Cinque Terre

Note: The downside to shooting an average of 600 photos per day on a trip, is sometimes I forget where I’ve been! After returning home Monday from Europe and posting what I thought was my final post (Il Duomo), I discovered Cinque Terre in my files! How could I forget such an iconic place! So this post officially marks the end of our 2016 trip to Europe.

Cinque Terre is a string of centuries-old seaside villages on the rugged Italian Riviera coastline. Cinque Terre translates to Five Lands, representing five villages on the Mediterranean Sea: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore. The coastline, the five villages, and the surrounding hillsides are all part of the Cinque Terre National Park. The area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s a long day trip from Milan, and tour buses run daily.

In each of the villages, colorful houses and vineyards cling to steep terraces, harbors are filled with fishing boats and trattorias turn out seafood specialties along with the Liguria region’s famous sauce, pesto. The villages are connected at the top of the hills by a road, and then you must walk down into the villages, as no cars are allowed. So it is best to arrive by boat, and then you are already at the village. The bus dropped us off on top of the hill and we walked down to the first village. It was a steep walk down a narrow sidewalk. For heartier souls, the Sentiero Azzurro cliffside eight-mile hiking trail links the villages and offers sweeping sea vistas.

We navigated three of the villages by boat from point A to point B and by local scenic train from point B to point C. It was all very quaint and colorful, just as in all the photos I have seen for decades, in spite of rain in the afternoon when we were on the sea viewing the villages from that perspective. Because the area lends itself to photography, and after awhile everything starts to look the same, I have taken artistic license with some of my images and filtered them to please my eye. I hope you enjoy the departure from straight photography.

Ciao ciao! I mean it this time!

Arriverderci!

 

 

 

IL Duomo: Grande e bella

The Duomo is the fifth largest Christian church in the world (and this is all according to the Internet, so you know it must be true). Outdone by St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, the Basilica of Our Lady of Aparecida in Brazil, Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York and Seville’s Cathedral, Milan Cathedral is still one big church! At 109,641 square feet, an entire city block, its size is even more impressive considering it’s the oldest church on that list.

Milan streets radiate from il Duomo, so you come upon it from narrow streets onto the piazza, and boom, there it is, in all it’s magnificent splendor. I must say it took my breath away and brought tears to my eyes. When you see something iconic, in the flesh, as it were, it can render an unanticipated emotional reaction. Il Duomo is like that.

According to Google, after its consecration in 1418, Il Duomo, or Milan Cathedral, remained incomplete for centuries. Politics, lack of money, indifference in a seemingly never-ending project (imagine a mammoth structure in the middle of your city left unfinished for your entire lifetime and father’s… and grandfather’s) and other setbacks kept the cathedral on standby for what seemed like forever. Actually, it was Napoleon who finished the façade and jump-started the final stages of construction in the early 19th century. This could be considered the longest-worked cathedral in the world. Restorations and cleaning are continually taking place to keep maintain its gleaming stone. And it has the most statues. They say there are more statues on this gothic-style cathedral than any other building in the world. There are 3,400 statues, 135 gargoyles and 700 figures that decorate Milan Duomo.

We went to the rooftop (where else can you go to the rooftop of a world-class cathedral and admire not only the sweeping views of the city but the classic architecture of the cathedral? It was a first for us. From the first terrace, which we accessed via lift, we took in views across Milan and glimpses of the Alps to the north, where we had been the day before. We also got a good look at the famous Madonnina, the gold-colored statue of Mary that stands on the cathedral’s highest spire. To get to the actual roof, you hoof it on narrow, centuries-worn marble stairs in various places along the roof path. I didnt count them, but it was a lot, and a little tortuous for these old bodies; but we weren’t about to miss the chance to be on the roof of a world-class cathedral.

Once up there, I simply didn’t want to come down. We were mingling with the statues and the unbelievable architecture. Only the relentless sun drove us down after about an hour climbing around the top of the historic cathedral.

Awesome has been reduced to triteness in our lexicon, so I use it sparingly. But let me lavish a word on Il Duomo: awesome.

Il Duomo

The young lady seems impressed by the massive bronze doors to the cathedral, the lazing young man, not so much.

The entire building is made of pink-hued white marble and covered in realistic stuary.

Rain doesn’t stop the steady stream of visitors to il Duomo. The lines to buy tickets and enter are long even on dreary days.

The Italian Army was a force at every entry point to this world treasure.

There are 52 pillars inside the cathedral, one for every week of the year. And they are massive.

