10 Lessons We've Learned

Thursday, March 31, 2011 Road Junkies 0 Comments

3 MONTHS IN EUROPE, Days 1-31:

Observations.

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Today marks the end of the first month of our three-month sojourn across the Atlantic. We have had some wonderful experiences, a few trying times, and have learned a few things along the way. The latter we thought we'd share.

1. Traveling light does work.
It has been very liberating to know that we can carry all our "stuff" on our backs with us as we move from place to place if needed. Never have we had any need to store our luggage anywhere. With only one backpack each and small day bags that can fit into the backpacks, we're 100% portable all the time. Actually there have occasionally been things we wish we'd left home-- like the rain gear we brought for our Dartmoor hiking in May. But then it pours like it did in Venice one day and we're glad. We have yet to discover anything we wish we'd brought but didn't.

2. Apps do not trump maps.
No matter how many gadgets we have and how many cool apps, there is no substitute for a good map, especially when working with a flexible itinerary. The GPS is indispensable, the apps are great, too, but the old-fashioned map is still a necessity. Unlike the apps, a map doesn't depend on a wifi connection to use it and its battery never dies.

3. Do your homework.
Yep, you'd think we would have learned this lesson in elementary school, but if we had, we wouldn't have been wandering around Venice lost on a rainy Sunday night. Since that experience, we always email our next hotel to ask the best way to reach the hotel. When traveling by train, this is especially critical, but with GPS being an imperfect system, we have found it best to ask always.

Input your PIN here.

4. You need a PIN if you want to use your credit card.
This isn't true universally, but we've encountered it enough to realize we should have one. Though it is never needed in the U.S. for our credit cards, the same cards are useless in some places without a PIN. On a positive note, never does a restaurant server take your card away from the table. Instead, they bring a portable machine to the table so your card never leaves your sight. We definitely like that and would like to see it implemented in the U.S.
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5. Internet service is still an imperfect science.
In some places we've stayed, our internet access has been spotty and even intermittent. Often the signal is so weak, we feel like we've returned to the days of dial-up. We have not found wifi to be as universally accessible as we had hoped.

Towel warmer or clothes dryer?

6. Towel warmers make great clothes dryers.
We forgot that we were in Europe when we saw "Guest Laundry" listed as an available amenity at one of the hotels where we were staying. With visions of a U.S. type washing machine and clothes dryer dancing in our heads, we gathered up our dirty clothes and went to the front desk to inquire about the location of this wonderful facility. "There is a form and a bag in your room," we were told. Then they would send the clothes out to a service for laundering. So we have learned to hand wash our clothes (fairly often since we didn't bring that many) and have been thrilled with how well towel warmers work to speed up the drying. In fact, horizontal versions of towel warmers are sold as heated clothes dryers in places like the UK, where our familiar tumble dryers are strongly discouraged because of their excessive use of energy.

No free lunch, no free pee

7. Always carry change.
We have needed it many times for public toilets, and nothing is worse than not having the coins you need when you need them, especially when you're confronted with a self-serve machine. 'Nuff said.

Duct tape is your friend.

8. Plan for your electronics.
Since European countries use a different electrical voltage and outlets from the U.S., you will need an adapter. Fortunately most of today's electronic gadgets have a built-in converter (like that black box on the power cord of your laptop), so there is no longer a need to carry a bulky converter to change the voltage. With multiple electronic gadgets, you can avoid the need for multiple adapters by bringing a small U.S. extension cord with several outlets. The other advantage to an extension cord is that you can tape your adapter to the extension cord. This will prevent it from staying in the outlet when you unplug your things at checkout time.

Bruges is full of Americans carrying Rick Steves' guidebook.

9. Beware the influence of Rick Steves.
In our research for this trip, we heard a lot about Rick Steves, the travel guru of Europe Through the Back Door fame. We had no idea, however, of the extent of his influence. Sure, we had seen him on PBS and read some of his newspaper columns and even checked out some of his books from the library. But little did we know, this guy has an inordinate impact on Americans' travel decisions in Europe. More than once, we have seen people walking around clutching their Rick Steves guidebooks as they visit a city. He is given much of the credit for making the Cinque Terre region of Italy a tourist mecca. Where Steves says go, his followers swarm in hordes. If you have any desire to stay off the beaten path, avoid places recommended by this man of tourism influence.

