Pétanque & Pastis

A Tongue and Cheek Tour of Padova

A 30-minute train ride from Venice got us to into Padova in the late morning.  The first thing we did was to head over to the Scrovegni Chapel to make a reservation for a viewing later in the day.  After securing a 17h15 reservation, we meandered through the park that houses the chapel, the Giardini Dell’Arena, and then made our way into the centro storico (the old town) where we settled into Caffè Cavour at Piazza Cavour for an alfresco lunch.

After lunch we continued our tour of Padova by visiting one of the most important pilgrimage churches in Italy, the Basilica di Sant’Antonio.  It is here that the body of the Portuguese Franciscan preacher, affectionately referred to as "Il Santo", was entombed years after his death in 1231.  Among the “miraculous” relics found here in the church, is the tongue of Saint Anthony.  Yes, the tongue !!  We have often seen body parts of saints or other important persons stored in some of the churches of Italy.  Among other things, we have seen several fingers, a nose, an ear, an arm, a jaw (or cheek), and my personal favorite, a larynx.  Most of the time we just have to take the word of the relic descriptions since they are, largely, unrecognizable.  Would you be able to recognize a 700 year-old larynx, or a 775 year-old tongue ?

Our Padova Museum pass gave us entry to the Musei Civici agli Eremitani with its mosaic fragments from the 1^st century, Roman busts and full statues, Egyptian antiquities, and treasures from the Greek and Etruscan periods.

It was finally time for our 17h15 viewing of the frescoes by Giotto, the great Tuscan artist, in the Cappella degli Scrovegni.  We were required to start our visit with a 15-minute wait in a special air-conditioned multimedia room, where the flow of visitors into the actual chapel could be regulated.  Fortunately, an informative video about the restoration of the frescoes is shown during the wait, which gives you an idea of what to look for once inside, where you have only 15 minutes to take in all the amazing paintings.  These measures were put into place in order to safeguard the precious works of art from pollution.  When you finally enter the church, you see that the whole chapel is completely covered in Giotto’s treasured frescoes from the early 14^th century, depicting the life of Christ, the life of Mary, and relating the stories of Mary’s parents, Joachim and Anne.  When you get to the end of the chapel and turn around facing the entrance, you face the gigantic “Last Judgement”, which covers the whole arched end of the chapel.  It would be very easy to spend more than 15 minutes on the “Last Judgement” alone.

Before heading back to the train station for our return to Venice, we got in a last stroll which took us along the beautiful, peaceful canals and waterways in and around Padova.

Reluctant Cruisers in Venice

We were able to board the Michelangelo at 6:00pm last night.  Our home for the rest of the week is very nice, and our room is very comfortable.  What we expected was a hotel on water.  What we got was a real, bona fide cruise.  Last night we were seated for dinner at the table where we will have all our meals, along with the two other couples who will be our table companions for every meal.  Fortunately, they are all very nice, and they only speak French, so we won’t have to worry about our French getting rusty while we are in Italy.

After a morning cruise in the Venice Lagoon, the Michelangelo settled in not far from Piazza San Marco, where we spent the afternoon visiting the Basilica di San Marco and the Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace).  We walked across The Bridge of Sighs, which links the Palazzo Ducale with the prison, and was so named because the prisoners would get their last glimpse (pictured below) of the outside world as they walked across to be locked up.

Venice by Bus and Train

It turned out that SNCF (the French train system) decided to support the anti-CPE protestors by going on strike beginning yesterday, the day of our departure by train to Venice !  We knew the French trains would not be running, and that we wouldn’t be able to take the train from Antibes to Nice to catch our Italian train, but we were surprised when our friends dropped us off at the Nice station, and we found that not even the international trains were running.  Fortunately, SNCF put us on a bus and took us on a nightmarish ride over to Ventimiglia, Italy, to catch our Italian train.  We’re lucky to live so close to Italy - it took less than 30 minutes by autoroute.  So, a potential catastrophe was averted once we stepped off the bus, met up with our train, and settled into our private compartment for the overnight trip.

