What a different place we are in today. We said a sad goodbye to our rustic Tuscan retreat and drove east to Urbino, a walled city that feels very different than the others we visited. It’s a college town and apparently we arrived on graduation day so students wore Olive leave crowns reminiscent of Ancient Greece with goofy clothing from suits decorated with cartoon characters to a blow up fat suit. They were literally dancing the Macarena in the central historic plaza.
Approaching San Leo San Leo
Our Airbnb is in an ancient building in the walled city on a narrow passageway along the outer ramparts but it is ultra sleek white and black contemporary Italian inside with a sprawling white leather couch, a giant portrait of a sneering Amy Winehouse, sleek white handleless cabinets, a very modern kitchen under a curving brick archway, interesting light fixtures.
Grads dance in Urbino
We stopped along the way in the fortress town of San Leo also which has a spectacular setting almost in the clouds, it’s a tiny place with a huge dramatic castle high on a mountaintop, a small ancient town square with a few churches. Our only issue was we couldn’t seem to get down off the hilltop. A large potato festival that drew hundreds of people to a nearby village blocked the road to Urbino, but we finally figured out an alternative that took us around many an isolated hairpin turn.
We drove about 45 minutes on crazy narrow winding roads high in the Tuscan hills to the major city in these parts, Arezzo, which has a large medieval center with huge museums, monuments, bell towers and of course, churches with major works of art, most notably frescoes by Piero della Francesca, the 15th century fresco painter who was born and lived in this area. Fun fact, Arezzo is also where the Oscar winning movie life is Beautiful was filmed.
Dirck does the duomo
The area was very well laid out for tourists. This time we parked outside the high city walls and took two escalators up the hill and through an opening in the wall to the tourist office, which sent us on our way with a good map and brochure in English.
First stop, the Basilica of San Francisco where the major della Francesca murals are floor to ceiling in the church nave behind the altar. The scenes of Romans converting to Christianity are very vivid and colorful. They feel almost contemporary. The panel depicting the “torture of the Jew” (Judas) was a little spooky. we walked awhile down below the famous buildings in the city shopping area, which is closed off to cars, with wide open passageways with trendy shops. A well-helped city.
Our lunch issue was solved by the discovery of a small Tuscan speciality food shop on Corso Italia where we picked up some prosciutto, salami, cheese and flat homemade rosemary crackers. Perfect for a picnic on a bench in the park surrounding the fortezza Medicea (fortress),., after walking through the beautiful 13th century main square Piazza grande, with its famous Logge Vasari, a long building built in 1573 with an arched passageway. then onto see the duomo., which has a Della Francesca fresco ( less Impressive than the San Francisco church.
Strange Barbie art at exhibit near the duomo
This afternoon, we had our agritourismo to ourselves and lounged around the pool, surrounded on all sides by high wooded hills. It felt like we’d been air dropped into this little secluded clearing in the woods.
As I had hoped, yesterday’s sleepy “Italian City of the Diary” was today full of diary fans attending the 39th annual diary/autobiography festival in the small town of Pieve Santo Stefano. A big tent filled the small central piazza and maybe 200-250 people sat in plastic chairs listening to people on stage talk in animated Italian about, we presume, diaries and related autobiographical writing. Sadly we understood none of it.
There were two African-looking people on the stage and two others, possibly Hispanic. They were the winners of the “migrant prize” which interestingly is a relatively new prize designed to add more diversityand the migrant experience. I wish I understood their entries, which were read by actors on stage. Interesting idea.
We met Italians from all over who came to volunteer and/or attend the festival. Milan, Rome, Firenze, Puglia (a one day trip, the young volunteer told me). One volunteer from Milan told me she’s been volunteering during the festival for 20 years, after donating an ancestor’s diary. The Puglia woman got hooked after using the archive to research her thesis, using diaries written by uneducated people, as she put it. Two teachers we ate dinner with said they were attending because they’d like to have their students write diaries and were particularly interested in the migrants’ writings.
Italian Diary Archive
Another man, a retired professor, at our table from Sienna said he’d previously been one of the “expert judges” for the big prize for best new submission that comes at the festival’s end. His wife said, oh no, when I asked if one of the the criteria was the writing quality. No, the writing is all very humble, she said. Originality was more the criteria. This being Italy, a dinner at a local restaurant, Il Portico, was offered to attendees and many partook, eating family style. It was a fun way to meet people, language notwithstanding.
