Italy

Biking in the Dolomites: Day 1

Posted by Jim St. George on June 7, 2016
Posted in: Italy, UNESCO World Heritage Site. 3 comments
Mark just outside San Candido with the 1956 Olympic ski jump in the background. In case you're concerned, he was wearing a bike helmet before I took the picture.

Mark just outside San Candido with the 1956 Olympic ski jump in the background. In case you’re concerned, he was wearing a bike helmet before I took the picture.

We’re off on a seven-day bike trip in the Dolomites, the northeastern Italian Alpine region, with Zephyr Adventures a great little U.S. based tour company. This is our fourth Zephyr adventure; we hiked the Inca Trail with them in 2009, and then did bike tours in Puglia, Italy, and Provence, France. Our first stop was in Cortina d’Ampezzo, a tiny town in the summer that all but explodes with skiers in the winter. Its claim to fame was as the host of the 1956 Winter Olympics.

This area of Italy is pretty unusual. For much of its history it was part of the Austrian Empire until it was ceded to Italy after the First World War. Even today, nearly a hundred years later, it feels more Austrian than Italian. Town names are typically given in both Italian and German, which may have what appears to be no relationship at all. For instance, we’ll be heading to San Candido, the Italian name, but it’s also known as Innichen, its German name. And the cuisine seems more Germanic than Italian. Strange.

The town of San Candido, nestled into the Alps, is becoming a major ski destination for Italians with lots of money

The town of San Candido, nestled into the Alps, is becoming a major ski destination for Italians with lots of money

After shuttling up from Venice the first day was a relatively simple eight-mile ride down to the town of San Vito di Cadore and back, mostly just to test out the bikes and get a little exercise. Even with that little ride, though, I was pretty impressed with the mountains. It’s supposed to be a relatively easy bike tour, so I wasn’t sure we’d really be in the mountains. Not to worry, it turns out; we’re surrounded by gorgeous snow-capped peaks. So good they were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2009. At the same time we’re only at about 4,000 feet altitude so thin air isn’t an issue at all.

This is the sort of scenery we passed on our little warm-up ride

This is the sort of scenery we passed on our little warm-up ride

On any trip like this meeting the other travelers is always interesting. Two of our trip mates, Marc and David, are old friends, while three of the others are people we’ve traveled with before on Zephyr tours: the bike guide Giacomo, and Ann and Pat, sisters from Liberty, Missouri. But in getting to know the rest of the crew we quickly found some crazy connections. Heather is from Minnesota, which isn’t that surprising. What’s crazy, though, is that she grew up in a tiny Iron Range town less than 20 miles from the tiny Iron Range town where I graduated from high school. Her second cousin was in the five-person German class I took in my senior year. Small world.

And then we were talking with Kerry, the other Zephyr guide. She’s originally from Minnesota too, but that’s not the freakish coincidence. Turns out she lived in Cambridge for a little while and worked at Rialto, a great Italian restaurant just a mile from our condo. On many nights when work was too intense we’d stop there and have dinner at the bar, chatting with the staff and getting to know the chef, Jody Adams, pretty well. While we didn’t remember Kerry there and she didn’t remember us, we knew lots of people in common. Crazy small world.

The next few days will be more adventurous as we head out on some longer rides. So far, though, we’re off to a good start.

We're hoping to see a lot of this kind of riding

We’re hoping to see a lot of this kind of riding

Venice

Posted by Jim St. George on June 5, 2016
Posted in: Italy, UNESCO World Heritage Site. Leave a Comment
As has been too typical during our weeks in Europe there was plenty of rain in Venice. There were brief periods of glorious sunshine, though, allowing us to get views like this of the Grand Canal.

As has been too typical during our weeks in Europe there was plenty of rain in Venice. There were brief periods of glorious sunshine, though, allowing us to get views like this of the Grand Canal.

This was a short two-night stop in one of the world’s great cities. We’re meeting the Zephyr Adventures group here before heading up into the Dolomites for a week of biking and are coming back with friends for five days next month, so we didn’t need to spend a lot of time just yet.

