Orvieto, Italy

Day trip. Nov 07, 2009.

What we loved:

• the views. Hands down, the views were breathtaking, and around every turn. Whether looking beyond the city gates---from a castle's precipice---or peering up all the little streets, our eyes were brimming over.
• the church. Easily one of our favorites, the decor and stature were impressive. If a church can be 'easy on the eyes,' this one certainly was.
• finding food. We had an early train and it was all we could do to find food before we left town. Cafes are generally open from 12:30 -2:00 for lunch and don't open gain until 7:00 or even 8:00 for dinner. We found a restaurant that let us sit at 6:30 (darn tourists) and the service and food were both delightful. Look for Trattoria "La Palma" on Corso Cavour (apparently they have an in town B&B as well).
  

What we did:

• Saint Patrick's well. We descended the well, some 248 steps down... and back up.
  
• visited the Duomo.
  
• combed the city for places to eat dinner; picked out a hidden gem for our next visit.
• walked through Porta Rocca (a park with walks along the city walls).
  

What we learned:

• if the city is over an hour away, stay overnight. Though we had good intentions of seeing everything in a full day, it would have been better split into two. And most importantly, restaurants don't open their doors until after 7pm at night. We were hard-pressed to find a restaurant to feed us prior to our 8pm train departure.
• Orvieto has a lot of beautiful Italian porcelain.
• you can pretty much walk the city in a day.
  
• the city is populated with more Italians than tourists.
• the streets were full for la passegiata---everyone walked about and all the shops (not restaurants) are open from 5ish to 8ish. People chatted, window-shopped and kids bummed around with their friends.
• while we walked up to the city in the morning (gorgeous foot path), we took the tram back down at night. It was so easy, and only 1 euro each.
  

What we bought:

• slingshots. When you think: touring an Etruscan city in Umbria, isn't that the souvenir that comes to mind? Me neither. It was absolutely random, but perfect at the same time. We bought two for the boys, and Caleb is already mapping plans to buy more for his cousins---when we return to Orvieto.
• did not buy the ceramic sangria pitcher. I saw a one I liked, but resisted. I am trying to be snobbish about what pitchers I buy. I don't want to buy very many---just a small handful or so. So far I bought one in Sienna.
  
• Anthony bought a tile. He has some money left still, that he earned last fall and spring (before our trip), and is determined to buy items reminiscent of this trip. He played around with ideas, bought some models along the way (of London Bridge, Notre Dame, etc.) and has finally decided to collect artisan tiles from various cities (think 4-5 inch tiles that you hang on your wall, each specific to a city). The Orvieto tile is gorgeous; we envy his purchase.
  

What we ate:

• for lunch we grabbed paninis (meh); the boys ate nutella on waffles and gelato for a treat.
• snacks on the train: pistachios and olive oil crackers.
• for dinner: chicken (Caleb), ricotta/spinach ravioli (Anthony), boar sauce on polenta (Janelle) and boar tagliatelle (James).
  

Next time:

• stay overnight---to enjoy the evening life and meals.
• buy more slingshots.
• Janelle: might go back and buy a sangria pitcher I liked...
• the caves. Visit the caves under the city; called the Orvieto Underground.
  
• the tower. Climb the tower in the heart of the city.

For more pictures, see our familyfrolics Orvieto album on Facebook.

Top 5 Memories from September 2009

Okay, now the fun begins. Though we had just completed cycling across central Europe, little did we know how many new adventures awaited us in Italy. After searching intensely the last 2 weeks of August for our permanent residence, we finally moved into our new abode on September 1 (between Santa Croce and Palazzo Signoria), right in the heart of the city.

From our central location, we have access to everything that Florence and the surrounding cities can offer. Here are my Top 5 memories for the month of September 2009:

5. Touring the Bargello. This small museum is just around the corner from our apartment and a delightful gem in the city center. One of the things that our family enjoyed the most about this museum was the scale and scope of its displays. The Bargello offers a great mix of fantastic sculpture (Donatello and Michelangelo), ceramics (Della Robbia) and other ancient wares, which could be digested in about 2-3 hours.

4. Day trip to Fiesole. An ancient Etruscan hill town just above Florence, Fiesole is the perfect day trip (accessible by city bus from Piazza San Marco in Florence). We had a splendid time walking through its ancient Roman ruins (including a well preserved amphitheater and baths), traversing across stunning hilltop streets, and exploring its churches and monasteries. Fiesole offers respite from the Florence hustle (dodging tourists and scooters), and splendid vistas to soak up the sunshine and appreciate the magnificent Tuscan colors.

3. Touring the Uffizi Museum. Like the other great museums of Europe, the Uffizi is overwhelming – it holds too many fantastic treasures to appreciate in a single trip (particularly with adolescent boys). However, we set the right expectations for our family when we casually toured this museum in September, concentrating our focus on the evolution of art from medieval (10–12 c) to the early renaissance (13-14 c). Because we have been fortunate to tour many of Europe’s finest museums this past summer (Rijks, Van Gogh, Louvre, Orsay, and British), we were able to readily appreciate the development of art in this period: moving from flat, idealized pictures (2d) to those with depth (3d perspective), the movement of bodies and turning of torsos, and most importantly, art that evoked emotions (rather than idealized portraitures). The Uffizi also boasts a fantastic roof-top café that offers the most splendid views of Palazzo Vecchio and Piazza Signoria; albeit expensive, a couple of glasses of wine, sodas for our kids and a cheese plate was a perfect break mid-way through our tour. Don’t miss it!

