Torino e Arrivaderci Torino

Greetings:

Mauro came a little after 9 AM and drove us to the center. At Piazza Vittorio Veneto, scene of our rubbing ids with Nietzsche, he brought us to a very nice café/sweetshop for cappuccino and croissants. The piazza is one of many in Torino but it borders the river Po.

We then walked along Via Po under arcades.

Here are some examples of the arcades:



Our goal was the National Cinema Museum. It is housed in the signature building of Torino, Il Mole Antonelliana:

This building is about 550 feet tall. When you enter you realize that the interior of the building is all open with a spiral stairway along the walls skipping through screens with movies playing, pictures of cinema stars and huge movie posters. In a column vertically piercing the center of the open space from the floor to as far as you can see is a glass elevator. Mauro had us first take this elevator and bring us to the observatory at the base of the spire of Il Mole. From their we were able to enjoy spectacular views of the city of Torino:

As you can see, the Alps almost surround Torino.

The cinema museum was wonderful. Being life-long movie fans definitely did not detract from the experience. There are rooms tucked away on the bottom floor that depict the early beginnings of shadow boxes, optical illusions with lenses, early 3D imaging, the broadening of viewing film to large audiences by the Lumiere brothers and the magic lanterns before Edison. You were then brought through the refinements of Edison’s using holes on the side of the film to sound and Technicolor.

Each month a different artist is showcased along the spiral stairs. As we climbed we enjoyed the work of Francesco Rosi. The one film I had seen was Carmen with Sophia Loren though during his career he worked with Americans such as Rod Steiger, John Turtorro and James Belushi. You end your travels among body molded reclining couches with speakers in the headrests to enjoy clips from various movies. The one we saw involved famous dance sequences: Last Tango In Paris, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Salo, again Sophia Loren. It was great!

Mauro was then called to work and then we were on our own. Gini immediately headed for the arcades and the shopping. Miles and miles of shopping – and so little time!

We found a good little pizzeria and had gelato at the famous Fiorio. Re-energized we took on the Egyptian museum. Torino has the second largest collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts in the world; second only to Cairo. This was also a very rewarding experience and highly recommended.

We decided to walk the remaining mile and a half back to the hotel and wait for Giovanni’s and Vincenzo’s call. On the way we liked the Consolata Santuary:

When they arrived in the evening Giovanni was concerned about the storm that had hit New Hampshire and that his wife and daughter were not able to leave the house. We were concerned also and hope to talk to Kevin about the state of Alexandria.

Giovanni and Vincenzo had had an incredible day. Vincenzo had written about Giovanni and his world wide cooking exploits. This had drawn the attention of the biggest wine person in Italy. The two of them spent the afternoon with him as his guests. They were both given bottles of Barbaresco wine (we are talking big bucks here) as a parting gesture. They were both very excited about the experience.

However all four of us were pretty tired so we headed for a good local pizzeria and had dinner and turned in for the evening.

On our last morning in Torino (Thursday, January 29, 2009) Giovanni and Vincenzo took us to one of the largest open markets in the world here in Torino. It is open every day and is really big on Saturdays. There were four central sections: meat, fish, fruits and vegetables and clothing. A few shots:





However there is something about this picture that captures our experience:

That is Giovanni Leopardi with us.

Sadly we bid farewell to our truly wonderful hosts. Vincenzo is preparing for the release of his new book on wine and Giovanni is heading to Delhi, India for a three month assignment as Melba will oversee Carpaccio in Hanover, NH.

Thanks to our friends we were well stocked with sandwiches, pears and of course wine for our trip to Aosta where Mary T. awaits us:





Domani!

Torino e Amici

Greetings:

Sometimes life does bestow good luck. The process, in this case, is similar to the production of a pearl. From my marine-biological imagination a foreign object is introduced into an oyster. Chris and Gini are the foreign object and Italy is the oyster.

In conception the January portion of our trip had a very important component, meeting Mary, Gini’s step-mom, in Aosta, Italy for a three day festival. The background would be that Mary’s family has had an apartment in Chatillon, a small town near Aosta, for four hundred years. Gini and Chris and several people reading this blog have been fortunate to have visited Chatillon in the summer. Even Mary, all her life, has only been to the Valley D’Aosta during the summer. One of the reasons is that Aosta and Chatillon are at the southern base of the Italian Alps only fifteen miles from Cervino (the Matterhorn) and this makes for a significant winter. In fact, prime time for Aosta is the winter because of the snow and the mountains. Therefore the retroment schedule had to allow for Mary, Aosta and the festival.

