Dowd adventures in Bologna: giugno 2012

sabato 9 giugno 2012

Tosacana, Umbria again!

Well you just cant get enough of these places, so we went of again. This time there was a reason, the boys had their first camp down in the forest, in Casentino, Toscana. Unfortunately on the morning they had to go, Hunty woke up feeling sick, and began a 24 hour vomiting, and high temperature period. So only Ewan got on the bus and went off, as the 24 hours finished and Hunty improved from as he put it , "the worst day ever" and asked for sushi, chicken soup, we knew things were on the improve, so we packed the car, rang his teacher and drove down that afternoon. Dropping him off in the camp, which was deep in a forest that was beautiful as the light flickered through the overhang. It reminded me a bit of the black spur out of Healesville, though different foliage. So after finally finding the camp which was well hidden, we left the boys all happy that Hunty had arrived, and headed of to somewhere to stay in the region. After an hour on the ipad searching for "appropriate' accommodation we finally had to make a decision and stayed in a town called Subbiano, outside Arezzo, staying in a tower for the night. Now l have never stayed in a tower before, and not one from the 10 century, but l can say that they built them well. It had windows and light sharding through like out of a Vermeer painting, it was furnished in a period long ago, but best of all, had water pressure that l have not yet experienced in Italy, brilliant. The name of this hotel was Torre Santa Flora, and its risorante Hotel Relais, now l mention the risorante because we had the best risotto, we have ever had anywhere. It is famous we are told for it, and rightly so, the service was brilliant, and very helpful in where and what to do the following day. That and the fact it is only 15 minutes from Arezzo, well worth staying at. So we woke the next morning, and left the tower in search of adventure.
We left and travelled to a small town called Anghiari, a place that on a map, most would not bother about, but Jayne and l both agreed that it was one of the finds of our adventure in Italy, and we definitely return. It is a hill top town, with a wall, a museum (Museo di Palazzo Taglieschi Anghiari) that had some incredible wooden statues and dolls, a 1600 organ, that was traveled around on the back of a mule, and lets face it , that is something. It had a gun collection, as the town became famous for making them , and you have to be impressed with the metal work and the fact they hand made the screw system, and the detail in design. There is some ceramic work that needs to be seen, we had a great guide, and the place practically to ourselves.
Visually it is a pretty town, every little street is a picture, and every place is decorated with flower pots and plants. The town has like so many of these towns a history of being attacked and over run by other warring parties, in this case, near by cities and its inhabitants, luckily now you can just drive on it. I would highly recommend you stay here or near by, as it is quite and not over run by tourists, like Cortona, Siena, Arezzo.
After leaving we headed to where l have been wanting to go for ages, Citta di Castello, not for the city itself, as it was not incredible, but for the two museums dedicated to Alberto Burri. Alberto Burri, l believe was an artist ahead of his time, his early works were very influential to many artists, l felt that Motherwell, and other American abstract artists owe alot to him , along with Brent Harris more recently. I felt also a strange connection to his work and Rover Thomas, though of course, neither would have known of the other. What is remarkable is that the city of Castello provided two buildings, a palazzo for his early work, and a ridiculously massive old tobacco factory for large works he produced from 1974 - 1993. These works are produced on sound , packing board, like pin board, hugh sheets, usually three together, in a design manner, compared to his early works on hessian bags. These are the works that reminded me of Brent Harris's works, though Brents hold their own. This factory is 7500 sqm, which is just so hugh, and what was best, we were the only ones there to see it all, any artist would give their bad arm for a space like this. The palazzo is simply a place of wonder, and the small rooms suit the works, both spaces are perfect. Few places in the world give a place to any single artist, Picasso in Paris, Tapies and Miro in Barcelona and Van Gogh in Amsterdam. So Burri is in high order. He rarely bothered selling his work, only occasionally to pay for things, and so had control over his collection to be displayed like this.
After a great time there, we had our cafe and left to stay the night at Cortona, and that is a truly picturesque drive, through country that is the typical Umbrian or Tuscan landscape. And you can see why it is so beautiful, as there are so many hills bumping from the ground, everyone gets to put a castle or villa somewhere high, with a cypress line of trees leading to them.
We arrived at Villa di Piazzano, built around 1464, originally a hunting villa for Cardinal Silvio Passerini, who was good friend of the Medicis, and a supporter of Vasari, who was born in Arezzo. Later it became a convent for nuns and then a tobacco estate. This villa had a complete renovation and opened in 2004. this is a very special place to stay, and the rooms are superb, the views from the pool or dining area are like the Yarra Valley. The food at the risorante is bloody good, though l prefer Hotel Relais, but thats being fussy. This would be a great place to base yourself and visit the many towns like Cortona, Arezzo, Montepulciano, Perugia, Citta di Castello, Gubbio near by.
Sadly we were only here for a night, the next day we drove 15 minutes to Cortona, another hilltop town, that looks great as you approach it, and the streets are pretty much the same, the only issue l had was it was a complete tourist town. We went to the Etruscan museum, that was well presented, but the one in Bologna is much better in respect to what you can see. We then left to Montepulciano, which again a hilltop town, very pretty, and lots of places to eat, Piazza Grande is the place to go for a cafe, high up and less crowded, as it is like Cortona a tourist haught.
The weather changed, and we left on the long and well driven road to Bologna, arriving with an hour to spare before the boys arrived home on the bus.

