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Medriatic Sojourn
Papal Rest Stop
8 de maio de 2022, Itália ⋅ ⛅ 70 °F
Whenever the medieval popes traveled north of Rome, they would stop at the papal palace in Orvieto. Because this was the boss’s favorite home away from home, the church here received more than its share of attention and funding. Not only was it a rest-stop for the popes, it was our rest-stop as well on our journey from Abruzzi to San Gimignano. This is the only example of Italian Gothic architecture still remaining. Perched atop a volcanic plug, Orvieto occupies the high ground. The mountain around it has eroded, so the town covers the top of a basalt cylinder that rises a thousand feet above the surrounding terrain. The only way to assault this fortress is with a helicopter, and these were in short supply in the 1200’s. The popes felt safe here.

Though the cathedral here is neither as large nor as flowery as St. Peter’s in Rome, in some ways I like this church better. Glittering golden mosaics on the facade dazzle the eyes in the afternoon sun. The stiff archaic characters painted on its interior walls speak of a faith that transcends time. Each panel tells the story of part of the Bible, and they do it with such graphic simplicity that one cannot miss the story. Adam sleeps as God removes a rib from his side to make woman. Noah rides over the waves in a huge boat. Peter is crucified upside down. Their message is unmistakable.

It is a Sunday, and when we walked into the church we saw a Catholic praise-and-worship service in progress. All of the frescoes were illuminated. And they were glorious. A chapel contains the church’s major relic, a tablecloth said to be stained with the blood of Christ that once miraculously dripped from a communion wafer. This event is said to show that the communion elements are the real body of Christ. Okay. I won’t argue the point. This miracle, however, gave rise to a holy day called the Feast of Corpus Christi and to the name of a wonderful city in Texas.

After leaving the church we wandered through this lovely, ancient town. We bought a pizza and a glass of wine just for the memory. I expect that the memory of Orvieto will be with me for a long time. Like it’s biblical images, it’s hard to forget Orvieto.Leia mais
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Medriatic Sojourn
Nine Wines—Fine Times
8 de maio de 2022, Itália ⋅ ☁️ 68 °F
We are properly in Tuscany now, safely ensconced in a wonderful hotel called La Capucina just outside the historic town of San Gimignano. One of the very successful businessmen in Italy lives on a fabulous estate near San Gimignano. He owns several of the farms and vineyards nearby. He also owns two helicopters that fly VIP guests here from Rome and Venice. His parents were also successful, as were his grandparents, and great grandparents. In fact the Giachi family have successfully run this enterprise since 1720.

In medieval times, while most of the nobility built out, limited space on top of these cliffs forced the nobility of San Gimignano to build up. Each family attempted to out-do their competitors by building a taller tower. Half a dozen of these towers have survived battles and earthquakes. Today the tallest tower still standing belongs to the Giachi family.

Tonight we went to a wine tasting and dinner at the Giachi estate called Tenuta Torciano. We strode across the palatial grounds among statues of gods and goddesses to enter a festive dining room that could have been decorated for royalty. Nine wines, paired with the various courses of our meal ranged from a sparkling white wine, to a beefy Brunello di Montalcino. Each one was delicious. Each of the recipes Cousin Lilo served us was made from a recipe handed down from his great grandmother. The lasagna was especially good, consisting of flat noodles covered not with tomato sauce, but rather with a white bechamel. It took a great deal of discipline to avoid eating or drinking too much, and I must confess that none of us, except for Glenda, was successful.

We returned to our hotel around 9:30 pm more than satisfied, contented by the nine wines and ready for a good night’s sleep.

For more information visit:

https://www.torciano.com/en/

http://www.lacappuccina.com/mobile/index.asp?li…Leia mais
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Medriatic Sojourn
Pasta and Truffles and Lunch—Oh, My!
9 de maio de 2022, Itália ⋅ ⛅ 68 °F
We were guests again today at Tenuta Torciano. In our morning cooking class Cousin Antonio taught us how to make pasta the Tuscan way. Half semolina and half regular flour, with a touch of salt, olive oil and one egg does the trick. We all rolled out our pasta paper thin, and then cut it with a knife to make the most delicious tagliatelle we have ever tasted.