Gini then composed an Irish segment and a Sicilian segment to the itinerary. During this planning, a friend of ours, Giovanni Leopardi invited us to an art display at his restaurant, Carpaccio, in Hanover, New Hampshire. Giovanni was from Torino (Turin) and we had originally become friends when the restaurant was in Potter Place, a suburb of that booming metropolis, Danbury, NH. The art display was to showcase the artwork of Vicenzo Reda, a friend of thirty years of Giovanni. Vincenzo painted with wine and we thoroughly enjoyed the art and the evening’s dinner. At the end of the exhibition Vincenzo said to contact him by email since Gini’s construction of the itinerary from Sicily to Aosta included a stay in Torino (two nights).

Faithful to his word, Vincenzo not only helped us plan our hotel and propose some activities but also extended an invitation to meet. This was more than we had hoped. As we prepared to leave Positano and head for Torino, Vincenzo wrote us with the news that not only would he be meeting us but that Giovanni Leopardi would also be in Torino. Unbelievable!

We arrived at our hotel and called Vincenzo. They would meet us and they had also planned a full night’s extravaganza for us. It began with driving to a hillside vista to watch dusk envelop the city. As we rode, we could not believe the beauty of this city. There were as many arcades here as there were in Bologna.

Accompanying us was Mauro Marcuzzo, another friend from when Vincenzo and Giovanni were teenagers. Mauro is a producer and works in ‘Audio Video Solutions’. They had not been together for many years and we had front row seats to their reunion as their guests. Chris figured out how to use the timer on the camera and managed to capture our happy group:

Everything was going to be Piemonte based. This is Torino’s region. We started at a wine bar and enjoyed some delicious local white wine along with some local snacks. To make the evening more special, Vincenzo’s sister, Maria, arrived to join us for wine and dinner. The four of them had all belonged to the same radio station in the 1970s and had not all been together for thirty years!

Vincenzo took this picture so he is missing from the table:

The choice of restaurant was to be, of course, an old restaurant specializing in local Torino food. This was an Antico Ristorante called Porto Di Savona. The menu choices were gratefully made for us. These included slices of a minced meat that tasted like pork, meat raviolis in a brown meat sauce, homemade taglietelle noodles in a cream sauce, ‘Brasato’, a beef served with polenta, meats done similar to a boiled dinner, and a pastry wrapped pork. Panna cotta and some other kind of chocolate pudding finished the meal (with espresso and grappa, of course). The wine, three bottles, had been selected because it could only be found in Torino. Towards the end of dinner Chris, very proudly, said in Italian that he and Gini were very fortunate to eat and be with such strong friends. This was well received by the group.

On the wall of the restaurant were drawn Gianduia and Giacometta. These are the characters from commedia dell’arte chosen by Torino as their representative masks during Carnival:

Vincenzo and Mauro decided that we must now head for a café famous as a mecca for artists and poets in the Piazza Vittorio Venetto. This piazza served as the terminus for a kilometer long arcade built by the king so he could get to the Po river without getting wet.

The café, Caffe Elena, claimed fame because Nietzche had written his last book there while he lived in Torino.

We had not been there for two minutes before the amici (friends) were shouting and hugging yet another friend from thirty years ago. It remained calm long enough for Vincenzo to capture the group with their Torino drinks of bicerin (a cross between cappuccino and pure chocolate):

So we need an artistic shot of the artist Vincenzo:


Somehow we stumbled out of there after midnight and bid Mauro and Maria buona notte (good night). However our boys were not done yet. Giovanni had the crazy idea to go for pizza but Chris and Vincenzo talked him out of it.

Instead Vincenzo began a somewhat mad ride through the streets of Torino. He stopped to show us two towers surrounding archways that were from 400 BC that formed one of the ‘porta’ (gate – Porta Palatina) to the once walled city of Torino. He then drove to an intersection and parked right in the middle to show us where the Barolo family (good wine, anybody?) had, literally, moved their palazzo (grand house) to accommodate the city. This was marked by the coloring of the bricks in the roadway showing the outline of the former building perimeter.