One of three windows that comprise the backdrop of the main altar. In scale with the building, they too are massive. The papal statue on the right is life size.

Side altars display tombs of popes.

UP ON THE ROOFTOP: For a fee, a lift takes you to the first of two terraces to explore the architecture of this Gothic cathedral. From the first terrace, you gain access to the rooftop via narrow sets of stairs along the one side of the perimeter of the building. You are enveloped in Italian marble.

View of the first terrace taken from the rooftop.

The narrow passageway to gain access to the rooftop.

Tom shoots on the first terrace before making the ascent to the top.

Up on the rooftop.

Visitor walks on the roof

Liz shoots on the rooftop

Looking down onto the first terrace

From the rooftop onto the buildings below across the street from il Duomo

The Madonnina, a statue of the Virgin Mary, to whom the cathedral is dedicated. The Madonnina spire is the one of the main features of the cathedral, erected in 1762 at the height of 356 feet. By tradition, no building in Milan is higher than the Madonnina.

There are 3,400 statues, 135 gargoyles and 700 figures that decorate il Duomo. The statues on the rooftop guard over the city and look beyond to the Italian Alps to the north.

Chillin’ in the sunshine on the rooftop

THE PIAZZA DEL DUOMO

The Piazza del Duomo from the cathedral rooftop

The Piazza del Duomo is a lively city square in Milan.

Taking a break in the piazza, but not from their mobile devices

‘Lunga vit’a the happy couple!

Why not, indeed!

Thanks for coming along on our 2016 Italian adventure! Ciao ciao!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Swiss Alps Bernina Express

A 13-hour day trip from Milano to St. Moritz, Switzerland, is an excursion by motor coach and train. And not just any train. We rode the The Bernina Express. The Albula line and the Bernina line on the Bernina Express’s alpine route were jointly declared a World Heritage Site in 2008. The Bernina line was built between 1908 and 1910 and operated independently until the 1940s, when it was acquired by the Rhaetian Railway.

Our tour left Milan at 7 a.m. and took us by motor coach to Tirano in the foothills of the Swiss Alps. It is the last town in Italy before crossing the Swiss border. There we boarded the red Bernina Express, an old-fashioned railway journey that took us across bridges, through tunnels and across the  Bernini Pass at 7,400 feet above sea. The scenery was spectacular—glaciers, valleys, wildflowers, Swiss villages and even livestock. And the weather was perfect (it rained the next day). If you are in Milan, this is a nice way to get a taste of the Swiss Alps.

But wait—there’s more! Just before stopping for lunch in Tirano, we made an unscheduled stop at the beautiful Basilica of the Madonna of Tirano. Unscheduled, because it wasn’t on the itinerary, but then this is Italy, and no tour is complete without at least one church to explore. This one was a big surprise. The church stands at the crossroads between Italy and Switzerland, in the place where the Virgin appeared back in 1504. According to tradition, at dawn on Sept. 29,1504, the Virgin appeared to Tirano resident Mario Omodei, promising that the plague would end if a church were built in her honor in the exact place where she appeared, meaning near the bridge over the Folla and outside of the town walls. The residents acted quickly and on March 25, 1505, the first stone of the building was laid at the foot of the medieval Church of Santa Perpetua.

The basilica is the most beautiful Renaissance building in Valtellina. The church has an exuberance of stucco decorations and sculptures and the interior still contains a colossal organ with exquisite carving that was begun in 1608 by Giuseppe Bulgarini from Brescia and completed in 1638 by G.B. Salmoiraghi from Milan. Thanks to its location, it has always drawn the faithful from throughout Europe. In 1946, Pope Pius XII proclaimed the Blessed Virgin of Tirano “special heavenly patron of all of Valtellina.” Amen.

Poschiavo Train Station along the route to St. Moritz

Side entry to Basilica of the Madonna of Tirano

Main entry of Basilica of the Madonna of Turano

The magnificent organ

A Sunday’s offering for your thoughts, Sister

Slopes are terraced for growing grape vines and olive trees

How on earth did our big motor coach negotiate these hairpin curves?

Wildflowers dot the landscape

Heidi, where are you? We looked and looked

Rack of lamb on the rails

We heard cowbells, but still no Heidi

The alpine lakes are a beautiful turquoise

Tom the cinephile calls this the Paramount mountain

We rode through the Bernina Glaciers area

Rivulets from the melting glacier become waterfalls on the way down the mountainsides

And still no Heidi

How would you like to own the business at the bottom of a mountain rock slide?

