Ottocento/ '800

Our big festival ended last night. We had a great attendance in the town for four nights. People cavorted, sang, drank, and generally had a good time. The Stoic One has a new camera...so there are many photos. Most of them need no explanation.

He went out earlier in the day to catch people practising before the crowds arrived. Here are some of the dancers.

Her t-shirt says Make Art with Love..

This is the dance instructor. The sign says Dance School. She is doing a run through before she had on her costume. I love the pose, the jeans, the hands.

I think is my favorite. It reminds me of a Degas painting. They were all so nervous before they went on.

Ok....this poor girl is in this contraption. Underneath her skirt is a dolly and a young man under her skirt rolls here around.

Here she is dancing....

There is something about Italian Mamma's.  Oh to be an Italian baby!!

To be continued....

Festival Madonna Della Reggia

September 8th was the festival of the Madonna della Reggia, the patron saint of Umbertide. She is called della Reggia after the little stream, the Reggia,  that runs through town and joins the Tiber river.

The origins of this holiday hold that on the morning of September 14, 1556, a seven year old girl, the daughter of Orlandino Vibi,  prayed to the Madonna at a chapel in Umbertide. The girl had a leg that was so deformed that she was unable to walk without support. After her prayer, the girl was miraculously cured of a leg injury. The town was astonished by the event. The bishop from Gubbio came and confirmed the miracle. The people of Umbertide were so joyous and thankful that they built a church in the Madonna's honor. The church, which is commonly called the Collegiata is the octagonal church that is seen in Umbertide. On the holiday the banner of the Madonna is taken from the church and processed through the town.

In honor of this holiday, the collegiata is lit at night. The inside restoration of the Collegiata is still ongoing, but the outside is spectacular.

This is the Rocca in Umbertide, also lit at night.

Calagrana

It has been a while since I have posted. The Stoic One and I have been busy living our every day life here and getting prepared for guests coming our way. I love to show off Umbria, so I can hardly wait for their arrival. I have also been busy with a work project, but I am coming in to the end of it.

I wanted to tell everyone, once again, how grateful I am for Calagrana. http://www.calagrana.comThe food is spectacular and Alberto and Ely are the absolute best. This summer they have been doing special dinners that represent different provinces in Italy. Last night's province was the Veneto, which is near and dear to my heart, since that is where my dad is from. The food and wine were perfect matches.

Here is our menu, with the wines we tasted.
 A salad of bacala, prawns and mussels poached and served on warm potatoes with olive oil and lemon.

This was paired with S. Cristina Lugana DOC 100% Rebbiano from Lugana...excellent match.

The next course was risotto nero, made using the cuttle fish ink sacs, served topped with a cuttle fish ragu.

This dish was so delicious. The photo does not do it justice. We drank a Ripassa Valpolicella DOC superiore. 85% Corvina and 15% Rondinella. Yum!!!

The next course was guinea fowl breast "venetian style" whic was wrapped in pancetta and raosted and served with stewed onions and Amarone wine sauce, accompanied with a puree of potatoes and a creamy spinach...Unfortunately for you I gobbled it down before I took a photo.
We drank an Amarone Classico DOCG ...80% Corvina and 10% Rondinella and 10% Oseleta. The best wine of the night.

Even though I said I could not eat one more bite, they brought out the lightest tiramisu I've ever eaten.

We had a rose prosecco with it, Valdo Rose' limited edition Floriale.  And yes we all got home safely.
The best meal ever!

London

After 3 or 4 days to catch my breath from the Scandinavian countries, I was off to spend a week with my sister in London. We have been very close since we were little girls and have continued to try to spend some alone time together. We used to take a week off together and spend it at a spa, but this year we decided to go to London and see some plays. She flew in from Detroit and I flew in from Rome. (There is a very cheap flight on Ryan Air from Perugia, but the timing of it didn't work for us.)

We are like calaminity Janes when we travel alone. So the first thing that went wrong is that I was waiting in the wrong terminal. I learned how to take the Heathrow Express, and arrived to greet her before too long. My sister is not a technology obsessed person, so all of the information I tried to send her about our trip, like what we were doing, where we were staying, did not make it to her. When she came through London customs, they asked her "Where are you staying?" her reply "I don't know." "What are you going to do?" "I don't know. My siser arranged everything." The agent was exasperated with her. "You don't know where you are going or where you are going to stay?"  "No." Then my sister brilliantly asked the agent, "Do you have an older sister?" The woman laugher, said she did and waved her through. Those of you who know Sarah, will particularly appreciate this story.