Finally, after 1AM we were deposited back at our hotel (Pacific Hotel Fortino). It took a while to recover from all that had happened before we could settle to sleep.

For tomorrow Mauro has volunteered to take us to the Cinema National Museum that is housed in the signature building of Torino, the Mole Antonelliana.

The pearl has formed. This will join those already formed by you, nostri amici and la famiglia (our friends and family). Grazie.

We Arrive In Positano

Greetings:

We were a little disappointed that Grazia, one of our hosts, was not able to stop by on our last night in Torre Archirafi. However we did get to enjoy Grazia and Aldo’s son Fabrizio. He is a college student in Catania studying physics. He told us that Aldo works for Telecom (Italy/Europe’s AT&T) and that Grazia taught philosophy and history in high school. She is also involved in a world wide project of tracking Sicilian emigrants. So far she has visited the US and Germany and soon will be going to Australia. We have been very pleased with their apartment and hospitality.

Also on our agenda was to treat ourselves to dinner at La Vecchia Posta, the wonderful fish restaurant that we had been to earlier in the week. This time we were treated to spaghetti con vongole (small clams), deep fried teeny, tiny fish and grilled serrago and spigala (sea bass). Encore!

Five thirty AM came early of course but our minds were quickly blown. As we packed the car and started the drive to Catania it was still fairly dark. Chris started to notice how nice all the lights of the small towns on the shoulders of Etna looked. Gini blurted, “I was right! It was smoke!”. At the top of Etna was a seam of bright orange/red. If ever there was an actual depiction of the eye of Sauron, there it was; not the appropriate analogy to sum up our visit to Sicily but we will never forget that sight as it slowly faded with the dawn.

Imagine our reaction as we landed in Napoli (Naples) and the first thing we saw looming over the city was Vesuvio, the destroyer of Pompeii. This time two thousand years separated us from its activity. Gini had arranged a driver to take on the winding roads of Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast so Chris could just sit back.

The cliffs and towns are dramatic. Positano has one road that coils its way down through the town and then back up seeking Amalfi. It had been raining for ten days (not our fault this time) but we still thought things were going well as we arrived at our reserved hotel and were excited by what we saw:

It looked directly on to the sea. However we did notice a sign in the doorway:

Ah Chiuso! What does that mean, Chris? Closed! NO!

As we peered in we observed all the furniture was covered and the electrical wiring looked like the ceiling had spewed spaghetti. Within a few minutes our driver, Gian Paulo, a long time resident of Positano, had discovered the transitive property of hotels. The hotel next door, the Villa Gabrisa had taken on the reservations and we were warmly received in excellent English by Gabriele. He has been taking good care of us since our arrival with information, luggage and advice. Ecco Villa Gabrisa:


We were quickly shown to our room (#9…#9…#9…#9). Here is what we saw from our small veranda.

To the left:

Straight ahead:


And to the right:


Somehow we were going to survive.

After briefly settling we headed for the streets. About a third of all hotels, stores and restaurants are closed because it is January (the only way we could afford to come here). It also allowed traffic to move and for us to walk unimpeded.

Even though we have enjoyed Cinque Terre (five Italian towns along the cliffs of the Liguorian Sea) and would still go back in a heartbeat, Positano is something else. Here are some of the views as we walked spiraling downward toward the water:




We think of this as a ‘signature’ view of Positano since we have seen it on travel posters:


Oh here are some more:







We finally reached the beach and looked back up:

At sea level you see:

We were attracted to little alleys, gateways, gardens and, oh yes, every fifteen or twenty feet a glamorous store. Though I am not sure we had mingled with all the intended clientele at this point:


Gini felt we should capture a pre-Baron era nostalgia:

Oddities did abound, however. Could someone please explain the daily process of parking this car on the edge of a cliff:

Heavy lifting anyone?

Then there was a view whereby we thought that we saw an unbelievable placement of a swing set and stretched our lens’ telephoto ability to the max (check out the upper left corner):

Now after Gini recovered from her collapse in hysterics she made Chris promise that he would not repeat his description that this is actually a house where the family had had fourteen children but none of them lived past the age of nine – so we shan’t.

We did happen upon a small grotto where the city of Positano was planned:


Perhaps we can claim that the panorama mode on the camera was finally used correctly:


Veni, Vidi, Vertigo!

