People, Places: Raison d’être

2011 Road Trip in Italy: Top 10 Memories

When you return from vacation, friends and family are eager to hear all about it. Inevitably they ask, “What did you like/enjoy the most?”

It’s nearly impossible to answer that question even if you are given specific criteria such as best meal or favorite day.  I spent two weeks driving around Tuscany, Umbria and Abruzzo with one of my best friends. Each day was unique and memorable.

Ok, I know you want to know too. The best meal was dinner my first night in Roma. This is partially because it was the beginning of our Italian adventure, partially the quaint location- an outside table on a quiet dead end street – and partially the food and wine. We had so much to look forward to, and we knew it. We would ultimately eat better food, drink better wine and have more scenic views with other meals, but that dinner was delicious and special.

Our Itinerary:

• Rome
• Florence (via San Gimignano)
• Montalcino (via Montepulciano, Pienza etc.)
• Orvieto
• Perugia (via Todi & Gubbio)
• Spoleto (via Assisi & Spello)
• Sulmona (via Pacentro & Pescoconstanzo)
• Rome

My Top 10 Memories of Italy in no particular order (although a bit chronological):

1)    Finally seeing David! This was my fourth brief trip to Florence. While I have seen quite a bit, I have never been able to get inside the Galleria dell’Accademia to see David.  Oh, I’ve seen the replica outside of Palazzo Vecchio, but not once the original. Previously, my timing was off due to strikes and museum hours. This time we made reservations in advance. David was not to be missed again. David truly is a masterpiece. Carved out of a slab of marble?!?  How? Who posed? Oh my!  The replica is excellent, but you have a better sense of size and scope inside the museum. 

2)    Returning to Montalcino, a town I fell in love with years ago. Small, historic and known for Brunello wine. It’s as beautiful as ever. My favorite night was sitting outside on a stone ledge overlooking the rolling hillsides full of olive and cypress trees illuminated by the moon shining brightly over an historic fort. Inside the fort there was a live jazz band playing and the sound was fabulous. In the morning, there was a weekly street market. I enjoyed watching the locals shop and catch up on local gossip. They were strangers and yet looked familiar. They reminded me of the old school elderly I grew up with. A generation that will be greatly missed.

3)    Sunflower fields. Absolutely beautiful. There is nothing quite like driving along winding roads with endless fields of yellow sunflowers. I don’t think I’ve ever stood in a field of sun flowers previously. We were surprised by how dry the ground was. The dirt had deep cracks (similar to what you see in droughts), and we thought we might fall through to China bugs-bunny style or a snake might attack us at any time. Fortunately, neither happened.

4)    Lunch time. Always a treat. I’m not just talking about the cheese with Truffles, bruschetta  or homemade soups. Although, that would be reason enough. We always managed to find a breathtaking view during lunch. San Gimignano, a small, walled medieval hill town in Tuscany, tops my list of favorite places. We stumbled upon a restaurant down a small pathway that opened up to a view of Tuscany’s landscape that words can never accurately describe. The café was very simple, but the view was priceless and the kind you remember forever. I recall thinking, “wow, who are we?” We recognized how fortunate we were to be there. BTW, the Italians do not mess around with meal time. 1-4 is lunch time. Everything closes and people disappear. Except tourists of course.

5)    Religious pilgrimage.  I can’t image visiting Italy and not exploring churches. Even if you aren’t Catholic or religious, you have to recognize that many of the best artists and workers of the day built these magnificent structures. The frescos, the marble, the intricate details. I visited the graves of St Francis of Assisi, St Claire, St. Isaac and St Peter- all by chance. I think I fulfilled Sunday obligations for quite some time including a back log of no shows.

6)    Climbing 360+ steps. Most of the towns we visited were on a hillside, so we probably climbed 1000 steps on a daily basis. If there was something to climb i.e. forts, church towers for a view or historical purpose, we climbed to the top. One town that stands out is Todi. The center of most medieval towns are closed expect for local traffic, so you usually park in a lot outside of the city walls and walk in.  On this occasion, we parked at the bottom of a hill.  It was a quiet Sunday morning, and there were few people around at the time, so we weren’t even sure we were entering at the right place. Nonetheless, we climbed more than 360+ steps to see that we could find.  It was a beautiful town, and I would have climbed 5000 steps to see it. 

7)    Keys to the castle.  My father’s family is from a small town in Abruzzo called Pacentro.  I went there to see the home where my grandfather lived.  A local named Angela met me in the morning to show me around her town.  We were introduced by the host at my hotel in Sulmona. Long story short, she happened to know where my grandfather used to live, and she spoke English. The people in Abruzzo are very friendly and go out of their way to make you feel like you are a member of their family not a tourist There is a castle in Pacentro.  I asked if we could go inside (assuming it was open to tourists). Angela paused, looked at me thoughtfully and said, “I can get the keys to the castle.”  She asked around, and then we went to the home of an elderly man. The next thing I know, I am walking inside the 15^th century castle that was not open to tourists at the time. This is what I love about visiting small towns. 

8)    Church bells. I loved hearing the sound of church bells in every town. Usually you could hear several bells ringing at once. There is something calming about sound that marks time- both historic and contemporary.

9)    Opera singer in Pantheon. On our last night of vacation, we sat at a café in the piazza in front of the Pantheon. It was a lively Saturday night. You hear people talking, laughing, musicians singing etc. Around 9 p.m. a man started to sing Italian Opera. We had seen him milling around our table earlier, but never imaged he was an opera singer! It was the perfect ending to a vacation I’ll remember always.

10) Piazza del Popolo. Every town had a Piazza del Popolo, and we remarked early in the trip that we must learn about the Popolos because, “they must be important.” It took a few towns before we learned Popolo means people!  Yes, of course the people are very important!  Along the way, people past and present made our trip most memorable. The family we spent hours with in a restaurant on a rainy day in Spoleto, Luciano, who remembered meeting me in Montalcino 4 years earlier, the Angelini family in Spello that introduced us to local wines, the local joulsting team and supporters in Sulmona, Angela in Pacentro, Martino “Supersonico” who introduced us to 2000 years of history inside San Pietro in Perugia, and of course the artists and architects that influenced Italy’s culture.

Keep in mind, when the time of day is marked by church bells, exercise involves climbing towers of historic sites dating BC, lunch includes wine with a variety of pecorino cheese and a view that could have been painted, it is easy to love Italy’s culture, landscape and people.

August 9, 2011 Posted by aburnis | Europe, Italy | Italy, road trip | Leave a comment