Italian Language Blog

Last week my husband, my uncle and I went for a day out to Portovenere, a little jewel on the Riviera di Levante (the Eastern Riviera) in Liguria. Portovenere is a medieval fishing village situated on the southern tip of the Golfo di La Spezia also known as Il Golfo dei Poeti (the Gulf of the Poets), which takes its name from the 18th century British poets Byron and Shelley, who loved this area and lived here for a while. On arriving we set out along the promenade which is backed by an impressive wall of multicolored case torri (tower houses). Reaching the end of the promenade, we climbed up the stone steps to the small church of San Pietro situated on a rocky outcrop on the very edge of the peninsula. This small church, originally constructed in the the 6th century A.D. was rebuilt in 1277 in the typical Genovese Gothic style, with its grey and black horizontal stripes of local stone. From the cool dark shade inside the church you can walk out onto a tiny balcony at the back that affords a great view accross the stretto (straight) that divides terraferma (the mainland) from the luxuriant, green Isola della Palmaria (Isle of Palmaria). On the western side of the church there is a small portico with romantic arches facing towards the beautiful coast of Le Cinque Terre and its magnificent scogliere (cliffs). The church of San Pietro is said to be built on the remains of a Roman temple dedicated to the goddess Venere (Venus), and from this comes the name of the village, Portovenere, literally “Venus’ port”.

After a quick visit to La Grotta di Byron (Byron’s grotto), from which Byron famously swam to visit his friends the Shelleys in Lerici on the other side of the gulf, we walked down the main street to the molo (pier) where we were picked up by a beautifully stylish motoscafo (motor launch). The motoscafo took as across the narrow stretto to a famous restaurant on the Isola della Palmaria: I felt like a film star arriving at the Cannes festival! We had a wonderful meal of fish and frutti di mare (fruits of the sea, e.g. shellfish etc.) accompanied by a deliciously refreshing Vermentino (a white wine), and ending with a fantastic dessert, Torta di pere e cioccolato con salsa di cioccolato calda (pear and chocolate cake with hot chocolate sauce), and a creamy sorbetto al limone (lemon sorbet). All of this was a treat from my uncle, who regularly brings his guests to this place when he wants to fare bella figura (make a good impression). While waiting for ‘our’ boat to take us back to Portovenere we chatted to an old pescatore (fisherman) who was cleaning his catch of cozze (mussels) ready to be sold in the pescheria (fishmongers). He told us that Portovenere’s bay is one of the biggest farms for cozze in Italy, and that they export le sementi  (lit. ‘the seeds’, i.e. the baby mussels) to other Italian mussel farms. He also showed us the trecce (plaits, or cables), that are attached to poles planted in the water, and on which the cozze live and breed, complaining that nowadays they are all made of plastic because it lasts longer, and you can no longer find the old ones made from canapa (hemp).

When we got back to Portovenere, my uncle had another surprise for us: he sent us off on the Giro delle Tre Isole (Tour of the Three Islands) on a battello (passenger ferry). Situated in front of the very tip of Portovenere are three islands all in a row. Firstly there is Palmaria, (where we had our wonderful lunch) which is the biggest and has very few houses which are lived in by civilians, the bulk of the island being a military base. Then there is Tino, the middle island, which is owned entirely by the military, and is only open to civilians once a year, on the 13th of September for the celebration of the festival of San Venerio. San Venerio was a hermit who lived on the island in the 6th century A.D., and on stormy nights used to light fires to warn ships of the presence of rocks and shallow waters. He is now the patron saint of semaforisti and faristi (signals people and lighthouse keepers). The third island is Tinetto, which is just a largish rock in the sea. During our tour the remains of the cave di portoro (quarries of the local marble) on Palmaria were pointed out to us by one of the crew. Portoro is a precious black marble with golden veins which was quarried here until about 30 years ago, and in a small sheltered bay on the far side of the island you can still see a scivolo (slide) running down the steep hillside which was used to carry the portoro down to the sea and load it into boats, a pretty dangerous operation! Also on Palmaria is the Grotta Azzurra  (Blue Cave), which can only be visited in una barca a remi (a rowing boat). On the island of Tino there are the remains of fortifications built by the Germans during WW2 in defense of La Spezia’s harbor, which was (and still is) an important naval base; some of these fortifications and the sheer cliffs on which they are located were used as a set in the famous film I Cannoni di Navarrone (The Guns of Navarrone).

