Orvieto and goodbye to Italy

Oct 10
Packed up and left our agriturismo for our return to Rome. Our car, a Lancia, decided to make all kinds of weird noises and was doing some serious skipping/jumping of the engine that gave us pause. We soldiered on and eventually the trouble seemed to subside but we still were a bit uncertain about whether we would make it to Rome. Our original plan was to visit Orvieto with a couple of stops on the way at Bagno Regio and Civita’, sites that were recommended by our agriturismo hostess. It was a beautiful drive through some mountainous countryside along a big canyon. Once close to Bagno Regio, we somehow managed to take a wrong turn, gave up on Bagno Regio and went directly to Orvieto. Orvieto is a really pretty hill town built onto a tufa bluff. The cathedral at Orvieto may be the most beautiful cathedral I’ve ever seen. It’s a gothic style with a dramatic façade with twisted columns covered with mosaic designs, beautiful sculptured areas, colored marble, frescoes, and gorgeous doors. The sides of the cathedral are alternating black and white marble. My photos don’t come close to showing how incredible it was. The inside was rather plain and fairly unimpressive after that beautiful façade. After some sightseeing in Orvieto we drove to Rome, returned the car and said goodbye to Italy VERY early the next morning.

Cortona and the BEST MEAL EVER

Oct 9
Decided to take a drive around Lake Trasimeno and then go to Cortona since it was so close by and we had never been there and maybe we'd see what Francis Mayes was talking about. It was a pleasant and picturesque drive. We didn't see the Mayes home but we did wander around Cortona which seemed to be a popular tourist destination for Italians as well as other tourists. It's a lovely Tuscan hill town but there was nothing that particularly distinguished it from other lovely Tuscan hill towns. (But did find some scopa cards.)We decided to go to Spello for lunch since the restaurants there had appeared so appealing. Apparently, most of Umbria thought it would be a good place for Sun lunch also and after looking for parking for about 20 minutes, we decided to move on to Bevagna which we had visited briefly but abandoned because of heavy rain. I asked the local police where to eat and he pointed at a place directly in front of us called Osteria del Podesta'. We were told there was one table left if we wanted it. There was a party of about 20 at a long table celebrating a "cresima" (confirmation) and a couple other small groups including a couple with three young children sitting about 6 inches from us who promptly offered us a taste of their bottle of wine while the children attempted to engage us in an Italian conversation. The wine was great, the conversation with the kids less successful so they gave up on us.
This was the best meal yet for me of a series of really good meals. I had coniglio in porchetta...basically roasted rabbit prepared like porchetta, that is, stuffed with herbs and roasted. It was accompanied by roasted potatoes. These may be the dishes I will request as I lay dying (along with gelato, of course.) A nice Montefalco wine went with it perfectly. Had an easy drive back to our place and watched a gorgeous storm cloud fueled sunset. Tomorrow on to Rome with a couple stops in between.

Spello, Bevagna, Montefalco

Oct 7
Today we went to Spello, possibly the most gorgeous town EVER!! It is a small hill town similar to a million other small hill towns but every inch of it was picturesque. We probably walked the entire town. Stopped in a shop that made all kinds of things of olive wood and bought a few things that we couldn't live without. I discovered that my fall of the day before made it painful to walk DOWN slopes (up is fine but hard to find up that doesn't eventually require down.) There were tons of really appealing restaurants in Spello but it was too early for lunch so we went on to Bevagna, another small and charming hill town but one that didn't hold a candle to Spello. Found a nice restaurant and had yet another yummy lunch with good local wine. While we were at lunch the skies opened up and there was a terrific thunderstorm with a deluge of rain that convinced us that walking around sightseeing would not be fun so we came back home, stopping in Deruta to increase the number of pasta bowls in my order of a few days before.
Oct 8
Today we went to Montefalco, another charming hill town. The town is famous for linens but we (I) managed to resist and didn't buy anything. Wandered around a bit seeing the sights of the town but I was pretty disabled by not being able to walk DOWN slopes which limited our sightseeing. Drove a scenic route through numerous small towns, including one named Bastardo. Stopped for lunch at a no name place between a couple of towns and I had fagiano. I really have no idea what it was except that it was very roughly translated as some kind of bird that lives in the forest, "like a chicken." It was pretty good, certainly different, and had a sauce made of chicken liver pate which I actually like but probably wouldn't appeal to everyone. More good wine went with the lunch. Did some random exploring of tiny towns totally off the grid then back home.

