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Italy 2023

May 2023
A 16-day adventure by Oliver & Claire Read more
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  • Italy 2023
    Day 6

    Claire’s Corner: power and beauty??

    May 20, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    Opulent displays of wealth! Privatization! Megolamania! Suffering and salvation! We almost skipped the Uffizi today but my FOMO got the best of me. The crowds were worth it ultimately to see the Renaissance master’s evocation of light and shadow. My faves: the fine details of Botticelli’s botanicals (limned with gold, which also made me think about lush detail/imagery in writing), violent intensity, weird monsters, skin (Rubens and Titian), and bacchanalian excess. The will to power on display at the Palazzo Vecchio is certainly not specific to Italy, but it’s one of the more extreme examples I’ve seen up close. I noticed so much privatization — the churches are free, but unlike London and New York, the gardens felt walled and inaccessible. Yesterday we saw the private collection of the Bellini family, whose great-granddaughter is our Airbnb host. Hundreds of millions of dollars of art, held in a musty velvet-ensconced private room. Haunting and enchanting - when is art for its own sake and when is it for the sake of status, fealty, and compliance? Is there something democratizing about the capitalist rationalization that stems from Protestantism? I think the Medicis had the Jews do their dirty work (usury), and this is something I also want to understand better. To think all of this started with profits from the wool trade. So much to consider and mull over - Ollie kept me laughing all day.Read more

  • Italy 2023
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    Day 6

    Firenze Againze

    May 20, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    Today we grabbed some espresso and walked back across the Arno to visit the Ufizi gallery. Saw some famous paintings and had a snack. After yesterday, my uffitizis are real sore aka my dogs are barking aka my feet hurt. So many paintings of Jesus and statues of roman myths under opulent painted ceilings. After ufizi we went to palazzo vechio to view the Medicis’ collection of maps. Walking back we stopped for a bite of a traditional tripe sandwich which was flavorful but too weird to finish. Explored a bit of the streets and rested in a cute green area outside a church. Icing my feet now back at Gallery Bellini. Good day but I think we’ve had enough of these herds of tourists and have seen enough fine works of art for a lifetime.Read more

  • Italy 2023
    Day 6

    Florence dinner and Naples nerves

    May 20, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    We had a really good dinner at a place Claire picked from our host’s recommendations. We had an asparagus, fava bean, and crouton salad. Then a really delicious creamy pea soup and a pasta with a hearty rabbit Ragu. Then some steak with white beans. Very tasty wine too.

    We are both nervous about going to Naples today after watching a Rick Steves episode last night. It looks like it will be bustling and chaotic. Claire is worried about theft and navigating the transport system and stayed up late doing research, and I am worried about crossing the street because it sounds like red lights are universally ignored there. I went to bed early. We are both trying to comfort each other of our fears. It will probably be an adventure that we are both up to, and will handle it just fine, and I just wish my body wasn’t so sore after all the walking we’ve done in Florence. Maybe should have built in some more rest days. But I am looking forward to trying the pizza in the birthplace of pizza and having some new unexpected experiences. This is an adventure trip and maybe the next one we will sit on a beach drinking pina coladas, but we’re both glad to be doing the kind of traveling that we didnt do when we’re younger and it’s great that we can do it together.    Read more

  • Italy 2023
    Day 7

    Arrivederci Firenze!

    May 21, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    We are currently en route to Napoli via a high-speed train. This morning we enjoyed a final cappuccino next to the Arno before making our way to Stazione Santa Maria Novella. Our train car is crowded and we are sitting in front of some boisterous Italian regazzos - pre-teen boys, I want to say 12 or 13. They are loud and kicking Ollie’s seat but he’s being a trooper! There’s a group of older Italians, two couples, traveling together and enjoying a picnic — Yerba mate tea, and crackers, and a thermos of something. They seem to have a train system locked in. The scenery is beautiful. I’m listening to a Spotify playlist of 1960s Italian pop songs, looking out the window, which feels cinematic. Ollie is listening to a comedy podcast while eating pizza crackers. Life is good 👍Read more

  • Italy 2023
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    Day 7

    Firenze to Napoli

    May 21, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    This morning walked to the busy Florence train station for the 3 hour ride south to Naples. We met our host Elena at this very eclectic rooftop apartment that has a really cool garden patio (see video). Hope it won’t rain tomorrow. She showed her handmade map with pinned locales to explore while we’re here, and emphasized the virtues of Herculaneum over Pompeii (she is a geologist) so we’ll need to check that out.