St. Moritz

Lake St. Moritz, the end of the line

Caltagirone, the Town of Ceramics

Because we just don’t climb enough stairs in hilly Sicily, it was time to put ourselves to the test and head to Caltagirone, where we could climb the famous La Scala stairway, 142 steps  up hill to the church of Santa Maria del Monte. The church remains to be seen, as we only made it up about 12 steps and ducked into a pizza ristorante for lunch. It should be said we didn’t order pizza, because it is not made during the day, due to the heat of the pizza oven. Back to the steps. They are unique. Each riser has a unique set of hand-painted ceramic tiles. There are abstract and figurative tiles, heraldic and mythical themes, birds, fish, hunters, sailors and geometric patterns. The predominant colors are blues, greens and yellows. Although the way up the hill has existed for hundreds of years, the tiled risers were only installed in the 1950s. In full disclosure mode, our fellow travelers made it to the top and back down again. Good for them. I enjoyed a glass of wine.

Caltagirone has a long tradition of making ceramics. The town offers many examples of local ceramic work, and the first to greet you are the relief tiles on the San Fransesco Bridge. Ceramic shops abound, and I have no idea how so many shops can support so many shopkeepers, as we saw few tourists during our walking and tram tour of the town. And thank heavens for the tram. The stone streets are uneven and hilly, and taking the tram gave us many more street views than we could have seen by foot.

Scaling La Scala up 142 steep stone steps

The stairs are on the steep side. Many climbers stop and rest, or just sit awhile on the ascent. We made it to the Ristorante Pizzeria a tenth of the way up! Yea us!

The dome of this church is ceramic tiles

The San Francesco Bridge leading to the city center is paneled with decorative ceramic tiles

The crest on the bridge panel is of the same distinctive aqua blue as the church dome. I purchased a piece of tile that color to match my kitchen

Another town building features aqua tile decor 1n the flower pots on the balcony railing

Typical ceramics ware from Caltagirone

Greenware at a ceramics producer

Paint pots for the greenware

Even this structure in a local park features ceramic decor

We are riding in a tram negotiating the very narrow streets and up and down hills

Did I mention Caltagirone is hilly?

More street scenes from Caltagirone:

Noto and the Zisola Winery

A visit to the Zisola Winery took us 20 miles from Siracusa to Noto, famous for its Sicilian baroque style and its status as a Unesco World Heritage Site. The old town of Noto, called Noto Antica, dates to the Romans in 263 BC. It was conquered by the Arabs in 866, and fell to the Christians in 1091. The medieval city was destroyed in the 1693 Sicilian earthquake. The new Noto was built five miles away in the early 18th century. It is here in 2003 that the Mazzei wine making family added to its wine producing estates when it started Zisola, a small winery with 350 oak barrels for fining the wines. The family has been producing wines in Tuscany since the 11th century, and they have already turned out award-winning wines from Zisola. In addition to wine, production at the Sicily site also includes extra virgin olive oil, citrus fruit and almonds. We enjoyed a private tour of the place and savored the award-winning wines.

City Gate to Noto, an UNESCO World Heritage Site

Palazzo Ducezio, an 18th century Sicilian Baroque palace, serves as the Noto City Hall

The Noto Cathedral

Pouting on the cathedral steps

Noto artisan making jewelry

Sun-dried tomatoes, anyone?

Noto is famous for its Sicilian baroque architecture

Almond vendor cracking almonds at his booth in Noto

Remember marzipan?

The Zisola Winery

Doors and windows at the Zisola Winery are painted the color of red wine

The vine are loaded with grapes

Stainless steel vats hold the wine and the fellow on the right tastes it

350 oak barrels fine the wine

The tasting table

OOPS (not mine)

Pomegranates trees were loaded, but the fruit needs more time

These huge prickly pear trees are next to the tasting area

The Ancient Island of Ortygia

Ortygia is a small island, first inhabited by the Greeks, that is the historical center of the city of Siracusa on the southeast coast of Sicily. Many of the streets are narrow and only navigable by foot. But for our purposes, Ortygia is the name of Chef Gaetano’s Sicilian restaurant in Bradenton, Florida, named after his father’s birthplace. We are here because Ortygia draws Chef like a magnet, and we are in tow.

The first stop is at the local market, a boisterous, fun experience of tented food stalls and  Sicilian shouting from vendors hawking their products. Chef’s like a kid in a candy store, and we are his ducklings in tow.