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10. ATMs are the best place to get cash.
We always stay away from money exchange outlets because their rates usually favor the home currency and they collect a handsome fee. When possible, we try to use an ATM at a bank with reciprocity agreement with our U.S. bank to avoid fees. Even when we have to pay a fee, it's usually only one percent, which makes cash a better option as our credit card companies charge a 3 percent foreign transaction fee.

Finally, we've been reminded that time flies. It's hard to believe we've been on this trek for a month already. We're eager to experience all that the next two months have to offer and hope we learn more along the way.

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TUESDAY, 1 MARCH—THURSDAY, 31 MARCH 2011

The Irresistible Hill Towns of Tuscany

Wednesday, March 30, 2011 Road Junkies 0 Comments

3 MONTHS IN EUROPE, Day 25-30:

Tuscany region of Italy.
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When many people envision Italy, they picture just the sort of sight that lies around so many bends in Tuscany in central Italy...manicured hills, stately cypress trees, patchwork quilted landscapes of vineyards and olive groves, stone houses, and ancient towns clinging to the rolling hills. Many of the hill towns date back to Etruscan times, even before the days of ancient Rome.

To secure their defense, these towns were built on hills and surrounded by walls when they were built centuries ago. Because of their hilltop location and the thick walls surrounding them, of course the towns could not expand beyond their original confines. So most have remained faithful to their original character as the growth occurred below them, sometimes even a mile or two away.

San Gimignano street

Those who continued to live in the hilltop town often improved the functioning of their homes by updating electricity and plumbing, but the building's exteriors were usually preserved, thus maintaining the quaint winding alleys, tile roofs, and authentic shutters that give these towns their charm. Visiting these historic towns enables you to experience the sensation of walking into the past (except you can find a public toilet and a gelateria nearby). We loved sampling these pages from Tuscan antiquity.

San Gimignano

San Gimignano is one of Tuscany's most popular hill towns and highly frequented by tourists. The town's unique skyline features historic towers that once belonged to its wealthiest families. Incorporated in the 10th century, San Gimignano became a center of commerce and trade due to its location on the road to Rome. In the later middle ages, its wealth grew due to the cultivation of saffron. Saffron merchants ordered the construction of some sixty towers, which they used for their personal defense, sometimes against each other. Later Florence gained control of the town and required that most of the towers be torn down. Only about 16 remain today.

Roman Theater, Volterra

Volterra is one of the oldest cities in Italy, serving as an Etruscan capital for centuries before Romans took over the town. A Roman theater from the first century BC was excavated in the 1950s and is a popular sight in the town. Many young Americans know the name Volterra because of its fictional role as home to an ancient coven of vampires in the popular Twilight series of books (although the movie was filmed in Montepulciano, another Tuscan hill town). Volterra has an excellent museum devoted to the alabaster industry in the area with fascinating exhibits demonstrating how the mineral is used to create elaborate sculptures.

Pienza

Pienza represents the first model of Renaissance urban planning. Pope Pius II decided to remodel his home town in the Renaissance fashion in the 1400s. Under the direction of architect Bernardo Rossellino, the town of Corsignano was transformed into the Renaissance model town of Pienza, named after the pope. Today the town is famous for Pecorino cheese, a pungent sheep's cheese, popular in the area.

Siena's Il Campo

Once a rival to the now much larger Florence, Siena is known today for its art, food, medieval architecture, and for a horse race held twice annually in July and August in its main piazza, Il Campo. The city is divided into 17 neighborhoods, or contradas, each of which has an animal symbol representing different virtues. Each also has its own flag and colors.

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For the race, the piazza is covered with a thick layer of dirt, and each contrada has a horse and rider in the race. The competition rarely lasts more than 90 seconds, and jockeys, who are riding bareback, are often thrown off their mounts as they execute the curves around the square. Usually the horses finish the race anyway, with or without their riders, and a rider is not required for a horse to win. The race is the occasion for a great celebration with pageants and parades of locals in medieval costume.

Like many other visitors to Italy, we count Tuscany high on our list of favorite spots and one which is demanding a return trip. So many hill towns yet to explore.

TUSCANY STATS

Cypress trees: 188,093
Grapevines: 8,996,234
Olive trees: 2,562,198
Stone houses: 92,316
Curves in the road: 13,259
Grapes on the vine: 0 (too early)

FRIDAY, 25 MARCH–WEDNESDAY, 30 MARCH 2011

Font of Vint-spiration

Tuesday, March 29, 2011 Road Junkies 0 Comments

3 MONTHS IN EUROPE, Days 25-29:

Florence, Italy to Fonterutoli, Italy.

