The road there was very twisty, and sane people would drive cautiously , particularly around  blind curves.  But that sort of driving seems to be particularly irksome to most young male Italian  drivers whose style seems to be to pass everything in sight especially on blind curves, and all of this is preceded  by tailgating as closely as possible.  This would be driving as a Grand Sport I guess.  At any rate, I kept pulling off to let the sports by as quickly as possible, and even then got the universal gesture for "you are an idiot" more than a few times.  All of this ate into my tension-free,  bon-vivantness a little bit...  but it was nothing a little hiking up and down nearly vertical hills in San Gimignano couldn't cure. 

Presumably a few pictures are in order:

The main square, with something in the middle that was maybe the town well

We ate lunch here

Remains of my salad, so that those concerned about my rich dietary intake can rest a bit easier

View from a park at the top of the village

So it's  beautiful, right?  It's also small.  And it's apparently on every tourist's "must see" list.  Therefore, there are many parking lots (good idea) that ring the town (because of course it's medieval and has no room for parking "inside").  You park, mog around in more than 90 degree heat for a few hours, and then begin to look for your car.  Hmmm, down this street?   No.   Hike back up.  Maybe here?  Hike MANY places up and down before locating the parking lot where your specific car is baking in the sun.  Congratulate self that you did not suffer a fatal coronary attack, and get back on the twisty road for more driving games with the young Italians. 

We rested up a bit when we got back to Castellina, and then went to see an open-air rendition of "Rent", all in Italian of course.  This was a fabulous experience!!  I was fortunate enough to have seen it in New York, and this one was really cast well... and was very very good.  And the Italian-ness shone through too:  largely in the costuming and gesturing.  It was such a fun thing to witness, and to sit under the stars.  This will form a good memory for me for always, I think.