16. Our Villa in Tuscany

Sunday 5 April.  Castellina in Chianti.  We are content to rest at our villa.  It seems everyone has sore throats.  It remains a chore to get Thomas to take his pill.  Cathy and I attend the neighboring town's Sunday market (we can see it from our windows, across the valley, high on the hill like us).  We buy a roast chicken, bottled water and fresh vegetables, then stop in a shop and purchase a few presents (toy animals and cars) for Thomas' 4th birthday tomorrow.  It rains quite a bit after we return, and it is difficult not to track mud into the apartment.  We do not make mass.  At dinner Jeffrey and I decide to drive to Milano and pick up the car registration papers I left there last Monday.  The power goes out.  It rains all the way to Milano (207 miles).  I get lost getting to the hotel, which is 40 minutes off the Motorway.  I am never far off the track, I just feel lost.

Sunday, 2:10 p.m.  The Tuscan villages look very old.  Plants: grape vines are still completely bare, pruned with branches out in two directions, like arms.  Ground covers of grass and dandelion-like plants.  The olive trees do not look very old.  We are on a promontory, jutting out into the arroyo with views of 270 degrees.  The trees are quite bare, some up here still with brown leaves on them, most with nothing, a few covered in green ivy; some shrubs show the barest signs of green.  There are some pines and cypress.  Weather: strong winds, dark clouds, showers, rapidly passing clouds, some sunshine in between breaks in the clouds.  Right now there are dark clouds to the north.

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Letter home:  The apartment was spacious, but lacking TV, dishwasher and washer.  It wasn't too bad: we played cards, read and played Monopoli in Italian (making guesses on whether the chance card said to pay or receive); the kids built the Roman Forum in the sand outside when the rain stopped long enough.  The worst of it was the rain and the mud which we couldn't seem to keep outside.  We were the first to stay in the apartment, which had magnificent views to the town across the valley on the hillside opposite as well as to a river below; it was stunning in the sunshine on the day we left.  The nights were cold and the humidity very high, but the flat warm; each morning we awoke to puddles of water on the tile floor from the condensation dripping off the windows.  The vines did not show the slightest sign of life, but the ground was quite green, filled with yellow flowers which opened up when the sun came out.  Still, the only bad part of the trip was the discovery that I had left the car registration papers in the hotel in Milano.  Jeffrey and I drove up there Sunday night, the 5th (200 miles in the rain, each way), and returned Monday with our prize. 

Our Villa

The Roman Forum

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Monday 6 April.  Jeffrey and I leave Milano at half past eight.  We get on the nearby Motorway and although we do not get lost leaving, it takes us just as long to get to the south end of town.  It is a cloudy, misty morning with some fog patches; we are home by 12:30 (226 miles).  Cathy and I have a late lunch with Thomas at the nearby Torre, then we drive to Siena.  There is some rain, but it is mostly dry.  We visit the town center, the beautiful church and wander around the shops.  In the evening we have a little party for Thomas on his birthday.

12:10 a.m.  Milano.  Hotel Berlino.  Sometimes I feel like I drive for a living. 

 I've been thinking of all the paintings, not just in Rome and Florence.  There was Venice: Veronese and Tintoretto (I could almost tell the difference by the time we left) and Giorgione's "Tempest" at the Academia (the soldier and the woman against a turbulent sky).  In London there were Mantegna's paintings of the Roman soldiers, Christ in Limbo and the paintings for his employer's wife's studio; then Dix and the strange pictures of Berlin.  The Louvre is too long ago to remember.

 11 a.m.  Driving back to Tuscany.  Passing through Bologna.  Cypresses atop the hills stand out.  Washed out colors in each town.  Continued rain.

 Tuesday 7 April.  We visit Florence in the afternoon (50 miles round trip), where we experience a great drenching with thunder and lightning.  We visit the Ponte Vecchio and buy amoxicillin over the counter in children's oral form.  Hooray!  We also pick up Monopoli.  We bring home a pizza, after I am nearly run off the road by a bus in the darkened afternoon.  Home at 8:45.

Sienna

Finding a Nice Parking Spot
in Firenze

San Gimignano

The Medieval Manhattan

Wednesday 8 April.  Robert, Mara and I drive to San Gimignano (the "medieval Manhattan"), about twenty miles away, at one o'clock.  Mara is car sick on arrival.  It is a lovely day after the rain, yellow flowers are in plentiful bloom.  We have a lovely lunch overlooking the countryside and walk around the city, buy some local white wine and some high top Converse tennis shoes for Robert.  We stop at the supermercati (supermarket) on the way back.  Lovely fish and pasta.  Bread unimpressive, wine section outstanding.  For the record: French bread is not as chewy as Italian bread.