An Atlas in My Purse: October 2012

Autumn in San Gimignano, Tuscany

It is early morning -- well, half-past eight. I'm sitting on our patio in Tuscany, watching the sunshine edge up over the fields of grape vines, olive groves and forested hills. Periodically, I hear gunshots in the distance and sometimes closer, followed by the sound of tracking dogs barking frantically. This surprised me at first, but I suppose it is October. They must have autumn hunting here as we do at home. The only real difference is the temperature. Sitting in the shade here, I'm wearing a light sweater; at home, I'd be bundled up in woolens.

Our accommodation is
in a renovated barn/farmhouse.

We were only able to squeeze two nights and one full day of Tuscany into our schedule and it is turning out to be a wonderful place to visit. We have just been knocked out by the beauty of this place. Everyone talks about Tuscany in superlative terms and they don't exaggerate. The rolling hills are dotted with fertile fields and rustic farmhouses. Various hilltops are dotted with walled medieval villages like San Gimignano which is is within sight of our cottage.

We wish we could explore this region for a much longer time.

We are staying in what was once a farm. The current owners bought the farmhouse and farm buildings in the 1970s. They remodelled everything from sheds to barn to create a group of apartments for visitors. One of the largest units, our two-bedroom apartment is in what was once the ground-level barn under the farmhouse. The grounds are beautifully landscaped and, sitting on the brow of a hill, the entire property has the most beautiful views of the surrounding fields, homes and San Gimignano itself.

San Gimignano was clearly visible from our accommodation.

San Gimignano was once a bustling hilltop town, filled with wealthy merchants and travellers on their way to and from Rome. The walls protected it from intermittent attacks and regional wars. In its heyday -- about 1300 -- the 72 towers it was known for were a symbol of the power and authority of the family groups that built and owned them. Today there are just a handful of towers left, but they create a most distinctive silhouette on the horizon.

Our one day in this region was dedicated to relaxing, laundry at the farm and a few hours of shopping in San Gimignano. Too short by far, but so pleasant!

On Sunday, we left early and started heading south again toward Civitavecchia where we were to pick up our cruise back across the Atlantic. Driving along winding roads, around hills and through forests, we marvelled again at the beauty of this region. There was mist hanging in some of the valleys. Sometimes we saw distant plumes of smoke from an autumn fire. Other times we'd have a glimpse of a hilltop village in the distance; sometimes eventually driving through the village after a long, twisting route.

Many of the hills are heavily wooded. We started noticing the occasional car parked at the sides of the road. At first we assumed they belonged to hikers or hunters, but as the next two hours wore on, we estimated seeing more than 200 parked cars. They couldn't all be shooting up the forest! Eventually, we also saw some of the drivers and passengers coming and going with baskets and bags. Mushrooms! They were all picking mushrooms!

Fumaroles

The ground was warm.

Tuscany is a volcanic region, but rather than suffer from the destructive power of volcanoes, it is spotted with thermal vents or fumaroles These don't occur in our part of the world, so I wanted us to stop and see some of these up close.

We were heading for Parco della Fumaroles near Sasso Pisano, halfway to Civitavecchia. As we drove through the beautiful hills and valleys, we caught a glimpse of what looked like a pair of nuclear reactors -- those gigantic eyesores that provide our modern world with so much power. We thought it was such a shame to have these things cluttering up the beautiful Tuscan landscape. As we drew closer, I began to remember some of my research on Tuscany. These weren't nuclear reactors. They were collecting thermal energy from this volcanic region! Then we realized we hadn't been seeing smoke from autumn fires in the valleys. The smoke was really steam escaping from harnessed and unharnessed thermal vents in the earth!

We soon drove through the sleepy village of Sasso Pisano and up the hill behind town. We pulled into a small parking area with a sign marked Fumaroles There was a huge pile of barren earth beyond a small fence; it looked like it was a bit of landslide that had recently come down the hillside. No plants grew on it and the colour of the rocks was different from the surrounding area. As we approached, we could see tendrils of steam floating up from the ground into the morning air. It was amazing. It was hard to see exactly where the steam came out of the earth; it just seemed to be there above the rocks. We felt the rocks themselves and found them quite warm, but not hot.

We drove about a kilometre further into the valley and walked into another park area. It was closed off to visitors (it was still early on a Sunday morning), but we could see through the fencing that this was an even more active area. There was hot, steaming water running through the valley with large plumes of steam rising in several places. Hot, bubbling mud was also clearly visible. Quite fascinating! I wish we could have had a guided tour of the area.

Rome's Port - Civitavecchia

Port of Civitavecchia

We continued to head south and, driving along the coast, reached our hotel in the port city of Civitavecchia by early afternoon. We unloaded all our luggage and left Mom and the Kid enjoying the sunshine on the hotel patio. Dad and I still needed to drive another hour south to the Rome airport (Fiumicino) where we would leave our car.