Assisi and John the pig

Photos: John enjoying prosciuto filled tortellini; Santa Maria degli Angeli church; friar on his iPhone; Basilica in Assisi

Oct. 6
Today we went to Assisi. It seemed to have become very commercialized religion since the last time we were there (something like 15 yrs ago for me and about 25 for Dick.) Lots and lots of tour groups and tourists in general that made it just seem a bit unappealing. We walked around the town a bit then went to the basilica which is quite impressive....basically one church on top of an older church and then the tomb of St. Francis on the lowest level. The upper church has frescoes all the way around the church detailing the life of St. Francis and another row of frescoes above that have stories out of the new testament depicted. The lower church somehow seemed a bit more spiritual, more quiet and not quite as many people milling about. Originally we had planned on spending the better part of the day there but decided to leave after the basilica. We went to Santa Maria degli Angeli which is the town below Assisi. I actually remembered this church from the last trip. It's constructed over the original tiny church of St. Francis. There's something very moving about this church that made it memorable for me. It's quite beautiful and very large. Neither of these churches allow photos to be taken inside. It will now be memorable also because I was walking around looking at things and managed to trip on the platform of a confessional and fell very hard onto the wooden platform of the confessional causing me to say words that are not supposed to be said in church. I managed to seriously bruise my knee, and smack my right hand, right shoulder, and elbow.
We drove back towards home on a small picturesque highway and had lunch in Torgiano, a very small town that is known for producing a red wine which we enjoyed with another excellent lunch at a restaurant that was recommended by a policeman in the town. And, as luck would have it, we parked in front of an artisanal gelato place so my dessert was convenient and fabulous! On the way home we drove out past our town of San Venanzo just to see some more of the countryside.
We have made friends with John the pig. A real pig. He is actually quite adorable and we took him our scraps of fruit every day. It turns out he is willing to eat PORK!! We had some leftover tortellini filled with prosciutto which he seemed to LOVE!

Spoleto and Todi

Photos: Roman ruins in Spoleto; not great picture in main square in Todi
Oct 5
Today we went to Spoleto, a fairly large town, and then to Todi a quite small town. Spoleto has a number of Roman ruins and we saw one major site and went to the archeological museum followed by some serious “where the hell are we” followed by “enough of Spoleto.” And on to Todi. Todi is another hill town. One parks below the city and takes a funicular to the town. Our Lonely Planet had recommended a restaurant that sounded really good and, miracle of miracle, we walked right to it about a block after getting off the funicular. Had a really fabulous lunch of pasta with truffles then a main course with good wine. Lonely Planet also described a gelateria in Todi as having the best gelato IN THE WORLD so that was the next stop and it truly was wonderful gelato. The town is charming and easily negotiable so we were able to see all the major sights and enjoy the walk.
On the way home we stopped at the local huge grocery where in addition to a few groceries, I found a hair dryer for 4.90 euros (there is no hair dryer in the apartment) and it was the perfect ending to my day!

Perugia and Deruta

Photos: Pattern similar to the pasta bowls I bought; Perugia; Dick enjoying Perugia from a bench
Oct 4
Today we went to Perugia and Deruta. Deruta is on the way to Perugia and is the site of a buying frenzy that Darlene and I had about 15 years ago on our first trip to Italy. Deruta is a town famous for ceramics that are extraordinarily expensive in the U.S. Darlene had asked me to do some shopping for her so, of course, I was obligated to go. We looked in MANY shops, were shocked by the prices but really liked the products. We ended up in the old town which is high on a hill, wandered about a bit and were ready to go when the DEVIL (Dick) said, “you’re not going to BUY anything??!!??” “Nah, I really don’t need anything and everything costs more than Darlene wanted me to spend. Well., maybe we should look in this place ……” I definitely will be going to the poorhouse now. Of course, shipping costs are better if you ship A LOT rather than just one or two things so that just encouraged me. Found the items Darlene wanted, found things I wanted, then MORE things I wanted then Dick found something HE wanted. Yes indeed, another Deruta buying frenzy….great fun!
Perugia is a fairly large town. We found what appeared to be a perfect parking place just outside the wall and then walked UPHILL about 50 mi looking for a restaurant that was recommended in Lonely Planet which we never found. We ended up near the courthouse where there was a huge number of news trucks hanging around because the Amanda Knox trial had just ended the day before and they were still hoping to get further info, interviews with the principals, etc. Lunch was at an out door café and was good but just lunch….nothing special. Wandered about a bit to see the sights, found the main churches closed for the afternoon siesta, ate gelato and came back to our apartamento.

