Day 4: Relaxation at Villa Leonidas

Partial view of Villa Leonidas near Lucca Italy

Sometime around the first of the year, Balboa Winery in Walla Walla, Washington, one of Paul's favorite family owned wineries, announced a wine vacation in Lucca, Italy at a Villa in the mountains. This would have been like telling Paul there was  free Neil Young concert in Antarctica. He was all over it. Villa Leonidas is located on a terraced olive farm and very beautiful.

Lemons abound.

The wisteria covered terrace. Paul has been frequenting it for coffee in the morning.

Most of these folks in the small group are from Walla Walla and know all about wine and local gossip.

Some of our companions.

 After a relaxing morning, we were off to a 400 year old Family owned restaurant with a Michelin star, Antica Locanda di Sesto Trattoria.

400 years, same location, same family

 They specialize in Tuscan cooking. The food was very tasty.

Preparing pasta tableside inside a wheel of pecorino romano.

Paul's lunch

Of course, there was wine. The house red and white were, not surprisingly, made IN HOUSE by the owner and very delicious.

Local fresh veggies

The whole schtick of Tuscan cooking is "slow food' and local ingredients. I don't think we will have much trouble with not liking our meals.

Overall a very slow day, but we could use one after so many rushed excursions through the world of the Medicis, art and Cinque Terre.

Paul joined the group for dinner and wine tastings. I'll let him tell you about that!

"Everything you see, I owe to pasta."

                                               ----Sophia Loren

Paul's Ponderings:   A welcome slow day in the area....we started late, had a long lunch, then a group dinner cooked at the villa.   The weather was incredible -- warm and sunny, but not hot -- and the day started sitting on the huge veranda looking out on the valley below.   There are birds flying about and the distant smoke of olive wood being burned.   Late in the evening, we had a nice group dinner with various wines and discussed (surprise) wine.   A nice end to a lovely day.

Day 2 - Cinque Terre: Beautiful Seaside Hills

"Still round the corner there may wait, a new road or a secret gate."
                      --J R R Tolkien

When we first decided to come to Florence, Paul said, "We should definitely go to Cinque Terre." It means the five cities and it is the picturesque coastline you always see in the postcards or advertising for Italy. There are actually MORE than 5 towns, but there are five connected by train: Monterossa, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. You can get there by train from Florence, but we chose to go on a "hiking trip" with Walkabout Florence. This was a tourist oriented trip but provided all the transport and a guide who knew the cities and the trail.

Paul hits the rocky trail. Here he is on a flat surface. Most of it is either up or down. 

We were told that we should wear sturdy shoes. Amazingly, one person showed up in flip flops, one in boat shoes (it's near the water, right?) and one in pennyloafers. Oh well! They made it, so who is to question?

The Cinque Terre region is in Liguria (the province Genoa is in) and not Tuscany, but it is close by. We passed through towns that were famous for nurseries, toilet paper making and marble quarries on the way. We didn't see the T.P, but the rest was fully visible from the road. We drove by the Appenines and misty valleys which were scenic and finally to Spezia and the "bay of the poets." Keats and Lord Byron both haunted the area and loved it. Then we were over the hill to Cinque Terre.

You can get to Cinque Terre by seemingly always late train from Florence or Genoa. Beware of friendly pickpockets.

It's really hard to express the loveliness of this UNESCO world heritage site. Just gorgeous everywhere you look!

The terraces of Cinque Terre are full of flowers, fruit and vegetables. 

Artichoke country. They have a transport that looks like a roller coaster for riding the terraces and collecting 

Many of the towns have only pedestrian traffic on the streets and the roadway can be somewhat steep. I warned you. There are a few beaches, many restaurants and bars and plenty of little souvenir shops. Hotels seem scarce but there were plenty of people's home you can stay in. We hiked the path between

Vernazza and Corniglia---about 3 miles. But very rugged. It was certainly do-able by anyone of average fitness, including ladies in pennyloafers :)

Narrow lanes. No cars but many are packed with people.

I know plenty of people who would like to shop here.

Holy cow content---GELATO!

The madonna of the gelato 

Our lunch was in Vernazza overlooking the sea and a great view of Manarola.

Fresh seafood. Even the anchovies were delicious.

Where fresh seafood came from

We got back too late to do anything but pizza for dinner, but who's complaining?

Our constant view .

Another view along the trail

What a beautiful day hiking and exploring Cinque Terre---a place you read about once, and dream about for a lifetime!

Paul's Ponderings:  A great day out in Cinque Terre.   It's quite a lovely place and you can see it all in one day, more or less.   The walk/hike was a bit stout as the path was fairly steep and rocky in places.  Not all that suitable for folks in flip flops, but we were prepared.    By the end of the day, the temperature was quite cool and windy as we waited for a train back to be picked up.  

It was a fairly long day, as we started at 745 am and got back to Florence about 930 pm, just in time to get another fabulous pizza for dinner with some local Chianti Classico to accompany it.   

Day 1 - Flitting About Florence with Family

The courtyard of San Marco Friary, one of the original interests of the Medici.

The first lesson I learned was not to wait for a man's rescue. History is written by the survivors. I am surely that.
-----Catherine de Medici

So before Paul booked the tour with the Balboa Winery in Walla Walla to come to taste Tuscan wines, I got very excited about the possibility of visiting Florence, Italy.  Not only is the art work stunning, but I read a book about a decade or more ago called The River of Fortune---about the Medici family and all the prosperity for a time along the Arno River.  So I have wanted to come here for a long time.  And in the preparation for coming here, I also saw a very interesting documentary about The Medici Family on youtube.com called Godfathers of the Renaissance. And for that reason, I wanted to take a tour specifically about the Medici Family. We were able to find a guide, Francesa, who met us at San Marco Square this morning.