Just one of seemingly a million beautiful tiny canals that provide Venice's transportation system

Just one of seemingly a million beautiful tiny canals that provide Venice’s transportation system

Still, two days in Venice is pretty great. I’m about two-thirds of the way through a really interesting and well written history of Venice, so it’s a pretty good timing to be here and have that history come alive. The earliest inhabitants on these islands came out to escape Attila the Hun as the Western Roman empire was collapsing in the middle of the fifth century and from there it grew to be one of the greatest cities of the medieval world. As an amusing aside, recall that we spent time on artificial islands in Lake Titicaca, inhabited originally by people escaping Incan invaders; one wonders if in a couple hundred years those obscure islands will bestride the earth the way the Venetians did. Probably not.

We were here six years ago or so and on that trip it took me two or three days to identify one of the things that I love about Venice: there are no cars. It makes walking around the city just so calm and easy. Or at least as calm and easy as walking through hordes of tourists can be. But it’s fascinating to see a big city operate with no cars. Boats, yes, and guys wheeling around carts full of supplies. But no cars. While much of the old city feels more like a Disney World adaptation of an historic city – there are hordes of tourists mobbing central areas – there are still about 60,000 people who live on the hundred-or-so islands that make up historic Venice, with another 200,000 on the mainland in what is a more modern Venice.

The big cultural highlight for us was a couple hours in the Gallerie dell’Accademia, a magnificent collection of 14th to 19th century art specializing, not surprisingly, in some of the Venetian masters like Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese. And so many of the buildings are really spectacular. Given the brevity of this pass through Venice I didn’t really appreciate that until we were taking the vaporetto – the local bus that’s a boat – up the Grand Canal as we were going to the train station to leave the city. But watching these grand old palaces go by really drives home the fact that this was once one of the richest and most powerful cities in the world. That starts to explain why Venice’s entire historic part is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Veronese's "Banquet in the House of Levi" from 1573. This might look like a Last Supper painting, and Veronese intended it to be just that. But he was called before the Venetian Inquisition because the setting was considered too profane for a Last Supper. Thus he was forced to change the name to represent simply a miracle performed at Levy's. Strange world they lived in.

Veronese’s “Banquet in the House of Levi” from 1573. This might look like a Last Supper painting, and Veronese intended it to be just that. But he was called before the Venetian Inquisition because the setting was considered too profane for a Last Supper. Thus he was forced to change the name to represent simply a miracle performed at Levy’s. Strange world they lived in.

Our friends Marc & David, who joined us two years ago for a few days in Corsica, are doing the bike trip with us and got to Venice the afternoon of our last night there. So we had drinks and then dinner and then more drinks catching up. Marc had been a client some years back when he was the technology director for the Liberal Party of Canada but over time had become a good friend. When we met up in Corsica he was no longer with the Party and we were no longer actively involved in the company. Since then, though, he actually took a job with our company managing most of our programmers so once again he’s part of our professional family. It was great to get caught up on some of the gossip going on back in Boston!

Our breakfast view, about as nice as anything you can get outside of Greece!

Our breakfast view, about as nice as anything you can get outside of Greece!

On the way out of Venice we had this classic Italian experience. We buy tickets for a short and cheap train ride to the Venetian train station on the mainland, where we’re meeting the Zephyr group. We have the tickets and try to figure out what train to board. The main board doesn’t have enough detailed information to help us, but each track has it’s own monitors to provide the detailed information about where the train is going. Except every single one of those monitors are blank. There’s no way to figure out what train to get on except to find someone to ask and it takes us several minutes to find a single Trenitalia staff person. That’s just so Italian; it’s got the right infrastructure but somehow they can’t get it together to provide the information you need. We truly love Italy but sometimes it can be so damned frustrating.

At any rate, here are some pictures from our brief time in Venice. Tomorrow we start a week long bike trip up in the Italian Alps. Very excited!

More art from the Gallerie dell’Accademia, this one Tintoretto's "Theft of the Body of St. Mark." Another great story. St. Mark's corpse was supposedly in Alexandria, Egypt. But as he was the patron saint of Venice, Venetian leaders wanted his relics there. So a few guys went to Egypt and just stole the body, or what they at least believed was the body. Their story was that Mark had spent time in Venice and intended for his earthly remains to spend eternity there. A little hard to swallow since Venice didn't exist when Mark walked the earth, but hey, that's just a technicality. To make matters worse, the Venetian church his body was stored in was burned to the ground during a political disturbance and his bones were destroyed in the fire. Until, that is, some enterprising religious leaders discovered that St. Mark in fact hadn't been in that church but that his real bones were in a different one. So *presto* his relics are still there!

