Since I last checked in we’ve been to Firenze and Assisi. In Firenze I was lucky enough to catch up with an old school friend, Dr A, who showed us around and pointed out fantastic frescoes, carvings and building decorations we would have never noticed otherwise. As she has studied art for years we learned lots of interesting stuff. In one church she told us that the bodies in the grave yard (which was in a court-yard surrounded by frescoes) had all be exhumed as apparently decomposing bodies, while great for the soil, are terrible for frescoes. She gave us an excellent piece of advice which I will pass onto you, for the next time you’re in Italy. Visit the churches – the art is beautiful and FREE! As long as you’re respectful, quiet and don’t walk in with a boom box on your shoulder playing ‘My Lovely Lady Lumps’ or ‘Boom Boom Boom (let’s go back to my room)’ you should be fine.
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| The prize Chianina |
We saw the replica of David (he has very big hands –
something to do with perspective, he was meant to be a lot higher up) and without
planning managed to be in Firenze on their patron saint’s day (St John the
Baptist) where they paraded through the streets in medieval gear, leading a Chianina (pronounced keya-nina in Firenze) followed by a two football teams.
The parade ended with a football game. Not sure if the winning team gets
the Chianina. Afterwards, as all that
beef made us hungry, we shared a bistecca for dinner while we watched the
fireworks across the river. In the
restaurant we met some American families (one family with two sons who were
pro-guns) one said “I shoot guns for relaxation” I replied “Oh really? I do
yoga”… Funnily enough their mother was
anti…
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| The remains of the bistecca a la florentina |
Then it was time to leave Firenze for Assisi – the
birthplace and general hangout of St Francis – patron saint of animals and the
environment. We found out lots of
interesting stuff about him. For
instance, he was the first person to do a nativity scene. Assisi is very old and very beautiful (if you
like hills, we’re kinda sick of hills now).
Their thing is pottery, so lots of beautiful hand-painted stuff. One guy reckoned his family had been doing it
for 1000 years (he could have just been spinning us a tourist line
though).
Lots of churches (seriously) nuns and priests rockin’ the
streets in their Jesus sandals. I
haven’t seen so many God botherers in one place ever. There I was thinking taking the vows was
dying out. Not in Italy. There were nun-tourists with cameras,
priest-tourists buying new Jesus sandals, ministers doing tours... We had to
watch our blaspheming, in case we were smote.
In the main piazza there’s an old Roman Temple dating back
to 1 AD – It used to be Minerva’s joint but it’s been consecrated and generally
taken over by the Catholics. It took us
a while to figure out why there were so many owl figurines in Assisi –
apparently Minerva could turn herself into an owl. Which is funny because in all the literature
they keep referring to the ‘The so called temple of Minerva’ – I’m surprised
the owls have slipped under the radar – sneaky Minerva…
We found a tiny osteria (tavern) down in a valley; it was
fantastic - eating pasta for lunch looking over the olive groves with a chickie
coop in the foreground. We’d decided to
do the walk down as there was an old church to check out. As we were walking through the fields we
found wild fennel, juniper and oregano.
It all smells so much stronger here. Amazeballs.
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| happy chickies in a beaut coop |
We ate twice in the restaurant which was attached to our
hotel. The owner was crazy (in a nice
way) so as well as the food being delicious; watching the staff and the crazy
owner interact was worth the price of food in itself. There was yelling, bumbling, food grabbed
back on its way out of the kitchen three times in a row because she wanted to
add “one more thing”. We think
anyway. The Wee Girl couldn’t understand
a word she said.
Off to Todi now - catch ya!
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