While the cooking crew completed the rest of our lunch using the fresh pasta we had just made, we went with an old gentleman named Signore Moreno, who has made a life of hunting truffles with his three dogs Viola, Vila, and a three-month-old puppy named Zora. He told us about the six kinds of black truffles and about the elusive white truffle, which cannot be cultivated. The white ones can only be found out in the wild, and just a few ounces will fetch a price of thousands of dollars.
The training of the dogs begins before birth. Truffles are fed to the expectant bitch, and the flavor is infused in the breast milk she feeds her newborn pups. They become sensitized to that flavor and aroma from birth. Then truffles are placed inside a ball that the puppies fetch. Finally the ball with truffles inside is buried, and the young dog must dig it up and bring it to Signore Moreno. Today he released the three dogs in a wooded area and within minutes they began digging out black truffles. We petted and loved on the dogs and rewarded them with bits of cookies. Zora, the youngest dog, still insists on eating the truffles she finds. When he is not teaching a group of tourists, Signore Moreno trains little Zora alone so that he can stop her from consuming the product. He is sure she will eventually get the idea and turn into a good truffle hunter. Her mother Viola is regarded as a champion, and in 2018 found nearly 16 kilograms of white truffles. The cost of a dog like Viola can be as much as a new car.
By the time all of the folks in our group had helped the dogs to dig out a black truffle, lunch was ready. Again our places at the table were set with a rainbow of white and red wines. We had fresh bruschetta and an antipasto plate of cheeses, melon, and dried beef, followed by the pasta we had made in the morning. The cooks had added sun-dried tomatoes, artichokes and the truffles found in the woods we had just scoured. The main course was Tuscan steak with roasted potatoes and eggplant.
The meal was remarkable not only because of the wonderful team in the kitchen at Tenuta Torciano, but also because we had contributed to making the ingredients of the meal.Leia mais
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Medriatic Sojourn
Launching Pad for a Saint
9 de maio de 2022, Itália ⋅ ⛅ 70 °F
San Gimignano is famous for lots of things – – it’s skyscraper towers, it’s beauty and its food, but perhaps it is not as famous for starting the career of St. Francis of Assisi.
The first thing our guide told us about Saint Francis is that his name was not Francis. He was born in the year 1182 as Giovanni di Bernardoni dei Moriconi. As a young man it was apparent that he was intelligent, very personable and quite handsome. He had all he needed to continue his father’s successful business. With his wealth, wit, talent and charm Giovanni was living the high life.
His dad sent him on a number of business trips across the Alps, and he soon became a confirmed Francophile, so much so that everyone began to call him “Frenchy”—Francesco or Francis. His father had the means to outfit his son as a knight in the war with Perugia. He was captured, imprisoned for a year, became seriously ill, and as a result felt that he needed to re-evaluate his life. After an encounter with a beggar, he adopted a life of poverty. His father objected and demanded that his son appear in the piazza before the town officials to renounce his new lifestyle. On the day appointed, Francis appeared in the public square, undressed completely, gave his clothing to his father saying, “You have always given me more than I needed, and I am grateful to you, Father. So now I return to you everything I own, and now I will serve my Heavenly Father.” One version of the story says that Francis’s close friend, a young noble woman named Chiara, immediately ran to an adjacent kiosk, grabbed a potato sack, ripped arm-holes in it and covered her friend’s nakedness. We know her today as St. Clare, and the Franciscans, as well as the nuns of the order of Santa Clara, today still wear a habit akin to sackcloth.
Francis began to attract others to his simplicity, and established a very simple set of rules based on the Bible. He set about to build churches in Tuscany, and one early base of his operations was established here in San Gimignano. Later he settled in Assisi. The remnants of the façade of one of his churches dedicated to St. John still stands here in San Gimignano. For many years he went up and down the countryside here building churches and preaching the need for a life of simplicity. God used him so powerfully that his message still resonates with people today.
Looking around in the beautiful town
With its green, cloud-draped hills stretching to the horizon, one could easily believe that this is a special place—a holy place. One could believe that God really does talk to people here.Leia mais
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Medriatic Sojourn
Florentine Kaleidoscope
10 de maio de 2022, Itália ⋅ ⛅ 79 °F
We just returned from the most detailed walking tour of Florence that I have ever experienced. We saw so many things and went to so many places that I cannot begin to describe them all. Our guide Mike walked us for over four hours, first to the Duomo, then through the streets to Palazzo Vecchio, over the Arno river and through some recently restored areas of the city. He took us into some churches with some very obscure early works by artist such as Ghirlandaio, Botticelli, and Verrocchio. He took us inside the benevolent order of St. Martin, a charitable organization to which Michelangelo belonged. Some art historians believe that a young Michelangelo painted a good part of the artworks that adorn the walls of this small room. The benevolent order is still in business, and volunteers provide aid to the poor and to orphans even today. We walked through the street where Botticelli was born. We saw the church where he was buried. We stood on the site of the home of Dante Alighieri and saw where he wrote the Divine Comedy. We saw an apartment rented by Leonardo da Vinci. We saw the building in which he began painting the Mona Lisa. We passed by the house of Lisa del Giacondo, his model for the painting. We saw the building where, in 1913, thieves attempted to sell that painting, thus giving it a status and notoriety it had never known. We went within a block of the convent where La Giaconda died as widowed nun. Mike pointed out the building in which the story of Pinocchio was written. I wish I had been able somehow to record his entire presentation because the detail and the breath of his knowledge surpasses that of any guide I have had. What a day! What a city!Leia mais
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Medriatic Sojourn
A Day on Our Own in Florence
11 de maio de 2022, Itália ⋅ ☀️ 77 °F
We have no schedule today, no bus musters, and no promises to keep. So we can do what we want to in Florence.