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When we told our innkeepers in Florence that we wanted to find a place to stay for a few days in Tuscany, they recommended Locanda di Fonterutoli. They even contacted the inn to check availability for us. With their compelling description of the charming little village, we took off on Thursday (day 25) and drove to Siena, where we overnighted on the way to our little piece of Tuscan heaven.

They were right. If the calendar page turns over from June to July and we still haven't made it back to Georgia, a good place to begin a search for us would be Fonterutoli (Fawn-tay-ROO-to-lee), a tiny hamlet in the Chianti Classico area of Tuscany. After five wonderful days there, were reluctant to leave.

Located on the top of a rise along the road from Castellina to Siena, Fonterutoli is no village come lately. It was known by the Romans, and before them the Etruscans, as a stopping place where travelers between Siena and Florence could find food and rest. Part of the Via Senese, the ancient road to Rome, can still be found in the village today.

Ancient Roman road in Fonterutoli

In the year 998, the Holy Roman Emperor selected Fonterutoli as the place to sign important documents, and in the 13th century, it was the site of peace treaty negotiations between rivals Siena and Florence.

Walking through this tranquil village today, you can easily believe it's a place that time forgot. Parts of Fonterutoli still look as they did in medieval times. A church, a cluster of houses, and a few other buildings complete this haven for 80 residents.

Fonterutoli resident

Owned by the Mazzei (mot-say) family since 1435, Fonterutoli is the center of the family's winemaking industry. All of the houses and buildings in the village are owned by the family, and its centerpiece is the family villa, built at the end of the 15th century on the site of a medieval castle.

After 24 generations honing their craft, the Mazzeis are very good at winemaking and have established a stellar reputation, winning dozens of international awards for their vintages. One of the family ancestors, Filippo Mazzei (1730-1816) met Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Adams in London in colonial days. In 1773, they convinced Filippo to lead a group of Italians to Virginia to plant vineyards and the teach colonists the cultivation of olives. In the process, Mazzei met and developed a lifelong friendship with Thomas Jefferson, whose political leanings were compatible with his own. Today the winery is operated by another Filippo Mazzei and his brother Francesco.

Unlike many ancient vintners, the Mazzeis do not have an archive of their old vintages. Because of the village's strategic location, it was occupied by the Germans during World War II. Depending on which story you believe, the winery's archives of vintages were either stolen by the Germans or destroyed by French Moroccan soldiers who liberated the hamlet at the end of the war. Either way, the oldest wines in their cellars today date back only to the 1950s, not much to show for almost 700 years of winemaking.

Do we really have to leave?

Our little Tuscan sanctuary here was in the Locanda di Fonterutoli, one of the historic estate houses which has been restored as a bed and breakfast. It has the authentic atmosphere of an old manor house with modern amenities disguised so as not to disturb the genteel old ambiance. Our upstairs room had sunset views over the nearby vineyards and the rolling Tuscan hills. An excellent restaurant, the Osteria di Fonterutoli, is just across the main road, or the kitchen downstairs from our room is available for preparing your own meals. This cozy hamlet is definitely a place we would love to return to some day, especially since we've finally learned to pronounce it-- sort of.

FONTERUTOLI STATS
Population: 80 people, 17 cats
Number of times we mispronounced it: 321
Grapevines: 1,762
Olive trees: 893
too relaxing to count any more (sigh!)

FRIDAY, 25 MARCH—TUESDAY, 29 MARCH 2011

Genius on Exhibit

Sunday, March 27, 2011 Road Junkies 0 Comments

3 MONTHS IN EUROPE, Day 27:

Vinci, Italy.

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Leonardo self-portrait

Thomas Edison once said, "I never did a day's work in my life; it was all fun." One of history's greatest creative minds, Edison saw the world in a different way than most of us. While the rest of us see what is, Edison was constantly envisioning what could be.

Today we visited the home town of another genius inventor. Though primarily known as an artist for his iconic works such as Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, Leonardo da Vinci applied his remarkable mind to many fields. Unlike Edison, Leonardo never actually created most of the gadgets and machines he designed, but he filled many notebooks with sketches and descriptions of his concepts. He even predicted 500 years ago that the world would someday be connected by communication devices.

