Iowa Girl on the Go

I love Siena! Our villa is in the countryside near Siena — about a half-hour ride by bus. It’s a typically hilly Tuscan city but it has the most amazing square: the Piazza del Campo. When I walked around the corner and caught the first sight of it, I said out loud, “We have a winner!” I think it might be even better than St. Mark’s Square in Venice, but it’s been awhile since I saw that one, so I guess we’ll see.

So the square is amazing and the duomo is beautiful and the shopping is great and there are dozens of tiny alleyways — all scenic and wonderful. We toured the duomo and learned about the city’s history. The city is divided into 17 neighborhoods, each with their own colors and name — and when you’re born into the neighborhood you’re an owl or a giraffe or a unicorn for life. Some neighborhoods dislike other neighborhoods, so if you meet and fall in love with the wrong person, it’s a real Romeo and Juliet scene. They take this very seriously. I love this!

I also love that they do a horse race twice a year in the Piazza del Campo, with each neighborhood sponsoring a horse and rider. It’s a big deal. We saw a video, and I loved it. I probably wouldn’t love being there for real, because the crowd would kill me off. Too crowded! But it seems like a lot of fun.

Anyway, we toured the duomo and then I walked to a nearby art museum in which I had to give up my driver’s license and stash all my belongings in a little locker. I was pretty much the only visitor in the whole museum. It was nice, but small. I especially liked the view of the city from second floor (the view of the actual city, not the historic square — see at left) and the drawings that had apparently been made as sketches for huge murals. Those were beautiful.

After the museum, I shopped. And then I had a gelato that has to be the best gelato in all of Italy. And then I shopped some more. I will not say what I purchased, but just that I definitely boosted the economy of Siena.

While we were waiting for the group to gather, we amused ourselves by watching the pigeons getting a drink from the mouth of a wolf — part of a fountain in the piazza. I am easily entertained.

And now we’re back at the beautiful Villa Vecchi and I have Internet — a happy moment!

Today was a day with lots of variety. We left our little medieval town of Todi and traveled through Umbria into Tuscany. On the way, we stopped in the town of Deruta, which is considered to be the center for ceramics in Umbria. We went to the Maioliche Binaglia ceramics shop and watched a demonstration of the traditional art of ceramics decoration. The shop is owned by two sisters, both trained ceramics artists. All of the artwork in their shop is handmade by them. We watched as they transformed a small white vase into a beautiful work of art with flowers and birds and other traditional decorations.

Afterwards we had time to shop, and I was so tempted to buy things but didn’t because of the cost, the weight in my suitcase, and my fear that the ceramics wouldn’t make it back to the States in one piece.

After leaving Deruta, we traveled to Perugia, which is a really interesting place. It’s known for its chocolate and also for its large university. The city is quite large and modern on its lower levels. To get to the older (and more interesting) part of the city, there’s an excellent public transportation called the MiniMetro. Our guide says it looks like an egg. Really it’s just a small car (sort of like a cable car or subway car) on a track that whisks you up and up and up. I felt like I was in the future. At the top, the city did not disappoint. It had a lot of very old buildings and the sort of archways and alleys we’ve grown to expect in these ancient cities. But it’s also got high-end shopping and, at least today, a gazillion sidewalk vendors.

They were selling the most incredible cheeses and olives (and meat, if you like that sort of thing), breads, pastries, liquor, sweets, you name it. (They also had a lot of non-food vendors.) I bought a huge pretzel and a chunk of really delicious cheese from a vendor that seemed to be specializing in German foods. I found a table and a beer and had a wonderful lunch. Afterwards, I walked around and bought some chocolate and some olives for later on.

The best part of the day was driving into Tuscany (Cypress trees! Olive trees! Rolling hills!)and to our wonderful, amazing hotel called the Villa Lecchi. It overlooks the Chianti region and was originally built in the 1500s. It was modified in the 1800s but then fell into disrepair and was purchased in 1994 by the family who currently runs it. What a great story – the whole family is involved in the operation. Laura is the manager; her husband is the pastry chef and also tends to the gardens and occasionally hunts wild boar. Laura’s mother (called just Momma) is also a chef and was seen today gathering eggs from chickens they have on the property, plus she had an apron filled with fresh greens. Laura’s two sons do the heavy lifting around the place, including lugging our bags up the many, many flights of stairs because there is no elevator. Pappa Guiseppe (I’m probably spelling this wrong) had the original idea to buy the property and fix it up. We’re all amazed at how much work it must have been, based on the photos of what it looked like in the early 1990s with no roof and crumbling floors. Now they have wireless Internet, spiffy bathrooms, an amazing restaurant, and possibly the most beautiful view in all of Italy, as you can see.

Today we visited Assisi and I learned that it’s much more than the city of St. Francis. The San Francesco Basilica is obviously a huge attraction here, as is the Basilica Di Santa Chiara (St. Clare). Both churches are lovely and contain frescoes and statues, and they feature Gothic architecture from the 1200s.

It’s a hilly city, not so different from the other towns we’ve visited in this region (Orvieto, Todi). I couldn’t find this in the literature, but I’m pretty sure Assisi is known as the Italian city that has the highest gelato cafes per capita. Literally, they are next to each other all up and down the streets. Also, there are bakeries like I haven’t seen since I’ve been to Italy. I took pictures of the windows and went into a few of them. They are totally overwhelming. I managed to choose just one thing: a pistachio cannoli. I really wanted a bite of everything.

In one shop that featured Italian meats, cheeses, pastas, and other Italian specialties, I was able to taste some of the olive oil and spreads that were being sold. The proprietor told me (in English, with a strong Italian accent) that his shop was featured in Rick Steves’ book. He then had me taste some eight-year-old balsamic vinegar, and I had to buy some. One drop in a puddle of olive oil should make for some mighty yummy dipping when I get home.

I did some shopping in Assisi – the stores were great – but I won’t say what I got because some things might end up being gifts.

We’re back in Todi for one more night. Tomorrow we leave Umbria for Tuscany.

If you’ve never heard of Todi, you’re not alone. Before I got my Portrait of Italy itinerary, I had never heard of it, either. It’s in Umbria, and it’s an ancient city on a hilltop surrounded by lush, fertile ground. The city is small – we figure we can walk pretty much anywhere in about 10 minutes from our central hotel location – but there’s a fair amount of traffic, a good selection of shops and restaurants, churches, banks, historic sites, and the like. Some of the city’s history dates back to the 1^st century BC. So it’s a pretty cool place to be.

We started our day with, well, breakfast, and after that with a walking tour of the town. This is the first day that we have not, at any point, gotten onto a bus or other public transportation. Everything was on foot. I like that. We visited a couple of churches, took in a few scenic overlooks, and went to the local historical museum.

After that we had a free afternoon, during which I posted a couple of blogs and checked my email, ate gelato, walked up 150 steps to the top of one of the churches’ bell towers for a spectacular view of the city and surrounding area, did a little shopping (but didn’t actually buy anything), drank a beer, and then relaxed for a little while before most of our group went to dinner together.

This was another one of those dinners that lasts forever and includes a lot of wine. It was a lot of fun, and some folks in our group ordered brave foods like wild boar. I had a cheese pizza. But it was a really good cheese pizza.