We’re starting our Camino del Norte with a one-day layover in Madrid. We staggered to our hotel after getting off the plane, dozed for a couple of hours and then went out to do a tour.
I’d read about Afrohispanica Tours with Kwame Ondo in The Guardian. It’s a tour in Madrid focusing on Black history. I was interested because I’d been following the reporting that The Guardian has done with their stories on Manchester and other areas in England and how their rise and success was based in large part on the slave economy. This was Madrid’s reality and Kwame was terrific. Both Rick and I learned a lot we’d never known. And, no, I can’t remember everything, but here’s a few facts:
The banks in Spain were all based on the coast, mostly in Santander, and a lot of the money boosting the banks came from the slave trade.
Spain supported slavery until 1873 when the president wrote and proposed the ending to the trade. He had to leave the country because wealthy families and businesses based on the trade were furious, but it was still passed. Both the president and the vice president were ardent abolitionists, so even when the president had to leave, the vice president took over. Thus the Spanish colonies in the Caribbean were among the last to abolish slavery, in Puerto Rico in 1873. The restaurant below is where the president wrote his proclamation:
The lions in front of parliament were made from cannons from the Moroccan and Spanish war, when the Moroccans were fighting for independence.
There was a conference, the Berlin conference, in 1884-5 when the European nations divvied up Africa for who could colonize and capitalize on the workers there. Maybe not enslaved peoples, but worked as if. How could we not have known this?
There was a street in Madrid named Calle de las Negras – for the concentration of enslaved women in that area. The name has now changed.
King Carlos III was one of the biggest slave owners of his time, keeping 1,500 enslaved people on the Iberian peninsula and the 18,500 others held in Spain’s colonies in the Americas. As aristocratic families sought to keep up with the monarch, the proportion of enslaved people in Madrid swelled to an estimated 4% of the population in the 1780s. (Fact from the Guardian article).
This is the symbol of slavery in the doorway of the Parish of San Ginés, we thought it was a dollar sign. But it’s an S for slave with a nail driven through it. Horrifying. And it’s on the other side of the church from one of the oldest bookstores in Spain – both connected to the church. One enlightened, one not.
The tour definitely broadened our perspective on Madrid and Spain’s Black history and opened the door to learning more about it. Thanks, Kwame!
Then Rick and I were the first to arrive at the restaurant at the hotel and had dinner and went straight to bed. We’re such an exciting pair of travelers.
Today was our travel day from Verona to Venice, but we stopped in Padua to see a colleague of Leaf’s, Enrico, and one of his post-doc co-teachers, Marta. The traffic getting into Padua was crazy busy and it did not look like any kind of interesting inner city was going to unfold. Leaf, bless him, was driving. At one point the GPS guide told him, “make a u-turn when you can”; she’d given up. The next thing was take a right or a left with arrows pointing both ways. Needless to say, Rick in the front passenger seat, had his phone open to another map option and between the two, we finally got into the old city. Then parking – nope, none, anywhere. We’re looking and looking and getting more into the old city and then Leaf said, “I think left”, all other voices said, “looks right”, so he went left.
This was the result.
Aaaoouuut! Aaaoouut! Only pedestrians! Yep, repeat of Sienna. Needless to say, hilarity was reining inside the car. The first person we saw as Leaf drove into what turned out to be the MAIN pedestrian area between the town hall buildings and the university, both from the 1200’s, was a woman who ran toward us, but also was laughing. She stopped us and then ran to get a policeman who could speak a bit of English. Sharon was quick to grab my phone and get photos. I was laughing too hard to think about it. Those words above were the policeman’s. But he too, was smiling and directing. Leaf had to do a u-turn in the same area in the drive of shame back to the street that would lead us out.
The rest of the drive until we finally found parking way outside the center area was filled with repeating the aaaooouuut directive. When we walked back into the plaza to explore, the first person we saw sitting in the guard booth was the policeman who’d directed us. I waved at him, laughing and he promptly came out to greet us. When we asked if we could get a photo, he immediately joined into the fun of it, telling us to wait while he adjusted his swagger and belt of gear. So fun. Great intro to Padua.
The buildings, per usual once you’re in the center, were beautiful. First town hall, hard to capture because of the multitude of layered buildings:
Then the university. The university is the 2nd oldest in Italy and the 5th oldest continuously operating in the world. So cool. And Enrico had offices in the old buildings and brought in us for a brief view. It was career day for new/potential students so a very active scene.
We had a lovely coffee and treat at one of the oldest coffee shops that was in the area, creating part of the communal culture between town hall and the university. Looks modern now…
We then drove to the Marco Polo airport to drop our car, with a bit of a sigh of relief, and then walked our things through the airport and suddenly come out on a dock! I knew we were getting a boat taxi, but was still surprised. Sleek elevator and then there’s the water with a dock:
Coming into Venice, passing islands:
And then – Venice. Oh, how lucky am I to get to finally see this magical water city with Rick and such great friends. And we had 3 nights! Our water taxi (I’d call it a boat) brought us to the campo San Giacomo dell’ Orio. We got out on the dock area, walked over the little bridge – our first of many – and our apartment was in the first building on the right. The gentleman who was meeting with us to get keys was right there, so easy! Our apartment is neat and clean, on the 2nd floor with windows onto a little courtyard complete with well and other windows overlooking the canal. Low timbered roofs and a bit of up and down to create 3 bedrooms. Just enough to stumble on 🙂 I’m guessing it’s VERY hard to have modern conveniences in many of these apartments, so felt lucky when we saw ours. Plus the host has been beyond helpful in setting things up.