We are staying a perfectly adequate but not overly special hotel about 20 minutes from the hubbub, It makes us walk and is very quiet. On the way, we might have acquired breakfast.

The man studies breakfast options.

We had a breakfast pastry, but we could have had this:

Nice breakfast in theory!

We met our guide and off we went to explore everything Medici...well, you couldn't possibly do it in one day, but we made a stab at it.

White lead and lapiz for your fresco painting pleasure.

We started at the San Marcos friary of which the Medicis were patrons. They sponsored art work by friars within the facility, mostly by the original patrons  of the family.  The monks and lay brothers lived side by side and most of the work celebrates either the passion of Christ, his life or patron saints of the city and church.

St Benedict embracing the blood of Christ. The blue color is embedded lapiz azul. Very dramatic and expensive.

One of the things that took place daily was chanting. So for this reason, there was a huge music library at San Marcos and the monks made the "hymnals" of chant. Beautiful artwork!

This library, commissioned by the Medici, held the hymnal scrolls and other books and writing found in the 1400-1500s

An example of the amazing art work that the chant books contained.

These are the oldest frescoes commissioned by the Medici Family who interestingly, despite their name, contained NO doctors, and were first successful as wool merchants. They eventually broke into banking and eventually secured the banking of the Vatican and ultimately had a pope X2 from the family

This fresco in a small chapel that also served as a governing chamber shows not only the passion of Christ, but many saints at the foot of the cross. 

St Peter, a local saint who was matyred, is seen in many Florentine frescoes, often inviting you to shut the **** up!

The San Marcos depiction of the last supper. Not Leonardo da Vinci although he lived in the hood. This one shows the eating customs of the pre Rennaissance era. Water bowls because you needed to eat with your hands. The fork hadnt been invented yet! There is a table cloth but no plates. Hard bread served as a surface for food. Judas is seen on the opposite side as the 'nonbetrayors."

The tour through San Marcos took us to the chambers of the priests and eventually to the chamber of Savonarola, the priest who opposed the Medicis and instituted the bonfire of the vanities. I wish I could discuss all the history and all the photos but condensing 6 hours is pretty difficult. COME HERE and see for yourself.

From here we gravitated to the Medici palace which eventually was purchased and renovated by the Riccardi family. It isn't terribly ostentacious outside but it is BIG and is made of tremendous large local stones.  The chambers at one time received wool for export in addition to housing the family once they acquired some wealth.

The salon of Charles V. He was a French King who visited here to get strategic passage between Tuscany and Naples to conduct a little battle or so.

The ceiling of the ballroom was really lovely.

A statue of Hercules in the open courtyard area, This is one of many symbols associated with the Medici family: the diamond, the ram, the lion, the turtle, the fleur de lis with pistils, the coat of arms with a shield and "balls"

From this palace, one of several, we progressed to the Cathedral San Lorenzo. This was the Medici family church and holds all their remains to this day.

The San Lorenzo church. There was supposed to be a facade designed by Michelangelo but somehow, he never got around to it. 

The family is buried in the basement but have elaborate works of art as burial tombs. Empty but imposing!

Why not have Michelangelo put a glaze sculpture at your grave site?

The cathedral itself is lovely, but not nearly as opulent as the tomb area which is grandiose, but never completed.

Internal view San Lorenzo cathedral

 We proceeded from here to the lunch. :)

Medici Pizza !

The city hall is impressive as is the statuary outside it.

Florence City Hall. WE did see the mayor, but we dont think he is as cool as Madeline Rogero.

Replica of the statue of David. The original statue is in Berlin. It has lead a rough life.

Perseus Kills Medusa

This statue commissioned by Lorenzo the Magnificent, supposedly represents his triumph over rival families.

From here, we were privileged to visit the sanctuary of the Il Duomo. The story of the dome is an architectural miracle and much of it remains misunderstood. That's a whole blog to itself and again, if you are interested in such things, check out the YOUTUBE 4 hour miniseries about the Medicis.

Dante in the Divine Comedy. Hell on the right, purgatory in the middle. And heaven? The city of Florence . 

The dome of the Il Duomo. An architectural masterpiece. 

This only touches the surface of the Medici lives and legends and took quite a while. Most of the Medici legacy we didn't have time to see in one 6 hour tour.

From here, we moseyed on home and made our way eventually to dinner at Cucuchulia, a very tiny restaurant across the Arno River.

Just getting there was aesthetically pleasing.

There's a traffic jam on the bridge, but it is so gorgeous, you barely notice it. 

Dynamic duo on the way to dinner

Amuse bouche: cauliflower puree soup

Cocoa daisy pasta with lemon potato stuffing.

Chocolate cake. YUM

 I had a stuffed artichoke. Completely vegetarian. Completely scrumptious.

 The walk home didn't suck either.

Along the Arno in the evening.

It was a  great day with so much history and a better understanding of Florence, and how one family, quite flawed, made an impact on their city and the world.  The Medicis---forefathers of the Renaissance. I am GLAD I never knew you (and escaped with my head) but grateful for the good things that were accomplished.

"As they say in Italy, the Italians were eating with a knife and fork while the French were still eating each other.  The Medici family had to bring their Tuscan cooks to France, so they could find something to eat."  

                                 -----Mario Batali.

Paul's Ponderings:  Great start to the trip over the past 36 hours.   Florence is full of history, but very manageable.   As noted, this is a core wine country for Italy as well!   We've had some great dining and it has been around 80 degrees both days -- quite warm!    The Medici history was quite interesting.   They were a very subtly manipulative family who acheived broad power in a short time, but at the same time made a huge difference that endures 'til this day in cultural world history.   We are off to a good start, tomorrow it's off to Cinque Terre for a walk and scenery!