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Renault Roaming

Italy -- Croatia - ?
All in my little Red Renault Trafic Read more
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  • Trip start
    October 28, 2018
  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    New start

    October 29, 2018 in France ⋅ ☀️ 7 °C

    Swopped the big old, comfortable Ducato for a younger, smaller Renault Trafic. This is faster and more fuel efficient, but also Euro 3 standard motor which will allow me into all cities. I added some furniture for camping and managed to do everything with less expenditure than the sale price of the camper van.
    So here I am in Dieppe again, setting off for Italy.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Belladona

    October 31, 2018 in France ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    Once again the Channel was flat and the crossing smooth under a pale winter sun. But the temperature in France was only 4 degrees and so my first night tested the warmth of my van conversion. Bed very warm and comfortable. Getting up not so easy though!
    I just missed the snow which fell over the Massif Centrale and the roads were clear. In Macon I spent the morning in Renault sourcing some panel clips and getting a small stone impact in the windscreen filled. (€122 discounted from €164, presumably on account of my wonderful personality.)
    Then onto the Alps with this splendid view of the Belladonna range from above Lake Bourget.
    My plan to cross the mountains via one of the colts above Turin was thwarted by the recent snowfalls which resulted in all the passes being closed. I was forced to use the 5 km Frejus tunnel at an exorbitant €44 which was nearly as much as all the motorway tolls from Chambery to Bologna. Forgetting how Italy formed from a thousand independent kingdoms without main roads between them, it was clear that using minor roads to Florence would take all week, so I stayed on the autostrade and cruised along in frequent rain. The van ran quietly and swiftly in comparison to the previous one and I could have listened to the radio if there was the same national broadcast standards as in France, rather than the zillion regional stations with pop music punctuated by lengthy spells of adverts and endless pointless discussion.
    Another advantage of this van is that I can park inside Vanessa's garage, 500 metres from the Duomo and that is where, this first part of the trip has ended.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Bonsi tree farm

    November 4, 2018 in Italy ⋅ 🌧 16 °C

    Today was the annual open day / olive oil sale at Clare and Fede's family estate, I Bonsi. All local produce was for sale but we gorged on the free white beans with olive oil and huge donuts cooked to order. Had to sample the Bonsi vino too of course.Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Pulp friction

    November 4, 2018 in Italy ⋅ 🌧 16 °C

    (1) The storms hit hard
    (2) Families bring what they have salvaged to be pressed.
    (3) Into the hopper.
    (4) Up the chute, shaken not stirred for the perfect Martini, which also separates leaves etc
    (5) Through the squigger, round the centrifuge and the oil is pumped away.
    (6) Local farmer inspects the result, hoping that the recent unusually warm, wet weather has not removed entirely the peppery tang of this first pressing.
    Hope you enjoy this story because oil be dammed if I rewrite it.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Atmosphere was pumpin

    November 6, 2018 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    Where else to fill up and enjoy Tuscan cuisine with the local poms but the neighbourhood petrol station. Lovely food - not too oily. Good service. It was a gas.

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Constabulary liquidity

    November 8, 2018 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Nowadays we would expect robots to be powered by electricity. When Leonardo invented robot police, he only had hydraulics as a power source. They survived to this day because the were singularly good at reacting fluidly to changing situations, and generally going with the flow of evolving events. Mind you, they had their limitations, especially during winter and apparently quite a few evaporated when they felt the heat.
    Still, you can see what the city fathers mean by maintains a reservoir of police.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Bull.

    November 9, 2018 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Once upon a time, a stonemason decorating the Duomo had an affaire with the local butcher's wife. The cuckolded husband complained to the authorities about the man's conduct. In retaliation the master carved this bull, looking down directly at the meat shop, with two horns forever reminding the world of this occasion.

