Saturday, February 21, 2015

Monte Berico

Another little jaunt we took over the winter break was to the neighborhood of Monte Berico in Vicenza. It's only about four miles away and I pass it every time I go to the train or bus station, but I've never been before. I've been intrigued for a while, as it basically encompasses the tallest (only, really) hill in Vicenza and I'd heard the views are amazing. I've also been wanting to go because Tony has been a few times for work - those crazyheads RUN from their base UP the giant hill (up steps and under arches past little chapels; it's beautiful), and have a chest-bumping session at the top or whatever, and then RUN back to work. I tell you, I do not have that kind of stamina. And I probably never shall.

Anyway, we had a clear day and I pitched the idea to Tony, and suggested we meet our wonderful friend Fay there, whose mother was visiting from Brazil and whose dog Lolly is the sweetest angel ever and is half in love with my husband. Instead of going straight from home, we were out doing something else that morning and ended up approaching Monte Berico from a different direction, so of course we got turned around. Eventually we found our way to the hill and took another wrong turn, leading us up a teeny tiny street that just randomly dead-ended at someone's driveway, and Tony had to back our giant American car back down in order to turn around. Whew, I get all tense just remembering it. I do NOT like narrow streets and I ESPECIALLY don't like driving a car in reverse, so those two things combined are very stressful to me. I can't blame Tony because he's never driven up there either, only run. But eventually we found our way to the parking lot at the top of the hill and got out to enjoy the view.

Vicenza, viewed from Monte Berico
And what a spectacular view! There's a brick wall around the perimeter of the lot, and every few feet or so there's the name of a city inscribed along with an arrow pointing to it, so you can look out onto the valley and know what you're looking at. There are several of those tourist binoculars too, but we didn't bother with those. Just as we had finished identifying Tony's base and the green-roofed basilica that is a very central landmark to Vicenza, Fay and her mom arrived, along with Lolly the rock star. We all oohed and aahed over the view, and then because the light was spectacular we took a few photos of each other. Fay is one of the most photogenic people I've ever met, and she clearly gets her looks from her mom. One of my favorite pictures of the day is a cute one of those two, each with their heads cocked slightly to the side - like mother, like daughter! My other favorite photo is Lolly posing on top of the wall. What a ham!

Tony's girlfriend
After absorbing the view for a while, we walked up toward the church on the hill, the minor Basilica of St. Mary. Tony and I hadn't been in yet, so we took a few minutes to peek inside. (Lolly couldn't come, and Fay's mom wanted to shoot some more outdoor video, so they remained outside.) It was an hour or so before Saturday afternoon mass, and people were starting to arrive. I also think there was a prayer hour or something, because there were a bunch of nuns inside the church. Though it was beautiful, we didn't stay inside very long - we didn't want to disrupt anyone's worship and we didn't want to keep the ladies waiting outside. Then we walked along the street toward a park and the Museo del Risorgimento; on a nice weather day I'd like to go back and fully explore the park, which I think has a nice scenic loop and a view of Palladio's Rotunda, and visit the museum properly. I'd probably finish with a spritz (Aperol + Prosecco + Club Soda) at the local restaurant, which also has great views. Are you catching on to the trend yet? If you want to see some pretty views, go to Monte Berico! There are also lots of beautiful and fancy-looking houses in this neighborhood as well, and it's a good location for people-watching.

St. Mary's
We turned around and started walking back to the cars, and we could hear the church bells start playing Christmas carols! This was the first week of January, and it was nice to be reminded that the Christmas season extends all the way through the Feast of the Ephiphany, or Three King's Day, or January 6, however you want to label it. We stood in the lot for a few minutes just enjoying the bells, and then called it a day. It was a very peaceful afternoon, well worth getting lost for.


Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Obligatory Cittadella Post

With our car being broken (still), we've been looking for mini-trips close to home for the last several months. In the week between Christmas and New Year's we were further hampered by illness and bad weather, but were able to take advantage of a rare nice day in early January to head out on an adventure. I'd been wanting to visit Cittadella, so broached that as a possible option. Contrary to my usual style, we didn't really do any research ahead of time; all we knew was that there was a castle with walls you could walk on, and that was enough for us. We plugged "Cittadella" into the GPS - it's only about 35 minutes from home - and away we went!

