Melody & Ernie's Second Weekend Adventure -- Amalfi Coast

The famed Amalfi Coast is as beautiful and stunning as everyone claims it to be. It's the southern side of the Sorrento Peninsula about an hour by train/bus from the center of Naples.

Unlike the Cinque Terre (same mountains meet the sea terrain) which are linked by hiking trail and train, the towns of the Amalfi Coast are connected by a winding edge of your seat road. Riding the bus is part of the experience. You get on and look out the window over the edge of the cliff right down into the sea.

Melody and I stayed in the town of Positano, which is probably the most charming and expensive. It's much less commercial and tourist invaded than Amalfi or Sorrento because tour buses can't reach it.

Positano at sunrise.

The same view as above, looking up into the hills of Positano. As night came, it was awesome to watch the twinkle of the lights take over the valley.

Every Italian town has a duomo!

The weather the entire weekend was beautiful (the weather forecast called for rain) and we took a boat from Positano to the town of Amalfi. The coast is eroding away and I thought this "cave" was totally cool.

The duomo in the town of Amalfi is a mix if Byzantine and Romanesque. The staircase to the duomo is the gathering point of the town.

The Sorrento Peninsula is known for its lemons. The nets cover the lemon trees to keep the trees insulated. Melody and I found Amalfi to be overrun with tourists so we decided to try and hike.

But we took a wrong turn and decided to eat our lunches in front of the house of this charming man, Luigi. I took a picture with him because I had a breakthrough on this trip with my Italian. I spoke with Luigi for a full 7-10 minutes in Italian and we talked about Amalfi, Soccer and each other. Melody and I made friends with a waiter in Positano who told me I spoke Italian with a Viterbesi accent. My language skills are skyrocketing!

Even in Amalfi, vegetable oil is being recycled.

Deciding to abandon our hike, Melody and I took the bus to Ravello, which is perched 1,000 feet above the coast. It ended up being the highlight of the day. At the far end of town, on a high chunk of land is Villa Cimbrone, which was created/rehabilitated by an Englishman in the early 1900's

"Here, in the spring of 1938, the divine Greta Garbo escaped the clamor of Hollywood and met with Leopold Stokowsky for a time of secret happiness"

This wisteria draped lane is called the "Avenue of Immensity." As you can see, Spring has sprung in Italy.

Villa Cimbrone has copies of a number of famous statues. I was excited to find a copy of Verrocchio's David. I did a presentation on him in Art History class where I talked about his pose, hand on hip and line of sight being the essence of the new confident and forward looking Renaissance male. I summarized it by saying, he was the first "porn star".

The best view from Villa Cimbrone comes at the "Infinite Terrace". Here's what it's like looking down.

Melody and I commented on how cute this old man was. I'll add him to my Old Italian Men series. I ended up talking with him and finding out he was 82 years old. I understood none of the rest of the conversation, however.

Positano at dusk. The seafood was amazing and company even better. Thanks for a great couple weekends, Mel!

Melody & Ernie's Weekend Adventure -- Volterra

Entering Volterra from the West, Porta San Francesco

Volterra's new found fame comes from it being the home of the "Volturi" in the second installment of the "Twilight" series, "New Moon." Trust me, I had to read up on it, not that Melody of I actually knew anything about the series. I chose it because it has a painting in its painting gallery that I studied in Art History. Honestly.

Volterra has been inhabited since Etruscan times and was an important Etruscan city. One entrance into the city, and still used, is a remaining Etruscan arch. The worn stones are some 2,500 years old. The rounded heads are the remnants of the 1st century BC and the more "modern" stones are from the 13th century.

As you continue on from the Porta Francesco entrance, you come to a fork in the road, but right in front of you is that amazingly beautiful and cute place of worship. It's one room and it's like a "drop in and pray" kind of place.

Here it is at night (courtesy of Melody). Apparently, this fork in the road/corner church is mentioned in "New Moon."

The Volterra Baptistry was constructed in the same era as many early Christian baptistries in Italy. It's octagonal and has the same striped marble as the one in Florence.

Ok now people, you should be able to name the style of the Volterra Duomo.

Romanesque! Inside, here's the pulpit with a scene of the Last Supper in which Judas is underneath the table.

In medieval times, each of these hill towns of Central Italy was a city state. This is Volterra's city hall (the tower was featured in "New Moon" I gathered) and was copied by Florence, which has a similar looking Palazzo Vecchio in it's main square.

Right here, carved into the front of the city hall, is a "metric" which was used to measure things during market days.

This tower in town has no door or stairway to the second/third floors. According to legend, you got up by having a rope swing dropped down and climbing up. The windows are narrow so anyone wearing armor (i.e. enemy) couldn't fit through.

Volterra was also a Roman city at one point. Here's the theater, which was only uncovered in the 1950's.

At some point, the city dwellers started dismantling the theater to construct baths.

This western part of Tuscany is known for it's marble. Massa-Carrara is famous for it's pure white marble, whereas here in Volterra, alabaster is its forte.

Here's the painting I came to see. Rosso Fiorentino's "Deposition of Christ", which is a classic example of Mannerist style painting. Just after the High Renaissance, painters took things over the top. It's ostentatious, the painter doesn't pay as much attention to drapery and instead has sharp corners. There is little attention paid to the depth and perspective. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the painting is some 18-20 feet tall.

This is a painting by Dominic Ghirlandaio, the teacher of Michelangelo.