The highlight of our Giro delle Tre Isole, however, was the fact that we had the good fortune to see two pesci luna (moon fish), which are also known as pesci tamburo (drum fish). This was my first encounter with pesci luna despite the fact that they are native to the Mediterranean sea, and I must say they are amazing! This peculiar creature is a flat, round fish that can reach over two meters in diameter. It comes up to the surface to sleep, and in fact on first sight I thought that the first one we saw was dead, but after a couple of seconds it flipped its fin as if saluting us and disappeared into the deep.

For more info. on Portovenere, and some photos have a look at this website: http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porto_Venere

A couple of weeks ago we went to my hometown, Lucca, to visit my parents, and while we were there we decided to take the opportunity to visit one of Lucca’s many historic buildings. We opted for the Museo Nazionale di Villa Guinigi (National Museum of Villa Guinigi), which we hadn’t been to for many years, and I must say that it was an extremely pleasant rediscovery, not least because it was very quiet and tranquil after our previous day’s frenetic visit to Firenze, in fact we were the only visitors! The Museum houses artifacts ranging from the prehistoric to the late Roman period, and a collection of art works dating from the Middle Ages (Romanesque, Gothic and early Renaissance periods), up to the 18th century. These works were all created either by local artists or by artists who worked in Lucca, and they have been gathered from churches, palaces and private collections. Amongst others there are works by Jacopo della Quercia, Donatello, Matteo Civitali, Botticelli, Filippino Lippi, Guido Reni, and Giorgio Vasari. Of particular interest are the fine works in inlaid wood by Cristoforo Canozzi da Lendinara (15th century), which were originally the doors of a cupboard from the sacristy in Lucca’s Cathedral. These multi-colored intarsi (marquetries) are a kind of trompe-l’oeil of views from various Lucchese windows depicting the town as it appeared in the 15th century.

The Museum is housed in Villa Guinigi, the house that Paolo Guinigi, Lord of Lucca, ordered built for himself at the beginning of the 15th century outside the town walls. The villa was intended as a ‘country’ alternative to their town dwelling, the Palazzo Guinigi, in Lucca. Whenever I think of the Villa Guinigi I have this image in my mind of the Guinigi family getting ready to move out to their ‘country house’ for the summer holidays: multitudes of servants covering all the furniture with white dust sheets, packing numerous crates with clothes and personal belongings, everybody getting into the carriages, and finally starting the journey out to the countryside, a journey that lasted probably … less than 10 minutes! In fact Villa Guinigi is situated only about a kilometer from the Guinigi’s town palace! and although it was originally located outside the Medieval town walls, it was later enclosed within the 17th century town walls thus becoming a ‘town house’. This magnificent villa was built in red brick, which was very expensive at the time, and has a portico on the ground floor, and trefoil mullioned  windows, supported by slender white marble columns, on the upper floor. The architectural style of the building is the typical Romanesque-Gothic style, which was fashionable in Lucca at the time.

The same style also characterizes Palazzo Guinigi, the splendid town palace built by Francesco Guinigi, father of Paolo Guinigi. A corner of the building is dominated by an imposing tower, now a symbol of Lucca, standing out as it does against the town skyline, with its crown of lecci (holm-oaks). Our Cicerone (guide) at the museum explained to us that, due to the fact that Lucca is built on a water table, at the time of Paolo Guinigi there were strict laws that prevented the construction of very tall and potentially unstable buildings (like the tower of Pisa for example). To overcome the problem Paolo Guinigi, Lord of Lucca, had trees planted on the top of his tower to make it taller, and thus demonstrate his wealth and power. Tourists who don’t suffer from vertigo can now visit the top of the Torre Guinigi (Guinigi’s Tower) and enjoy spectacular panoramic views of the town, making it well worth the effort of the climb. You can find some photos of the tower here: http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torre_Guinigi 

Buona visita a Lucca!

Last week here in Italy was Settimana della Cultura (Culture Week). Organized by the Italian Ministry of Arts, Settimana della Cultura offers free entry to all the national museums, so we decided to make the most of it and go to Firenze (Florence) for the first time in many years. On the Monday afternoon we went down to Lucca to visit my parents, and use their house as a base for our ‘expedition’. The following morning we caught the Lazzi bus from Piazzale Verdi in Lucca. Known as the direttissima per Firenze (the ‘very direct for Florence’!), the bus runs from Lucca to Firenze along the motorway without any stops, it’s comfortable and fast, and in just over an hour we had arrived in Piazza Adua, Firenze, right next to the main railway station which is called Santa Maria Novella.