When we arrived at the remote drop-off point at a very distant airport parking area, Dad and I again marvelled at the ease of the Renault Buy-Back program. It took us less than five minutes (including chit-chat) to enter the Renault parking lot, park the car, sign a paper, turn over the keys and board the shuttle back to the airport. They didn't ask us one question about the car and never looked at it themselves. A great system!

The shuttle took us to the area of the airport where a train station is also located. We purchased train tickets for Civitavecchia and immediately caught the train. We travelled toward Rome for about eight stops, then changed trains. It was a little confusing; I wasn't completely sure which platform we needed, but we followed some signs and other travellers also trying to reach Civitavecchia. We thought that, if we were lost, we'd be lost together! The second train arrived within a couple of minutes; that ride lasted about 45 minutes and did, in fact, stop in Civitavecchia. Whew! Our connections were perfect and far faster than I'd anticipated. We didn't see any cabs heading toward our hotel, so Dad and I began walking. Our hotel wasn't more than two kilometres away; we made it in record time, but were very hot and tired.

Tomorrow we board our ship and start heading west. Thanks for reading!

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Early morning on the Grand Canal of Venice

Reaching Venice

When we returned to our car at the Malpensa Airport in Milan, we were grateful to find everything intact. We had left most of our things in the car, taking to Malta only what we really needed in our carry-ons and in one suitcase. The first thing we did on reaching the parked car was haul all the suitcases out and switch dirty for clean clothes and warm weather things for cool weather things. What a sight we must have been -- suitcases and carry-ons spread over several neighbouring parking spots with clothes and shoes stacked in various piles. Why were we doing this? We were heading next to Venice where we'd need to leave the car in another parking garage and carry only what we needed into that extraordinary city.

Venice was only a few hours away and the weather was beautiful. We had wonderful views of the nearby mountains on the north and fruitful farms on either side. We reached Venice in good time and left the car in a secured parking spot in the Tronchetto parking garage. After a short walk, we found the new Venice People Mover (a very short light rail transit system). It delivered us to the edge of the Piazzale Roma – the main entrance to Venice. After a few fall starts, I was able to transform my online vaporetto passes into hard copy tickets and then I started to contact our apartment host.

The alley leading from the Ca D'Oro
vaporetto stop to the main street
where we were to meet Alessandra,
lined with raised walkways in case of flooding.

The apartment I'd reserved was located a couple of blocks from the Ca d'Oro vaporetto stop and seemed perfect for us in terms of location and facilities offered. Renting vacation rentals directly from the owner is always a bit risky. Who knows who that person really is? Are the great apartment reviews from real guests or just the imaginative writing of the owner or a scam artist? I'm always a little apprehensive just before we make actual face-to-face contact with our landlords and this time was no different.

Alessandra had asked me to phone her just before we boarded the vaporetto (the boat system in Venice that serves as public transit instead of busses or a subway). I'm not a dedicated cell phone user (anyone who knows me can testify to this), but I do have a special cell phone and cell phone plan that I use for travel. But foreign numbers are always a bit of challenge and this day was no different. I called Alessandra from the vaporetto stop in Piazzale Roma. It took me a few tries to enter the correct pesky foreign number. Someone answered, but it sounded like a man. The sound broke up, and disappeared. I didn't hear any words I could recognize at all. I tried calling again in a quieter corner of the square; no better luck, but I identified myself and said we were coming NOW.

Alessandra's last email to me had told me where to meet her - at a shop at the corner of the vaporetto lane at Ca D’Oro and the main street. So that's where we headed. After another couple of false starts, we found the right vaporetto line (not all vaporetti stop at Ca d'Oro) and climbed aboard. We soon stumbled off at the right place and walked down the narrow alley toward a bigger street. The first person who greeted us as we emerged into the daylight was a one-legged beggar on the corner.

Now, you must remember that I'd been warning my family for months that we needed to be alert to thieves and pickpockets. We all carefully wore money belts under our clothing. Mom, the Kid and I carried security purses and none of us carried more money than we needed for that day in our wallets. I don't obsess about the prospect of theft, but I did want us to be prepared and street smart. Our experiences in Paris taught us of the realities of pickpockets. So, the Kid especially was not impressed when I asked them to wait on the corner next to the beggar while I tried to locate Alessandra.

I entered the dress shop Alessandra had mentioned in her note, expecting to find her working there. To my surprise, the staff person I encountered said she didn't know any Alessandra. I realized then that the front of the shop was just a meeting point. I went out to the others to report and say that I would try calling Alessandra again.

What I didn't learn until later is that, while I was in the shop, a woman kept approaching Mom, Dad and the Kid. They immediately came to the conclusion that she was asking them for money.