We had an hour to settle, then I looked out our windows to the parch below and there was Andrea – the guide I’d arranged. The tour was titled “Venice from a Venetian perspective” and Andrea was fantastic. Born and lived here all of his life and loved his city. He led us through a series of little “streets”, over bridges, telling us history, and his perspective as a Venetian: “I leave in August because of the crowds or I might get socially inappropriate.” He told us there are now 50,000 residents; it’s a dying city. There were 150,000 in the 1950’s. And 5,500,000 visitors who came through in 2019. Yikes.
But we got unbelievably lucky. A bit prior to high season and the weather – Andrea said this weather is truly miraculous. Mid 70’s, breezy, dry. It will forever leave us with a misperception of how wonderful the weather is in Venice. That works for me!
Andrea said that it’s a small town, you can easily walk everywhere. And maybe he’s right, but we walked a ton each day and still didn’t see everything. It’s kind of a mix of every section looks the same with multiple bridges over multiple canals and yet looks different. There are 180 islands, 170 canals, most natural, only manmade ones were the larger straight ones. Otherwise, they wind in often tight curves. Our last walk back to our hotel we found yet another huge plaza we hadn’t seen.
It’s a mix of worn out beautiful city, gorgeous buildings and bridges, and some parts that looked well fixed up. It radiates history, my favorite kind of place. Hardly any trash or graffiti – most of the books I’d read about it were set in the 1800’s and articles for more recent times and I expected a much dirtier city. It was beautiful. I loved, loved it, and couldn’t believe I was in Venice. Few scenes:
The well below is typical of almost all the plazas. They built big cisterns below with the water filtering through the sand so that when it reached the well, it was clean and good for drinking. The number of drains depended on the size of the plaza. This one had 4, the closest one to us the white square with holes.
Interesting facts from Andrea:
History: Venice was a naval power from the 5th century. Began its power when people fled the mainland when Rome fell. She was independent for 11 centuries – until Napoleon 1797. During this whole time it was a trading city with aristocratic merchants (a contradictory state anywhere else) ruling. Ottomans were here since 11th century, and even during the Ottoman wars, there was still trading between powers.
How it was built: The marshland still determines byways, there are sand bars everywhere and you could actually walk across the lagoon at low tide with your head above water. Given the possible sewage issue, can’t imagine wanting to – but still. So all boats have to follow wooden pillars indicating safe pathways. Because of the high water table, when they started building, they had to pound large timbers as far down as they could until they hit solid packed clay. Then – since the timbers were covered and protected in the muck, they gradually turned into petrified rock. 12,000,000 wooden poles/petrified hold many of the buildings. Andrea showed us a picture of a big guy pounding down a timber with a giant mallet. Oh, ouch.
Re sewage. First – in the early industrial centuries, it was actually considered one of the cleanest of European cities because it’s a marshland, islands surrounded by water with tidal shifts that clean it out twice a day. In the 50’s 60’s, they installed septic tanks for all, oy, can’t imagine that project. So now – a system, but a system that can be and is overwhelmed by floods. Andrea talked about the locals watching visitors when water covers St. Mark’s square – lowest point – taking off their shoes and splashing around taking photos of themselves. Ach.
Population: Breaks his heart. Down to 55,000 and more than a 1,000 leave every year. It’s a gorgeous old folks home. 20,000 commute in from the mainland every day to work there. But it’s just too hard/expensive to live there. The usual of outsiders buying up for second homes and raising the prices.
I have to say walking around, there are SO many young people. On the weekend there were many large groups of young people – lot of bachelor and bachelorette parties. Plus there’s a large university in town with 30,000. And the tourists were a wonderful mix of peoples, ages, backgrounds, languages. So the lack of population is not obvious. Our apartment was in the wonderful neighborhood of San Giacomo, quiet, enough off the beaten path that in the evenings and weekend it felt local, there were all kinds of families. Kids with bikes, soccer balls, running around while parents ate at restaurants on the plaza. In our building, it seemed like we were in the only rental. Others were off to work, hanging laundry, etc.
So – a lot more, there always is, but those were the highlights that Andrea gave us.
We then had a dinner at a place that Marta’s (met her in Padua) boyfriend’s cousin owned near the Rialto Bridge and walked home with the gift of GPS who was not quite as confused here. A great first day in Venice.
Verona/Vicenza I took an early morning walk around Verona today, up the hill to see the view and back through town. It’s taken long enough to start to get a clear sense of how to move once in the streets where you can’t really see landmarks outside to orient. In this photo, the Duomo’s white tower looks the tallest, but the family of Della Scalia who built the medieval Castel on the distant left, made sure their tower was higher than the churches – thus the lack of the steeple. Government over church.
A few things came back from Krystal’s walk.