As we got closer, we saw several signs, and at some point we opted to follow them instead of the GPS. We saw a church spire (duh, it's Italy) and then the wall. We turned right along the castle wall, and parked in between the moat and the city. As it turns out, Cittadella is an entire walled city, with four castle keeps, and the whole things is surrounded by a moat. We entered the city through an arch in the wall, and started walking toward the center, hoping to see tourist information signs. Other than a few bicyclists and locals out walking, the city was quite dead. We timed our arrival for about 2:00pm, which is smack in the middle of the typical Italian riposo period when things close down. We quickly discovered the streets are laid out in a grid pattern, passed the church which beckoned our arrival, and found the main city square with a giant Christmas tree and small skating rink, both deserted.

Moat!
Duomo
At the church, we randomly turned to the right and eventually found the ticket office and museum, which we had to climb up to enter. The ticket lady responded to my hesitant Italian and we paid for our tickets while she kept talking. Given my blank look, she laughed and then asked if we spoke English, to which we gratefully replied. I'm looking forward to the day when my Italian skills can handle more than the most rudimentary of interactions! Anyway, she handed us a map and an informational flyer, and explained that you could walk the entire perimeter of the city wall, going over a church and into another museum section. I forgot to turn on my phone's GPS, but later we calculated that the perimeter was probably around a mile. A quick wikipedia check says it is 4,793 feet, so our guesstimate came pretty close.

Medeival Cittadella Wall
Cittadella, which is in the province of Padova (Padua), was first built in the 1200s and has been the site of several battles and at least one major siege. Every year in September the locals get together to reenact the siege, and in the museum you could see pictures and examples of clothing, armor, and coats-of-arms of important families who've held the territory. It's location is geographically significant, since it rests roughly halfway between Padova and Vicenza, and halfway between Verona and Venice. The four main arches entering the city aren't labeled with polar directions, but with the names of the next major town in each direction.

Porte Bassanesi - Bassano Entrance
The Cathedral, built in the 19th century
I enjoyed the outing, and it was equally pleasant to look outside the wall as inside. We circumnavigated the cathedral, which made a great landmark, and traversed atop another smaller church (Santa Maria del Torresino) as well. I was busy taking pictures of the smaller church's bells when suddenly they began to ring! Turns out my mischievous husband found the bell-cord and couldn't resist. Not to be outdone, I gave it a good yank as well, and then we rushed off giggling. In our defense, there weren't any signs (in any language) saying NOT to touch or pull the cord, and it was practically shouting at us to tug on it.

Some of the houses near the wall were amazingly beautiful, and we found a backyard which we instantly coveted. It had a giant magnolia tree in the center, which was slightly elevated and surrounded by stone pavers and steps leading up to it. The inhabitants apparently also like to take advantage of good weather and eat outdoors, as they also had a patio with outdoor seating, firepit, and a roll-up shade tarp. I go to bed at night and dream about that yard, it was so fabulous. On the other end of the spectrum, we also passed a large but ramshackle place which had sort of a barn attached to it. Inside the barn were stacks and stacks of folding chairs, and a teeny tiny old car covered with dirt and moss. I get the feeling that car has been there for many years.

Awesome backyard
Apparently the Cittadella wall has been renovated fairly recently, and I think the construction workers did a great job. There are still areas with original stonework to walk on, but much of it is now concrete and newer brick. Some of the supporting tower-like structures (sorry, I don't know the architectural names for things) are leaning both into the city center and outwards, but you never get the impression that anything is shaky or unstable. One section of the wall is missing, and historians disagree if it is due to a natural collapse described in the 1700s or catapult damage during a war in the 1500s. The walkway there is more like an open catwalk, with metal steps zigzagging you up and down as you continue making your way around the oval walls. There are no foundations to the wall, which is supported by embankments piled up both inside and out.

Parapet over the destroyed section of the city wall
After we completed our loop, we walked back through the town center, which was teeming with people. We stopped for a minute to watch people on the skating rink. I was kind of interested in going into the church and its adjacent tower, but by then Tony's cold was starting to get the better of him. Whenever we have visitors, Cittadella would definitely be on the list of places to visit, as it was a great afternoon, close by, and not too strenuous. Plus, it looked like there were some nice gelaterias worth visiting, and you know I have a hard time saying no to gelato!

Ice skating rink in Cittadella
Here's the wikipedia link, if you're interested in learning more. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cittadella




Monday, February 9, 2015

Malta: Part 5 (Last one!)

We were in Malta over Christmas, and that made the second half of our vacation a lot slower-paced than the first few days, though no less enjoyable. Since our first few days took us all over the island, we elected to stay somewhat closer to home over the actual holiday.