So we were off to our apartment that we rented through London Connections.http://www.londonconnection.com  I have used this organization twice, and I highly recommend them. Very efficient, with great properties for vacation rentals. Our apartment was in the West End across from the Palace Theater. A perfect location for us. We saw 4 plays, 2 exhibits and 2 movies. Here is my take on them.

First up was Soundscapes which is shown at the National Gallery and runs from July through September 6, 2015. We bought our tickets online, which I would recommend.
https://www.nationalgallery.co.uk/products/soundscapes/p_soundscapes-ticket

Six musicians were chosen to participate in this show. Each musician was given free range of the collection at the National Gallery, which was huge. Once the musician selected their painting, they then composed music that they felt represented their response to the painting. The motto for the show is "Hear the painting, see the music." Each painting has its own room and there are multiple speakers in the toom, where the painting is displayed, that plays the newly composed music. Some of it was perplexing, some of it was moving all of it was interesting. We particularly enjoyed the music for the painting "Air on a  Broken String" by Hans Holbein the Younger. The musician was Susan Philipsz from Glasgow...
We highly recommend this exhibit if you are in London during this time.

The next exhibit we saw was "Audrey Hepburn:Portraits of an Icon" This exhibit is at the National Portrait Gallery and runs from July to October 18th.

http://www.artfund.org/what-to-see/exhibitions/2015/07/02/audrey-hepburn-portraits-of-an-icon-exhibition

We both love Audrey Hepburn so we loved the show. If you're not a fan, you might not be as interested in this. It was fascinating to see the fashion and the times in one setting.

On to the plays. Our favorite was Book of Mormon, Prince of Wales Theater.  It has been around for a long time, so probably many of you have seen it. It was funny, irreverent, with great music, singing and dancing. I guess the Mormons aren't too crazy about it.  4 stars, highly recommended.

Beautiful- The Carole King Musical...playing at the Aldwych Theater...starring Katie Brayben...also excellent...although we had ordered tickets on line, paid full price and these were the worst tickets we had. All of the other tickets we got in Leister Square for half price. I would never again get theater tickets in London ahead of time, unless there was a really compelling reason. We thought Katie did an excellent job as Carole Kind and we enjoyed the performance.

The Commitments at the Palace Theater...very fun evening. Great music...fun story. Final performance November 1st.

Beattles Let it Be at the Garrick theater.  For us this was our least favorite play and we love the Beattles. Very low tech presentation, singing was okay not great. I would skip it.

We say the movie Amy, about Amy Winehouse, which we loved, very sad, but the music was fantastic. The we saw Mr. Holmes with Ian McKellen, which was so slow we could hardly stay awake.

The one restaurant we would recommend...
Galvin at Windows...top of the Park Hilton.http://www.galvinatwindows.com
Fantastic views...wonderful service and inventive and delicious food.  Prices were excellent for the setting and type of food.

My sister had the cod

and I had the chicken.

Yes, that it popcorn mixed in with the regular corn. Unexpected as well as delicious.

On one of our trips walking around being lost, we came across the Apple store in Covent Gardens. The staircase is pure Steve Jobs..

London was a perfect "girls' week" place to visit. We felt safe the whole time, were never in need of a car and walked everywhere. The only drawback was that the city was very, very crowded with tourists. With the heat wave sweltering most of Europe, other people than us, had the idea that London would be a great place to be. Other than the crowds, we loved this city.

This concludes the London trip report. Safe travels wherever you may be.

Helsinki, Stockholm and Copenhagen

While the termperature was rising in Italy, the Stoic One, me and our friends Marjorie and Doug, headed north to the Scandinavian countries. We had never been up there before, so it was fun to explore. They are all cities surrounded by water which, to me, adds to their attractiveness.

Helsinski has a population of over a half a million, but it didn't seem that large to us. It is referred to as the Daughter of the Baltic and is located on a peninsula in the Baltic Sea and includes 315 islands. They share a 1200 kilometer border with Russia, and Mr. Putin makes them very nervous.
 It is ranked as one of the 5 best cities for technology, and has a reputation for top notch design.

I loved the bright, primary colors of these side walk cafe tables.

The weather was warm and the people were happy to be out and about.  We were in the land of the midnight sun, that was not as weird as you might expect. It was lovely to be out at 10:00pm in the twilight. All hotel rooms come with black out drapes, so sleeping was not an issue. It is a very walkable city, which we love.

After three days, we took a train from Helsinki to Stockholm. It is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever visited. With a population of 915,000 people, it is a bit larger than Helsinki.  It is a city that is easy to explore and easy to love. It is spread across 14 islands and is connected by 57 bridges.