2. First Day of School at Sacro Cuore. Our boys’ first day of school at Sacro Cuore is one of the most vivid memories from this fall. Not only does it represent our efforts to put down ‘roots’ in a Florentine community, but it is also the culmination of our dream to move abroad as a family. This beautiful school set in an olive grove on a hillside of Florence and run by 17 nuns, promises to offer our kids a unique cultural experience in Europe. Ultimately, we hope that Sacro Cuore will offer a different middle school experience to our boys (than what is prototypical in the US) – so far so good. At a minimum, we know their daily routine of cycling along the Arno, soaking up the Florentine cityscape and immersing themselves completely in the Italian education will open their minds.

1. Weekend Trip to Siena. By far one of the best memories in September was our weekend trip to Florence’s rival in Tuscany – Siena. The city has invested heavily over the centuries in its public spaces, infrastructure and churches. Siena is a classic Italian hill town, perched above the neighboring valleys, with fortified walls and gates, and picturesque streets that traverse across the ridges. The city is spotless, boasting well-maintained building, streets and no graffiti (unlike Florence). The pride of Siena’s neighborhoods culminate in the annual Palio race around the Campo, but is also evidenced year-round in the quarterieres by their respective artwork, flags, colors and street lamps. The Duomo is also quite impressive, both architecturally (a fine example of Arab-Norman influence) and artistically (amazing floorscapes throughout). The hotel where we stayed was also fabulous, Palazzo Mignanelli: located right in the center of Siena, just one block from the Campo with fabulous views of the campanile. We will definitely return for a longer stay.

In addition to the above memories in September, there were several runner-ups: settling into our Florentine Apartment, touring the Borghese gardens, routine soccer practices at Campo di Marte, touring Palazzo Vecchio, and the open tours of private Florence gardens (we walked all over the city).

One other collection of memories that stands out for me (personally) is the number of lines and bureaucratic agencies in Florence that I have stood in for countless hours. Since we are “Elective Residents” of Florence (versus short-term tourists), there is a mountain of paperwork to complete. We are still ‘in process’ so I will spare you the details. Once we are official, then I will detail my travails separately with Italian bureaucracy – believe me it is appalling.

Guess we have to take the good with the bad (yin-yang).

arts, crafts & games we

I actually wrote a post about the card games we played all summer---a good travel size game to fit into panniers while cycling Europe. Cards provided countless hours of fun and entertainment for our family.

But now we have landed in Florence, and have started to settle in. It seems to me that when you extract yourself from your life (in our case Seattle, WA), and plant yourself somewhere else (say Florence, Italy), you are armed with more down time. You have yet to ante up for volunteer at school, you don't know anyone so dinner dates and play dates are slow in coming. You don't attend as many meetings---because you aren't on committees. Carpools are gone (especially in our case, since we have no car); so is administering them. The boys now bike to and from school---and to and from soccer practice.

Beyond soccer, school and homework, the boys have some solid time off. Granted, we take them to tour museums, walk the bridges and visit outlying cities, but during the week when homework is done, they have some idle time. Time for their minds to linger and their creativity to be summoned.

It has been sheer joy to watch the boys organically come up with games. By virtue of the fact that they are tired of cards? Perhaps because we don't really have much in the way of gadgets or games (though Caleb bought an Italian glass chess set for Anthony's birthday---very cool).

Inspiration.
There are many street vendors here in Italy, usually with paintings or jewelry, a pile of sunglasses or mechanical cars. Every so often we see a gentleman making birds from reeds or bicycles from wire. The latter has served to provide countless hours of inspiration and ideas for the boys. We bought wire and pliers, and the boys formed bicycles. They cut up soda cans and added them for adornment. This recently morphed into wires and cans and wooden marbles and a rule-infused shooting/hockey type game. (Note: cans are either Coke, Sprite or Fanta. They are the tall skinny cans; these are the common soda options here---that or iced tea). The wooden marbles came from Sienna, each painted according to the neighborhood. Very cool souvenir.

Besides wire models and made-up games, [on our visit to Orvieto] we found hanging inside a pottery shop, a small pile of sling shots---easily our favorite purchase from Orvieto. They work well, and small white erasers (cut in two) make perfect 'bullets.' A few cardboard circles on the wall for targets, markers on the ground for distance... and the entryway for our apartment finally serves a function.

Then there are the army men. At the Euro store there are cheapish, plastic toys. One of these little bags hanging on the wall, is a mixed bag of red and green army men. We bought four (cheap entertainment: that is about $5). They have scaled books, formed ranks, strategized attacks and bombed troops (with a functioning catapult pencil sharpener/key chain---yes, really. Caleb bought two at a souvenir shop at the Tower of London).

Beyond the antics of new games and wire art, the boys also spend some of their spare time painting, sketching, walking to get gelato and scouring souvenir shops... for the next inspiration.