On December 23rd, we braved public transit (so easy!) to Valletta after our falconry adventures, with the intent of exploring the capitol city and finding some good food. Malta is known for its rabbit dishes, so that's what we both had. Tony had a traditional roast rabbit and I had rabbit stuffed with asparagus and spinach; each dish came with a white wine and garlic sauce. Mwah! Deeee-licious. We also visited the archaeological museum, which was only about 5Euro and quite well done. There were some original artifacts from the temples we'd visited earlier in the week, including the fat lady statuettes, and just a host of other interesting things. We saw a sarcophagus and a really neat exhibit of Malta through the ages as represented by a hundred different artifacts.  Valletta has several different museums, and I only wish we'd budgeted more time for some of these cultural explorations.

Christmas Eve was somewhat uneventful, but we took public transit again to check out the former capitol city of Mdina, or Imdina. It was on my "must-do" list, and I'm glad we went, though I do wish we stayed for dinner as well. Hands down, this city had the best urban views on the entire island! We took a bus from our hotel directly to the old city, and walked through one of the arches in the medieval wall surrounding which surrounds it. The former moat has been made into a park, and it looked really beautiful, though we didn't walk down there at all. I believe Mdina is connected to the city of Rabat, which is a lot larger. Though Mdina is technically its own city, it really is more like a neighborhood. It was very quiet, and no cars are allowed unless you are a resident with a special permit.

Park in the moat
Since we arrived on Christmas Eve, somewhat late in the afternoon, not many places were open. In fact, a few places closed just before our arrival or just as we got there. Too bad, as I was really interested in some of the glass shops and the medieval dungeons!

Mdina, aka King's Landing
The dungeons, which we sadly did not get to tour.
We passed the main church square, in front of St. Paul's Cathedral. Though the site has been occupied since 4,000BC, the church was rebuilt in the 1600s. For some reason, there were two cannons out front and we got a kick out of watching some little tourist boys crawl all over them. We also noticed a police booth directly next to the St. Paul's convent, which was also pretty amusing. Tony pretended it was a T.A.R.D.I.S. and took a picture inside of the booth; it literally looked like an old phone booth and I cannot imagine what possible practical use the local police get out of it. We went into the church and were astounded at all the marble work. The entire floor is covered in grave markers and monuments to local families, and in one of the alcoves to the side there was a magnificent model of Bethlehem. We didn't stay very long, as it appeared they were getting ready for mass.
Convent + Police Booth = Good Idea??

Boys and a universal love of artillery
Part of a Christmas display in St. Paul's Cathedral
Inside St. Paul's
After passing through the church square, we went to a scenic overlook portion of the city, right near the top of the wall. It was breathtaking; you could see many other towns, and got a good feel for the topography of the island, and got a really good look at the river adjacent to Mdina. We were able to correctly identify the road we traveled on to enter the city, and I was quite proud of our skills until I remembered Tony has tons of experiecne looking at places from an aerial view...It seems there are several restaurants and cafes which take advantage of these views, plenty with outdoor seating. Some of my favorite moments exploring Mdina came from glimpsing hidden gardens and peeking down tucked-away alleys, and I could not get over how clean and quiet it was, especially when compared to the dirty and crowded tourist-trap that is Venice. We compared it to our imaginary versions of King's Landing, from the Game of Thrones stories. So much limestone! I could just picture Cersei prancing about in disdain, or a-hole Joffrey cantering a horse through the stone streets. We left just before sunset, and cuddled on the bus ride home.
Mdina just before sunset
Christmas Day was pretty quiet. We stayed in our room and watched the Grinch, drank some wine, and cooked a decadent brunch. We walked on the beach again, and then enjoyed a dazzling Christmas buffet at one of the hotel restaurants. We also goofed around with some photo props, and took pictures with reindeer antlers, Santa statues, feather boas, and Santa hats. You gotta enjoy the little things in life, right? That pretty much concluded our Malta trip; we ate breakfast at the hotel on Friday and then flew back to Italy. We had a six hour layover in Rome, which was marked by a harmonica player at our gate and some really amazing pastries. We landed in Venice around 10pm and hitched a ride home with our wonderful friend Fay and her mom. Unfortunately, we came home to a freezing cold house, as the power was out, and lost everything in our freezer. Back to reality!

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Malta: Part 4

I really do have a lot to say about Malta, which is impressive since it's a very tiny island and we were only there for 7 days. The people were very friendly and the locals were always happy to give directions and suggestions.

We flew in on Friday and had luggage issues, and went to bed early. Saturday was consumed with the bus tour, so Sunday we wanted a lazy and relaxing day. We went for a walk on the beach, and the water was exceptionally cold, but it was beautiful! Our hotel had a dive and water sports shop, and we visited it to get the scoop on potential snorkeling and scuba diving trips. Ultimately, we didn't do anything water-based, but I would love to go back for some of those opportunities. There's a marked "snorkeling path" from the hotel beach, lots of shipwrecks, and some good shore dives. Malta law requires all visitors go diving with a guide, and the going rate is usually 40Euro per dive, with all equipment included. I really think that's a good deal.

