Thought That Came Unbidden

Sometimes il treno non va, especially if there has just been a major train disaster somewhere down the line.  Still…Siena was achieved eventually.

The town is a maze, a series of concentric rings with cut throughs in the steep hills.  July 1st marks the first day of the first part of the annual festival of il Palio which is both a religious and political holiday. Seventeen districts, or neighborhoods (contrade), exist in Siena, each with its own flag and colors.

There will be parades, and singing, and a horse race (only 10 districts per year compete, I’ve read).  Without tickets, we probably won’t see the actual race.

In general it has been a good trip, but you know you’re desperate for home when you read every page of the International Herald Tribune, even the day 3 of Wimbledon coverage.

The Traveling

Don’t expect your train trip from Florence to Siena to be something out of Under the Tuscan Sun. Trains world-wide tend to run through poor or industrial areas and everybody’s laundry looks like everyone else’s laundry.

Tomorrow, it’s back to Rome, a nice dinner and a sleep, and then home.

P.S.

Dear Rome,

They have this great thing in Siena called a toilet seat.  You find them in any number of the available restrooms.  Try them, they’re quite comfortable.

Firenze

It is arguable who invented cafe culture the French or the Florentines. And since it’s arguable, someone in Florence would be happy to discuss it with you.

Florence is in many ways the antithesis of Rome: relaxed, laid back, and sure of itself in that quintessentially Italian way that makes “domani, o dopo domani” an acceptable answer to almost any question.

Florence gets just as many tourists as Rome does but seems to deal with them better. The difference is thus: take things easy and eventually you’ll get what you want and where you are going.

The city is, in some ways, a fly in amber, and even though there are more, and older, landmarks farther south, Florence seems to have a more comfortable sense of its connection to its history.

The Sites

Like the Basilica of St. Peter, Il Duomo (Santa Maria del Fiore), has a dress code. It’s also a monumental space with its double-shell dome by Brunelleschi. Yes, you can climb the 514 stairs to the cupola where you get an amazing view of the mosaics on the nave floor and a much closer view of the realms of earth, heaven, and hell painted on the inside of the inner dome. No, I didn’t. Still…the painting was impressive even from that far down.

The Museo degli Uffizi (hint uffizi means offices which is perfect considering that this building was originally the admistrative offices of the Medici dukedom in Florence) is a must see even if the only things you spend any time gazing at are The Birth of Venus and Spring by Bottacelli (though there are other absolutely stunning works on display; I recommend skipping the tour and making reservations, that way you spend your time seeing what you want to see not what the tour company thinks you want to see). Oddly, while moving these two pieces aren’t quite as brilliant as I’d expected them to be. Still, masterpieces in person make all other representations pale in comparison.

The Galleria del’Accademia was purpose built to house Michaelanglo’s David, so much so that the rest of the museum is basically an afterthought. Still, the statue literally takes your breath away as you round a corner to find it at the end of a corridor, under both the defuse light from Florence’s usually bright sky and some strategically placed spotlights. The museum currently features a companion exhibit on Robert Mapplethorpe illustrating how Mapplethorpe reproduced a lot of the same studies of form and figure in his photographs that influenced the master sculptor. Take some time to look at some of Michaelangelo’s half finished works displayed along the walk up to the main attraction. In many ways they are more fascinating than the finished product.

The Accommodations

Dear Rome,
They have this great thing in Florence and Pisa called a toilet seat. They also grasp the concept that if you are going to feed and wine people as well as you will easily be able to feed and wine in both cities you need to give them a place relieve themselves. Consider the concept.

The Traffic

Abandon the idea that you won’t be walking in the street. Here even more than Rome pedestrians dominate. If in Rome the traffic is everywhere and from every direction, in Florence they’ve stayed sane because of small, one way streets that allow cars and pedestrian traffic to thrive side by side.

Embrace the “safety in numbers” theory when crossing to make it less scary and be aware that traffic regulations are more of a guideline for both Vespas and bicycles (especially the bicycles in Pisa with its population of 50,000 university students).

The Food

Don’t come to Florence expecting to stay on your diet. It’s unbelieably easy to eat well. My advice: stay away from any place that has pictures on its menu and you should be fine. Oh, and try the gelateria on the oltrarno side of the St. Trinita bridge. The ciccolato fondente is a bit of heaven.

And if you can, check to see when the annual notte bianca festival happens. It’s a night of music and street vendors and organic wine for 3 Euro for a cup. Most of Florence roams the streets from 9pm to 4am socializing, eating, and enjoying life.

Pisa

While the tower gets most of the attention, the entire Piazza dei Miracoli stuns with its alabaster church, bapistry, and “campo santo” (essentially a series of tombs for the revered). The museum’s staff demonstrates the amazing sonic properties of the bapistry twice per hour.