Anghiari by day
In the morning we explored the gorgeous hilltop walled medieval city of anghiari, wandering through winding narrow passageways, peeking into beautiful gated gardens, looking out across the valley from on high over the 12th century wall as dark clouds moved in and but we’re followed by sun. Did a little shopping at a famous local 19th century fabric maker Bussati. And learned the hard way that we must eat lunch out by 2:30, otherwise the restaurants are closed. Problem is we had a huge breakfast at our Airbnb (such problems) so weren’t hungry until 2:30.
We ended up going to a grocery store, getting cheese, prosciutto and bread and picnicking in the car when showers moved through briefly. In Rome people didn’t seem to eat lunch until 2. We were told the further south you go in Italy, the later people eat. We returned to the town a day later for Saturday night dinner at the very atmospheric Il Feudo del Vicario. We parked at the bottom of the huge wall surrounding the town and to our surprise we walked through a lit corridor to an elevator that plopped us on the upper outer ramparts of this ancient city. Didn’t expect that.
Wow! This is the lesser known Tuscany we didn’t see much of the last time we were in this area, in 1989. It’s almost backwoods Tuscany. No major tourist towns in the immediate vicinity. biggest name one is Arezzo. Instead, there are small unassuming villages (lama, fragaiolo) at the edge of isolated narrow roads winding up and up a steep hillside and then down and around a valley. Stunning and a little scary to navigate in a car but dirck did very well, stick shift and all.
A first stop Pieve Santo Stefano, Italy’s improbable and impressive “city of the Diary,” with a fantastic, evocative, high-tech immersive “little diary museum” in a 16th century building, a diary archive busting at the seams with donations of unpublished diaries, memoirs and correspondence by ordinary people across Italy, and beyond. And an annual diary festival, which is what drew me here. Remarkable really what they’ve done hin this badly bombed town during WW2. They’ve rebuilt it as a place of memory, honoring the people who were here and elsewhere in Italy’s destroyed or surviving hamlets. more festival to come.
Top of Tuscany (with village cat) – Caprese Michelangelo Caprese Michelangelo
Meanwhile we are staying in this Tuscan paradise, Bio Agritourismo Il Vigno overlooking a wooded green valley where the mist is shrouding the treetops this morning. It’s a small cluster of beautifully restored but still rustic umber-colored stone buildings turned into a b&b run by an arty, engaging couple. Cyrus trees, succulents, olive trees, apple trees, lavender, and hearty red and pink roses. I smell rosemary too but don’t see it. A bunch of Germans are in one of the stone buildings but they leave soon and we will be the only and last guests for the season. We were kindly upgraded to a huge suite with old armoires, giant rough wooden beams across the ceiling, cool red tile floors, white stucco walls, thick wood shutters atop windows that have stunning views. (There’s a pool on the hillside too and a ceramics studio.) this couldn’t be more different than bustling Roma. The thrifty car rental guy at the Rome airport also upgraded us (do we look in need of any upgrade?) so we’re driving a wonderfully roomy fiat 500 sedan that takes the narrow bumpy roads well so far.
Dinner tonight was excellent at Le Cerra in the lovely village of Caprese Michelangelo where the famous artist was born (and soon moved to Firenze.) Spinach and ricotta ravioli in ragu sauce. Delicious. Dirck is marveling at the 7 euro bottle of local red wine we had last night. Our meal was 85 euro. Way cheaper than Rome.
I bumped into some people I know at the Jewish museum and synagogue here and they almost acted like they knew me too. They didn’t. They are a famous band – – the LA band Haim! And they couldn’t have been nicer. Two of three Haim sisters Alana and Danielle were there, not Esme…Just being tourists in Rome after playing a concert in London. We chatted for quite awhile and it felt like I’d bumped into old friends. They’re adorable. (Do I sound like a Jewish mother or what?)
Me and Haim (Alana and Danielle, no Esme)
The synagogue, btw, is well worth a visit. Built in 1901, gorgeous high-domed, stenciled. Apparently there are about 14,000 Jewish people in Italy. The pope was not initially a fan. He saw to it that the two gates into the Jewish ghetto were locked at night in the 1500s but things improved and John Paul (the polish 20th century one) visited the synagogue.
Roscioli …best takeaway!
The museum had some interesting ancient relics too. We ate an excellent crispy fried carcoifi/artichoke, melon and prosciutto, cacio de pepper with ricotta and Parmesan nearby in the Jewish ghetto at SoraMargharita, a lively hole in the wall overlooking a pretty courtyard.