    Right now a lonely trumpet is playing the girl from Ipanema in the distance thru the sounds of pattering drizzle and chirping afternoon birds.

    We ate a fried pizza which is like the primordial hot pocket and explored a bit of the chaotic and vibrant streets; Naples seems like the decor this apartment: cluttered, beautiful, not taking itself too seriously.    Read more

  • Italy 2023
    Day 9

    Neopolitan Pizza

    May 23, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    Today we had our first real Napoli pizza from a spot on the via Toledo near the train station. It was piping hot. They don’t do slices here. Instead, they make a whole pie and fold it twice and hand hand it to you in a sheet of paper. It was good, exactly the same taste the fancy pizza places are going for, with tart tomato sauce, gooey cheese, and a hint of basil on a charred, chewy, and slightly salty crust.

    We got a different one on our way back from Pompeii at a satellite shop of Sorbillo, which is known to me. Very good! Pure and simple. But I think I prefer NY style (more cheese, more flavor, more crisp)    Read more

  • Italy 2023
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    Day 9

    Our deii at Pompeii

    May 23, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Pompeii was a special experience. I have more of an appreciation of how the ancient Romans lived and a great deal more respect for the level of sophistication of their painting — one house (domo) we saw had extremely well-preserved frescos that had a level of detail and use of shading and light that I didn’t know the Romans produced, on par with Renaissance works IMO, and on the walls of a private albeit very wealthy living room.
    Highlights include: the sex menu at the bath house, the bakery, the original bowls of pigments, the phallic imagery (scale of penis vs money bag), walking in the forum, the mythic images, realizing how short they were (lead poisoning), and the mosaic floors (“beware of dog”)    Read more

  • Italy 2023
    Day 10

    MANN

    May 24, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    MANN stands for something like Museo Archeological National Napoli. Saw some really cool mosaics from Pompeii and sexual relics from the “secret cabinet” room.

    Claire may add more pictures.

  • Italy 2023
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    Day 11

    Last day in Naples

    May 25, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Playing catch-up. On Wednesday we had an amazing last day in Napoli. We had a slow morning then walked to the Via Pignasecca, an historic market street full of fish stalls, fruit stands, and tchotchke stores, about 20 min from our apartment. We dodged motorbikes and continued to soak in the wonderful sensory overload of Naples’ narrow, ancient streets. Lunch at Da Attilio, in the Top 3 meals of the trip (pizza recommended by our host). Oliver got the house pizza with 8 different topping combinations featured, I got sausage and ricotta star pizza. Next - MANN (archaeological museum), which helped to contextualize Pompeii and Herculeanum with mosaics and Roman statues; I loved the everyday objects (incl surgical instruments) found in Pompei. We ambled down to Piazza Carita, stopping at a cool used bookstore and drinking Aperol Spritz along the way. Next our tour guide Paolo took us on an amazing food tour. We bonded over American music - Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen, and Red Hot Chili Peppers. So fun. We finished the night by riding the funicular up to the Castel Sant’Elmo. The vista of Napoli at dusk with its millennia of history and so many lives, so much humanity was awesome. When Goethe traveled to Napoli he famously said, “see Naples and then you can die.” A sentiment I understand!Read more

  • Italy 2023
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    Day 11

    Pictures of the Amalfi Coast

    May 25, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    Very beautiful costal cliffside towns. Lousy with tourists. Our driver was nice. I liked learning about the islands from the Siren myth from the Odyssey. (Claire please add more pictures)

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