Italy
In Winter
From Rome To Venice
~ By Matthew Atlee
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choice was between Spain and Italy and Gabi chose Italy. Egypt was our
first choice but seemed impossible at the time. We arrived in Rome on the
29th of December and my birthday was the 30th so the fatigue of arrival
was somehow lessened by the excitement of a birthday. The arrival was smooth
and my very first impression of Rome was how light the traffic was as compared
to other large European capitals I’ve visited - though it was a Sunday,
and winter. We stayed at Hotel
Center One, which is located near the Termini train station in Rome.
The hotel had comfortable rooms with private baths and there was a nice
restaurant on the roof that served a good continental breakfast.
We arrived
in Rome at mid-morning after a 14-hour plane trip that left both of us
exhausted, but we stayed awake in order to explore the city. The neighborhood
around the hotel was predominantly Chinese and Indian, so for first few
blocks that we walked in Rome we saw mostly Chinese clothing shops and
Indian restaurants and laundromats. When you arrive in Rome the first thing
you should do is go shopping for clothes. Coming from Central America where
shopping as a man is no fun since they never have your size or style, Italy
was a welcome change. We bought warm clothes for the trip, had a coffee,
watched people walk by the café and we walked around and soaked
up the atmosphere on the small streets and piazzas of Rome. After this,
we headed back to the hotel for a much-needed sleep.
We slept for
almost 11 hours and woke up the next day at 7:00a.m. Our tour of northern
Italy started at 8:00a.m. That morning the sky was clouded over with blue
and purple clouds and the air was cool to cold. We were still tired
when we awoke the next morning; we went down to the hotel desk and caught
a cab across town to a hotel where some of the members of the tour were
staying. After twenty minutes we boarded a bus headed towards our first
destination: Assisi, the home of St. Francis - a statue and bird bath of
whom I used to clean in my grandmother’s garden as a young boy. As we drove
through the streets of Rome, wonderful bright lights shone from the display
windows of coffee and bakery shops and brightened the dark morning: The
light from inside the shops seemed to bounce around the darkness of the
early morning streets. |
| The Basilica
of St. Francis in Assisi. The Basilica was completed 1230. |
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As we began
the trip to Assisi I started to listen to the voices of other people on
the tour and slowly through conversations and listening began to get an
idea about where our traveling companions were from. There were four couples
from Brazil and they stayed more or less to themselves throughout the trip;
a single man from Mexico; a couple from Madrid; two Argentinean women traveling
together; a young couple from Andulasia; and finally, the tour guide, a
large Italian with long-blonde hair by the name of Silvio. Everyone seemed
affable except for the two Argentinean women who fought with Silvio over
their forthcoming accommodations in Florence: they wanted something better.
The fighting was more playful than serious as the two women gesticulated
wildly in tandem and Silvio gesticulated wildly in return. Having lived
in the United States and Latin America where this kind of exchange can
quickly lead to violence, I found the rudeness on both sides playful as
rudeness can so often be.
The drive from
Assisi to Rome took about 3 hours through the mountains; after the mountains
we came to an open valley in which the town of Assisi was located. The
Basilica of St. Francis, which stands on a small mountain, and where St.
Francis was buried in 1230, dominates the town. Assisi was the first place
that I was confronted with the beauty of an Italian church, which both
awes you and relaxes you at the same time. St. Francis was quite a story.
Born to a French mother and Italian father in 1182, St. Francis’s original
name was Pietro but his father changed his name to Francesco. In his early
years St. Francis fought in the war between Assisi and Perugia in which
St. Francis was captured and spent over a year in prison.
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| Writer
Bruce Chatwin wrote parts of his book The Viceroy Of Ouidah in the
hills above Siena. The above photo is of Piazza del Campo in the heart
of Siena. |
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After
prison he seems to have made a psychological step away from a warrior’s
life to that of a mendicant. And throughout his life the desire to become
more ascetic and religious only increased with time. Reading about him
you get the impression of a man slipping out of control: He preached to
birds and talked with animals, he heard the crucifixion talk to him directly
and took his clothes off in front of the bishop of Assisi. Started a pilgrimage
to Syria but only got as far as the Adriatic Sea. He wanted to go to Spain
and preach to Iberian Moslems, but never went. Preached to the public as
a layperson when this was against church doctrine. It is said by many in
Italy that St. Francis was trying more than anyone before or since to imitate
Jesus’ life in every way possible. It’s interesting that his life should
be interpreted in this way.
The body of
St. Francis lies in the lower church of the Basilica and you can walk around
his tomb and touch it or kiss it as many people do. In front of the tomb
are pews in which people sit and cry for, and pray to, St. Francis. The
atmosphere in the lower church is dark and people are expressive when they
come face to face with the tomb. There is no doubt that the feelings in
the lower church are powerful and the emotions real. And I liked the idea
of building such an extraordinary basilica for such a man.
Outside the
Basilica small winding streets lead both downward and upward and on these
small streets are the shops and restaurants of Assisi. This is a good place
to eat lunch or have a coffee. After our brief stop in Assisi we continued
on to Siena.
From Assisi
to Siena was about a one-hour bus ride and from where the bus parked outside
the gates of Siena, a short walk to the small streets of medieval Siena.