Our Umbria home

Oct 3
Awoke at the airport Hilton, had a substantial breakfast and trudged over to get the rental car. Of course, we missed our exit getting off the ring road and had to go through various machinations to get off, back on , go around the long way etc with Dick swearing and mumbling all the way. Ultimately made it to our agriturismo which is rustic to say the least. The main part of the agriturismo is closed for the season so we are about ½ mi away in a newer building and very close to where the family lives for the winter. Our apartment is quite large but pretty pathetically furnished and there are many “surprises.” For instance, the teapot that is on a shelf above the stove leaked all over because there are holes in the bottom. Turns out it is for “bellezza” (beauty) as in a decoration. The setting is in a beautiful area of hills and agricultural fields. There are two American and one Canadian twenty somethings here for varying periods of time acting as workers on the farm in exchange for room and board. The farm has sheep (for meat), a couple cows (for meat), a pig, chickens, ducks, turkeys, olive trees from which they make and sell olive oil. We had lunch with the family and the workers today. A starter, pasta, turkey cutlets, salad and fruit along with wine. Good home style meal.

Kremlin and on to Italy

Photos: A couple views within the Kremlin
Oct 1
Today we were back on the bus for a Kremlin tour. (FYI: kremlin means fortress.) We stood in the ridiculous security line and then got into the “armory” of the Kremlin which is the building that houses all the artifacts of dynasties dating back centuries. It had the clothing of all the tsars and tsarinas, crowns carriages, jewels, Faberge eggs, gifts of precious items given as gifts by foreign countries, etc. Very interesting museum with far more to see than we had time to see. We had a very knowledgable guide that was able to provide us with the high points. I’m sure you could spend hours and hours and still not see everything that there is to see. Outside, we saw all the buildings included within the Kremlin and saw a parade that is done every Sat. We went inside the Church of the Assumption (full of frescoes), the church where all the tsars were crowned even when the capital was in St. Petersburg. After the Kremlin, we went to Arbat St, a pedestrian street with lots of shops where we got to buy our souvenirs. The weather was not the best…cold with periods of VERY cold wind and rain. The evening was our farewell dinner held at a restaurant in the hotel. Tomorrow: Italy!
Oct 2
Pretty much a wasted day. Slept in, had breakfast, packed and hung around waiting to leave. It was cold, rainy and windy outside and we just couldn’t get up the energy to go out in it. Left early for the airport waiting for our flight to Rome. Alitalia seved a meal that was the best meal we had had in 2 weeks and….keep in mind it was airline food. Wine was definitely the best we’d had since leaving home. Italy, here we come.

Moscow day 2

Photos: Elegant grocery store; inside GUM; Starbuck's in Cyrillic


Sept 30
Yay!!! A day without busses, lectures, guides. A totally free day in Moscow. Our hotel is located on one of the major streets in Moscow so it is very convenient to everything. We spent the day walking, walking, walking. We went back to Red Square, took another look at Lenin’s tomb, checked out the most elegant grocery store we have ever seen, spent a little more time in GUM where I got to have ice cream. We went to Tchaikovsky hall with the intention of getting tickets for a Bach cello concert but it turned out that the concert was a Bach organ concert which we declined. We found an Armenian grocery where we did a bit of shopping. Checked out the Moscow version of Draeger’s at GUM and picked up a few things there. We had read of a Russian restaurant that we valiantly tried to find without success, then tried a recommended seafood restaurant that was closed for a private party and finally gave up and had dinner at an Italian restaurant where we had a decent pizza. Overall, a good day!

Moscow

Photos: Large building is GUM department store. Statue is a famous Russian comedian whose dog died a few days after he died and is memorialized in cemetery where the most famous of Russians are buried. Elaborate cathedral is St. Basil's in red square.