The first thing I wanted to do today was to go to Santa Maria Del Fiore to show my friend the baptistery and the cathedral. We did that quickly enough, so the next step was to walk over to the church of Santa Croce, where Italian geniuses are buried. As we waited to enter the church, I snapped a photo of a high school group posing for a class picture. In the church we saw the tombs of Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Rossini, and Cherubini. We took our time and enjoyed the cloister, the museum, and the refectory. We stopped to have lunch at an outdoor restaurant adjacent to the church. We were not being herded in a tour group, and I didn’t have a vox plugged into my ear. We took our time enjoying a cool, sunny morning in one of the most beautiful cities of the world.

After lunch my friends asked me what I wanted to do next and I told him that I wanted to see the chapel of the Medici family. I grabbed a coffee-chocolate gelato cone on the way, savoring it as we walked. Glenda and I had been to the chapel on a previous visit, but on that occasion we were rushed through the sacristy as the guide hurriedly told us that the sarcophagi whizzing by had been carved by Michelangelo. How surprised I was today to learn that there is an upper floor with a spectacular rotunda carved in multicolor marble housing massive tombs of later members of the Medici family. There is also a museum that contains multitudes of reliquaries and other religious art collected by the Medicis. We saw some of the splendid vestments worn by Pope Leo X, who was a member of the Medici family.

As an extra little treat Glenda and I had a happy memory as we passed the Grand Hotel Baglioni only a block from our current lodging. We had stayed at that hotel on our previous visit to Florence. Returning to the Hotel L’Orologico on the Piazza of Santa Maria Novella about 2:45 pm, pleasantly tired, we were grateful for a fantastic day in Florence.

So now, it’s it’s back to Rome and then home. We are still enjoying ourselves, but I think we are ready to get back to our place, our food, and our music.Leia mais
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Medriatic Sojourn
Back to Rome for a Final Covid Test
12 de maio de 2022, Itália ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F
Before we even checked in to the hotel Savoy, we went to the international pharmacy for our quick-result Covid test. The United States requires that we be tested for Covid within 24 hours of our departure from Rome. We have just enjoyed a beautiful lunch of spaghetti carbonara, and now we are ready for supper and an early departure tomorrow. So now we are here in a lovely hotel, with our feet up. This has been a wonderful trip, and we are still enjoying ourselves. Nevertheless, after five weeks we are ready to be home again.Leia mais
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Medriatic Sojourn
There’s No Place Like Home
13 de maio de 2022, Estados Unidos ⋅ ⛅ 70 °F
We have returned to Newark, have passed through security and customs and have transferred our luggage to a domestic flight back to Charlotte. Since this airport is the place where I officially began the travelogue for this trip, Newark seems to be a good place to end it. Thanks to all who have taken this trip with us on the web, and special thank for all the kind comments about the musings I shared. It was great to have you come along with us. Best wishes to all, and may all your journeys be happy ones.Leia mais
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Final da viagem
13 de maio de 2022