Giro di Italia 2011

The 2011 Giro di Italia's 6th stage came within 20km of Viterbo, but the 5th stage about an hour away was more interesting because part of it was on "Strada Stretti", or off-road/unpaved.

I talked my director into canceling a faculty meeting and we headed up, with our friend Renato, up to southern Tuscany to watch the Giro's 5th stage. Here's the view from where we were.

Turns out we found the finish line of the "GPM" or "Grande Premio Montagna", the end of a mountain stage where the first rider across wins a prize and points towards being the mountain stage leader.

The cops coming by signal the bikers......

And the leader, who had taken a lead of over three minutes was Weening of The Netherlands.

Followed by the support cars....

...and the dust. We ate a LOT of dust.

Here comes the peleton. This 5th stage was the first ride after the 3rd stage in which a rider fell, hit his head and then passed away. Turns out after on the descent into Orvieto, there was another fall.

Happy people.....

...not at work on a Wednesday afternoon!

Furlo along the Via Flaminia

The last weekend in April, Marlene and I drove to Senigallia to visit her friend Robert from when she was in Architecture school. He's inherited an AMAZING estate from his aunt. Note the chapel on the right. They spent the afternoon taling about design plans for turning it into some kind of income generating property. I took a nap.

The drive home was a surprise treat. Robert advised that we drive through Furlo. The gap is called "Gola di Furlo" or "Throat of Furlo" for its narrow pass.

The Roman Via Flaminia, which ends at the Adriatic in Fano, goes through the Gola di Furlo and you can drive through this tunnel....

....which was created under the reign of Vespasian. Awesome!

Just to the west of tunnel, in the village of Furlo is this building with a facist facade.

Inside the bar, if you ask the barista, you can go see this dining room, preserved in this state because it's where Mussolini ate 56 times.

Turns out Furlo was between his birthplace and hometown of Forli and Rome, so when he traveled between the two, he would stop here for a meal!

Sitting in the same seat as Mussolini, how many people can say that?

An Afternoon in the Gardens of Versailles

The palace, which we didn't go in, as seen from the famed gardens of Versailles.

I spent the afternoon laying in the grass, walking around the lake while Marlene rented a bike.

The park is free, open to the public and you see joggers, families and all kinds of people.

Louis XIV, the Sun King, had the palace built and the gardens. He wanted a Venetian like canal....so he had one built.

Marlene took this picture. I'm stealing it.

Chartres Cathedral

The Cathedral at Chartres has three pages dedicated to it in Gardner's. Why? It's one, if the the best, preserved original French Gothic (1100-1200's) church. It survived the French Revolution and two world wars.

The West Facade with the Royal Portal. The original church was built in 1145, but most of the original church burned in a 1194 fire. The Royal Portal shows the majesty and power of Christ.

The engineering development of the Gothic age, flying buttresses, which allowed support to not build a higher ceiling...

....but to create more space for windows to let in light.

Looking towards the west, the south (shorter to the left) tower was built in the Romanesque style and survived the 1194 fire. The taller north tower was originally built of wood and burned in the 1194 fire and rebuilt.

A feature of gothic churches, diagonal and transverse ribs.

The north portal door tells the story of Christ from birth to crucifixtion.

The south portal projects out more forcefully into the public space.

It shows Christ up to the present and is the personification of the triumph of Christianity.

Unlike Greek caryatids, who ARE the column, the saints here in the portal jambs are distinct artistic adornments because they are independent of the columns themselves.

Also depicted are methods of torture, such as someone being stretched on a wheel.

The ambulatory inside encloses the choir.

The choir screen depicts the life of Mary.

This lancet window (called the Blue Virgin) survived the 1194 fire and was reinstalled in the rebuilt church. Virgin Mary and child with a red background and angels in a blue background. With the flat frontal depiction of Mary, it harkens back to the Byzantine. But one difference is that with stained glass, the light shines in from the back, where with the dazzling display of the Byzantine mosaics, the light comes from the front and shines off the tiles. Interesting.

Over each of the portals (north, west and south) are huge rose windows. They each tell a story. The feel inside with the darkness from the stained glass, but enough to be able to move around, especially on a sunny day, sets the right mood to let any human know that they are in the presence of God.

Chenonceaux

From Brittney, Marlene and I drove into the Loire Valley to visit Chenonceaux, the 16th century the home of French King Henry II's mistress Diane de Poitiers. When Henry IInd died in 1559, his wife, Catherine de Medici expelled Diane and forced Catherine forced Diane to trade it for another chateau. All very messy and much like a soap opera....

Here we are on the path that leads to the River Cher over which...

...spans Chenonceaux, the chateau.

This is the de Poitier garden. On the other side there is the de Medici garden. The whole complex has an arboretum and beautiful parkland. Bonus, we arrived after 5PM and it was uncrowded. Bummer, it was overcast.

Why the picture of this door?

Turns out that the River Cher was the border between Occupied France (north) and Free France (south) during WWII. Therefore this door and gallery was used to shuttle people back and forth between the two parts of France.

Carnac

Leaving St. Malo, we "cut off" the arm of Brittney and headed to Rennes, its capital. It was weird walking around the town (we went because of a great Saturday market!) that I had the opportunity to live in next year. I spent the time thinking, "what would it be like here" the entire time. The city had a beautiful central core with great old buildings like these, which Marlene and I debated as to whether or not there were built tilted or became this way.

People of my generation (and I'm on the tail end) when they hear "Carnac" they think of the Johnny Carson character.

But in reality, it's a prehistoric site with huge stones lined up in straight lines in fields.

Historians still haven't uncovered the reasons why inhabitants of this region would have made such an effort to move, lineup and set up these monstrous stones.

The day ended with an AMAZING platter of seafood. I'm a big fan of the "wimples" or sea snails. It was all good.