Chef buys bags of food and we taste, getting morsels of foodie information as we stroll under the tents in the blocks-long market (we later picnic by the sea, and must ask a nearby yacht for a corkscrew). And then we duck into a fish vendor. Chef greets one of the fishmongers in Italiano and the guy reaches for his acoustic guitar. Chef’s been here before. He whips out his harmonica and blues is reborn on the Sicilian coast. Then Ted, one of our fellow travelers (10 of us traveling in Sicily with Gaetano, our Florida chef) starts a vocal blues riff and another fish monger joins in on tambourine. What a morning!

We followed it up with a boat ride around the island of Ortygia to see the ancient location from the water’s perspective. Bellisima!

 

 

“Look at that face, look at that face,” Chef kept saying. So here is that face. He grudgingly sold us some grapes. It is a great face.

EEEEEEL!

Tuna slicer

Singin’ the blues at the fish market

This ancient Greek ruin near the market was recently unearthed. Oh, what treasures lie beneath these Mediterranean locales.

Street scenes of Ortygia on our walking tour…

This church and the one below are located in Piazza del Duomo, considered one of the loveliest piazzas in all of Italy. We dined here under the stars one evening, and the piazza is lit up from the lights on the church.

Random poster on a wall

And the boat ride island the Island of Ortygia just before a thunderstorm rolled in…

Boarding the boat

We did not ride in this boat

Our able sea captain takes us around the island

We pass by sea caves and even go into one

Chef Gaetano cannot resist the acoustics of the sea cave and breaks out his harmonica, to our delight

The Ionian Sea crashes on the rocks, and rocks our boat

Southeast Sicily – Day 1

After a quick flight from Copenhagen (under three hours), we rested for a day in Catania on Sicily’s east coast before meeting our fellow foodie travelers from Florida. We are Chef Gaetano’s groupies, on his annual Sicilian adventure to discover new and exciting things to create in Ortygia, his Sicilian restaurant in Bradenton. In addition to us, there are a couple from Bradenton, couples from Switzerland, Chicago and a Rhode Island woman, all of whom spend all or part of the winter in Sarasota-Bradenton, plus Chef and April.

Our home for seven nights is Hotel Borgo Pantano, seven miles from Siracusa an hour south of Catania. We arrived via a dirt road, and were pleasantly surprised with the lovely setting—a citrus grove and park-like grounds to stroll in.

From here we make day trips to explore southeast Sicily. Our first day out we ventured to Scicli, one of the the filming locations used in the hit Italian TV series, Inspector Montalbano, a favorite of Tom and Chef Gaetano. It is such a popular TV series, even though it is discontinued, that Viator offers full days tours for fans to see the various locales where the series was filmed. Scicli itself is a charming town with winding narrow streets, Baroque-style churches and colorful shops. A tourist’s delight.

Nearby in the countryside we visited Gli Aroma, an herb farm growing more than 200 varieties of herbs. In addition to learning about their operation, and getting to whiff the wonderful aromas of the herbs, the cook at the farm produced a delicious lunch for us and demonstrated making shell pasta from scratch. We tried our hand at it, and it is easier than one might think, but time consuming to create enough shells for 11 people.

This is a great start to our Sicilian adventure.

Rustic vignettes are seen throughout the grounds of the Hotel Borgo Pantano, such as this tablescape in the courtyard reception area

Have a funky seat in the courtyard

Take a dip in the pool

Curtained cabanas at the hotel offer an escape from the sun

Many varieties of plants and insects comprise the lush landscape on the hotel grounds, a park-like setting in a citrus grove seven miles outside of Siracusa on the southeast coast of Sicily

Our first excursion was to the town of Scicli

The town of Scicli

Tom shoots from the steps of Scicli City Hall, used as the police station in the BBC Series “Inspector Montalbano,” a favorite of Tom and Chef Gaetano’s

A street in Scicli

The herb farm, where more than 200 varieties are grown

The band of travelers learns about herbs

Prickly Pear is in bloom in September and part of the herb farm landscape

Many varieties of flowers grow on the herb farm

The cook, the chef and the herb farm manager collaborate on making shell pasta

These are the pasta shells we tried our hands at

Heading to our home away from home, we encountered a minor roadblock of about 100 sheep in the road.When we got to the intersection, they turned left and thankfully our turn was to the right and we were on our way back to the hotel after a great day in Sicilia!