After being rocked to sleep with the motion of the train, we were in good form for our arrival into the Santa Lucia train station in Venice around 8:00am, and were able to check our bags at the train station for the day.  It was nice strolling around a very peaceful Venice, and watching the morning markets setting up their wares.

Venice 1948-1986: the art scene

We stopped in to see the Photography Exhibit at the very popular Peggy Guggenheim Collection in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni on Venice’s Grand Canal.  Peggy Guggenheim made her home here in the “Palazzo non finito” (uncompleted palace) from 1949 until her death in 1979.  It looks as though the upper floors of the palace were somehow chopped off.  However, for reasons which still remain a mystery today, the construction of the building, which began in the 18^th century, was never completed.

The exhibit provides photographs from Venice’s post-war international art scene captured at the Venice Biennales from 1948 through 1986.  The << Biennale di Venezia >>, which also includes the Venice Film Festival, is an important contemporary art exhibition which has been taking place every other year in Venice starting from the late 1800’s.  Many of the contemporary artists of the day are shown in the photographs including Picasso, Alex Calder, Fernand Léger, Max Ernst, Jean Cocteau, Man Ray, etc.

Egyptian Architecture & Dead Protestants in Rome

Just outside the Piramide Station there really is a 37-meter high Egyptian-style Pyramid erected next to the Porta San Paolo.  It was constructed in 12 B.C. by Caius Cestius as a tomb for himself.  And behind the Pyramid, which was incorporated into the Roman Aurelian Walls in the third century, you will find the Protestant Cemetery, officially known as Cimitero Acattolico (Non-Catholic Cemetery).

The Protestant Cemetery is home to the English poet, John Keats, who died in Rome of tuberculosis in 1821.  His tombstone reads: “This Grave contains all that was mortal of a YOUNG ENGLISH POET, Who on his Death Bed, in the Bitterness of his Heart at the Malicious Power of his Enemies, Desired these Words to be engraven on his Tomb Stone:  Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water.  Feb 24^th 1821”.

Another famous grave in this cemetery of non-catholics is that of another English poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley, who drowned in a sailing accident in the Gulf of Spezia in the summer of 1822.  His tombstone reads:  “Nothing of him that doth fade, But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange.”

This beautiful grieving angel, draped over the grave of Emelyn Story, was the last work of her husband, the American sculptor, William W. Story, created in 1895 in her memory in the same year of her death.

Shopping & Dining as the Romans Do

Pat took the train into Rome this morning from Lido di Ostia and met us at the Piramide station.  From here she led us into the Trastevere neighborhood to the big event of the week, the Porta Portese open-air market, which runs all along the Via Portuense and is open on Sundays from dawn until about 2:00pm.  We joined the masses of locals and tourists alike to rummage through the stalls of new and second-hand leather coats, clothing, antiques, kitchenware, books, etc., etc.  We each reigned triumphant as we left with brand new (slightly-used) leather coats for 20€ each.

The village-esque quality of the Trastevere neighborhood makes it a great place to wander about aimlessly, seeking out espresso bars, gelaterias, wine bars, and colorful trattorias with amazing antipasti bars. 

Getting Reacquainted with Rome

It was a thirty minute train ride from Lido di Ostia into the Piramide station in Rome, and then a short metro ride to the Spagna station where we disembarked and climbed to the top of the Spanish Steps and turned right to arrive at our home for the next three days, the Hotel Internazionale at 79 via Sistina.

We made pretty good tracks today, revisiting many of the sites from our previous visit to Rome:  Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, Saint Peter’s Square and the Vatican.  But one thing I had not remembered was the number of majestic bridges gracefully traversing the beautiful Tiber River, such as the Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II, pictured above, stretched out in front of Castel Sant’Angelo. 

Lido di Ostia – The Rome Harbor

It was a short flight from Nice to Rome on Alitalia, and it was great to be greeted by the smiling faces of Pat Mikkelsen and Marco Cesareo, who chauffeured us into Lido di Ostia (approx 6 kilometers from the airport-FCO).