martedì 5 giugno 2012

Toscana, Umbria

No doubt, Toscana and Umbria are picture perfect, hard to take a bad photo, everything that you see on the movies or in the catalogues. We decided since the school was closed most of last week, because of the earthquakes that have hit Ferrara and the Bologna area ( we have had a few tremors that we felt, but no real damage to Bologna) we would take a trip south, a long weekend. Good time to travel, not peak, not busy, warm and inexpensive. Jayne did her usual job, and found a great place to stay, Relais dei Magi, neat Citta della Pieve. The town of Citta della Pieve is well worth visiting, and the area is full of places to eat and stay. This place was wonderful, great hosts, great food, huge pool for the kids and a soccer pitch with goals, table tennis, and a treatment room, and not just a running machine in the corner with a fold up massage table, this was the bees knees.
So from there we travelled to Orvieto, which is essential to go to for the food, and the duomo, which is an Italian treasure, it is in such great condition, the outside is what you go for, not so impressive inside, and they charge you to go in, hard to put a sheet over the outside l guess. There are also the caves under the city that are worth seeing, sadly we ran out of time, and the boys were getting restless, though we gained sometime by buying a snow globe of the city. Orvieto is a city sitting proudly on a hill top, the best view of the city is from a distance, where you see the duomo silhouette. You park half way up, and catch an elevator to the top, like Sienna, and others l am told.
As usual, what is a trip without some amusing sites. On the way home we saw a motorcycle driving along the autostrada, with a passenger, who was attempting to light a cigarette, hunching behind the driver , with hands clasped, what an addict, what a goer. We had a great lunch at a tiny out of the way cafe, and the chef and owner was so impressed that Hunter had Baccala, it is a spicy style fish dish, which obviously kids don't have, he then finished some of Ewans gnocchi, and a salad. The owner kept coming out and praising him, and telling everyone how is this kid, l did think of asking him not to charge us for Huntys meal, like when you eat the enormous steak in america and they give it to you for free, but l don't think it would have worked. The only problem with the cafe was that the music speaker outside was playing an out of tune radio, l tried to explain this, but of course something went missing in the translation, and they just change the channel to another out of tune song.
The fact is everywhere we go they are rather impressed with Huntys and Ewans eating , mind you, there we are at the school where they want the kids to eat pasta bianco( plain pasta with some oil and cheese) so l dont think they expect much from kids. Which is odd, as parents they are so fussy and so good at cooking.
So the quakes keep happening, god knows why they decided to close the school for 4 days, even though it got the inspection okay on day 3. As if a quake wont happen on day 5.
Ewan left on camp today for 3 days in Toscana, unfortunately Hunty is sick, and we hope he will be better tomorrow and we will drive him down ( maybe it was something he ate) The boys were going to go an cave exploration, but so many parents complained that they did not want there kids going in caves due to the earthquakes that are occurring hundreds of km north, they cancelled it, you see where l am going dont you.
So hopefully Hunter will be better tomorrow, and Jayne and l will continue to travel south and stay in Toscana near Gubbio, Citta dell Castello, Assisi, Perugia. So look forward to more great photos and stories, ohhh isn't it exciting.