"Let the mind go free and think of a thousand things," he is said to have counseled his apprentices. Evidence abounds that he followed his own advice. Housed in a medieval castle, Museo Leonardiano, the museum of Leonardo, dominates the small town of Vinci, some 20 miles west of Florence. Leonardo was born in Vinci in the year 1452 to a notary father and peasant woman. The museum was opened in 1953, just after the fifth centennial celebration of his birth.

Models of a revolving crane (L) and a pole-erecting machine (R)

Museo Leonardiano houses a collection of models based on the drawings of this creative mind. Leonardo da Vinci obviously possessed an innate and complete mastery of the laws of physics. His notebooks are replete with applications of these scientific principles to improve such fields as textiles, transportation, construction, engineering, artillery, architecture, geology, hydraulics, aerodynamics, light, and even deep-sea diving.

Model of an armored tank

Model of an emergency bridge

On display at the museum was a model of his design for a rapid-construction bridge for military use. The structure was to be built with tree trunks bound together by ropes and crossed with planked decking. It is one of many military inventions conceived by this pacificist. Others include tanks, cannons and devices for tunneling, breaching walls and demolishing buildings.

The museum's web site includes a terrific interactive section which illustrates the models on exhibits along with Leonardo's original drawings. You can go floor by floor through the museum and see each object on display.

Here are a few fascinating facts about Leonardo we learned at the museum.

Leonardo was not a prolific artist. Though some of his works are among the most recognized paintings in the world, he left fewer than 30 paintings (not all of which were completed).

Leonardo was a vegetarian, which was unusual in his day, especially because he became a vegan for humanitarian reasons. He refused to even drink cow's milk because he felt he would be stealing from the cow.

Leonardo's illegitimacy kept him from other professions. Had he not been born out of wedlock, Leonardo would probably have become a notary or lawyer like his father, rather than apprenticed to an artist at a young age.

Leonardo was a procrastinator and a perfectionist. Can you imagine how much more he might have accomplished without these impediments?

SUNDAY, 27 MARCH 2011

The Italian Motor Speedway

Saturday, March 26, 2011 Road Junkies 0 Comments

3 MONTHS IN EUROPE, Days 21-26:

Observation.
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After three weeks of train travel, we rented our first car in La Spezia, planning to use it for a couple of weeks to tour the Tuscany area and down to the Amalfi Coast. Though we would never do so in the U.S., the land of giant SUVs and massive 18-wheelers, we requested a sub-compact car. The local Hertz agent handed us the keys to a snappy little Peugeot 206+ with a five-speed manual transmission.

When we inspected the car before leaving, we discovered enough ashes about to indicate that the previous driver had smoked in the car. Since there was no detectable tobacco odor, we decided to just ignore it, figuring there would be no repercussions for us when we returned it.

Much to our surprise, when we opened the 12-volt outlet to plug in our GPS, we learned what the previous driver had used as an ashtray. The outlet was full of cigarette residue. When we reported this to the Hertz agent, she didn't really understand what we were trying to explain, so she sent another employee to examine the situation. We showed the nice guy in coveralls the problem, and he scratched his head and walked away, obviously searching for a solution.

We watched as he wandered around the gas station/Hertz parking lot, trying to figure out what to do. Obviously hit by a bolt of inspiration, he grabbed a tire air hose and rushed to the car with it. Leaning into the car, he blew the ashes out of the 12-volt outlet. "Is good!" he exclaimed with a large smile, pointing to the now spotlessly clean outlet... and ignoring the ashes dispersed around the car. We smiled back, said "Molto grazie!" and went happily on our way.

Yes, our car is small, but not that small!

As we hit the Italian roadways on our way to Pisa, our baptism by fire began. Roads narrow, twist, and turn, and cars are often parked partially or entirely in your lane. But in Italy, that's no reason to slow down, as the driver beeping his horn behind will remind you. Just hug the center line as the oncoming cars are doing and hope this curve isn't the spot where that Fiat that's been closely examining your rear bumper decides to pass. If it does, you know immediately why the Smart car is.