Siena, like Pisa later, was a place I was very curious about even before
we arrived. One of my early heroes, Sir Francis Burton, spent a number
of years in both Siena and Pisa as a child and I wondered about Burton’s
young mind roaming the back streets of Siena. The streets were small and
bending and led deeper into the heart of the city. |
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The heart
of the city is the Piazza del Campo, where in medieval times up to the
present day horse races are held twice a year. Siena has always been known
as a banking and commercial center and was, for a time, in the 13th century,
the dominant economic power in this region of Italy; Florence would later
become the dominant economic center of Tuscany. Along with Piazza del Campo
the other important landmark in Siena is the Siena Cathedral with its black
and white marble exterior.
We stayed for
a short time in Siena and then traveled 30 miles north to our final destination
that day: Florence. We arrived in Florence during the night and lodged
at the Hotel
Fleming on the outskirts of the city. Everyone in the group was tired
and we headed to our rooms, had a quick shower and then went to dinner
in the basement of the hotel. One of the first things to hit you in a cheap
Italian hotel restaurant is the strong clear light. You are made to feel
very awake; and this light can run up against you traveling fatigue. Gabi
and I sat with an older Spanish couple and a Brazilian couple who were
celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. The Brazilian husband was a
dentist and the Spanish husband was a Spanish teacher; we talked and had
wine and somehow communicated through all the language barriers; the wine
helped this process along. Then came the food. Not all Italian food is
good, as I was soon to discover – though everything we ate outside of these
inexpensive hotels was excellent. The tour we had taken was inexpensive
and now I knew why. Some kind of meat covered in some sauce and with a
lot of cheese is the best way to describe it. The waiters were very nice,
but the ambiance in the Italian/hotel/restaurant/ basement just didn’t
seem to add up to anything – but this did not matter. The Brazilians talked
about how beautiful Brazil was and how Italy wasn’t nearly as wonderful.
The Spanish couple wanted seafood. And Gabi and I were tired.
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| Florence:
Of all the
places we visited in Italy, Florence was the one that made your jaw drop
to the floor. Located 145 miles northwest of Rome, Florence was the birth
place of the Italian Renaissance and the home to some of the greatest thinkers
and artists of the Renaissance: Lenardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Dante,
Machiavelli and Galileo, and Vespucci Amerigo, the Florentine geographer
who gave the Americas their name. These artists and explorers were able
to flourish thanks to the powerful Florentine family the De Medicis who
supplied the financing for these artistic works. And the greatness of Florence
today lies in the richness of its past, which because of the pure quality
of the buildings and art doesn’t seem that long ago.
The morning
we left to explore Florence it was raining. The cloud cover was low and
the air was cold and damp; there was little light. We first drove through
the green hills to the south of Florence, which are dotted with large cream
and brown colored homes. Our destination in the hills was the Plaza Michelangelo
that overlooks the Arno River and the city of Florence; from this spot
the view of the famous dome that covers the cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore
in the center of Florence is eye-popping. The rain was terrible and we
had to look for cover after spending only a few minutes on the terrace
that overlooks the city. We drove back down the green hills of Florence
and began to explore the streets of the city. Florence is famous for its
leather shops and on a cold winter day shopping for leather in Florence
can be great fun. We saw the cathedrals and the museums and then had a
great lunch in a small Trattoria on a side street. Of all the art I saw
that day the work that returns to my mind as I write these words is the
Deposition by Pontormo, which is located in a small church on the other
side of the Arno River as you head towards Pitti Square. |
| The Plaza
Michelangelo located in the hills south of Florence. The Arno River runs
through the great city. |
| The history
of Florence as well as Europe is inextricably tied to the powerful Florentine
family the de Medicis. The tastes of the de Medicis family became the tastes
of Europe in the 15th and 16th century. From art to philosphy the family
influenced courts throughout Europe. In France, Catherine de Medicis, who
married Henry the II of France, influenced French cuisine when she
brought her Florentine cooks to France: they are creditied by many for
laying the foundations of French modern culinary art. |
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Later in the
day we made a side trip to Pisa and passed through the vineyards and orchards
of Tuscany on our way to see the famous leaning tower on the Piazza del
Duomo, also known as the Square of Miracles. The tower sits within the
walled city of Pisa and is situated near the main cathedral in Pisa as
well as the baptistery and cemetery. I liked Pisa because my impression
of it was one of a real working town. The town had an everyday charm that
made it seem much different from Florence: obviously it had seen hard times
in the past. After visiting the tower and cathedral we walked back to the
station where the bus was parked. In order to arrive quickly from the tower
to the bus we took a short cut through the back streets of Pisa. There
I saw small three-story apartment blocks with older couples staring out
of windows with their television sets blinking behind them. The streetlights
outside their apartment windows shone on their ashen faces so that they
appeared to have a wonderful green glow around their faces. And I was always
wondering in Italy what in the hell was going on behind those wonderful,
small windows.
We ate in the
hotel basement again and decided to celebrate New Year’s Eve in Pitti Square
in the center of Florence. When we arrived to Pitti Square, people were
dancing and screaming and the orchestra pounded out silly symphony music
in a barrelhouse style. We drank and danced and laughed. We returned to
the hotel at two in the morning....
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