Sept 29.
This morning we sat at anchor n the Moscow canal for several hours waiting to come into port at Moscow. We arrived at 1PM after having a box lunch on board and went on a bus tour of Moscow. Moscow is a very appealing city with beautiful onion dome cathedrals everywhere, historic buildings and statues and all mixed into a gigantic typical city scene. We saw most of the major sites from the bus with stops at New Maiden Convent, still a very active religious training center and the Novodevichy cemetery that is part of the convent which is the burial place of Moscow’s elite. Political leaders who die after leaving office are buried there as well as very famous Muscovites like Tchaikovsy, Shostakovich, Chekov, Khruschev, Yeltsin, Raisa Gorbachev, comic Yuri Nikulin, etc. The monuments make it the most impressive cemetery that we have ever seen. Then a stop at Red Square. The word “red” means beautiful in Russian so our definition was never the intended name of the square. It’s a tremendously picturesque square with the spectacular St. Basil Cathedral at one end, Lenin’s tomb and the gigantic Gum department store. GUM= government universal magasin (shop.) It’s a gorgeous building that actually amounts to a mall with zillions of stores inside, many of them branches of all the very expensive and exclusive stores of Europe. It’s 3 floors, many cafes and (hurray) free bathrooms. We wandered all around Red Square and GUM and had a late lunch/early dinner at a kind of cafeteria on the 3rd floor that had typical Russian fare at reasonable prices. We also took a metro ride for 2 stops so that we could see a couple of very interesting stations and also have the experience of riding the Moscow subway. T he stations are impressive. One was the revolution station that has beautiful bronze statues in tribute to soldiers, one of which has his dog memorialized in bronze. It’s a Moscow good luck tradition to rub the dog’s nose which is polished bright gold by all the hands that touch it. We were leaving for the hotel at about 6PM for a ride that is a 15 min walk. We got to the hotel shortly before 7:30. Surely this was the worst traffic I have EVER seen. No particular event, just TRAFFIC!! Unbelievable traffic! They gave us a welcome glass of wine at the hotel….by then we needed much more than that. The good news: our room at the Marriott was gorgeous and huge. Our entire cabin on the ship could fit into our bathroom at the Marriott. The bad news: internet charges are $10/hr. No blogging at the Marriott will be occurring.

Sept 28, Uglich

Photos are of our kasha; pretty red church in Uglich; our breakfast hostess. (I can't control the order of photos.)

Sept 28
Today we disembarked in Uglich, a town of about 35,000, where we divided into small groups to go to the home of a local hostess who fed us breakfast. There were 6 in our group. Our home was a very modest house with lots of knick knack type clutter. Our hostess spoke no English so we were forced to use sign language and our recently learned 12 words of Russian. We had a porridge called kasha, which is apparently a generic word for any kind of porridge. It was really delicious but we have no idea what it was made of. Our guide thought it was perhaps millet from our description. We also had blinis with homemade raspberry-strawberry jam, bread with cheese and sausage and tea of a generic tea bag sort. Overall a lovely breakfast. Our hostess was very warm and welcoming. She enjoyed having pictures taken with each of us and asked us to send her copies (snail mail…..that should be interesting since she gave us her address written in Cyrillic.) We walked though Uglich and went to the Church of St. Dimitry on the Spilled Blood, so named because it was the site of the murder of the child, Dimitry, a son of Ivan the Terrible. He was murdered so that he couldn’t take the throne allowing Boris Godunov to become tsar.
Fairy tales are a huge part of Russian culture. The poems of Pushkin provide many of the fairy tales. Laquered boxes of Russia depict scenes from the fairy tales and all Russian children are told the tales. This afternoon we were told fairy tales. It was surprisingly entertaining. The tales were told by the same guide who taught us Russian language lessons and also gave part of the history. She did a great job on the fairy tales.

Goritsy; Yaroslavl

So the photos: The one of me and Dick is in the park in Yaroslavl where a merchant had come up with his display that involved this reflective cube. The gold domed church is in Yaroslavl with a monument to WWII casualties. The produce display is in a market in Yaroslavl. The other photo is the monastery at Goritsy.