Taormina Redux

Greetings:

Quiet day yesterday – laundry, groceries. We did have the pleasure of the company of our hosts, Grazia and Aldo Rompineve. Gini prepared some Bruschetta Americana, as Grazia named it. They were very gracious and brought wine and some local pistachio pastries and chocolate. We had earlier bought some bakery cookies as a small gift to them also.

The conversation was brisk and filled with a creative mix of Italian and English. Grazia is a lot like Chris with his Italian. She has a varied English vocabulary (better than Chris’ Italian vocabulary) but does not ‘hear it’ quite as well as she speaks it. Regardless, their company was wonderful. The only impasse came when Chris tried to explain that he taught mathematics and computers but, really, he taught ‘attitude’. Aldo was quick though and said “Ah – comportamento!”. We left it at that.

They will return Saturday night as we prepare to close up the apartment for our very early Sunday morning departure.

Today we had to return to Taormina. After Grazia boasted about all the ruins throughout Sicily we felt we had to do something cultural.

Taormina is next to Giardini Naxos, the first Greek settlement in Sicily (7th century BC). Naxos is on the coast and Taormina is up the cliffs on the coast. Even higher still is Castelmola:

A similar photo appeared in our first Taormina blog.

Upon arriving in Taormina we were not quite as lucky parking this time and after several swoops through Taormino Centro (Center) we were swallowed by a parking garage somewhere in the cliff. We were then left to negotiate the ‘lumbi’. None of the Italian dictionaries here have that word but there was an icon that implied ‘you gonna climb a lotta steps!’.

Our first stop was the Teatro Antico di Taormina. This was originally built by the Greeks but eventually taken over by the Romans and ‘remodeled’ throughout a couple of centuries.

This is one of the most breathtaking locations for a theater that we have ever seen. The stage is for current productions and made of wood. The area in front (orchestra) would have been for the Greek chorus with their choreographed movements and commentary. The middle archway behind the stage had collapsed and has not been reassembled as of yet.

There are definitely larger theaters throughout the Greco-Roman world such as in Siracusa and Ephesus. Here, however, the seating and overall construction must have been one of the most spectacular.

The arch in the lower left corner was for the tunnel that allowed animals to enter the amphitheater. This was after the Romans decided they were not making any money showing plays so they would go for sea battles and gladiatorial combat, WWF-style. This tunnel actually replaced the first two rows of seats which were made of marble stenciled with the names of the upper class Taorminians who had been given privileged berths. The Romans thought that this was a good way to show the imperial pecking order and introduce the local VIP’s to their new status.

Above the seats you can see small archways. These were each filled with a statue and flowers. Above the arches are the remains of a portico which allowed the patrons to walk around the semi-perimeter of the top along with providing shade through overhanging awnings.

We were fortunate to both have electronic aural guides (the ticket seller only charged us for one) and enjoyed the narrations as we were led throughout the theater. Behind the portico we saw the nearby straits of Messina and could visualize, to the narration, Odysseus’ encounter with Scylla and Charybdis and further south his encounter with the cyclopi at AciTrezzi. We were both weeping before long. Sigh!

To complete the immersion into paradise we entered the shopping district of Taormina which is experienced through a ‘pedonale’ or pedestrian-only walkway.

We could still hear the fading echoes of the grand conch shell that is blown every morning to gather the pilgrims of fashion and shopping.

Gini feels that some of the stores in Venice are still a notch above here but three figure prices in Euros for shoes abound here.

Thankfully everyone was still on midday break and temptation only allowed for coveting our neighbor’s goods.

As we walked there would be a break in the promenade along the stores for a piazza and a church with a breathtaking view of the Ionian Sea:

Those are cacti in the background.

So gather all your money and head here to Taormina in March through May, September to November. What a way to go.

Since eventually we did have to go, we took one last look north from the heights of Taormina:


Tomorrow will probably take us all day to gather our things and straighten the apartment as we prepare for our 6:15 AM drive to Catania Sunday morning to fly to Naples. Then we are on to Positano. We do hope to talk to Chip tomorrow via Skype, meet with the Rompineves once more and have dinner at the fish restaurant, La Vecchia Posta, before we bid Torre Archirafi arrivaderci.