    A couple of corners away, a workshop turns out replacements for stonework that needs replacing.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Graffiti

    November 9, 2018 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    On the corner of Arnolfo Di Cambio's Palazzo Vechio, (built 1299 - 1304,) just behind the copy of David's firm buttocks, as one enters Piazza de la Signoria by the 1376 Loggia dei Lanzi, is an overlooked artwork reputably by Michalangelo.
    In one version of the story, he was bored listening to a man's discourse and passed the time by carving this likeness of the fellow
    In another version, he recorded the profile of a someone going to his execution.
    Move over Banksy.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Flo

    November 10, 2018 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    View from Vanessa's balcony. Close up the Duomo can be seen - now that it has been cleaned - as a monument to hard work.

    The bars in this grate, outside the Ospidale deli Innocenti, are spaced far enough apart to permit passage of a baby but not an infant. Until about 1875 mothers unable to care for their child could leave it here for the nuns to look after.Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Musical oligarch

    November 10, 2018 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    If you thought that the Russian mafia have only recently discovered Tuscania, here is evidence that they came with staves long ago. Perhaps it is just a side note to history, but I suspect they acted in concert.Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Tuscany Umbria

    November 12, 2018 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    Heading South to my first workaway. Avoiding the autostrade, it is obvious why Italy never became a great trading block as the roads are all minor, twisting narrow and I'll-paved that take forever to get anywhere. Geopolitically good for bandits and minor princelings but not for bulk cargo movement.
    I spent a night in Chiusdino under the eagle eye of the local Saint.
    The town of Montegabbione defensively sited on a hill is typical of the area.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Walter Scott

    November 15, 2018 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    + San Galgano was a famous knight before establishing this hermitage for himself.

    + Renouncing war he buried his sword in this stone so as not to be tempted to use it again. Much like a junkie now would flush his stash down the loo.

    + The design of the cupola when contemplated excessively generates visions and dizziness.

    + A selfie to show how 'with it' I am.
    In 1181, the story goes, 3 envious men tried to remove the sword. Failing in this they left and a wolf outside ripped the arms off one of them. The forearms (carbon dated to the12thC) remain on exhibition as a warning to others.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Hard yakka

    December 1, 2018 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C

    Martin and Alex invited me to be a workawayer with them in Torri in Sabina. This is Wilma, queen of the azienda, taking her leisure. She is an Italian short haired pointer (Bracco Italiano,) aged 13 months who spends most of the time bouncing and running around, but enjoys a quiet nap in front of the fire.
    When the heat gets too much she moves onto the couch with Martin and her playmate Churchill, a Jack Russel.
    Selfie with Wilma and Martin.
    Just in case you get the wrong impression, we do work. Here we fill bottles for 5c with aqua minerale from the local spring. We also refitted a giant pantry, have split loads of wood and fitted a pool cover.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    In the pink

    December 1, 2018 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    Autumn colours
    View from the sitting room
    750 cc Pink Panda is 30 years old and still going strong though she needs a bit of stick going uphill. I had fun redoing the electrics to get her started up. Reminded me of my old Morris.
    House and car are colour coordinated.
    Hard to believe that this patch of ground, 100 m below the house beside the stream carrying the run-off from the valley, was a field of wheat only 30 years ago. I met here the local farmer who has lived on the side of this valley all his 80 years and gave me a potted history of the area. It has gone from traditional Italian country living, every square metre terraced and cultivated, pigs and cows in every home etc etc to being an hour commute by train to Rome. Lack of children was one reason: industrial farming another. The milk coop was forced out of existence by the price the big boys wanted to pay for milk; 35c per litre which is less than the cost of feeding the cow. Familiar story. Now there are only olive trees left.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Restaurant

    December 3, 2018 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    Took some time off for lunch at one of the first Roman centres in the territory of the Sabina.
    Forum Novum was a small Roman town in the Sabine Hills, 50 km north of Rome. In the middle ages it became a village called Vescovio, which was tiny but had a very important church. The British School at Rome has researched the area around the Tiber between 1000 BC and AD 1300, investigating how human settlement of the area changed over time.
    There are only low walls left and many assumptions so I didn't photograph it!
    The church of Santa Maria, was a cathedral until 1495, when the diocesan headquarters was moved to Magliano Sabina. The church was destroyed in the ninth century by the Saracens, then rebuilt and restored several times. A dig found the remains of a building that may have been the original church, dating back to the fifth century AD. Most of the remains are 12C, including the bell tower.
    Its main claim to fame now is that it was a favourite retreat for Pope John XXIII who came many times both privately and officially.
    The grubs not bad either.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Casperia