"No! Go away," the Kid kept telling her quite firmly. The woman would walk away and then circle around and come back to them. They all told her to leave them alone. When I came out of the store, she had stepped away from them.

I entered the doorway of the shop where it was a little quieter and tried calling Alessandra again. The phone started ringing and I waited hopefully for Alessandra to answer it. In the street, the Kid was warily watching the woman she kept shooing away. As the woman's phone rang and she began to answer it, a very large light bulb came on in the Kid's mind.

"Oh, no! Janice! This is the lady who's looking for us!" I looked into the street and saw a small woman speaking on her phone. She saw me and came toward me with a frightened look on her face.

"Alessandra," I asked hopefully.

"Janice," she asked with trepidation.

Our street in Venice.

As we were going through this dance, the others began speaking excitedly. The woman they thought was begging them for money was Alessandra's sister, Nicoletta. Alessandra was unable to meet us, but had arranged for Nicoletta to take her place.

The biggest problem was language; Nicoletta really didn't speak much English at all and neither Mom, Dad nor the Kid had understood her greetings. But with much laughter and embarrassment, we made our introductions and then followed tiny Nicoletta down a couple of short lanes where she showed us a beautiful second floor apartment with a gorgeous kitchen we just loved. This was the neatest apartment we have ever seen and the most fully equipped. It was amazing.

Once we were settled, we decided we really needed to find some supper. Heading back to the main street near our apartment (complete with one-legged beggar), we took the easiest option open to us: McDonalds! I think this McDonalds was the only North American fast food we have had during our entire trip. It wasn't too bad and solved our food needs for the evening.

Early the next morning, Dad and I ventured out to see if we could find some basic food supplies -- bread, yoghurt, etc. We did find a tiny grocery store, whose open door was screened with strings of beads like something from the 60s. The proprietor spoke no English at all, but we found enough food to keep us going during our visit to Venice.

Burano and Lace-Making

Alessandro talks to us
about life in the Venice Lagoon.

By 8:00 am, we were all on the vaporetto, heading toward the most tourist-visited part of town, the quay outside Saint-Mark's Square. We were to meet a guide, Alessandro (note: not AlessandrA our landlady, but AlessandrO) who would be taking a group of English-speaking visitors on a tour of the Venice Lagoon, including the lace-making facilities of Burano Island and the glass-making facilities of Murano Island. Alessandro turned out to be a well-informed guide who spoke with us at length in a very informal fashion. He didn't have a guide-spiel that he spouted incessantly. He just answered our questions in an entertaining fashion and showed us things we might not have discovered on our own. I had selected this tour because it involved fairly extensive travel to the neighbouring islands by vaporetto and relatively little or slow walking.

Crossing the Venice Lagoon

As we boated across the lagoon, the weather was rather drizzly, but improved once we landed at Burano. This island proved to be the highlight of our morning. Originally a base for local fisherman, it is known for the lacemaking of the village women and the spectacularly coloured homes.

The lacemaking, as in other parts of the world, is slowly disappearing, although Alessandro took us to one shop where they gave us a demonstration of the lacemaking technique. Those are projects that are not for anyone with bad eyesight -- tiny, tiny stitches, all by hand. As an embroiderer myself, I was fascinated to see the work these women do. Needless to say, their projects (table linens, scarves, clothing, etc.) were very expensive.

Burano

The other aspect of Burano that we found fascinating was the coloured buildings. Gradually, this island town (and it is all town) has acquired the custom of painting its homes in brilliant reds, oranges, blues, yellows, purples.... every bright colour you can think of. It looks all jumbled and random, but the owners of the houses must choose from a narrow palette of colours when they repaint. The overall effect is enchanting. At times it felt a little Disneyesque.

Alessandro told us there are only a small number of people still living on the island; we saw a number of houses for sale. As is so common in other small, out-of-the-way places, there isn't enough work and the quiet life just doesn't suit most modern people. The ongoing flooding issues in the Venice lagoon are also a growing problem.

Murano and Glass-Making

This man was playing his accordion
in one of Murano's squares.
The coloured swirls in the foreground
are part of a huge glass sculpture
placed in the middle of the square.
There were a number of similar sculptures
scattered across the island.

Our next stop was Murano, a slightly larger island and town, famous for its Murano glass. Hundreds of years ago, glass makers in Venice were the best. In order to keep their glassmaking secrets safe and to keep the city of Venice itself safe from the accompanying fire risk, the authorities moved all the glass makers to the separate island of Murano -- where they have been ever since. Murano is a somewhat busier, though less colourful, town. Murano glass is famous around the world and we enjoyed seeing samples of the artistic glass work on display in squares along our route. After walking along her canals, we watched a glassmaking demonstration in one of the factories and then walked back through town to the vaporetto stop where we eventually caught a boat to take us back to Venice herself.

Saint-Mark's Square

A spectacular wall of the Doge's Palace.