Florence street

As we discovered the following day upon our arrival in Florence, these country roads were child's play compared to driving in the city. Lane markers, where they're not too faded to see, are mere suggestions, ignored by most. Both cars and motorcycles dash in and out, passing you from the left or right when you least expect it. And of course, our GPS decided to torture us for leaving it packed away for so long while we were train hopping. She chose the most circuitous route to our hotel, taking us through as many dizzying intersections and roundabouts as possible along the way. By the time we arrived at the hotel, Ken was happy to park the car and leave it for a couple of days as we explored Florence on foot.

San Gimignano street

Today, a scant five days later, Ken is happily zipping around the roads of Tuscany like a local. He downshifts, grouses and whips around obstacles and just shrugs when an oncoming car passes on a curve. He never batted an eye yesterday when our GPS mistakenly took us into the narrow lanes of a limited traffic zone in San Gimignano, easily executing 90 degree turns with walls all around.

Maybe next year's Indianapolis race is in his future. It'll be a piece of cake-- er, pezzo di torta, after this. Where do you think Mario Andretti got his start?

MONDAY, 21 MARCH—SATURDAY, 26 MARCH 2011

Caesar's Dream

Wednesday, March 23, 2011 Road Junkies 0 Comments

3 MONTHS IN EUROPE, Days 22-23:

Pisa, Italy to Florence, Italy.

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Having enjoyed Pisa's beautiful sights, we pulled out the Italian map to make plans for Florence, our next destination. We knew it was a large city with a population over 350,000, and we knew it wasn't far away, but we could not locate it on the map. Finally we seized on a city named Firenze and decided to go there instead.

OK, not really, but we certainly did wonder how the English name for this historic city steered so far from its Italian name. If the English version of Roma is Rome, Pisa is Pisa, Milano is Milan and Napoli is Naples, how did we get Florence out of Firenze (fee-REHN-zee)?

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It all goes back to the Latin. Turns out Julius Caesar founded this fair city in the year 59 B.C. and named it Florentia (the flourishing), hoping no doubt that its name would become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Many centuries later, his plan worked out well.

Lorenzo il Magnifico

A century or so before Christopher Columbus from neighboring Genoa headed across the ocean on a whim, the Medici family rose from their humble Tuscan roots to become wealthy bankers and set their sights on what was then the Republic of Florentia, eventually becoming rulers of the republic. In 1469, Lorenzo de' Medici came into power, and it was his love for and patronage of the arts that secured Florence's place in history.

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Lorenzo commissioned many works by such artists as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Botticelli. An accomplished musician, Lorenzo also brought the world's most renowned singers and composers to Florence. Still known in Florentine history as "Lorenzo the Magnificent" (Lorenzo il Magnifico), it was under his hand that the stage was set for Florence to earn its title as the Cradle of the Renaissance.

The centerpiece of Florentine Renaissance architecture is the city's domed cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore. Six hundred years after it was completed in the 1400s, the cathedral's dome is still the world's largest dome built of brick and mortar. The exterior of the cathedral is made of marble panels in various shades of pink, green, and white.

Santa Maria del Fiore

Also in Caesar's flourishing city is the Uffizi Gallery, completed in 1581. With sculptures and paintings by many of Lorenzo's beneficiaries, the Uffizi is one of the world's most renowned art museums. Some of the works have been on exhibit there for 500 years. In addition to the exhibits, the building itself is a work of art with intricate ceiling frescoes and gilded decorations throughout. Though it generally recommended to schedule an appointment to visit the Uffizi, we were fortunate enough on this day in March to walk in and purchase a ticket for immediate admission. Of course, no photos are allowed in the museum, but take our word for it, this museum is spectacular.

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Outside the Uffizi is a popular place for human statues and mannequins to ply their trade. As with most things, quality varies widely. Performers who put more effort into their costumes and set see more benefit from tourists. A guy dressed in white the day we visited actually looked like a statue and would pose lovingly with tourists who approached him, while another performer with the moon face was more interested in the coins dropping in his collection box. Yet another person wearing a cheesy pharaoh mask and gold lame gown and wasn't getting too much attention. Little wonder when he publicly lifted his mask from time to time to count his take.

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As we are prone to do, we stumbled upon an interesting cemetery in Florence. We had trekked to the top of a hill above Florence for the view, which happened to be at the Basilica of St. Minias on the Mountain (Basilica di San Miniato al Monte). Minias, a Greek merchant is said to have been Florence's first Christian martyr. Settling in the hills of Florence in the year 250, Minias was beheaded for his beliefs. After his death, legend holds that he picked up his head, crossed the Arno River, and returned to this hill where he had been living as a hermit.