Whale bone hanging, noted in Atlas Obscura: A whale rib was used to advertise the store by the arch that offered exotic goods from far away.
Citizens could voice their concerns anonymously by placing hand-written notes into designated boxes. In turn, the government would address each complaint individually. These boxes, or bocche di leone (lions’ mouths), were scattered throughout the city. Each stone receptacle resembled an intricately carved face, often that of a lion—the winged lion of St. Mark is the symbol of Venice —with a slot at the mouth into which letters could be inserted.
Garibaldi is the man who united Italy, starting in 1848.
Main shopping and pedestrian street paved with marble.
And then back to the apartment to get ready to go to Vicenza. Cathy had wanted to see this city, which is famous for Palladian architecture. Leaf stayed home to work, but the rest of us jaunted off for the day. It took about an hour and went mostly on the Autostras, filled with semis and then through the industrial outskirts until we arrived in the old city. The buildings were just astonishing and so many!
From Brittanica.com – Andrea Palladio, original name Andrea di Pietro della Gondola, (born Nov. 30, 1508, Padua, Republic of Venice—died August 1580, Vicenza), Italian architect, regarded as the greatest architect of 16th-century northern Italy. His designs for palaces (palazzi) and villas, notably the Villa Rotonda (1550–51) near Vicenza, and his treatisce I quattro libri dell’architettura (1570; The Four Books of Architecture) made him one of the most influential figures in Western architecture.
Happily, they had an audio guide that actually downloaded to our phones (almost never works) and we were able to wander the old city of Vicenza discovering some of Palladio’s buildings. We started with the Olympic Theatre built in 1585. The theatre is the same today as when it was built, the stage set a remarkable design with 7 streets (only able to see all 7 if you move about the theatre) which was the city of Thebes since they were putting on Greek plays. It was the first covered theatre ever and the set design was only dismantled once, during WWII, to protect it, putting it in the basement of the basilica.
Palazzo Chiericati – designed to welcome guests who arrived on the two rivers that intersected in front of the building. The arcade under was a place to protect guests from the rain and weather.
Palazzo Barbarano, the Palladio Museum was wonderful. There was a current exhibit of Rafael as architect – and yes, the same Rafael that we think of as a painter. Total reframe looking at one of his famous paintings and focusing on all the architectural elements.
Here’s the painting that was examined with the focus on the columns, angles, etc.
We had lunch, a great lunch with interesting flavors, on a side street that we found near the museum. This entire street was filled with gorgeous buildings, one after the other. They must have all been palazzos and people walked down the street like it was normal!
This sign did a good job explaining Palladio’s vision and purpose for the basilica.
Ach – really couldn’t get the whole thing in the photo
And Palladio:
We could have continued for hours if not another day with buildings inside and outside the main town center of Palladio’s design.
We then drove home (after 5 days, it does feel like coming home), did a final wander on our own and then made dinner trying to clean out the frig and cupboards since tomorrow’s travel is car to boat and will be harder to carry multiple bags.
Verona We had a day of exploring Verona today, getting lost a few times in this small city because of the windy streets, but we’re getting to know it.
I went out early and sat by the river, like yesterday, but this time decided to wander over to the Basilica of St. Zeno. It’s huge! I don’t know why I keep being surprised. Rick, Cathy and I came back later so that we could go inside. Some of the discoveries: different building design, painting by Raphael, alter piece by Montagna, and the most incredible bronze doors with plaques of different scenes.
From bikethecity.it: San Zeno Maggiore, or St. Zeno in English, is the patron saint of Verona. He was the 8th Bishop of Verona from 362 until his death in 380, known for founding Christianity in the city. He was respectfully nicknamed ‘il Vescovo Moro’, which translates as the Moor Bishop. This is due to his African origins as he was born in Mauritania.
Saint Zeno lived a simple life in austerity and was a well-educated man. He is considered the protector saint of fishermen because it is said that he used to fish in the river Adige.
The San Zeno Basilica holds his remains in the crypt under the main altar.
Here’s a bit of the church history from Wikipedia: “The current church was built on the site where at least five other religious buildings had previously been built. It seems that its origin is to be found in a church built on the tomb of San Zeno of Verona, who died between 372 and 380. The building was rebuilt at the beginning of the 9th century at the behest of Bishop Ratoldo and the King of Italy Pippin who judged it inappropriate for the body of the patron saint to rest in a poor church. The consecration took place on 8 December 806 while on 21 May of the following year the body of San Zeno was transferred to the crypt.”
Modifications/changes continued for centuries, but it feels cohesive even as you can see the particularly ancient areas. The art that I mentioned above was worth a lot of time and Cathy and I pondered the bronze doors for a good while. Our favorite was of one of the three artists, who cast himself doing the creating. He’s on the lower left side.
On the steps up to the altar, we saw a great example of the fossils that Krystal had told us about on our tour with her. She noted that the streets and sidewalks in a lot of Verona are made with marble, but it’s not really pure marble. Instead, it’s Verona marble, which you can tell because of all the fossils embedded in the stone.
Sharon, Cathy, Rick and I also went to the Duomo and did a quick tour. The most remarkable piece of the tour was seeing the 3rd and 4th century church through glass flooring under S. Elena’s church which itself started in the 9th century.