Get the 10 Euro ticket and see five of the 6 museums available (excluding the tower; that’s 15 Euro and you have to climb all 344 steps). The Museo dell’Opera del Duomo is worth it for both the amazing tapestries and the serene inner courtyard of what was a Capauchin convent.

Trains from Firenze to Pisa run approximately twice per hour, take about 1 hour and 25 minutes, and are something of a zoo. Try to get a newer car but be sure to use the loo first; the entire train is second class.

Viaggerò a domani a Siena where, apparently, they’re having the annual horse race spectacular. It’s a competition among the various ring neighborhoods of the city that dates back at least 500 years.

Roma

Gli stranieri, the strangers…this is how Romans refer to the hordes, and it is hordes, of tourists that crawl all over the city. Both being one of them and watching how i turisti behave I’ve noticed the following:

Americans: While not physically the biggest (they grow them quite tall Down Under), we are generally the loudest. Even though Italians are famed for their jovial nature, conversations in restaurants tend to be quiet and confined to a table sounding a lot like the adults in Peanuts. Sadly, you can always use your ears to spot the Americans. Also, least able to share a sidewalk.

British (and this includes the Aussies): Tend to be kitted out as if they are going to spend a week surviving in the woods. I have no idea what is in those packs but whatever may come, they are well prepared. Though I have to say, they’re also quite friendly and willing to engage those they don’t know.

Dutch: After the Germans, the most driven group of tourists. If it’s there to see, by God they’re going to see it, and they don’t seem any too happy about it either.

Germans: They have an agenda. It will be accomplished.

French: Are apparently just as rude abroad as they are rumored to be in France.

Japanese: The Japanese are here. How can you tell? Because they are everywhere, they’re all together, and they’re walking opposite the normal direction of traffic for a right hand drive country the entire time. Tolerable Hawaii, not so much here.

The Sites

The Trevi Fountain (and gelato) is just as impressive in person as it is on film. Try the gelato. I dare you to eat all all of the dozen gelaterias that ring this historic site.

The Pantheon is the opposite in intent from St. Peter’s Basilica: open and in touch with the elements where St. Peter’s seeks to exclude anything not sanctioned by the Church.

Do stick your hand in La Bocca de Verita if you get a chance. One picture per person, though, and enjoy the extremely spartan church that houses this famous pagan artifact in its portico.

The accomodations

Dear Rome,

We have this lovely thing in the rest of the world called a toilet seat. It makes sitting on the bowl a less unpleasant experience. Oh, wait, having those would imply the existence of public toilets (even pay ones). When in Rome, or Naples, learn to hold it.

I’m not kidding.

Napoli

If Rome is Manhattan, Naples is the Bronx. A working port, Naples is small, hot, dirty, crowded, and a bit scary. Oh, yes, and they’re storing all their construction equipment in the piazzas. No, really…all their construction equipment.

Given that my father’s people were from here, I wanted Naples to be more than just the best pizza I’ve ever had. I’m a bit sad that it wasn’t.

Now…on to Florence!

One of the great things about having a Twitter feed is that you have a portal into the zeitgeist, an unwitting look, if you will, into what is captivating a certain segment of the populace at any given moment. Last week, it was the sentencing of 12 years of hard labor Laura Ling and Euna Lee, two Chinese-American journalists convicted in North Korea of illegally entering the country illegally and of “hostile” acts.

According to first reports, the journalists were detained by North Korean soldiers “on the border” between North Korea and China. “On the border” is pretty damn vague so while it is possible that soldiers from North Korea illegally entered China to capture a couple of journalists with a camera and other recording equipment, how likely is it that said journos were actually in North Korea? Let’s go with: probably they were.

So last week many of the people and organizations on my Twitter feed were in an uproar over this sentencing. The reflexive call for them to be released, that this was a human rights violation, was enough to provoke a seizure. And I watched this all go by thinking two things: 1) I’ll investigate this when I have a chance, and 2) if they did it, don’t they deserve the punishment?

Then the state-run Korean Central News Agency, which, oddly, has its domain registered in Japan, released a report saying that the journalists not only admitted in court that they’d entered the country illegally, but that they’d done so for political motives. The New York Times also reported that human rights advocates who worked with the two women to arrange the trip said their assignment was on “human traffickers and refugees fleeing hunger in North Korea” and that the journalists had no intentions of entering North Korea.

It’s all a bit muddy isn’t it? Since North Korea is a fortress, who knows what really happened. But I’m still forced to wonder: what if they actually did it? Don’t they deserve to do the time for the crime?