Sept 26
Visited the town of Goritsy, a tiny settlement near a very famous monastery, the Kirillo-Beloserky Monastery, originally founded in 1397 by Kirill (Cyril), a monk who was later canonized. Kyrill is also responsible for the Cyrillic alphabet, bless his heart. Nearby is a remains of a convent. Apparently, one of the main functions of nunneries was to get rid of bothersome women including wives that you were tired of. Divorce was not a possibility so the options were poisoning or banishment to the convent. Ivan the Terrible banished the mother of a rival to the nunnery to prevent her interfering in his rule. He also had 7 wives, many who died under mysterious circumstances. At least one went to the convent. The monastery is huge and contains many valuable iconographic art works, vestments and documents dating back as far as the 14th century. Hated our guide who droned on and on. The good news was that it didn’t rain but was cold and windy so once again we had on all the clothing we brought .
We had a lecture on Russian history this morning, speaking of going on and on. Interesting but FAR tooooo loooong. Also had a talk on Russian tea drinking with demonstration of how a samovar works and then a tasting of pirogis (both fruit and meat pirogis) and tea.


Sept 27
Today we had another Russian history lesson covering the 20th century to present. Not as long, interesting. It’s good NOT to have lived in Russia for much of the last 1300 years. We also had another Russian lesson and learned some Russian songs. We are easily entertained while on the ship. Even Dick sang!
The afternoon was spent in the city of Yaroslavl, the town where there was the recent crash of the plane with all the ice hockey players. Yaroslavl is a large city of something like 600,000 that was the capital of Russia for a brief period in ancient times. We had a city tour including another monastery and a couple more churches……all of which have blended together in my mind and when I look at the photographs I will have no idea which is which. We had some free time and walked through a large flea market and also a grocery that may have been some sort of coop. There were multiple places for buying meats, or fish, or produce. The produce was arranged beautifully as were dried fruits and spices. A small park had cute flower displays with a variety of accompanying objects set up by local merchants. Kinda fun to walk through.

Mandrogi; Kizhi Island

The photo with the horses is Mandrogi. The amazing wooden church is on Kizhi Island.
Sept 24
We had a language lesson on the Cyrillic alphabet and elementary Russian this morning and then docked at Mandrogi. Mandrogi was a small town that was destroyed during WWII and has been being restored since the 1990’s into a craft village for the primary purpose of tourists on the river. Apparently, it’s also a tourist destination for Russians year round and Putin has a dacha here. We had a shashlyk (shish kabob) lunch during another deluge then were able to take a walk afterwards during a brief period of somewhat sunny sky. Back on the ship after lunch to continue down the river. We went through our 1st lock and had a cocktail party featuring Franzia box wine
Sept 25.
Arrived in Kizhi early AM. Kizhi is an island in Lake Onega and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The island has been inhabited for almost 2000 years. Traditional homes have been maintained or restored as an open air museum with people making traditional crafts and the dwellings being maintained as they would have appeared in the 18th century. There is a 22 domed church that was built in 1714. It’s all wood and very beautiful with the colors of the domes changing according to the light (Church of the Transfiguration.) A second smaller church is the Church of the Intercession which is a functioning church. There are granaries, windmills, a blacksmith shop, etc on the island and it was incredibly picturesque especially with the fall foliage as a backdrop. We were lucky to have a mostly clear day with no rain but temperatures in the 40’s so we were wearing basically everything in our suitcases. We spent a couple hours there then back on the ship to finish traversing Lake Onega to enter the Volga-Baltic Canal. Our afternoon entertainment was a blini making lesson followed by a vodka tasting. We had 4 vodkas, the first 1 was flavored with something sweet like liqueuers. They told us there were four different things in it. Result: UGH. Vodka #2 also contaminated with something that made it taste like grain alcohol. #3 was lemon flavored and pretty good. #4 was the good stuff and they offered a thimble full.
Today I got a cryptic text from AT&T telling my international data usage was very high (despite that I was checking frequently to make sure I didn’t exceed the allotment I bought.) I called and found to my horror that my plan doesn’t apply to Russia! HUH???? There was no indication on their website spot where I bought this. In addition, the texting plan doesn’t apply here either and I have been texting my brains out. Whining at AT&T was effective in getting them to take off the charges. Both plans are good in Italy so I’ll be back to my usual Words with Friends, etc there plus in Moscow I have free internet. YAY!!