One thing that Melody and I found was this milk dispensing machine right in town. You bring your bottle, put in some Euro coins and get your milk. Alas, we didn't have any container with us to try it.

The drive through the countryside was phenomenal. Every corner was a new and amazing site that put a smile on our faces. Pictures don't do the scenery justice, you'll just have to come and see for yourselves.

So, I promised a story as to why the world is telling me that I shouldn't be driving her in Italy without my license. First, while trying to navigate from Pitigliano to Volterra, Melody tried to direct me away from going through the city of Siena. But, alas, due to the confusing signage, all of a sudden we're inside the Siena walls. We loop around once but end up in the same place. So we turn a different way and the all of a sudden, we're driving on one of those pedestrian only streets. Trying to get out of it, lo and behold, all of a sudden I'm in the piazza with the Duomo. Our car is one of only 10 cars on the whole piazza. We get out of there as soon as possible. Hopefully, our license plate didn't get photographed and I'll get a ticket in the mail sometime later. Then, less than an hour later, we get stopped by the Carabinieri who are redirecting traffic due to a new rotary. Here we are chatting it up trying to get directions, but hoping he doesn't ask for any documentation. That was a close call. Then, on the way back from Volterra, it's raining and the car spins out and lands in a mud ditch. Our great luck stays with us and we are able to drive out without any damage to us or the car. I'll wait until I have my license to drive again.

We stopped by the town of Montalcino on the way back and found a festival and got the "Menu Completto"

Many breads with spreads, soup for me1, papadrelle with boar for Melody. Grilled meats, white beans and wine and water. YUM

Melody & Ernie's Weekend Adventure -- Pitigliano

My sister's roommate from college, Melody (who I've dubbed the second sister I never had and I'm the brother she never had), is my third visitor to Viterbo. She's here for about 10 days, which spans two weekends. This first weekend, we borrowed my colleague/housemate's car (the next post will examine and edify all as to why I shouldn't be driving without a license, but that will have to wait) to do a drive through the hill towns of Tuscany. Not having had the chance to drive, I had NO IDEA how beautiful the landscape is a mere hour north of me. Next year, with driving ability, I'll be going throughout the area. Pictures don't do it justice at all. Our first stop, the hill town of Pitigliano, right across the border of Lazio and Tuscany. It was a beautiful day as the pictures bear out.

I found out about this town because I now have my MSN homepage set to the Italian front page. One day there was a link to the 20 most beautiful "secret" towns in Italy, and Pitigliano is one of them.

Even though I've been to numerous hilltowns, the first sight of it always takes your breath away.

Walking through the town, looking down any alley is an amazing combination of old houses, stairs and sharp cliffside dropoffs into the valley below.

I loved this door....

...but especially the door handles.

Melody, purchasing a gift for a friend back in the US. The owner of the store, Lorenzo, makes all of the olive wood items by hand. We found out that his son, the one all email is directed to (Lorenzo doesn't email), is a college student in Viterbo. All done in Italian, of course. I'm pretty psyched that my Italian is to the point where I can effectively communicate. Language acquisition is the BOMB.

Ercolano (Herculaneum)

Ercolano, the Italian name for the town of Herculaneum (named after Hercules) is a archeological site on the western slope of Vesuvius that was covered in mud and lava when Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. On this day, we went to Ercolano, Vesuvius and ended the day with Pompeii. By the time we got to Pompeii, I was done. I had finally gotten my fill of classical ruins. BASTA, as they say in Italian. Someday, I'll go back to Pompeii, but on this day, I took a kids iPod and watched Glee. There I was in Pompeii, hiding in the ancient ruins watching an American television show. I'm not proud, but, I had to embrace what I wanted in that moment, and it wasn't looking at more Roman Empire era ruins. But, the following are pictures from Ercolano.

From the Circumvesuviana train, it's a nice six block walk to the entrance of the Ercolano excavation site.

You can see that the modern city of Ercolano is built right to the edge of the site and is directly in the shadow of a dormant Vesuvius.

Here I am standing at what was water's edge. Look how deep in mud and debris the city was buried. In the some of the excavations done at this point, bodies were found.

Like at Pompeii, some frescos survive. Here is one that is in the colonnade of what appears to have been a multistory home.

This is the courtyard of "The House of the Deer". It is right at waters edge. Herculaneum, as were many towns in this area around Vesuvius, were resort towns.

This villa is called "The House of the Deer" because of the statues found where deer are being attacked by dogs.

Throughout Ercolano, there are these bars with jugs. These were tabernas where citizens could get food and drink. In essence, ancient restaurants and fast food joints.

Here I am pretending to be an ancient purveyor of food and drink. I don't look the part do I?

No, it's not little feces, which is what I originally thought. But it's pumice.

The Romans had public water sources like this one. This tradition carries on into modern times as you find public sources of free flowing water throughout Italy.

One of the most stunning and famous locations at Ercolano is the "Sede degli Augustali", a building in which freed slaves worshiped the Emperor Augustus.

This fresco in the "Sede degli Augustali" shows Juno, Minerva and Hercules.

This is near the corner of where the Cardo Superior and Decumanus Superior meet, which is at the NE corner of the archeological site. I think it means that only one-quarter of what was the town of Ercolano has been unearthed. The rest sits under the modern town.

Shops on the ground floor, homes above. Building plans remain constant throughout time.

I believe this is what was essentially an industrial sized iron.

The impluvium (water catchment system) of a grand home.

I guess the Romans also had "McMansions" as well!