 

 

A Castle Crawl

One cannot come Denmark without crawling around some of its noted castles, and of course a few churches. A bus day trip with 18 other tourists took us from Copenhagen to the castles of North Zealand where we drove through the town of Elsinore, made famous in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. We toured Kronborg Castle, the setting of Hamlet and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, got an outside look at Fredensborg Palace, where Queen Margarethe II was in residence, and the day before we toured the public rooms of her Copenhagen palace, Amalienborg and the Marble Church across the street. Our day trip to North Zealand was capped off with the over-the-top  17th-century Frederiksborg Castle, or, as Tom said as we crossed the moat, “Now this is a real castle.”

Kronberg Castle, also known as Shakespeare’s Hamlet Castle

Castle dormers

Castle visitor gets the royal treatment

The Bard himself welcomes all to Kronberg Castle

The clock at Fredensborg Palace. The queen always knows what time it is.

Fredensborg Palace, where Queen Margarethe II was in residence

Amalienborg Palace

The palace flag flies over the royal quarters

 

Amalienborg Palace, the Copenhagen digs of Queen Margarethe II

A sitting room at Amalienborg Palace

The Marble Church, the Lutheran church as seen from the palace grounds

Marble Church

Marble Church

The fanciful tower of the Church of Our Savior is visible from many parts of Copenhagen.

And now, for the castle of castles, Fredericksborg Castle:

Crossing the moat

Nature is an important decor element of the castle, reflecting the area wildlife, such as deer

The walls are thick with plaster in artistic designs. This pair of deer sports real antlers.

A close up of one of the many intricate tapestries gracing the walls

The elegant ballroom

Photos cannot do justice to this beautiful chapel inside the palace

Milady’s chamber, with the short bed that was the trend in yesterday. The royals slept sitting up.

a minor, but beautiful staircase in the castle

One of the windows in the chapel

This seat is not too big and not too small. It is just right, if you are a royal.

From the palace onto the royal gardens

 

Copenhagen Street Scenes

I love street scenes. I love to shoot them. Copenhagen’s scenes are colorful, architecturally interesting and convey a sense of friendliness. Copenhagen is the friendliness city I know. And I love that everyone speaks English. They study it throughout school, and with very little accent. It is a bicycle city. The country itself has 1.2 million people and 2 million bicycles! The bicycle paths are extremely wide and totally dedicated to bicycles. You don’t walk in them, and bicyclists don’t use sidewalks, for the simple reason they don’t need to. Even many bridges are dedicated to pedestrians and bicyclists. Simply said, Copenhagen is a lovely city to visit.

Rail yard

Ferry to Sweden, just a short sail across the sea – this is about an hour north of Copenhagen

Fountain in City Hall Square

Hans Christian Andersen at City Hall Square

We saw many thatched roof houses in the countryside north of Copenhagen. The sticks on top are to keep the thatch down, I guess. Thatched roofs last between 40 and 50 years.

A fountain north of Copenhagen

Meanwhile, back in Copenhagen, a day brightener.

Night falls on Nyhavn Canal

A Canal Tour of Copenhagen

A wonderful way to see the sights in the capital of Denmark is by canal boat. These boats churn the waters showing visitors and residents alike the inner parts of this old city. Or hotel was on the Nyhavn Canal, so getting to the boat ride was an easy walk of three blocks. By the way, Nyhavn means new harbor, only this harbor is centuries old and knew the likes of Hans Christian Anderson (1805-1875). Once upon a time he lived at various times in three houses along the canal. He wrote many of his fairy tales here, just a few doors down from our hotel, 71 Nyhavn. Hop in the boat and let’s see Copenhagen!

Known as the Black Diamond, this is Copenhagen’s library, and much more, including a concert hall and meeting center.

Bus meets boat in perfect harmony

David. What? No. Wait. He is a little green for Italian marble.

The old swabbee videos a Danish frigateer, a far cry from his old U.S. Navy WWII-era destroyer.

Baby gets a guitar lullaby along the canal

71 Nyhavn, our hotel is a converted warehouse. Their website said they were under construction. There was scaffolding right up to our third window around the corner.

The Little Mermaid, bronze sculpture by Edvard Eriksen, appears weary of all the onlookers. She was inspired by the fairy tale of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen. She has been sitting on this rock since 1913.

Hans Christian Andersen lived in three houses along this canal at different times, including the white house on the left.

Not all is old in Copenhagen

Copenhagen Opera House is among the most modern opera houses in the world. It cost over half a billion dollars when it was built between 2001 and 2004.

School’s out – over the bridge we go

As we’ve seen in other European river cities, newlyweds lock up their lock on the bridge railing and throw away the key as a symbol of their forever love. I wonder if divers are ever paid to retrieve the keys?

Nyhavn Canal, the ‘street where we lived’ for our wonderful four days in Copenhagen.