Castelfranco Veneto

Monday and Tuesday, April 29 & 30, have been spent taking side trips from Castelfranco Veneto. We have a delightful local tour guide, Wilma, who is an architect and knows everything about early architecture and art. Monday she led us on a visit to Villa Emo, which is just 8 km north of here.

Don and the walls of Castelfranco Veneto

Suzanne in front of Villa Emo

Villa Emo was built for the Emo family (and stayed in their hands until just recently) by the famous architect, Palladio. He was an innovative architect who liked symmetry in his buildings. The Villa was a farm house, but built in a grand style. Every room is decorated by frescoes which tell a story about the family who lived there through relating them to Roman mythology and history. Monticello was built using the same principles as this Villa.

On Tuesday we visited Possagno, about 25 km north-west of here. This is the home of the architect/artist, Antonio Canova, born in 1757. We saw the church, Tempio Canoviano, which looks just like the Pantheon, but was designed by him. Then we went to the Gypsotheca which is a museum of his work built next to his home. He did very interesting sculptures out of plaster. He felt that was the best medium for his work. He was a neoclassicist.

We also visited Asolo, the town where Catarina Cornaro, a member of one of the ruling families of Venice, ruled. It is a small town in the hills, not too far from Possagno. It is basically one street with a small square and fountain and a traffic light! It is a popular spot for a week end visit and has hosted many famous people such as Robert Browning and Ernest Hemingway. We saw more palazzos (little palaces), a Rocko (castle-fortress), the Cathedral with a painting by Lorenzo Lotto, and the Town Hall.

Asolo

Impressions of the Adriatic Coast of Italy

I just realized we have been gone a week. I wanted to share some of my impressions of Italy before I go on with the travelogue.

Italy feels a lot like Southern California. It has a Mediterranean climate much like So. Ca. Driving through the country side we could be in California wine country or driving along the coast on Highway 101. There are fields of mustard and red poppies along the road.

We travel in a van comfortably holding our 12 tour companions, bus driver, tour guide, and often a local guide. We use the toll roads which are not all that good - but not crowded. We see very few trucks. We do see lots of campers. They are all small - much like our Sunrader. Also, most of the cars are small - it is quite fascinating watching them sneak through the narrow roads in the old cities.

Getting on our van

The food has been superb. We are served different things in each region. There are usually 4 courses - salad, pasta, main course, and dessert. Last night our pasta coarse was risotto. It was also the first time we had a chicken main dish. We had a lot of sea food in our first region of Marche. Then it was fish - sea bass. Not so much meat which our vegetarian companion enjoys. Everyone is going for gelato, which I still haven't figured out how it is different from ice cream!

I am learning a lot about art and how to interpret paintings. I really like learning about architecture and we seem to be emphasizing that the last couple of days. A lot of the buildings are old and the Italians seem to be learning to appreciate them and restore them. We see apartments over the stores and buildings sharing exterior walls in the city, but in the villages and country side people want to have their own house. So, we see stand alone houses, but they all look the same - large square boxes. In fact that is my biggest impression - all the buildings are square cornered and usually only 3 or 4 stories tall.

Suzanne in Senigallia, Hotel Albergo Bice

Hotel Bisanzio, Ravenna

We are here during holiday time, so a lot of the tourist attractions are quite crowded. Then we find places with not too many people. Everyone seems friendly - no anti American, so far. And, as Don says, you don't see any fat Italians. Walking and biking are very common. Our hotels have been very nice - older buildings converted to somewhat modern hotels. The rooms are fairly small, but comfortable. We have lucked out and been on the 3rd or 4th floor, so we have nice views of the city.

Suzanne in Castelfranco Veneto, Hotel alla Torre

Visiting Dozza and Ferrara Italy

Saturday, April 27 we were still in Ravenna. We took a day trip to Dozza, a tiny town in the hills overlooking the Villa Emilia. We drove past many vineyards and orchards of various trees including Hazel nuts and kiwi fruit. Dozza has 2 main streets. We walked up one admiring all the murals painted on the walls of the homes. Starting in the mid 1900's there was a competition to paint murals. Now it is just done every two years and has become a tourist attraction. At the end of the street was the Rocca di Dozza, a monumental medieval castle. There was a square interior keep, surrounded by a round tower and a moat. The views from the top were spectacular and showed what a good defensive position the structure had.

We took the second street down hill to view the rest of the murals and had lunch at a restaurant at the edge of town.

