Day 9/10 Up and Down, but not out

Travel has its ups and downs!

Days 9 &10 have been a mixed bag. Started out #9 with Marianne heading back to LA because her work won't let her take her accumulated sick days contiguously with a holiday. In other words, any other time of year she could take 5 weeks off, (that's how many days she has saved) but if she takes this week before her spring break off, they'll dock her two weeks pay! Ah, bureaucracy! So she left at the crack of dawn, and from what I heard, she made it home just fine.

Gothic screen in Viterbo

After she left I packed my own stuff, ate breakfast with a new guest (a nice guy from Omaha Nebraska- or was it Tulsa Oklahoma?) who used to be a professional football player. He cashed out after about 10 years. Some of you big fans might know his name, Sage Rosenfels, Said he was a backup QB for 5 different teams. Anyways, after that I got myself up to Termini Station and got a train for Viterbo, where i had a reservation for the night. I missed the 1 o'clock train so I had to leave at two, meaning I got there around 4:30, via the regional train. Once I got out, I managed to find my place by sheer luck (and a good navigational sense.)

Chimney pots in Viterbo

The B& B was very nice, in the heart of the old medieval city center, and the owner gave me a nice guided tour map to see some of the sights around town. Only bummer was I was just a hair late to see anything other than exteriors and a couple of churches. It does look like good place to return to though, especially since it has a variety of hot springs, which is what Marianne has been dying to find here (without luck, so far.) The next morning I  got up early-ish to take the bus up to Caprarola, where the Palazzo Farnese's siren call beckoned. I got on the regional bus packed with Italian high school kids. These guys make American high schoolers look pretty limp! They were singing, flirting, talking (yelling), and generally having a good time as the bus wove up the windy hilly streets to the hill town of Caprarola.

Main Street of Caprarola is steep! 

Pretty much the only reason to visit Caprarola is to see the Palazzo, and this time of year there's hardly anyone. Even in summer,  not many Americans come here; it's not that well known, and it's definitely a bit of a challenge to get to, unless you have your own car. But oh, is it worth it! It is actually a pretty cute little hill town, with loads of medieval houses and crazy narrow streets, but the Palazzo is the shining star. I won't bore you with too much history, but basically it started as a fortress, thus the five sided design by da Sangallo (five sides are easier to defend than four) then it was turned into a residence for Cardinal Farnese by famed architect Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, and it is his masterpiece.

The Palazzo Farnese from the lower entrance.

Naturally, I came more for the painting than the architecture- great as it is- and I was not at all disappointed. There are fourteen rooms (eighteen, if you count the inaccessible guest rooms downstairs,) of the most exquisite ornamental painting, all of which survived WWII pretty much intact. I was told they have done some restoration recently, and it's seamless. On top of that, they recently added an excellent system of lights (that point at the ceiling! Take a hint, all you other fancy old Italian palazzi!) AND they have no problem with taking all the photos you want! Heaven! I had a guide all to myself, which was cool. He told me more than I could understand about the characters, and he was very patient with my snail-like pace. Actually, I was a tad faster than usual, since I had misplaced my extra camera battery and was trying to be judicious about only taking closeup details of stuff they usually don't have in the books.

On the stairs of the Palazzo Farnese

The garden is pretty fab too, and spring is just starting to spring here, so the woodpeckers were pecking and the japanese magnolias (biggest ones I've ever seen!) were covered in purple blooms. You walk up through the formal gardens (where they filmed part of the better series on the Borgias) to a less formal path that leads up to the Casina, a smaller house used as a summer getaway by the Cardinal, featuring a lovely cascading fountain and  a house with loggias on two sides (covered in grottesca ornament also!)

Really nice to be there first thing in the morning- had the place completely to myself!

Needless to say, I felt pretty satisfied by the end of all that, and my battery had held out too. I walked back down the steep hill to the place I caught the bus, thinking that they returned every hour on the hour. Not so, I was informed later; there are no busses at midday! So, after being a bit annoyed, I bought an apple and some tomatoes and walked back up the hill to the house, where I ate my picnic (I already had some cheese and crackers-and some fresh baked almond cookies.) It was nice to be forced to just sit for a while and absorb this phenomenal site.

Dragon's head in the Zodiac ceiling.

Got the bus back to Viterbo (with the same  bunch of rowdy teens) and jammed down to the B & B to pick up my stuff and hustle a mile down to the train station to get the train to Florence. Got there all sweaty, with about 10 minutes to spare, though of course the train was 10 minutes late so I could have taken my time. The only train available from there was the regional, so I took it. It took 4 hours to get to Florence, so I busied myself with copying a design  from the book on the Palazzo that i bought up there. 

It would seem (maybe you're hoping) that my day would be through now, as I arrived in Florence at the four hour mark, but after I walked the mile or so from the train station to the Palazzo that my friend Lynne had invited me to stay in, I couldn't find the address and telephone number that I swear I wrote down somewhere in my notes. I thought I knew which building she meant though, from a picture she had posted a few days earlier, so I went in and climbed the 6 flights of stairs with my bags, which i had not realized (until then) weigh a ton (each!) I sat at the top of the stair landing trying to see if i could figure out which of the cryptic apartment names she might be in, wishing I could find the paper where I had written her phone number, etc. 