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Piazza della Signoria at the Uffizi with replica of Michelangelo's David

Street performers outside the Uffizi

Basilica of St. Minias

A shrine was later erected on the spot, and by the 8th century a chapel had been built. The current church was begun around 1090 and not completed until the 1200s. The bell tower dates from 1523, and in 1530 Michelangelo (yes, that Michelangelo) had it covered with mattresses to protect it from enemy fire when Florence was under siege by the Spanish.

The adjacent cemetery, the Cemetery of the Holy Doors, wasn't established until the 1860s. Among hundreds of elaborate tombs here are the graves of many famous Italians including Carlo Lorenzini (author of Pinocchio) and numerous politicians, musicians, artists, and writers. The cemetery is populated with stunning sculptures.

Cemetery of the Holy Doors

In addition to the expected angels and lambs, dozens of sculptures of the deceased decorate the graves, including many finely crafted busts and heartbreaking depictions of children who died much too young.

Julius Caesar was right. Thanks to Lorenzo the Magnificent and others who came after him, Florence has indeed lived up to its promise as a flourishing center of the arts, known today as Italy's art capital.

FLORENCE STATS

Population: 368,362
Founded: -59
Museums: >70
Medici palaces: 8
Bridges over the Arno River: 8
Bridges destroyed in WWII: 7
Bricks in the cathedral's dome: >4,000,000

By Our Count:

Jewelry stores on the Ponte Vecchio: 53
Paintings: 18,420
Sculptures: 13,829

TUESDAY, 22 MARCH—WEDNESDAY, 23 MARCH 2011

Ponte Vecchio, Florence's famous medieval bridge lined with shops

Cemetery of the Holy Doors

Less Lean, More Gleam

Monday, March 21, 2011 Road Junkies 0 Comments

3 MONTHS IN EUROPE, DAY 21:

La Spezia, Italy to Pisa, Italy.

Today we rented a car and left the charming La Spezia behind. After a brief visit to the colorful fishing village of Portovenere, we hit the A15 and headed south along the Italian coast toward Pisa.

Our visit to Pisa's famous Leaning Tower came near the end of a remarkable restoration period for this famous Italian icon. Begun in 1173, construction of the tower took 177 years over three stages interrupted by frequent battles between the Republic of Pisa and neighboring republics of Genoa, Lucca and Florence.

With only a ten-foot foundation set in weak subsoil, the tower was already beginning to tilt by the third floor just five years after construction began. In an effort to compensate for the lean, architects designed the upper floors with one side taller than the other.

As we all know from seeing photos of the famous tower all our lives, these efforts were not enough to correct the tilt. Nor did the tower stop its tilt. By the mid-twentieth century, the tower was leaning to such an extent that a multinational task force was convened to determine how to stabilize the tower. Much research ensued and in 1990, the tower was closed to the public and underwent a decade of stabilization and corrective work. In a multi-pronged effort that included steel girdles, lead weights, and removing soil from below the high end, the tower's lean was improved from 5.5 degrees to just under 4 degrees. Experts declared it stable for at least 300 years, and it was reopened to visitors in 2001.

Though the tower had been stabilized, there was still centuries of erosion and discoloration caused by air pollution, pigeon deposits and corrosive sea salt. Millions of tourists over the years had left their marks as well, as had rain that collects in certain areas due to the slant. Since 2003, a team of 10 restoration experts has cleaned every one of the 24,424 blocks of stone in the tower using lasers, chisels and syringes. Scaffolding remains on the top level as they are about to complete their work.

Today the tower looks like a beautiful wedding cake that almost toppled on its way to the reception. The cleaning is said to have cost in excess of €6 million ($8.5 million), making the €15 ticket to climb to the top of the tower seem quite reasonable.

Baptistery of St John, completed in 1363

Pisa's leaning tower is, of course, the bell tower for the medieval cathedral of Pisa. Other structures in the Piazza dei Miracoli (Square of Miracles) include the circular baptistery and the camposanto, which we found to be particularly fascinating being the taphophiles that we are.

Camposanto at Pisa Duomo

Called a campo santo (holy field) because of its foundation of soil brought back to Pisa from Golgotha in the Holy Land, this walled cemetery dates from the late 13th century. This large Gothic cloister was once home to beautiful frescoes, dozens of Roman statues, and elegantly decorated sarcophagi.