More art from the Gallerie dell’Accademia, this one Tintoretto’s “Theft of the Body of St. Mark.” Another great story. St. Mark’s corpse was supposedly in Alexandria, Egypt. But as he was the patron saint of Venice, Venetian leaders wanted his relics there. So a few guys went to Egypt and just stole the body, or what they at least believed was the body. Their story was that Mark had spent time in Venice and intended for his earthly remains to spend eternity there. A little hard to swallow since Venice didn’t exist when Mark walked the earth, but hey, that’s just a technicality. To make matters worse, the Venetian church his body was stored in was burned to the ground during a political disturbance and his bones were destroyed in the fire. Until, that is, some enterprising religious leaders discovered that St. Mark in fact hadn’t been in that church but that his real bones were in a different one. So *presto* his relics are still there!

One of the important features of religious art was that characters often display specific characteristics so viewers know who they are. You know, St. Sebastian and the arrows always sticking out. One that always amuses me is when John the Baptist - on the left here in an il Vecchio painting of the Holy Family - carries a cross while meeting the baby Jesus. Doesn't that seem just a little insensitive? "Hi, cute baby. See what we have in store for you?"

One of the important features of religious art was that characters often display specific characteristics so viewers know who they are. You know, St. Sebastian and the arrows always sticking out. One that always amuses me is when John the Baptist – on the left here in an il Vecchio painting of the Holy Family – carries a cross while meeting the baby Jesus. Doesn’t that seem just a little insensitive? “Hi, cute baby. See what we have in store for you?”

A canal in a more working class part of Venice

A canal in a more working class part of Venice

The Grand Canal

The Grand Canal

More canal - it's all over this city!

More canal – it’s all over this city!

And finally Mark with his new raincoat over the Grand Canal. After weeks of rain, with more rain forecast for our bike trip, it was time to get a rain coat. And then the sun came out!

And finally Mark with his new raincoat over the Grand Canal. After weeks of rain, with more rain forecast for our bike trip, it was time to get a rain coat. And then the sun came out!

Turin

Posted by Jim St. George on October 19, 2015
Posted in: Italy. 1 comment
Fall strikes the right bank of the Po River, while Turin itself lies primarily on the left bank

Fall strikes the right bank of the Po River, while Turin itself lies primarily on the left bank

Our final stop on this brief hop through Italy en route to Paris was Turin, the capital of the Piedmont region. Perched on the banks of the Po River in northwestern Italy, Turin has a few claims to fame: it’s the headquarters of both Fiat and Alpha Romeo and thus sort of the Detroit of Italy; it was the capital of the House of Savoy and thus the home of Italy’s royal family in the 19th and 20th centuries; and it’s where you can find the Shroud of Turin, should that be your thing.

Here's a portrait of the young Victor Emanuele, modern Italy's first king. You gotta love that facial hair and appreciate the fact that he wanted to be remembered that way!

Here’s a portrait of the young Victor Emanuele, modern Italy’s first king. You gotta love that facial hair and appreciate the fact that he wanted to be remembered that way!

Turin’s comparatively modern history is deeply embedded in the fight for Italian unification. From 1802 until the fall of Napoleon, Piedmont – including Turin – was annexed by the French. After Napoleon’s fall, the kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia was restored with the House of Savoy as rulers and they took the lead in fighting for Italian unification – under their royal control, of course. At the start of the 19th century Italy was a geographical concept rather than a country; it was a collection of independent states along with large sections controlled by the Austrian Empire. The fight for unification or Risorgimento was fought from the end of the Napoleonic control until the defeat of the Papal States in 1870. When the Kingdom of Italy was declared in 1861 Turin was named the national capital, though it was moved to the more-central Florence in 1865 and then to Rome in 1870 when the defeat of the Papal States made Italian unification a reality. The kingdom, with the Savoyard royals at the top, ruled until the end of World War II when the Republic was declared.