    December 4, 2018 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    Outing to a local fortified hill town, Casperia. It has managed to retain its medieval architecture with cobblestoned streets and century old small houses that line the lanes of the town. The walls are 2000 years old and like a spiderweb the street form concentric rings around the summit, with steps connecting them.
    Unfortunately a recent earthquake has made some of the buildings, notably the church, unstable and therefore closed to the public.
    Its pedestrian only access - no cars allowed - but the locals have found their own solution.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    One (quarter) day at a time

    December 4, 2018 in Italy ⋅ 🌙 13 °C

    Above the only remaining gate into the town, I spotted this relic: a mediaevil 6 hour clock based on Roman 2ndC BCE timekeeping.
    The DAY runs from 06:00 to 18:00 divided into
    Terce 09:00 until
    Sext 12:00 until
    None 15:00 until
    Vespers at 18:00 when NIGHT started.
    During the night Roman guards would stand watch, (being vigilant from which we get VIGILS.)
    First from 19:00 to 21:00
    Second from 21:00 to 24:00
    Third from midnight to 03:00
    Fourth 03:00 to 06:00    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Eternal city

    December 13, 2018 in Italy ⋅ 🌧 9 °C

    + The family matriarch had run a hotel most successfully near this Piazza Ragusa and about 18 minutes walk from the railway station, Roma Tuscolana, and 500 metres or so from the Villa Wolkonsky where I remember swimming when it was the British Embassy as well as the ambassador's residence it is now. My host, Alex, had taken over the running of this hotel, discovering a typical history of undocumented administration that he struggles to untangle.
    In the meantime, lucky workawayers like myself are offered a couple of nights free accommodation in order to visit the town. I spent a day and a half walking all around the old part, realising that I had seen most of it when we lived here, but not having enough time to really examine places of interest in depth.
    + I picked out a few things to look at, from the background layers of history to be found in every wall,
    + or converted into offices, like this headquarters of an association of architects.
    + Old buildings morph sometimes seamlessly into new ones.
    + The Ponto Rotto on the Tiber - is half a bridge better than no bridge?
    + The first King of a united Italy, Victor Emanuel II, has as his - national - monument a giant marble "Wedding Cake", sometimes called "The Giant Typewriter". Other names are: Mole del Vittoriano, Il Vittoriano, or Altare della Patria. It is said to be built in a neoclassical style with eclectic influences: or to use more technical language, its a mishmash.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler
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    Roming around

    December 13, 2018 in Italy ⋅ 🌧 10 °C

    + Recently, Americans have had a problem with their politicians being economical with the truth, particularly regarding their closeness to Russians. Since ancient times the problem was solved here with the aid of this statue, known as "La Bocca della Verita". Dating back to around the 1st century CE, the original purpose of the Mouth of Truth is unknown: it may have been a ceremonial well cover, fountain decoration or even a manhole cover. The face itself has been said to represent your favorite pagan whichever it is. What has been known since medieval times is that if you stick your hand in its mouth and tell a fib, it will be bitten off.
    + Another politician who liked the sound of his own voice was Benito Mussolini. He enjoyed yelling at the crowd from this balcony above the Piazza Venezia, delivering some of his famous speeches including the declaration of the Italian Empire in 1936, and a declaration of war on France and Britain in 1940. The Piazza is named for the ornate palace, Palazzo Venezia, that dominates one side of the square. Mussolini’s office was located in the Sala del Mappamondo in the palace throughout the 1930s, and the balcony off the room overlooked the square just below.
    + This segues effortlessly to the Cloaca Maxima, one of the oldest relics in Rome, now used as a campsite for the homeless. Constructed during the reign of Tarquinius Priscus (6 BCE,) to empty the marshlands and carry stormwater from the central Forum section of the city, this is the point where it drains into the river Tiber. 300 years later the open drain was covered and waste from latrines and public baths were directed through the system. Apparently Agrippa later cleaned them out and enlarged them to take the flow from 11 aqueducts.
    “Sometimes water from the Tiber flows backwards and makes its way up the sewers. Then the powerful flood-waters clash head-on in the confined space, but the unyielding structure holds firm.” [Pliny the Elder]
    + Lifting our focus now, this Art Nouveau courtyard was built in the late 19th century for the influential Sciarra family. It was meant to be a shopping mall, which, had it come to fruition, would perhaps be one of the most beautiful shopping centers in Rome. You can find it, though most tourists dont, just round the corner from the Trevi Fountain and the Via del Corso. Each of the central facades is covered by colourful frescoes of women and men surrounded by elegant, curling floral designs. The women are the main focus, as the artwork, which was painted by Giuseppe Cellini, is intended to celebrate women in the various phases of life.
    Eat your heart out Frank Lowy (Westfields).
    + I've no idea whose triumphant arch, not 200m from the Bocca on the via Velabro,this is. But now it belongs to the rhino.
    + And similarly this elephant transfixed by an obelisk must have meant something to someone.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Browning pieces