Finally, I got tired of waiting and recalled that she had said there was a nearby cafe that had free wi-fi,  thinking i could get her that way. Well, I eventually found the cafe, but they were having  an LBGT open mic night, and for some reason that meant I couldn't use the wi-fi. So I trudged back over to the Palazzo, mad at everyone, but especially myself for not putting things where I could find them easily. I can hear Marianne cackling right now, though had she been here, she would have been fuming. I got back up to the top of the stairs, determined to wait it out, and that's where I wrote the first part of this missive. Right as I got to the part about the garden, I got a text. From Lynne! Doh! I forgot I had communicated with her the day before and that her number was already in the phone! She said she was just starting to eat at a restaurant a few blocks away, and would come meet me. Turns out I had even screwed up the place- so i had unnecessarily climbed the 6 floors there (twice) when her actual place was a block and a half away!

Anyways, I joined them and their friend Madeline for dinner, and then came back to their real place, which is also at the top of the building, though this time I only had to carry one bag. OK- I know this one has gone really long, and it's getting very late, but I have to tell you about this place! Lynne and Erling have been here since February, working on a couple different things, and they rented the top two floors of a 16th century  palazzo for less than a one bedroom in San Francisco, where they live the rest of the time. People, this place is unbelievable! First of all, it's huge; five official bedrooms plus kitchen, LR, 4 baths, 4 terraces, and the most incredible views of all the local landmarks that you can imagine! I'm sitting in the "office" right now looking at the Duomo and the belltower, and they are filling the view of the very large window. The terrace on the top floor (technically the 3rd floor of the flat) has almost a 360 degree view of the city. It's a jaw dropper without a doubt.

View of the Palazzo Vecchio from Lynne's terrace!

ok, I think i'd better post this before I go too late, since we're supposed to get up early tomorrow to go see the Duomo before the crowds descend. There are already massive hordes of tourists (mostly spring breakers) that have cropped up like weeds since the rains stopped about two weeks ago. Anyways, I'm going to bed, and I'll put this up without photos for now, but I'll add them tomorrow. Ok, maybe just one.  good night!

Mermaids need love too!

Day 3, I think

Got nice and sunny today, a crispy spring day. Walked the dog and brought her back, then left for the morning, starting out with a church nearby that I knew would close at noon. Sant'Andrea della Valle is a nice baroque church with the second highest dome in Rome, designed by Carlo Rainaldi. Not much to say other than that, but I like each and every one of them for whatever they bring, on down to the tiny Santa Barbara chapel on the Giubbonari street where our house is, which is minute, but painted from top to bottom with faux marble, trompe l'oeil ornament, and little scenes. 

I almost had the feeling these guys were peering over my shoulder !

We then walked back past our place (notice how I've already adopted our hosts house to be our own?) to look at the exterior of the Palazzo Farnese, where they were filming some goofy looking artsy crap out in the Piazza. Had to laugh at their craft services table, which consisted of a plastic bin half full of dried up sandwiches on white bread and some box juices. Even a low budget film in LA knows actors are all about the food!

The back yard of the Palazzo Farnese looks out over the Tiber river and has a bridge that Michelangelo had planned to connect it to the Villa Farnesina on the far side of the river. It never got further than crossing the street.

Went into the Palazzo Spada next, where the famous disappearing perspective hallway by Borromini sits on the ground floor. Sorry, but if you want to see that, you'll have to Google it, since they were adamant about no pics. They were adamant about the inside too, but all the guards were either talking or snoozing, so i managed to catch a few good ones.Their collection is not very exciting, but the house is pretty cool and still has a bit of a "lived in" feeling to it, including a very nice citrus garden outside.

The exterior of the Palazzo Spada has fabulous stucco work all over 

After that we walked along the Via Giulia a ways, parallel to the Tiber, on a street with a lot of charm and a cool church with lots of skulls on its exterior. Went back to the pad for lunch, then went up to the Palazzo Venezia just across from the Emanuele monument. Another amazing staircase there, with different thematic capitals on all the pilasters, and again a mostly ho-hum collection of paintings, but again in a cool setting. Mussolini lived here for a while, and a couple of rooms were done up in the 30's with amazing iron and ceramic chandeliers. It also had cool majolica floors throughout, and no restrictions on photography. I've gotten in the habit of shooting before asking now, but it's nice when they really don't seem to care.

Strange but cool chandelier in the Palazzo Venezia. It's said that Mussolini used to meet his mistress in this room. 

Took in the museum of the Market of Trajan, which was kind of overpriced at 9.50 Euros, but it had some interesting info about, and fragments from, all the Imperial Fora, as well as great views from the parapets looking down on the forum built by Trajan. I love imagining the vast marble floored spaces that covered many acres of the Roman Forum, where it was mostly only foot traffic and definitely no machine noises, thought there could have been lots of hammering whenever they were constructing a new one for some emperor. After we exited we walked past all the spaces, with me trying to paint the picture for Marianne's eyes, while she struggled to stay awake!

"listen to husband? Fall asleep on this bench? Hmmm....."

Stopped off at the Church of the Gesu on the way home. Called the first Baroque church by historians, it has a ton of relics (arm bones, skulls under glass) and a gigantic gold, silver and lapis lazuli chapel dedicated to Saint Ignatius that was designed by Andrea Pozzo, master of perspective. The ceiling in the nave also has some really good trompe l'oeil effects of figures floating on clouds and seeming to enter the real space of the church. It was painted by Giovanni Battista Gaulli around 1670.

Gaulli's ceiling fresco really does seem to be floating off the structure of the building. 

Another gluten free pizza rounded out the day- I might get even fatter on this trip!

I'm going to need to go on a diet after this trip!