Notice the turtles crawling in at the top …piazza mattei fountain
We visited some old favorites in central storico (via giulia, via giubbonari for shopping; campo de fieri market, roscioli salumeria and pizza takeaway, ibiz Leather shop where dirck bought a belt and I tried to remember where the purse I bought there 9 years ago is back in Chicago. (They would have cleaned it if I brought. Next trip.) we stopped for a drink in a lovely little piazza Mattei with its sweet 1598 sculpture and water fountain with nude dancers and climbing turtles.
Sora margherita ( crispy grilled artichoke) in Jewish ghetto Synagogue
We walked along the river lined with high plane/sycamore trees to the Testaccio market but wrong timing..,the market was closed, as were the shops. Dinner was far afield near the Vatican at the excellent Romanè, sort of akin to the rising chef bistros we went to in Paris. We wanted to bust out of our lovely but touristed neighborhood and eat where locals eat. Best pasta amitriana ever. And fun laid back atmosphere. We arrived at 8. Lots of people came an hour later.
Campo dei fiori and palazzo/art space on via giulia
We are back, after nine years, at the same fantastically-located, remarkably affordable, somewhat spartan hotel ($150 for a double room) in what still feels a bit like the 1400s convent or monastery it once was. casa di Francesca Romana is in a relatively quiet part of the charming Trastevere neighborhood. About a block from the Tiber river. We walked here from the # 8 bus stop that we took (first the wrong way, oops) from the Trastevere train station through winding narrow streets paved in small square black stones, our bags rumbling along, past the occasional artisan’s studio, sportcar auto mechanic, and one particular cheese and salumi deli of my dreams, 1900s-era Antica caciara trasteverina
Piazza di Santa Maria in trastevere
This is a great walking city and that’s what we do. Walk down whatever alleyway or tight street appeals. The things we stumble upon never fail to amaze. At one point we were walking on a suddenly bland street with a massive police station, spotted a beckoning open door and stepped into an incredibly ornate church (chiesa di Santa Mariadell’Orto circa 1550) with carved white angels (or some such) popping out from the gold leaf and frescoes on the ceiling. (A mirror was helpfully placed on a table in the main aisle so we could get a proper look at the artwork high above us on the ceiling.)
we had the place to ourselves and noticed that there were little shrines in the alcoves paying tribute to various producers of pasta, wine and shoes (it was built not at the popes behest but by merchants and artisans — millers, pasta makers, oil merchants, butchers, fruit merchants, cobblers). The pasta alcove has wheat motifs spotted by Dirck the Kansan.
Antica caciara trasteverina (we have discovered the info button beside photos we take that locates the photo on thenmap with the name!!)
We were so exhausted and hungry upon arrival (after a very long trip connecting thru Dublin) that we barely could decide what treat to eat at the little outdoor wine bar (Terra Satis) near our Casa. Simple grilled bread with melted cheese, bright red cherry tomatoes and tuna in olive oil was perfect, plus a plate of mozzarella, prosciutto and tomatoes. Must get used to outdoor smokers and vapers although at the bar (hole Birreria) we went to for a beer and aperol spritz, there were card-playing young couples not smokers,. A French couple played Uno. Australians played gin rummy and were fun to chat with. (It took them 20 hours to get here. Twice as long as our trip. )
We got a 5 page history (after inquiring about the origins of this Casa) about the woman this place is named after. Francesca is apparently the second most famous saint in these parts..a wealthy woman who took to begging for the poor. Still unclear what this building was. There’s a photo of the latest Pope in the lobby but apparently the pope is no longer the landlord (as we joked with the nice guy at the front desk.) like many things here, it’s a mystery.
A nickname (beata!) my friend Susan had called me for decades
Found this:
History
A 15th century palazzo, close to the Basilica of St Cecilia, with an enchanting history as the home of nobility and St Francesca Romana for 40 years, then later the Pia Opera dei Santi Esercizi Spirituali.
We happened to sit next to some very nice Italian men the other day at a little sandwich shop in Chicago and got to talking. They offered suggestions of locations for our next visit to Italy. I’m sharing them here (and also noting so I remember!):
The Marche region, in eastern Italy, between the Apennine Mountains and the Adriatic Sea, including Urbino – sights: Ducal Palace (Palazzo Ducale) and countryside that was the background for a famous painting in Florence’s Uffizi Gallery by Piero della Francesca in 1472 (A man gazing at his wife in front of the landscape that they ruled)
Loreto (featuring a basilica with a famous “black Madonna”) – also excellent pork and two open-air opera festivals. (See Rick Steves! and CNN story.
“Do you like opera?” one of the men asked me.