In summary it would seem that in comparison to the winter in New Hampshire we have made a good choice for our first retroment escape. There is a constant reminder everywhere we go that Sicily would truly blossom in another month or two. The people have been either non committal or very friendly, mostly the latter. Torre Archirafi feels very safe and is well located for what we wanted to do. Palermo is a two hour drive but well worth it according to Grazia and Aldo. Maybe next time. Agrigento also needs to be visited and during better weather there are an incredible number of nature parks, hiking and biking trails and wonders of Mount Etna. As for the Mafia one would have to go to the west of Sicily to feel their presence – or so we are told.

Siracusa

Greetings:

We did manage to get an earlier start today but we first had to change a 50 Euro note since nobody wants to deal with making large change. A bank eventually appeared and Chris went inside. Well, not at first. The door was locked and finally someone inside felt pity on him and pushed a button. This allowed a curved piece of plexiglass to whoosh out of the way. Since the aliens now own most of the banks throughout the world, Chris assumed it was safe and entered the vertical tube. For those of you who have successfully beamed up you would be familiar with the operation. With another whoosh a second piece of vertical, curved, bullet proof, clear plastic panel allowed for full transporting.

Using Italian, Chris asked if he could change the large bill. At least he thought he did. After a few minutes two things became clear: first, the teller understood what Chris wanted and secondly that he spoke perfect English (the teller, not Chris). “Today is a very important day for you, no?”. It was Tuesday, January 20 and Barack Obama was to be inaugurated. Yes, it was an important day.

The weather was wet and we headed south for our long drive to Siracusa. The drive which got even longer when the Autostrada shrunk to two opposing lanes and our lane would not move. So much for the early start!

Siracusa is also a coastal town more towards the south of Sicily. It was settled by Phoenicians and north Africans before the Greeks arrived. The Greeks made quite the settlement here followed by the Romans who always liked it when they had a head start and just had to do some ‘tweaking’.



The island of Ortigia is where some of the ruins sites are…sorta…We even managed to find the tourist information bureau there. But Gini’s agenda required a restroom and the informazione office did not have one since “Everyone would use it!”. So while Gini was in a small café in Archimedes Piazza, Chris was able to get a shot of the fountain in the piazza:



Back at the tourist office it was recommended we go to the tip of the small island to see the Castello Maniace and, of course, it would close at 1PM. The castle was interesting but the rain and the wind did not make for basking in the castle aura.


The restoration that was in progress did hold our interest along with a huge hall with great columns and a tunnel hallway:



























Oritigia did boast its own duomo and sprawling marble piazza that was supposed to be the scene of a statue-bearing festa but the weather did not hold promise for it:




We happened upon a somewhat curious object d’courtyard among all these alleyways and old buildings:



An art deco igloo? Post modern Photomat? Help us here.

After some slices of pizza (and a free pastry for being cute and/or pathetic) we decided the rain was too much and to get to the Parco Archeologica Della Neapolis in time before closing was just not going to happen. So we got back in the car and headed for the park’s general area where we came upon:


It’s old and it looks like there is a lot of digging. Ah, you know what they say about those historical sites.

What really impressed us was one of the most modern buildings in Siracusa. That is the church of the Madonna Delle Lacrime (Our Lady of Tears – or Sorrows). The church is a large abstract tear that only proves the aliens are running the churches and the banks!


The many chapels and alcove areas are cantilevered around its perimeter:

Not too shabby on the design side.

There was the obligatory traffic jam on the way back which only confirmed our resolve to go out for dinner. On our street in Torre Archirafi there is a restaurant called La Vecchia Posta where they only serve fish dishes. Except for Noreen’s cuisine this may have been our best dining experience. Within a few minutes the menus became irrelevant and we were brought over to a tray of fish and we negotiated for some ‘ricciola’. We are still not sure what that is but it was the most moist fish baked whole and smothered with olive oil, tomatoes, herbs and spices. This was preceded by spaghetti that also had some olive oil, tomatoes, garlic and a taste of anchovy. A lemon sorbet finished it all as we puddled our way home very satisfied and very full.

Wednesday morning saw us managing to go to the fish market in Riposto and we can try our hand at some grilling tonight with some swordfish and the rest of the lemon risotto. Hopefully we can also make contact with Michele and Tom on Skype tonight. We shall see.

A domani!