Then, we had the most amazing tour. Leaf had wanted to see the Biblioteca Capitolare, the oldest continually operating library in the world. And it was fantastic. He had a whole series of emails in goggle translated with the library to try to get us into an English tour – and it worked! The young woman who did the tour was incredibly knowledgeable and loved her work and sharing the stories.
Valeria, our guide, started by showing us the outside of St. Helen’s canonical church that a few of us had seen earlier when we toured the Duomo – only way to see the inside. In 1320 Dante Alighieri held his dissertation, the Quaestio de Aqua et Terra, in St. Helen’s canonical church. The church belonged to the same Chapter of Canons which was in charge of the Library. This event is remembered by an inscription on the external wall of the church. There was a statue designed to commemorate his 700th birthday.
We then moved to see many more mosaics from the Roman church that we’d first seen in S. Elena’s church. These continued through all of the buildings we were in – with sections of floor glassed, or flooring open to the designs below. Incredible. Valeria particularly liked 2 different mosaics. The one below had her name – a couple who donated to the churches gave enough to be able to put their name in the design.
This one’s first name meant dung – which could have had many meanings, bringing life, secure enough to carry off the name, and his design included 382 florins – which is how much he donated to put in a lot of mosaics.
When we were in this area, the site of the first church, she said speculation assumed that the library started in the 3rd or 4th century on this site. Here’s some information from the Biblioteca Capitolare’s website:
Originally, it was founded as a Scriptorium: a sort of writing laboratory, dedicated to the production of parchment books for the education and the spiritual training of the future clergymen. The scribes, in charge of copying the books, belonged to the Schola majoris Ecclesiae, the Cathedral Chapter’s school (“Capitulus” is the Latin word for “Chapter”, from which the name “Capitolare” comes from). During the transitional centuries between the Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, marked by deep crisis, it was mainly churchmen who were given an education. Despite the political, social, demographic and economic decadence, they had the chance to receive and pass on the ancient classical culture.
One of those scribes, Ursicinus, left us the first written evidence of the Scriptorium’s existence. The book he copied, now known as Manuscript XXXVIII, contains the narration of the lives of St. Martin of Tours – written by Sulpicius Severus – and of St. Paul of Thebes, by St. Jerome. At the end of the last page, he added some data which were very unusual for the time: his own name, the place and the date. The date, written as “the Kalends of August in the year of consulate of Agapitus”, is identifiable as 1 August AD 517: a time when Verona was under the rule of Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths.
The note, although very concise, is extremely important. In fact, it bears witness of a first form of cultural activity, organized for the book copying, back in the early 6th century. It is therefore likely that the first installation of the Scriptorium had been founded at least one century before. According to other scholars, its foundation might also be connected to the establishment of the first Basilica in the late 4th century.
Amongst the other treasures of the Capitolare there are also a few books even older than Ursicinus’: for example, Manuscript XXVIII, the oldest known copy of the “De Civitate Dei” (The City of God) by St. Augustine. It dates back to the early 5th century, and it is therefore contemporary with the author.
Valeria, our guide, had a group of 10 people who were in nerdeuphoria. Seriously cool. We were all riveted. She told us all of the above with a wry sense of humor and delight about what we were going to see and were seeing as we walked the cloister where the order of the Chapter still has members living and working in the library.
And the little room where priests or cannons were having a hard time following the rules spent time. Now, it’s where they keep their bikes:
And then into the library which had to be fully rebuilt after it was bombed by the Americans. Sigh. WWII.
The librarian Giuseppe Turrini had already removed the manuscripts and the most valuable printed books, and stored them in the rectory of Erbezzo – a small town on the nearby mountains. Other precious books had been previously hidden in a secret room inside the Cathedral. Those which were left, buried in rubble, were then partially retrieved and put back on the shelves after the hall’s reconstruction. They still show signs of the damage they underwent from the damages of the explosion. We could see this when she pointed them out.
Wolfgang Hagemann, Giuseppe Turrini and Bernard Peebles in 1945. Really – the story is amazing, so am putting the whole thing here, from L’Arena:“ A priest between two enemies who, on opposite fronts, had fought for a common goal: to save the Chapter Library from war. The image taken 70 years ago shows Monsignor Giuseppe Turrini, prefect of the Capitolare, between Wolfgang Hagemann and Bernard Peebles in the rubble of the library, in the uniform of a sergeant major of the US army, special department of Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives: the Monuments Men at whose feats the George Clooney film was dedicated. Hagemann and Peebles were eminent philologists, both had studied in Verona on the codes of the Capitolare. Enlisted on opposite fronts, they had found a way to get sent to Italy with the same concern: to save the Capitulary. Hagemann had arrived in Verona with ranks of officer and prestige: he had been Rommel’s personal interpreter, the desert fox. He placed himself at Turrini’s disposal and was invaluable: the monsignor, fearing the bombings which punctually arrived in January 1945 (destruction of the monumental Maffeian hall, 1,250 volumes and files lost) had transferred codes and manuscripts to the rectory of Erbezzo. He believed them to be safe, but Hagemann warned him instead of the danger: it was an area of anti-partisan operations and the Germans could set fire to the town (Vestena suffered this Nazi retaliation). Hagemann sent a trusted officer to Erbezzo, Fritz Weigle, who had also studied at the Capitulary in 1927, and he affixed a «befel» signed «Wolff/SS-Obergrappenführer u. General der Waffen-SS» which declared the KUNSTDENKMAL building: «Prohibited occupation and requisition», as translated for use by the fascist militias. In the last, dramatic period of hostilities, however, Hagemann intervened to advise the transfer of the codices to the Marciana Library in Venice and to other safer hiding places. Meanwhile, Peebles, who had already saved the archives of Philip V in Sicily, was going up the peninsula with the allied troops, recovering documents from 1713 that were used as wallpaper. Arrived in Verona with the first liberators, he rushed to the Capitolare: the photo shows him with the former enemy, rediscovered as a scholar and custodian of the cultural heritage.