Lido di Ostia is part of the municipality of Rome, and is a popular beach destination for families in the summer.  The dark-sand beach was pretty deserted this time of year, except for a few bicyclists and people strolling on the long promenade stretched out alongside it.

The new Tourist Port of Rome is a private marina with about 800 berths and brand new modern facilities, which has been open only since 2001.

It is here that Pat calls home this winter, on her beautiful Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 37.  And it is here where she treats her guests like royalty with afternoon lunches on the sun-drenched deck, and with mouth-watering dinners in the teak-paneled dining room, decorated with an artist’s touch.  

Lago di Como to Nice Ville by Train

We spent our last day in Como taking a tour through the Duomo, and then shopping for our lunch items to take aboard the train (without dining car) for the six-hour trip home to Nice.  We also found some Limoncello, Limoncino, Baci chocolates, pancetta, and some parmigiano reggiano to take home with us.  By the way, what’s the difference between Limoncello and Limoncino?  They are both made with lemons, and they both are 32% alcohol.

Varenna on Lago di Como

Navigating around Lago di Como is a bit trickier on Sundays.  We couldn’t take the fast boat directly to Varenna, so we took it to Tremezzo (~40 minutes) first, where we wandered in and around Villa Carlotta and its tropical gardens.  Then we took the slow boat (~30 minutes) over to the colorful village of Varenna tucked into the hillside with its tiny harbor facing the lake.

From the Pontile di Arrivo (arrival port), we walked along a romantic passerella (promenade) to get to the center of the village, where our first item on the agenda was to get some lunch.  We found a restaurant where we could eat inside to escape the intermittent rain showers, and we started with a first course of bresaola & rucola and then went on to risotto with filets of lake fish, a local specialty.  After a couple of espressos, we headed out to explore the village, with umbrellas in hand.

We spent a good amount of time dodging the rain in the 16^th-century Villa Monastero and its beautiful arbored gardens and meditative outdoor temple.  This ancient monastery is now used as an International Conference Center.

The return trip back to Como took the form of a slow-boat voyage all around the southwestern-most appendage of Lago di Como, which took about 2 hours and 35 minutes.  Fortunately, we were able to order wine and snacks while we took in the rainy views of all the small villages which populate this part of the lake.

Comune di Brunate by Funicular / Villa d’Este in Cernobbio by Boat

The day started out on a dry note, and continued to remain that way throughout the day.  So, it was a good day for hiking around the nearby villages.  We started by taking a funicular ride up to the Comune di Brunate, just a steep 7-minute ascent above the city of Como.  We were not prepared for any serious hiking, but there were trails available for those so inclined.  We settled on wandering around looking for views of the lake.  We stopped at a small auberge for a very colorful lunch, which included green salads, red gnocchi with yellow saffron sauce, and white ravioli with lake perch and butter and sage.  It was quite good, and enhanced by a beautiful view of Lago di Como way down below us.

After our descent by funicular back to Como, we hopped onto a slow boat (~15 minutes) and headed for the village of Cernobbio.  Our goal was to get over to the well-known Villa d’Este for a drink, and to check out the menu to see if we might want to make a dinner reservation for the next day.  We walked onto the grounds of the famous hotel as if we belonged there, but we didn’t fool the guard at the gate.  Only guests of the hotel were allowed on the premises, and he kicked us out !  I guess we’ll have to make a dinner reservation before we arrive next time.  I think there may even be a special Villa d’Este water taxi that we can take next time if we plan it right.  We’ll see…

Bellagio on Lago di Como

After a dry two-hour walk along the lake-side promenade all the way from Como to the village of Cernobbio and back, we caught the fast boat (~45 minutes) so that we could spend the day in the picturesque village of Bellagio, which sits at the middle of the appendages of the inverted Y-shaped lake.

It started raining right before we boarded the hydrofoil, and it never let up the rest of the day.  However, our spirits were never dampened as we explored the beautiful, narrow, steep little stone streets throughout the hillside village.  Of course, it helped that our resolve was fortified with a delicious lunch of salty proscuitto with sweet melon, followed by buttery polenta with sautéed porcini mushrooms which were at their peak, all washed down with the regional Nebbiolo wine.