After lunch on Sunday, we took a cab to Julian's Bay and visited the casino. I played roulette for about two hours and lost 12Euro. Tony scoped out the poker scene but I don't think he wound up playing very much. Frankly, it was kind of disappointing, but I always enjoy me some roulette! We walked around and had drinks and tapas, and then went to the movies. In English! We saw the third Hunger Games film. Then we had more drinks and Tony got kissed at a bar/club. You should ask him about it sometime - it was hilarious! We walked around some more, kind of looking for food and/or drinks, but by then I was pretty tired and my stomach was mad at me, so we caught a cab back to the hotel and called it a night.

On Monday we rented mountain bikes from our hotel and hit the trails in the National Park adjacent to Golden Bay. My bike was a little big for me, which was a bit of a struggle, and the park was a) hilly and b) rocky, which was not the best combination. I whined a bit and we definitely walked the bikes up the worst of the trails. The park is called Il-Majjistral Nature & History Park, and it was starkly beautiful and had amazing views of the water. It had some old historical and archeological sites, which we didn't really explore, though I got a nice picture of Tony in his bike helmet with the cliffs and ocean as a backdrop.

Hail the conquering hero
Maybe I should have led off with this, but we rented the bikes to ride to a destination, not just through the park. Any guesses where we were headed? I'll give you a hint: there's a song about it...No? Sweethaven! Still not familiar? That's the fictional town where the 1980 Robin Williams movie 'Popeye' was filmed! After we rode through the park, we were at the top of a hill (I am not exaggerating how hilly that place was. And I'm not ashamed to admit I pushed my bike up the scariest and rockiest paths) and basically got to coast downhill all the way to the village. I'm not crazy about high velocities on a bicycle, so Tony went shredding ahead of me while I zig-zagged and rode the brakes most of the way down. I counted three dead hedgehogs in the road. Frowny face! Malta is blessed with breathtaking views, and much like my first view of our hotel, I was in awe when I first glimpsed the Popeye village. It has been painted in the years since the film, and is far more colorful now. It sits on the water of Anchor Bay (so named because it used to be a disposal location for old ship anchors) and consists of something like 20 wooden buildings. Most of the construction materials were brought in from overseas, and the film team employed a group of ceramics-makers and seamstresses to create the majority of the set decorations and costumes. While I really enjoyed our tour, it was also a little sad, in the same way that state fairs are both wonderful and shabby, best viewed at dusk and not the harsh light of day.

Sweethaven, aka Popeye Village

Real boat in the harbor!
Some of the highlights of our excursion to Sweethaven were the wooden character cutouts (because everybody who knows me knows I love cheesy photo opportunities) and the watch tower. Less impressive was Santa's village, which is naturally seasonal and was filled with some truly creepy and scary elves, and smelled faintly of mildew. I also appreciated getting to go inside the buildings and get a closer look at all the props, and there was even a mini-museum with all sorts of old comic books, Popeye toys, and photographs. We also got to watch a 20-minute documentary on the filming of the movie, which was educational and entertaining! The walls of the theater were plastered with stills from the video, and it was really fun to see pictures of the cast and crew, so young! It was a little difficult to ignore the cobwebs and fading paint, but we were really happy we took the time to visit.

Cheeeeeese!
Popeye, Olive, and Sweet Pea figurines in the museum
Watch Tower in Sweethaven, overlooking Anchor Bay
We rode our bikes mostly up the giant hill, and wisely took the roads back to our hotel instead of biking through the park again. It took a little longer than we planned, and we missed lunch. So when we got back to the hotel we showered and headed down to one of the restaurants to have tea for two. It was fantastic! We got a pot of black tea and got a tiered stack of assorted sliders and desserts. Everything was pretty and delicious! I don't know that I've ever had a proper tea before, unless you count Irish breakfast tea - wait for it - for breakfast in Ireland, so it was a great way to spend an hour with my handsome husband, who is now a tea convert. After tea, we played several rounds of air hockey, and I am pleased to say that I was able to hold my own against Tony, who is a very fearsome competitor. I think we played 5 games, and time ran out on us on the fifth game because our battle was so even. Tony was ahead when the table shut off, so the tiebreaker goes to him. I'm not ashamed to admit it. :) We cooked dinner in the hotel room and that was the end of Sunday.