“Yes, sort of,” I said…which was a good thing. The men turned out to both work at Chicago’s Lyric Opera, one as the music director!
Also of note: Ancona, its capital, a port city on the Riviera del Conero, an area with sandy coves, limestone cliffs and medieval villages.
Pesaro, the birthplace of renowned opera composer Rossini. The interior has countryside dotted with fortified hilltop settlements and the glaciated valleys of the Monti Sibillini National Park.
Still on our list for a next trip: Puglia region and Matera.
we actually stayed at two Airbnbs.
The second was my favorite. Here is the link: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/5264318
When I went to pull up the information on the first place we stayed, I can find the host but it looks like it is a different apartment. Apparently she owns three so she must rotate which ones are available. (The one that is up now actually looks nicer than the one we stayed in). When we stayed at her other apartment, she and her husband picked us up at the airport for an additional 35 euros which was nice to not have to navigate the train or pay for a cab (which are so freaking expensive) when we were jet lagged. But I’m not seeing that offer on the new page so maybe she doesn’t do that any more. Anyway, here is the new listing: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/17196892
I can really recommend is the Sant’Eustacio il caffe dal 1938. Super authentic Italian coffee place, pretty close to the Pantheon. You order and pay, get your ticket and then sort of shove your way up to the counter on the other side and give your ticket to the barista.
At the Farmers market in LA with my sweet niece Lucy 2015
Always love when friends report that they’re using tips from this blog while they’re on their trip. That’s why I bother to write this darned thing!
Here’s the latest reports:
Yesterday a postcard from L.A. arrived from my pal Polly in Michigan, who wrote “We took Betsy with us and had a tasty lunch at the farmer’s market.”(Click here for details on the LA Farmers Market)
Today, a Facebook message from Rome arrived from my Iowa pal Anne: “Just bought a purse and a belt at ibiz. However did you find this place? Thanks for telling me about it!” (Click here for Ibiz details!)
it’s been almost a week since we returned from Italy to Des Moines and now we are barreling down Interstate 80 en route to Chicago and Iowa in autumn is beautiful. Not Amalfi Coast, Mediterranean Sea, Aeolian Islands, Siricusa, Rome beautiful but still Beautiful.
At 7 am, just east of Des Moines, the white grey frost clung to rolling fields of rust colored corn almost ready for harvest and green grass, punctuated by the occasional pristine white farmhouse, worn barn, grazing cows and horses. Sure there were occasional garish billboards and the metal sheds of industrial ag but they were easy to overlook.
A few thoughts/lessons learned/reflections/things to remember for next time From our two glorious weeks in Italy:
— Places to spend more time next time: Naples, Catania
— New places to go: Matera, Puglia
— In the future when flying budget airlines like Ryan air and easy jet advance-pay luggage fees. Even our small bags were not small enough and the fee to check them was almost as much if not more than the flight (which was pretty darn cheap, under $50 but still.) Advance pay is cheaper than paying at the airport (which also takes time.)
— while we are on the topic of advance pay, booking train tix online in advance was cheaper (judging from some of our fellow passengers accounts of their tix price) although not necessary.
— Go to the Amalfi coast off season , which late September apparently was not.
— Remember that many a little b&b prefers to be paid in cash (or does not even accept credit cards) which can require a little advance planning since we could only take out 250 euros per day from an ATM.
— we saw people along the way who looked like: Robert Morley (complete with the plummy British voice), Mr Magoo, Peter Postelwaite, Cecily Strong, our friend Jamie.
— Favorite fellow travelers: Canadians from Winnipeg and Toronto, Sweet boys from Berlin, a funny gay couple from Covent Garden, another nice Berlin couple and a funny Australian couple, the dishy Italian church vestments salesman from Naples and a nice Croatian graduate student whose dissertation compares Julius Caesar’s selling of his Gaul campaign to the US presidents Selling of Vietnam and Iraq invasions.
– surprised that we encountered few americans but the few we did meet were surprising including a Vermont couple in their 60s who spent time (presumably in the 60s) on a commune in the northeast Iowa town of Decorah (one of our favorites, which we recently visited.)
– Interesting/favorite hosts- Vivien, the beautiful former Milan runway model now running an agritourismo is southern sicily; Teresa, our warm hostess in Catania, Diana Brown the plucky South African in Lipari. Good management at our first hotel in Rome, less so our second.
– best meal: hard to say maybe the Kasbah in Lipari, the Ravello restaurant, the famous salumeria in Rome, the pasta on the island of Panacea (that whole day boating around the aeolian islands was golden).
– worst meal: none.
TakeBetsywithyou 