Camposanto interior

During World War II, a fragment from an Allied bomb hit the roof of the camposanto, and the timbered supports caught fire, melting the leaden roof and destroying most of the contents. The painstaking work of restoration has been ongoing for decades but the statuary and other contents can never be replaced. Only 84 of the originals remain intact.

Sample sarcophagus in the Camposanto

Visiting these majestic spaces in Pisa, it's easy to forget how much the city depends on the revenue from tourists to maintain them. But once you step outside the square, you will have no difficulty finding a souvenir of your trip to the leaning tower. They come in all sizes, materials and colors, but only one shape.

Leaning bottles of liquor

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PISA STATS

Tower height: 186 feet (183 on low side)
Horizontal displacement: 12 ft 10 in (from where it would be if straight)
Dirt removed to help stabilize: 77 tons
Angle of slant: 3.99 degrees
Number of bells: 7, tuned to the musical scale

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By Our Count:

Souvenir stalls near the piazza: 122
Stalls selling the identical souvenirs: 119
Sizes of leaning tower shaped bottles: 25
Designs of leaning tower boxer shorts: 12
Sizes and styles of leaning tower decorative replicas: 81

MONDAY, 21 MARCH 2011

So many towers, even one with Pinocchio on board

Dozens of stalls line the plaza around the cathedral site, all selling the same wares.

The Pisa Duomo (cathedral)

What's Spezial about La Spezia

Sunday, March 20, 2011 Road Junkies 0 Comments

3 MONTHS IN EUROPE, Days 19-20:

La Spezia, Italy.

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When we added La Spezia (lah SPAYTS see uh) to our itinerary, it role was just to be a launching pad for the Cinque Terre. However, we found the city to be interesting in its own right. What's not to like about a city whose citizens are called Spezzini?

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Big and bustling, La Spezia, on the Ligurian coast, is the home of Italy's largest naval base. Constructed in the mid-19th century, the base and related defense industries play a significant role in the local economy. A major Italian port, the city also boasts shipyards and manufacturers of machinery and metal products.

La Spezia Port

La Spezia's shipyard built submarines and battleships for use in World War I, but military construction ceased after the war. During the second world war, Germany used the port as a base for its u-boat operations in the Mediterranean. At the end of the war, La Spezia was used as a departure point for concentration camp survivors traveling to Palestine. More than 23,000 Jewish refugees traveled through the La Spezia port, giving the city the nickname "Door to Zion" in Israel.

As the capital of the La Spezia province, the city offers an excellent array of museums including an archeological museum in the artfully restored Castle of St. George.

Overlooking the city, the Castle of St. George dates back to a 1262 watchtower.

Among other local attractions are a naval museum, art museum, museum of seals, and a museum of modern and contemporary art. The museums had impressive collections and exhibits and were priced very reasonably at €12 (about $16) for a five-museum combo ticket.

Yet what we enjoyed most about La Spezia was its genuineness. Although visitors certainly find their way to the city, tourism plays only a minor role in the city's economy. La Spezia is a city full of bustle and energy. Pedestrian-only streets in the city's main shopping area were constantly jammed with locals living their lives, shopping, eating and taking time to enjoy each other's company.

Busy La Spezia street

Located between the Apuan Alp mountains and the sea, La Spezia brings its own brand of coastal attractiveness to the region. Though the mountains overlooking the city seem to be perpetually snow-capped, the white peaks are actually an enormous fissured block of marble.

Some of the world's most famous sculptures are made from the marble of this region, including many of the works of Michelangelo. In fact, the town of Carrara, center of a massive quarry and famed for its beautiful white marble, is only 15 miles away.

In addition to is naval base, La Spezia is famous in Italy for its annual town fair held on March 19 each year. Conceived in the 16th century to help promote trade in the area, this 500-year-old tradition is held on St. Joseph's Day, the patron saint of the city.

Spezzinis and visitors enjoy the town fair.

Our visit coincided with this year's fair and we were amazed at the hundreds of stalls selling sweets, toys, clothes and shoes, costume jewelry, and any sort of household and gift items. Many visitors from other parts of Italy came for this special event.

Though it may not have the physical attractiveness of the nearby Cinque Terre, La Spezia is a much better place to get a glimpse of authentic Italy and well worth a visit.

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LA SPEZIA STATS