Then – the grand reveal – Valeria showed us several incredible examples of their collection. She washed her hands first and told us that the experts no longer used white gloves. They’d learned that the weave of the gloves could do damage and the lack of hand sensitivity with the barrier meant that damage could happen when turning the pages.
First she showed us books made with parchment – sheep for the big pages, lamb for the small pages. The yellower side was the outside where you could still see pores. It was incredibly durable and absorbed the ink really well. One skin held two pages, front and back:
The text below was taken by Napoleon after he left post invasion, each item was stamped as owned by France. They were able to get back about 2/3rds of the collection that he took away and felt lucky to get them. They have requested another specific book from their collection, but it’s been 25 years and they haven’t heard anything yet.
With the invention of the printing press, around 1450, the library got its first incunabula (early printed books, produced between 1450 and 1500). The one below was the Divine Comedy. Illustrated with incredible detail within the wooden blocks for the press – the big print on the written page is Dante’s words, the rest is commentary. Seriously.
Today we had a day away from Verona, driving to Lago di Garda. It was wonderful! We had read a few articles that Cathy had from a friend of hers who lives in Lucca – mykindofitaly.com. He wrote 2 posts about Lago di Garda that were informative and a treat to read. So – that’s what we used to explore the lake.
We started to go into the town at the bottom of the lake, Sirmione, but as we got close, everything in the article indicated better to go up along the lake if we didn’t mind missing Roman ruins. We didn’t.
Our Sirmione detour added at least 30 min to the drive, but Leaf took it in stride, Rick made a few jokes about our planning, and we drove up a lot of the east side of the lake, finally stopping at Malcesine. It was a 2-lane road and the ride was hairy a lot of the way because there were multiple bikers, of all varieties, scooters, motorcyclists who wove between the lines, and no shoulder. Oh, and cars and trucks and people walking across the streets at all of the little towns. And it’s not even high season! You had to be calm and very alert. Leaf, of course, was both.
We knew there was a ferry at Malcesine that crossed over to Limone. We’d been in the car for more than an hour and were ready to move when we got to Malcesine. We parked, found a restroom, then bought ferry tickets at the information office (really conveniently located in the middle of town, next to parking and a grocery store). We caught a ferry just as it was loading up. And we got seats on top!
It was beautiful. Spectacularly beautiful. Bewildering because all the messages on the ferry were in German. Wait, what? And they continued – only in German. Once back on land, we heard German, most of the tourists seemed to be German (Swiss German?), written signs were in German first, then Italian – but the food was all Italian. Confusing, but interesting.
We enjoyed the ride over, cool breeze, beautiful on both sides of the lake with dramatic mountains on both sides as well. We landed in Limone and caught a quick lunch of paninis that were seriously good. Then – off and walking. This would have been a terrible day for our Eli – castles on both sides of the lake in each town, and we missed both and instead took a trail that the blog said was fantastic. And it was! Short, only 2.8 miles each way, but the walkway was built into the mountain and hung out over the lake and was quite dramatic. Happily, it was pretty wide and had a solid feel to it – no surprise views below my feet – so I was able to walk the whole thing without issue.
We strolled along, watching paragliders up high and an incredible variety of water activity below, wind surfers, parasail surfing, foils, sunfish, really colorful and fun to watch.
Hmm, guess I was watching, I don’t have photos of the actual walk hanging over the lake or the water activity!
When we got back to Limone, we were SO hot. We got lemon freeze drinks and again – caught the ferry just as it was leaving and hopped on. Our timing was lucky both ways.
We decided to drive the rest of the way up to the top of the lake, not far, and then take a more major road home, away from the lake. I was driving now and had it easy. The traffic and bikes had decreased a bit so it wasn’t quite as nerve racking negotiating the road.
We got to Riva del Gardia at the very top of the lake and suddenly, we felt like we were in a different country. Maybe Switzerland? The buildings were so different from what we’d seen in every other Italian town. It was beautiful in a very different way. We walked around town and then sat down for a snack next to the water. The town really was a pleasure to walk around. It had cooled down, the streets were wide and almost the whole town was pedestrian and bike only.
When I read a bit of history, as well as looking at the signs around town, we realized that Austria had occupied this area quite a bit. The constant push and pull between the church and the German/Austrian powers over the years had left their influence.