    December 13, 2018 in Italy ⋅ 🌧 9 °C

    I asked the hotel receptionist what three things not on the main tourist route she would recommend seeing, and the first thing she said was to see the mosaics in the Basilica of Saint Praxedes, (Santa Prassede,) so off I went to find it.
    Along the way I passed a nice green park with plastic bags covering the grass. Nothing to remark on except that the municipal groundsman was carefully going over the area on a ride-on mower, leaving plastic confetti everywhere.
    Eventually, on a narrow lane adjacent to Santa Maria Maggiore, I found the unsigned entrance on the side of the church that was commissioned by Pope Hadrian I c. 780 to house the bones of St Praxedes and St Pudentiana; and built on top of the remains of a 5th-century structure.
    + The famous mosaics, Byzantine, years 817-824, cover the funerary Chapel of Saint Zeno that Pope Paschal built for his mother, Theodora.
    + The main altarpiece is a canvas of St Praxedes Gathering the Blood of the Martyrs (c. 1730-35) by Domenico Muratori.
    + Allegedly, this segment of the pillar upon which Jesus was flogged and tortured before his crucifixion in Jerusalem was retrieved from the Holy Land in the early 4thC by the 80 year old mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine I. She also found a surprising number of other authentic artifacts, such as pieces of the True Cross, which no doubt Con found useful when establishing his new state religion.
    PS Remember Robert Browning?
    https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43746/th…
    This is the church that evidently inspired him. If you understand the poem, keep it to yourself.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Transverberation or just fun

    December 14, 2018 in Italy ⋅ 🌧 7 °C

    The second item on the young receptionist's list was in the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria.
    + Probably the finest statue in the world IMHO, the Transverberation of Saint Teresa was sculpted by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in 1652 and depicts an episode of angelic shafting as described by Teresa of Avila, a mystical cloistered Discalced Carmelite nun, in her autobiography, 'The Life of Teresa of Jesus' (1515–1582):
    "I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the iron's point there seemed to be a little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart, and to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and to leave me all on fire with a great love of God. The pain was so great, that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it. The soul is satisfied now with nothing less than God. The pain is not bodily, but spiritual; though the body has its share in it. It is a caressing of love so sweet which now takes place between the soul and God, that I pray God of His goodness to make him experience it who may think that I am lying."
    + Bernini's work struck me as the finer, but there are many more expert than I am who reckon that Michelangelo's Moses in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli, is the best.
    The 1513 statue shows Moses sitting with the Tablets of the Law under his arm, while his other hand fondles his long beard, which according to Vasari was carved with such perfection that it seems more a "work of brush than chisel". Moses is angry having found the Israelites worshiping a golden calf, and seems to be on the verge of getting up and destroying everything. An anger which is perfectly conveyed in marble by the swollen veins and tensed muscles. The horns on the head of Moses apparently result from an incorrect translation of the Exodus book which says that as Moses came down from Sinai, he had two rays on his forehead. The Jewish "karan" or "karnaim" - "rays" - may have been confused with "keren" - "horns".
    According to many critics this was one of Michelangelo’s favourite works as he considered it extremely realistic. Once the work was finished he hit it and ordered it to speak, but of course he knew that the statue only spoke to tell the sculpture what the marble contained..
    ===============
    The third statue in the Campo de Fiori is of Giordano Bruno, a 16th C Dominican friar during in the 1500s who came to believe that the universe was infinite and that there were multiple important worlds, all of which were equally overseen by an aspect of God. After a 7 year trial, on 17 Feb 1600 he was led into the Campo de’ Fiori with a spike through his tongue, and at the request of Cardinal Bellarmine, burned at the stake before his ashes were cast into the nearby river Tiber. The Vatican has failed in its attempt to have this commemorative statue removed and has refused to remove the taint of heresy from Bruno.