Turin has been described as a Little Paris, and indeed it’s 19th century architecture and relatively wide streets – compared to nearby Genoa, for instance – along with piles of dog shit you periodically encounter does evoke a bit of Paris. I have to admit, though, I wasn’t enchanted by Turin. It could be that it was simply a let down after Genoa, which obviously we loved. We missed the winding alley ways and “old” feeling you get in Genoa or Florence. And oddly we had a hard time finding good restaurants. Our first night there, for instance, was Saturday and we couldn’t find anywhere decent for dinner. When our hotel finally found something open and made a reservation for us … it was the same place we’d had lunch!

(Even with having to eat lunch and dinner in the same place, there was one more indignity. When we ate at lunch and the weather was nice we wanted to eat outside on the plaza, but the only tables were inside. And when we went for dinner and wanted to eat inside because it had turned quite chilly, well, you guessed it, the only available tables were outside. All was not lost, though; they had very comfortable blankets to keep us warm.)

Walking along the Po under a fall canopy

Walking along the Po under a fall canopy

We were feeling pretty art-museumed-out after Florence & Genoa, so we spent much of or time in Turin at three somewhat more unusual museums – a museum on the Risorgimento, the National Automobile Museum, and Museum of the Cinema. None of them got rave reviews from both of us. Mark liked the car museum, and I’ll admit to enjoying seeing some pretty cool old cars (my favorites were the very early steam-powered cars; turns out what works for trains isn’t so practical for cars). My favorite part, though, was the two-mile walk along the Po River out to the museum on a beautiful fall day. Neither of us were that keen on the Risorgimento museum; it was just too difficult to follow the story of what happened when and to whom.

The Mole Antonelliana towering over its neighbors. We took an elevator up to an area near the top with great views of the city.

The Mole Antonelliana towering over its neighbors. We took an elevator up to an area near the top with great views of the city.

The Museum of the Cinema was interesting mostly because of the building it’s in. The Mole Antonelliana – named for the architect Antonio Antonelli – was originally conceived of as a synagogue when Turin was the capital of the new Kingdom of Italy. Skyrocketing costs, though, caused the Jewish community to pull out of the project. Turin’s residents, though, who had watched the building going up – and up and up – didn’t want it abandoned and convinced the municipality to take it over. Since then it has become the unofficial symbol of Turin; it is featured on the Italian two-cent euro coin and was the emblem of the 2006 Winter Olympics held in Turin. The building itself has served in various roles, including as home to municipal offices and as the original Risorgimento museum. It has housed the Cinema Museum since 2000, though for us touring the building beat touring the museum hands down.

Finally, we did go through the Gallery of Modern Art just to get a flavor of something besides all the old stuff we’d been seeing in Italy. The exhibit was fun, but the lines were almost amusing. There was a temporary Monet exhibit from the Musee d’Orsay in Paris. Apparently if you want to make a quick buck in art-museum-world, host a Monet exhibit. We got there early enough to miss most of the line, but even so the exhibit itself was so crowded I don’t know how anyone could have enjoyed it. And all to see a bunch of pretty stuff that you’ve probably seen in photos and prints before. (Lest I sound too cynical, I’ll admit to being blown away by one of the items there, an Impressionistic view of the British Parliament on the Thames. I’ve seen the picture before, but seeing it live, the colors were so much more vibrant than I would have expected. The rest, though, wasn’t worth the crowd.)

More views of the Po

More views of the Po

For me the real star of Turin was the fall weather. I loved walking along the Po with the smell of decomposing leaves filling the air. Just loved it. (Question: why do decomposing leaves smell so much better than, say, decomposing fish?) Mark & I spent much of the first two years we traveled chasing summer, and then had something of an extended spring this year in China. Now we’re thinking maybe summer isn’t the end-all, be-all and that we should try to extend spring and fall somehow. For now we’re off to Paris to celebrate my birthday and then making haste to get a little further south in Spain. We’ll see how much we like the comparatively cool temperatures of the region in October and November.

A 1914 Rolls Royce that saw service in World War I

A 1914 Rolls Royce that saw service in World War I

Winner of the 1907 Paris-Peking car race, 16,000 kilometers in 60 days

Winner of the 1907 Paris-Peking car race, 16,000 kilometers in 60 days

A young Beethoven from the Gallery of Modern Art

A young Beethoven from the Gallery of Modern Art

OK, one last picture from the Po. You can tell what my favorite part of Turin was, huh?

OK, one last picture from the Po. You can tell what my favorite part of Turin was, huh?