I drove home on the Autostrada and it was easy. I love having the road clear of all but a few entrances and exits, it feels much safer. People don’t usually go the speed limit, makes sense since it’s close to 80, but in general, it feels really safe and there are rarely crazy drivers. In addition, Rick noted that the vineyards were planted very differently – so we had interesting views on a lot of the ride home. This is one beautiful country!
We started the day early to get out for our 5k race – slow walk for most of us. We all wore our shirts and absolutely loved the scene. Warm, dry, bit of a breeze, perfect.
We started in the “stroller, older, wheelchair” group at 8:30. Four of us walked, but pretty quickly Leaf moved into a run and then joined the 10k group and ended up running a crazy path up the hill to the overview of the city on dirt, thin cobbles, all in a big group. But he definitely got a run in!
Waiting for the start:
At the start – and selfies are just hard to get, but you can see all of us there!
Some scenes along the way:
We never figured out what the story was of the guy with the marshmallows.
Below is the medieval bridge attached to the castle 2 blocks from our apartment.
The bridge, Ponte Di Castelvecchio, and castle were built by the Lord Canagrande In della Scala (the big dog) in the 1300’s. The divided top meant that he did not put the church first, but the opposing government. He built the fortress of Castelvecchio with an escape route to the Adige Valley, in case of a riot by one of the enemy factions within the city.
The river Adage curves all around Verona, an easily defensible barrier and the Germans bombed the bridges as they were retreating. Just as in Florence, the people of Verona dived and recovered everything they could from this particular bridge, then built two brick kilns to make replica bricks in order to fully rebuild the bridge.
We then came back to the apartment, showered, and then went right back out to meet Krystal for our walk around Verona. She was wonderful! American, so understood our questions, passionate about Verona and its people, history and architecture.
Telling us about the Roman wall seen behind us and looking down the Roman road – straight; “that’s how you know they were Roman, all the other roads twist and turn. The pavers under the wall show how they they’ve been worn by those who’ve passed during and since those times.”
Verona first had a Roman wall around the city, there are only 2 gates left, this is one of them, as well as one bridge (we ran back over this at the end of the run). Then a larger medieval wall was built around the city and most of this wall is still left. Finally a Renaissance wall was built, even bigger yet. A protected city.
Waiting while we get some water, hot day!
When Dante got kicked out of Florence for disclosing way too much about famous people in his Divine Comedy, he went to Verona and lived there for a couple of years.
We walked by “Juliette’s” house, which was closed, but the statue below was behind glass across the street to protect it since so many people kept touching her breast to be lucky in love.
I was going to visit the Casa di Giulietta because I thought it was a medieval house museum and it kind of is, but not really, so let it go. The 4th floor balcony was made from Roman stones that had been saved for special building purposes. There’s actually a law against standing on the balcony and reciting Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet come to mind when thinking of Verona, so here’s a summary for how the house came to be from the casadiguillietta.com.
The story of Romeo and Juliet was born from the pen of Luigi da Porto, a nobleman from Vicenza, and was published as a short story in 1531; the Veronese setting is probably inspired by Dante’s Comedy . In the XVII canto of the Paradiso the lordship of Bartolomeo della Scala is remembered, while in the VI canto of the Purgatorio the Montecchi and the Cappelletti are remembered, medieval families fighting each other. The Montecchi were really an ancient and noble Veronese family involved in the factional struggles of the thirteenth century, while the Cappellettis were a Guelph family from Cremona, believed to be Veronese at the time of da Porto.
The story of Romeo and Juliet immediately began to circulate in Verona and was reprinted and rewritten several times. In 1553 two versions were written, one in prose by the famous novelist Matteo Bandello, the other in verse by the Veronese nobleman Gherardo Boldieri; soon crosses the borders of the peninsula. Known and appreciated in France, it then reached England where, in 1596, it was staged by William Shakespeare with the title of The most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet . The universal fame of Romeo and Juliet is owed to the immortal verses of William Shakespeare.
Around 1560 Gherardo Boldieri hypothesised that a sarcophagus of medieval origin preserved in the garden of the church of San Francesco al Corso (indicated by Da Porto as the burial place of Juliet) was the tomb of the young heroine: thus began the Veronese ‘myth’ of Romeo and Juliet.
In the eighteenth century, Juliet’s tomb was already visited by European travelers on the Grand Tour who began to question the existence of the Capulet house. After all, if a tomb exists, a house must have existed too: and so begins the story of Juliet’s house.
The tower house at number 23 of via Cappello has medieval origins and is attested in documents as early as 1351. It housed an inn, called del Cappello, owned by the heirs of a certain Antonio Cappello. This is also attested by the sign with the hat that can still be seen today on the keystone of the arch facing the internal courtyard.
It stayed an inn through the centuries, and at the end of the 18th century European’s began to visit it on Shakespearean tours. Hans Christian Andersen wrote about it between 1833 and 1834: “I climbed the ladder Romeo had secretly climbed, to meet love and death. There was still the grand ballroom, with the faded frescoes on the walls, the large windows reaching down to the floor, but hay and straw were scattered around (…). Here once the proudest families of Verona had danced to the sound of sweet music, here Romeo and Juliet had dreamed their brief love dream; I deeply felt the vanity of all earthly splendor.”