The next morning we rose early to start our sight-seeing at Saint Mark's Square. Our first stop was the Doge's Palace. This extraordinary building was a highlight of our previous visit in 2001 and we looked forward to showing it to the Kid. As we walked into the Palace courtyard, she rewarded us with an awed, "Wow."

For centuries, the doges ruled Venice which was interested, first and foremost, in the business of making money. At the height of the city's power, Venice has a greater GNP than the entire country of France. The palace was where the doge and his advisors received official visitors and conducted business. It was designed to impress and impress it does.

A view of the interior of
Saint Mark's Basilica
from the second floor balcony.

Our next stop was the Basilica of Saint Mark, an extraordinary church building next to the palace. It is impossibly ornate and covered from top to bottom in mosaics. After walking through the ground level on the flood-damaged floors that make you feel as if you're walking on waves, Mom and the Kid waited outside while Dad and I climbed a steep staircase to the upper level. There we found a better view of the interior from the interior balcony and also climbed out onto the exterior balcony overlooking the huge square and nearly underneath the prancing hooves of the famous four horses of Saint Mark's (the original statues are perhaps 2000 years old – these were replicas).

After some rewarding shopping along the arcade that lines the square, we headed back to our apartment for a short rest and then some delicious lunch at a nearby sidewalk cafe.

Venice's Jewish Ghetto

A memorial wall in the Jewish Ghetto.

Our last outing in Venice was a visit to the Jewish Ghetto. Although we were not in time to take a tour of the synagogues, but we did walk about and browse through the shops. The Jewish community in Venice has been there for centuries. At first they lived throughout the city, but the doge and his advisors eventually decided to confine the Jewish residents in one small location -- Europe's first Jewish ghetto. Of course, most of the city's Jewish population was deported during World War II, but a small number do live in the city today.

Our visit to Venice was far too short. I would love to spend a couple of weeks there, taking time to explore all the streets and canals before Venice disappears beneath the sea. The prospect of Venice sinking is not that far-fetched. As reported in the news every year, high tides flood the city streets each winter.

When we were still in Malta, we saw a news report that the floods had already started this year. I was hoping to miss them during our visit and we wondered what we would find when we arrived; I suspect the footage shown in the news report was archival (from a past flood).

In fact, throughout the city we saw raised walkways stacked, ready to use. The lane that led from our apartment to the Ca d'Oro vaporetto stop was especially narrow because of the raised walkway taking up half of the alley. In Saint Mark's Square, walkways were already laid out around the basilica. We were shocked to see that the puddles in existence before we entered the church had grown significantly by the time we were leaving the square. In fact, we were amazed to see water actively bubbling up out of the drains in the middle of the square.

Today's Venice is a damp shadow of her former glory, but fascinating and memorable nonetheless.

Thanks for reading!

More Photos

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Birds flocking over the Venice Lagoon.

On our arrival on the island of Burano,
we were greeted by someone's laundry hanging in the public park.

Burano is known for its lace;
notice the samples hanging outside these shops.

More laundry.

Burano is also known for its brightly coloured homes.

Through the centuries, many commercial fishermen have left
the Burano canals while their wives stayed home and made lace.

An interesting sign.
Doesn't it make you wonder WHY this quay bore this name?

The church tower of Burano

may be as tilted as the Tower of Pisa!

A small market in Burano.

Waiting for the next vaporetto.

Our next stop, the island of Murano is larger and more prosperous,
but not nearly as colourful.

Murano is also known as the place where
the uber-famous Venetian glass is made.
Scattered around the island were
amazing glass sculptures like this one.

Early morning on the busy Grand Canal.

These men seem to be loading up animal carcasses onto their boat,
probably for delivery to the Rialto market or some butchers' shops.

This young man was cleaning up his gondola
for a day of cruising the canals with tourists.

The Ca D'Oro Palace/Museum at our vaporetto stop.

Heading down the Grand Canal toward Saint Mark's Square.

A surprising bit of greenery along the canal -- there's very little around.

The famous Rialto Bridge with a vaporetto and a gondola passing beneath.

The Campanile (clock tower) in Saint Mark's Square.

Looking toward the mouth of the Grand Canal from the Doge's Palace.

Scenes from the Doge's Palace.

An antique gondola on display at the Doge's Palace.
I'm not sure if the black colour is age or paint!

The Doge's Palace is on the right, Saint Mark's Basilica just behind.
Notice that this part of Saint Mark's Square is piled high with risers
-- for walking on when the floods arrive.

Looking across the lagoon at the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore.

A curious carving group outside the Doge's Palace.

The interior of Saint Mark's Basilica.

Saint Mark's is covered with mosaics from top to bottom.

Although there were no official floods during our visit to Venice,
puddles were visible growing in a number of locations.
Here, water was rapidly bubbling up out of the round grate.
Three weeks later is was waist deep.