    + Modern art which perhaps someone can explain to me.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler
    1

    Humble egocentricity in a Roman Emperor?

    December 14, 2018 in Italy ⋅ 🌧 7 °C

    The emperor Hadrian (A.D 117-138) never inscribed his name to any building but one, the temple of his father Trajan. Which is why his replacement for the burnt down Pantheon that Marcus Agrippa had built bears the legend:
    "M. AGRIPPA.L.F.COS TERTIUM.FECIT”
    “Marcus Agrippa son of Lucius, in his 3rd Consulship, made it”.
    Brick stamps on the side of the building reveal it to have been constructed between A.D 118 and 125; classified as a temple though of a competely different form to other ones in Rome.
    They built the structure on marshland on 8 solid piers supporting a series of intersecting arches.
    The dome is made from pozzolana cement – cement made by grinding together lime and a volcanic product found at Pozzuoli - constructed in tapering courses or steps that are thickest at the base (20 feet) and thinnest at the oculus (7.5 feet). .
    The density of the material decreases in height as well: from aggregates like basalt at the base, then a mixture of travertine and tufa, then tufa and brick, then all brick was used around the drum section of the dome, and finally pumice, the lightest and most porous of materials on the ceiling of the dome.
    The dome is lightened by coffering, which gives it the square scalloped look, and by the 8m wide oculus, which also allows light to enter. Finally, empty clay jugs were embedded into the dome’s upper courses.
    The dimensions of the interior height and the diameter of the dome are the same: 145 Roman feet or 43.2m making it the largest dome in the world until very recently. Mathematically and geometrically it can only be described as elegant, although Michelangelo reputedly remarked that it seemed of “angelic and not human design.”
    I could have stayed here for a long tie learning about its construction and seeing how the design fitted together so perfectly.
    OTOH I was not too sure about this piece of art in an exhibition being held there.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Can't help seeing

    December 15, 2018 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 9 °C

    I wasn't going to, but I guess I had to take these snaps.
    + The oval Colosseum is the largest amphitheater in the world. Measuring 189m long, 156m wide and 50m high (about the height of a 12 storey building), it had 80 entrances and seated up to 50,000 spectators who attended for free, drinks and food included. Built between 72 A.D and 80 A.D under the Emperor Vespasian, the first games were held by his son Titus in 80 A.D,running for 100 days straight. They killed up to 10,000 animals including humans daily.

    + the Trevi fountain dates back to the construction of the Aqua Virgo Aqueduct in 19 B.C. It’s said that the Aqua Virgo, or Virgin Waters, is named in honor of a young Roman girl who led thirsty soldiers to the source of the spring to drink. The fountain was built at the end point of the aqueduct, at the junction of three roads. These three streets (tre vie) give the Trevi Fountain its name, the Three Street Fountain.
    The present fountain was finished in 1762 standing 85 feet tall and 65 feet wide. With water pumping out of multiple sources and the large pool in front, the fountain recycles about 2,824,800 cubic feet of water per day. It was financed by money earned from the reintroduction of the lotto. (The first winning numbers: 56, 11, 54, 18 and 6.)

    + The restaurant was much more attractive though.    Read more

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