So – back to Rebecca here – the owners decided they should just make it Juliet’s house and created medieval frescoes, some furniture, etc that would reflect the time of Juliet and of the house’s original look.
Here’s a much more significant part of Verona’s history, their one remaining synagogue. The sun is shining down as if making sure we don’t miss the building:
Verona has gone back through history and placed gold markers on each spot they could document where someone was arrested and deported – they’re throughout the city.
Below photo: There was also a plaque on the building that tells about Rita Rosani, a leader of a group of partisans. The plaque says: “Many women have behaved valiantly, but you surpass them all.” She was only 24 when she died, but she led a small party of partisans and gradually had gathered more until she had 15 with her when there was a final battle. The men were ready to retreat and regroup and she went out in front with a musket and was killed.
Her belated Gold Medal of Military Valor was given with this description: “Persecuted politically, she became part of a partisan armed band living the hard life of a fighter. She was companion, sister, animator of indomitable value and ardent faith. She never retreated from the certain danger and suffering of her rough existence, in order to complete the delicate and very risky missions entrusted to her. When her band was surrounded by preponderant Nazi-fascist forces, she took up arms and last to retreat, she fought strenuously until she fell bravely on the field, sacrificing her young and heroic existence to the homeland.”
I was just going back through my pictures (I’m a couple days behind) and I realized there’s a LOT more to remember from our walk with Krystal, but I’ve already forgotten it. Really have to do these posts each day. What I will say is that Verona has a lot to offer and it’s a wonderfully vibrant town.
We then met Krystal’s husband, Zeno, and their 4 year old daughter, Clara – precocious and darling. We had a long leisurely typically Italian lunch. Rick and Leaf were SO ready to get moving and here came the third course, oh, and desert… Happily, we were outside and in the shade so it was overall a treat of a lunch.
And then – reading, showering post hot day’s walk, and then later walk around town a bit because it cooled down and was perfect 🙂
Travel day! We left our tower, ready to move towards something that was a little less grand, a little warmer and perhaps even a bit newer :). We started to Verona and Cathy mentioned that she’d like to go by a bakery on the way that she’d learned about. So 15 minutes after we started our trip, we stopped for cappuccino and pastries. Seriously yum. The driver (it wasn’t me) couldn’t believe we hadn’t gotten further, but it was a fun stop.
For the first time, we were seeing a town, Castiglione del Lago, that had people in it and there were young people both at the counter and having treats as well as older folks.
And then – we started on our way to Verona. An easy drive, the directions to the apartment were perfect and Luigi met us outside the door. We unloaded our things and took turns loading into the small, but lovely, elevator with Luigi’s instructions – close these doors tightly, then close this door tightly, then push the button to the 5th floor. And it worked! And when you get out, you have to repeat and make sure everything’s closed up tightly for the next person.
The apartment is very central, though we had no idea until we walked that afternoon looking for a late lunch/dinner. The apartment must have been recently renovated, everything works and it’s now warm and not raining for a bit. What a nice change. So we have windows open, bright rooms with lots of light and we settled in quickly.
Cathy had gotten tickets (which was NOT easy) to Peter Gabriel at the Arena, a giant Roman arena that’s still used for performances. Primarily opera from June to September, but also a few big music performances. It can hold 15,000 people, it was general admission and raining off and on, so we weren’t sure how it was going to go. But what a fun idea!
Tomorrow we are scheduled to meet a friend of a friend of Cathy’s who’s lived in Verona for the last 10 years, married to a Veronian man and who does tours for friends and family. She told Cathy there would be a big race downtown so let’s meet a bit later.. Leaf looked up the race and realized it was like the Bolder Boulder, lot of people, all ages/abilities and there was a 5k, 10k and 20k option. So we all decided – sure, we’ll do that too!
But we had to register – now. We went 4 blocks from our apartment and were at the center of things and saw the arena and absolutely throngs and lines of people. For the race registration? We finally found where to register for the race which was happening the next morning and realized all the lines we were looking at were people already lining up to get into the concert! Good grief.
Luckily, Rick had prepared in case we couldn’t get back before the concert and had extra bags to cover us if it rained, an inflatable pillow to sit on, a poncho (they were selling them for 5) and we got in line. Leaf went back to get Sharon who was getting some stuff settled at the apartment. We thought we could just tell them where we were. So didn’t work like that. It was crazy full and we were shuttled into some of the last seating. Leaf and Sharon ended up getting shuttled to the exact opposite side of the arena.
Getting into the arena:
But then – so fun. Bright colors because of the ponchos, gorgeous sky, the rain stopped and we were in a Roman arena 2000 years old listening to a concert! And the audience – crazy polite. The stone steps we were sitting on were a definite hazard and they took safety seriously. Very steep, very hard, and no handholds. We only saw 2 people leave and come back, presumably going to the bathrooms. We weren’t allowed to bring in pointy umbrellas or binoculars, or any food/drinks. When they sold cans of beer, they poured them into plastic cups and kept the cans, when they sold bottles of water, they opened them and kept the tops. All safety measures.
Guy selling drinks, look at all the colors of the audience!