Today, Sunday, April 28, we left our hotel and drove into the third region we will visit, Veneto. We stopped in Ferrara, a Unesco site, It is a walled city which was settled by the Estes family between 1208 and 1598. They built many of the castles and monuments still in existence today. When the last Estes male died without an heir the territory reverted to the Papal state. Therefore it avoided much of the destruction and fighting over other territories in Italy, When Italy became a united republic in 1861, Ferrara was still intact as a Renaissance city and has become a prime example of Renaissance architecture.

Unfortunately, it did rain most of the day, so we had to huddle in doorways and under porticoes to listen to our guide and look at the buildings. Impressive buildings were the Estense Castle and the cathedral, now under renovation. We walked through the narrow winding streets of the former Jewish Quarter and saw the vaulted street through which goods brought up the River Po were transported.

Later in the afternoon we were all glad to finally arrive at the Hotel alla Torre in Castelfranco Veneto.

Visiting Ravenna, the city of mosaics

Short columns

Friday, April 26, found us leaving Senigallia, and driving to Ravenna. It is located in the Emilia Romagna Region, also bordering on the Adriatic Sea. Our first stop was the church of St. Apollinaire, a sixth century early Christian church. It was the main church of the city of Classe, which was a sea port, but no longer exists. We found out that this was an area of sand and underground water which caused the land to sink over the centuries. So, the churches and monuments also sank and most of them were considerably shorter than originally built. The columns in the church were cut and the pieces could be used in other construction. So, all of the buildings we saw were very old, but very changed from the original.

Mosaic in St. Apollinare

The next church we visited was Basilica di Sant’ Apollinaire Nuevo. It was built in the 9th century as the new church dedicated to St. Apollinaire and contained his relics. This church was the most beautiful with golden mosaics covering the apse depicting many scenes from the old and new testament. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable and explained almost every scene with many interesting details about the meaning of the pictures.

The next monuments we visited were extremely crowded with long lines waiting to get in. We were lucky to be on a tour and go right in! We visited the Orthodox Baptistry, which is the oldest monument in the city, built in the fifth century. It is a brick octagonal building (the number 8 symbolizing the 7 days of creation and the resurrection). Inside is covered with mosaics on the walls and huge baptismal fount in the center.

We walked on and entered the Basilica of St. Vitale, which also contains a fantastic display of mosaics and frescoes. Frescoes do not do well in such a humid environment, which may explain the existence of so many mosaics. Nearby was the Mausoleum of Galla Placida. It is a small brick building, where only small groups can enter and then stay for about 5 minutes. Again the walls were covered with gorgeous mosaics.

Basillica of St. Vitale

Mausoleum of Galla Placida

Our hotel, Hotel Bisanzio, was just around the corner. After walking over 3 ½ miles we were thrilled to see it!

Hello, Italy

We left for our trip to Italy on Monday, April 22 - Earth Day - at about 9am. A day and a half later (including the time difference) we were in Ancona, Italy, a sea port on the Adriatic Coast - about half way up the East coast of Italy. We were met by our Roads Scholar tour guide, Allessandro, who shepherded us and our 10 tour group companions to our hotel in Senigallia, a beach town to the north. In fact our hotel is named Albergo Bice, which is pronounced Beeka in Italian and reminded us of the beach.

We spent our first 2 days (Wednesday and Thursday) in the Marche (Marka) region (one of 20 regions or states of Italy). We are here to learn about the art and artists of Italy. So we started our first day with a lecture on the artist Lorenzo Lotto. It was not until recently when a Boston art historian wrote about him and his creative genius that he has become more popular. He paints gorgeous portraits in natural poses with much movement. He uses symbols alluding to the name of the sitter and his occupation. After the lecture we went by bus to the town of Jesi to see some of his paintings in the Palazzo Pianetti - an art gallery in a historical house, still lived in by some of the family.

In the afternoon we went back to Ancona to walk down from the cathedral to the historic town center. We walked down the cobble streets past old stone & brick houses, many of which have been restored. We admired the views of the coast line and the green hills surrounding the city. Somehow it reminded me of Santa Monica Bay.

Urbino Italy

The next day, Thursday, we learned about the painter Raphael, another fabulous Renaissance painter. We motorbussed to his home town of Urbino to see reproductions of his paintings in the house known as his birthplace. We also visited the Ducal Palace where we could see more of his paintings and admire the many rooms of the home of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino.

Walking down the streets of Urbino