The architecture in Stockholm is very stolid. If Rome is a feminine city, Stockholm is a beautiful masculine city.

We took an overnight ferry from Stockholm to Copenhagen. The cabins were quite spacious.

Copenhagen was very crowded with cruise ships. It was difficult to walk down the streets without bumping into people. I wish we had more time there. Perhaps we will return one day.

Here is the Little Mermaid that everyone loves. She is quite small.
She was donated to the city by Carl Jacobsen, a brewer. The inspiration for the statue was from Hans Christian Adersen's fairy tale. Unbelieveable the amount of tourists who have come to see her.

If Italy is a country of "Extroverted Feelers", like me, the Scandinavian countries are Introverted Thinkers, like the Stoic One. I must say these countries are very efficient, and I am sure that all of their trains run on time!

A medieval dinner

The following was the menu for our medieval dinner:
Antipasti: Skewers of cheese, salami, pork, bread and olives
First course:  Fava bean soup with mint and grilled crusts of bread
Main course: Pork shanks with salad
Desserts: Vin Santo and cookies

On the tables were pitchers of water and red wine. The tables were set. These Italians know how to party. The towns people were having as much fun as the visitors. What a great way to celebrate.

We found our spot.

And the meal began. First the antipasti arrived.

The skewers were stuck in large loaves of bread, which held them in place until there were served. Very clever.

We had entertainment between courses.  First the stilt people.

Not just on stilts but twirling flags.

Beautiful butterfly ladies on stilts were next.

Then the fava bean soup was delivered, pipping hot!

It was such a clever way to delier the food. Every 3 or four tables ahd their own pallet carrying the food for the next course. I can only imagine the behind the scenes staging area.

The next entertainment is a little difficult to explain. I THINK it was a battle between good (the girl in white) and evil (the girl in black). The whole thing was very surreal. 

They had wooden swords and sheilds, and the contraption that they were in moved down the street as they staged their battle.

The good girl.

The evil girl. It looks like they are doing some weird Pilates exercise, but they were indeed having a battle. How do they think of these things? On to the main course.

Remeber we only had a wooden spoon to eat with, so the salad was a bit messy but the meat was fun to pick up and gnaw away. It was as good as it looks.

I love the look on the blond's face. It is how we all felt when we saw the meat arrive.

The monks made sure we did not run out of wine.

More entertainment.

It was a spectacle.

Each chair had a plastic bag tied to it and we were given our bowls, plates, and cup to take home. That meant they had no dishes to wash and not as much trash! What a good idea. 

Certaldo in June. Remeber for next year!

Oh, we took Luca too. They are very dog friendsly.

Boccacio and Certaldo

Giovanni Boccaccio, most noted for his writing of The Decameron, was born in Certaldo in Tuscany in 1313. Although he spent most of his adult life in and around Florence, he died in Certaldo in 1375. As a plot summary for the Decameron, it tells the story of 10 people (7 women and 3 men) who decide to leave Florence to escape the plague. They hang out in a villa in the countryside and in order to pass the time, each person agrees to tell one story each day for 10 days. Those math majors out there have calculated that we have 100 stories. Many of the stories have the same source material as Chaucer's Cantebury Tales, or so they say.

We went to Certaldo, not to revisit the tales of Boccaccio, but to eat, of course. Each year the town hosts a medieval dinner and show and we decided to attend with our dear friends Anna and John.  Certaldo is divided into two parts, the upper and lower part of town. The upper part, is the old section of town, and it is where the festival was held.

Certaldo is part of the province of Florence. It is actually about 22 miles southwest of Florence proper. It is roughly the same size as Umbertide with a population of about 14,000 people in both the upper and lower parts of the town.

This is the main street of town, before the festival was set up, called, what else Via Boccaccio.

There is a serernity in these medival towns that belie their often times violent history. As much as I try to imagine what life would have been like back then, I still find myself romanticizing about life in a small Tuscan town in the 1300's.

 At the other end of Via Boccaccio is the Palazzo Pretorio or Vicariale, the residence of the Florentine governors. It has recently been restored, and on its wall are ceramic coat of arms of influential families.

Around the corner was our hotel, the Osteria del Vicario. The building was formerly a monastery which has now been converted into an excellent restaurant and small hotel.

As evening approaches, the tables are set and the crowds started to gather. Through the entire length of the street, the tables were lined, and numbered. We had our tickets, which cost us 39E each and we wondered how in the world they were going to feed us all and get food to us? Any ideas?

This being Italy, we knew not to worry, but we were curious.