It was pure fun – maybe some of the songs were slow and long, but the audience loved him and we loved the scene and enjoyed a lot of the music too. A great night!
When we were at lunch at Il Casale, we had seen an arrangement of beans, lentils, pasta in bags and assumed they were for sale. After we’d had an incredible lentil dish, Cathy went to buy some and they said, no, not for sale. But the chef gave Cathy her lentil dish recipe and told her where to go to get them. “Just over there”, not far.
This morning, we went to buy lentils. And drove and drove. Leaf stayed home to work and the four of us went on a food adventure. We realized why she wouldn’t sell her lentils because it took a good while, but it was a fun drive. We were laughing about the distance to go for Cathy’s lentils. Then we arrived at the farm and were the first customers at a new packing plant they had just opened. They had so much! Lentils, beans, pasta, sauces, jams, and such nice people. They grow and package everything there.
We couldn’t resist and all bought a few things, even though it will load the bags down. Worth it! Using the charge machine for the first time in the building…Cathy brought her own bag to load up!
We then went to an olive oil tasting that Cathy had arranged (noting a theme here?). We were up for it, but a bit dubious about drinking sips of different olive oils just for how we’d react after. But it wasn’t like that at all. First, this small organic olive oil/wine/honey farm was amazing. We were given the talk, taste, and tour by Lucia, the owner. She was passionate about her work and product and had won top prizes every year for her oil. As she said over and over, it was quality, not quantity from 3000 trees.
Cathy started with Italian, Lucia responded in English and stuck with that. She had a full lecture and it was interesting. She and her husband worked in Rome and financed this “dream” from a distance, going back and forth. When they started, there were a few trees, bare ground and a rough farm house. 9 of them slept upstairs in a group, 6 cows downstairs. She showed us photos of the progression of growth over the 40 years they’d been farming.
We were all appreciative, asking a few questions in the midst of the talk when the moment was right and then Cathy, who was the most appreciative and knowledgeable, asked a question. “Do you run your mill all year around?” Lucia just looked at her and said, “weren’t you listening to what I said? Didn’t you learn anything? I said, we work with the earth. There’s only one harvest time!” And more. Ach. Later, hilarity once we were out of Lucia’s hearing. Cathy, of course, knows all about oil and after we tasted the oil (delicious) was able to offer the note, “this has the perfect balance of bitter and tart (which got approval)”.
Lucia told us that she only moved up 13 years ago to live full time on the farm because she and her husband needed to keep working to finance the farm. But she also said they had 6 villas and apartments which was how they afforded running the olive oil mill. “This is a work of dreamers and passion, but it doesn’t pay for itself.” They need the income from the property rentals. She was very proud, rightly so, of their completely up to date oil processing system and it was so interesting. She’s so proud of her granddaughter and is hoping she’ll want to take over some day:) Would be great to be here in the fall and actually see everything in situ.
We bought some oil, but since we can also order online, I restrained and only bought one. Luggage is getting heavy between lentils and oil.
Series of photos from the tasting through a bit of the tour:
Explaining below how the trees roots can live for a thousand years so that even if a tree is damaged, it can recover and grown again.
Just before flowering:
These photos show the progress of the farm over 40 years, middle is the start, then above and then below is current.
And a gorgeous garden in addition to the olive mill, winery, and honey production:
We left with thanks and goodbyes and drove back towards home really pleased with a totally different and oh so Italian morning, courtesy of Cathy’s planning.
Lunch was bread, salad, and soup from the lentil farm, great. Cathy, Sharon and I then went for a walk into Paciano while Rick and Leaf took a nap. Paciano was another seemingly dead and beautiful small medieval town. Where are all the people? So bewildering.
Both Paciano and Panicale are immaculate, flowers and gardens outside of town cared for, some few signs of life with curtains, parked cars, but no people. Rick and Leaf staggered their walks, but both ended up hiking up and over the mountain behind us and said it was gorgeous, wonderful views. I was ok not doing any bushwhacking to get the views and after our walk, just read and had some down time.
That night we went for dinner in Paciano, and there were some people – the restaurant filled up while we were there. Good dinner, few new flavors, Sharon got a great pizza and we were in and out in an hour. Cathy said we probably broke a timing record for the restaurant. We then drove over to Panicale so Sharon could see it and I really wanted to see if any people had emerged post “pausa” the Italian word for siesta. Nope. Still beautiful, a few tourists in the restaurants on the plaza (maybe 7?) and very very few windows lit up.
We walked up the road outside of Panicale to see the view both Rick and Leaf had talked about – they were right, expansive and wonderful at night. Seriously steep road and aesthetically and wonderfully paved and a car drove up it while we were up there! Would not want to do that drive in the rain.
Two views from the ridge line
The next morning when we talked with Katia, checking out of the tower, she said it’s so sad. She lives outside of Panicale, and is the youngest person in town at 50. There are 16 seniors who live in town and she does grocery runs for them and helps out. She said Americans, Bulgarians (?), and Colombians have bought buildings, hotel, apartments and then just leave them empty, staying a week or two. So sad. And there’s nothing for her kids to do once school is over, so everyone leaves. But it is beautiful, so she’s hoping maybe something will shift.
Reb's Walks! 