Peterhof

Sept 23

(Photo 1 at the Gulf Of Finland, Baltic Sea. Photo 2 Peterhof Palace view from garden)
Packed up and checked out to board our ship today. On the way to the ship, we visited Peterhof, now a town but originally the site of the palace of peter the Great built on the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea. There are numerous other palaces that were subsequently built in the same area for members of peter’s family. The designer of the garden at Versailles designed the garden at Peterhof also. Peter had a thing for fountains and there are somewhere near a zillion fountains around the palace and garden. They are impressive in design , size and sheer number and all of them are fed solely by an extensive and elegant gravity system constructed with canals and holding ponds. The grounds were spectacular as was the palace. Much of the palace was destroyed during WWII and required extensive renovations which still are in progress. Of course, as soon as we finished the palace visit to go into the garden it began raining in an impressive deluge. Undaunted, we went out anyway and stood for a while under a pavilion until the rain slowed enough to see where we were going. We walked through the gorgeous gardens to the edge of the Gulf of Finland which, though quite narrow, didn’t allow us to see Finland. (Nor, just incidentally, could we see Sarah Palin’s house.) However, I can now say I say the Baltic Sea.
After leaving Peterhof we went to the port to board our ship and managed to put everything away in our tiny little cabin. Actually, cozy and comfortable enough but definitely not the great room we had at the Radisson. We sailed out of St. Petersburg under the only suspension bridge across the Neva River. At somewhere around 3AM we crossed part of Lake Ladoga the largest lake in Europe. The Neva is the only outflow of the lake though MANY rivers flow into the lake. This outflow combined with some high winds gave us some terrific rock and roll that let us know we were really on a ship. By morning we were back on flat water and soon entered another smooth river.

The Hermitage

Sept 22,2011

YAY!! The Hermitage! The reason for deciding to make this trip. 3,000,000 art items in one place...a daunting task but we managed to see A LOT and certainly saw the things we most wanted to see. We had a guided tour for about 2 1/2 hours then were on our own for another couple hours. Enough to hit that museum tolerance wall but we felt really accomplished at the end. The building itself is a museum since it is the historic Winter Palace of Catherine the great who began the collection of art that became the Hermitage.

Had just enough time for a quick lunch before taking a boat tour of St. Petersburg on the city's rivers and canals. And what did we eat??? Indian food, of course. A couple of hours to see the architecture of St. Petersburg from a different vantage point that was cold but a nice perspective.

Pushkin feeds us

Sept 21, 2011

Drove out of town to the town of Pushkin (named for....) to see Catherine's palace and gardens. The 16 mi drive out was very picturesque with the fall colors beginning to be apparent. This lady knew how to live. Looked a bit like Versailles including the great formal garden. One of the rooms is completely walled in amber and with amber encrusted furniture everywhere. No photos are allowed in the amber room. The palace is the world's longest. We have only one photo because of a camera tragedy that occurred late in the day in which the camera disappeared, presumably pickpocketed. The camera happened to be the one of the primary photographer so we are left with one not very good photo of the Catherine palace.

We returned to town in time to walk to the "Literaturnoye Cafe", a place that Pushkin liked and literary types used as a hangout over the past 200 years. We had an excellent meal in very interesting, historic surroundings (photographic documentation GONE.) Afterwards we walked A LOT to see more of the city.

St. Petersburg

Sept20, 2011. Day 1 St. Petersburg

Spent the morning seeing the highlights of historic St. Petersburg in the rain which managed to not dampen the spirits of a new adventure in a really beautiful city. The architecture is really striking. The photo here is not the typical style but certainly the most architecturally dramatic. This is the Church of the Savior of the Spilled Blood, named this because it was the site of the assassination of Czar Alexander 2. The photo can't possibly do justice to the amazing details of this structure. The city was built on swampland and has MANY, MANY canals. It kind of put us in mind of Amsterdam. Also saw St. Isaac's Cathedral, the 4th largest cathedral in the world and the Peter and Paul fortress which houses a cathedral where many former czars and their families are buried. The afternoon was free time and we spent it walking on Nevsky Prospekt, one of the main streets of the city. Showed total lack of imagination and had pizza for luch. A bit jet lagged and will have an early bedtime.