Full of enthusiasm, we strolled down past the Chiesa di San Lorenzo and the Cappelle Medicee towards the Galleria dell’Accademia: I was in fact planning on visiting the Galleria because I love Michelangelo’s “unfinished” statues of the four prigioni (prisoners) and the Pieta’ di Palestrina, but I had completely forgotten that the Galleria is of course also famous for Michelangelo’s David. As we got near the Museum we saw a coda (cue, literally ‘tail’) of people, probably 200 meters long, all waiting with dogged patience to get into the Galleria dell’Accademia! Mamma mia, stavo per piangere! (I was ready to cry). Disappointed, but resigned to the situation I decided to go to the nearby Museo Archeologico where I used to work many years ago.

This is an excellent museum, but is not very popular with tourists due to the comparative lack of ‘famous’ works of art, and apart from a couple of school parties it was very quiet. Upon arriving, I sought out my former manager, now director of the Egyptian section, and caught up with all the latest gossip about my ex Egyptology colleagues. We then went on to have a fascinating tour of the Museum. Near the entrance there was a very interesting exhibition about counterfeit money, which began with counterfeit Roman coins, and included fake Bank of England banknotes produced by the Third Reich in Sachhausen concentration camp during WW2 in order to try and flood the British and U.S. economies with counterfeit money, fake post WW2 Italian Lire notes,  and contemporary forged credit cards. The exhibition ended with a large display of machinery which had been used in a counterfeit money factory discovered a year ago near Rome which produced fake US Dollars. It was all very fascinating and you couldn’t help but admire the ingenuity of the forgers.

At lunchtime, rimbambiti (stupified) after looking at innumerable Etruscan bronzes and Egyptian steles, we went out into Piazza Santissima Annunziata to eat our panini. The piazza was packed with parties of school children whose main occupation seemed to be feeding the pigeons with their panini. Luckily there is plenty of space for everybody to find a seat on the steps that lead up to the beautiful porticoes of the Spedale degli Innocenti by Brunelleschi. Feeling somewhat refreshed we continued our expedition with a walk down towards Santa Maria in Fiore, with its magnificent Campanile di Giotto (Giotto’s bell tower), finally arriving at il Bargello.

Il Bargello, also known as the Palazzo del Podesta’, houses the national museum of Tuscan Sculptures from the 14th to the 17th century. Here you can find many famous sculptures by Michelangelo, Giambologna, Benvenuto Cellini and Donatello, as well as a collection of exquisite ivory carvings, the intricate work of goldsmiths, beautiful tapestries, and armor. Displayed on a wall behind Donatello’s David (a delicate bronze sculpture depicting a young adolescent, so different from Michelangelo’s powerful marble sculpture of the same name), there are two very interesting bronze plaques, one by Lorenzo Ghiberti and the other by Filippo Brunelleschi. They were made in 1401 for a competition which was held in Firenze to choose the artist who would decorate the second door of the Baptistery (the first door had been decorated by Andrea Pisano in 1336). The artists entering the competition had to present a work based on the biblical story of the Sacrificio di Isacco (Isaac’s sacrifice) and many famous artists, including Jacopo Della Quercia, presented their interpretations of this theme in order to try and win this prestigious contract. In the end the judges awarded equal first place to both Ghiberti and Brunelleschi, but it seems that Brunelleschi artistic pride prevented him from sharing the job, and so the work of embellishing the huge doors of the Baptistery was carried out by Ghiberti. Even if it is full of wonders I have to say that what I like best about this museum is the building itself: il Bargello was built between 1255 and 1346; it has a beautiful inner courtyard surrounded by porticoes with a monumental staircase which takes you up to the first floor where the museum is located. We walked around with our mouths open looking at the imposing walls, the decorative ceilings, and the fantastic windows composed of hundreds of round glass ‘panes’ which looked rather like the bottoms of old wine bottles. This is probably my favorite building in the whole of Firenze: if only it could be mine!

After we left the Bargello we wandered through some of the narrow Medieval streets down near the river Arno, took one look at the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) which seemed about to collapse under the heaving mass of tourists, and then back up towards Piazza della Signoria, where we sat down to listen to a street musician whilst watching a ‘living sculpture’. Finally we escaped the mad hordes and strolled along some of the smaller interesting backstreets to find our way back to the bus station. 

E’ stata una bella giornata.