May in Southern Umbria

Todi:

Amazing sunset from airplane window

On the 25th of May arrived in Rome after an especially long flight... the winds were not on our side this time and it took over 9 hours.  We briefly toyed with the idea of securing a rental car in the Rome airport, but in the end decided to go by train.  This was not a stroke of genius... in the train station at the airport a handful of british tourists putzed in line in front of us and by the time we finally got our tickets, the doors to the train closing while we were no more than ten feet away.  So, it was then an hour wait and when in Rome... we grabbed our first real coffee (a cafe macchiato) of the trip at a little cafe inside of the station.  We had take to the next train to the smallish Umbrian city of Terni, where we had to make a transfer and get the local Umbrian line to Todi.  Of course, once again, by the time we lugged our bags up and down several flights of stairs and purchased our tickets at the Tabbacci in the train station "Food Village" (a little train station cafe), we again missed the train by the skin of our teeth.  From the train we called the lovely young Danish couple, Thomas and Lizbeth, who would be hosting us at their B & B, "Il Ghiottone Umbro"  (The Umbrian Glutton): www.ilghiottoneumbro.com

They very kindly picked us up from the train station that we foolishly thought we could walk from.  That would have been the same as our Cortona saga, but with about 50 lbs. of luggage in tow with each of us.  It would not have been pretty.  By the time we arrived at the B & B it had been well over 24 hours of being awake, so we were both a bit zombie-like.  The B & B is magical!  It used to be an old grain mill that has been very artistically converted in a minimalist style, but keeping the original architecture and accents intact with splashes of dutch (and I am assuming danish) modern furniture throughout.  It is stunning and to my particular delight, immaculate.  The beautiful stone building is built into the terraced hillside just outside of the town, literally a 5 minute walk.  

Path from B & B to the road into town

Dinner with a view

Once we settled into the B & B and showered the last 24 hours of travel slime off of us, we decided not to nap; that might be the end of us and we wouldn't adjust to the time change as well.  So, walked into town-the first thing we saw was this beautiful church set into the hillside with this amazing bank of steps up, functioning as a piazza.  It is the church of San Fortunato with the tomb of a famous Todi resident, Fra Jacopone, early mystic poetic/ holy man (pre-Dante).  Pretty radical, he even shook up the franciscans... themselves already known for being a bit "out there".  It is one of the most beautiful churches I've ever seen.  It has a peaceful simplicity to it.  Unusual ceiling for Italy (all three isles are on the same plane), in the italian gothic style,  haven't encountered too much of in my travels.  

San Fortunato

Interior of San Fortunato

A Tale of Three Cities

Urbino

These purple glass panes played with the light so beautifully, but it was hard to capture...

Landscape out the window of the Dukes Palace-Museum

A lot of amazing light in the Dukes Palace...

From inside a little tiny church in Viterbo. It was as if the bird was posing for me...

Siena

What we think is a contemporary (possibly by an artist working here in Cortona) piece installed in the pavement outside of the Siena Duomo. I couldn't help but play with the shadows...

 — with Christopher Ryan.

The Crucible

Ciao tutti,

Ok, time for my latest update.  Time is flying by so fast.  It’s strange though… every day we seem to make good use of every waking minute and enjoy them all.  It feels like we just got here, but the studio classes were already talking about the steps for organizing the end of session gallery show the week of the 8th!

Santa Margarita

The weekend of the 8th was amazing.  It kicked off with a bang (well actually a flame) on Friday night.  The sculpture class did a bronze firing in the terraced hillside on the grounds, "old-school style".  It was like watching something from another world.  With the fall smells and the cool air this big beautiful green flame was billowing from the ground in the hillside and you could here it roaring from all the way down in town.  It looked like a porthole to another dimension (you know what I mean if you've ever seen the movie Poltergeist).  There were ten or fifteen students helping, carrying the giant crucible of molten bronze, scraping the impurities off the top, the then finally pouring it into the large molds, that were awaiting their fill, buried in the ground.  Just as they started to pour the first mold, the bells of Santa Margarita, the covent on the hill above the school which houses the body of it's name sake, began to chime.  It was as if it was a sign of her blessing the pour.  It was very labor intensive and required a lot of for planning and coordination, but it went beautifully and was an incredible experience for the students!                                                          

The following day was our first Saturday in Cortona.  In the morning, the school organized a "caccia al tesoro" or treasure hunt.  I stayed home a get ready for Emily (my roommate from my first year living in Florence) and Niko to come visit.  Chris set out early in the morning with a team of three other professors and they called themselves the "Quattro Formaggi" or the four cheeses.  They had far too much fun deciphering the difficult clues which lead them all over the town.  While they were doing all of that, I wandered around in the open air market in the central piazzas and bought some fresh veggies from a little old woman and some other essentials (i.e.: a nice block of "pecornio al tartufo", sheep cheese with black truffle).

After Emily arrived with Niko (her husband) we took a stroll around the town and through the market, met up with Chris to have an amazing lunch and then headed up to the school for the "vendemmia" (wine making).  The school has grapevines on the terraced hillside and the school's caretaker tends them.  Every year they hold a vendemmia where the students, staff, faculty get to crush the grapes "Lucile Ball style"... in a big bucket with your bare feet!  We hesitated, thinking ok, it can't be so great that we to want to get our feet all sticky and covered in grape mush...  Well, we finally caved and it was amazing!  We even got Emily to get in.  It was like an getting incredible massage on your feet and it was a lot of fun too.

That evening Emily and Niko had to head back into Florence before dinner to take care of their new little kitten and we went to the printmaking professor's apartment for a potluck dinner.  Her apartment is attached to a beautiful little private garden that her landlord lovingly tends to every day and it is truly gorgeous!  They set up the grill and we barbecued.  Everything was so delicious and the weather was perfect in the crisp October air.

The next morning Chris and I got up and set out for an exercise walk and it was magnificent!  We followed the edge to the city walls, out of city, to this little tiny town on the other side of the mountain called Torreone where we linked up with a path that follows an old Roman road over to other side of the mountain.  And, I have to tell you Dad, you're right... it looked just like home.  We followed the path to the point at the very inner corner of the valley where the two mountains meet and I got such a strong flash of childhood memories of walking on the stone paths on the mountain heading to Forest City where we would fill water jugs at the mountain spring for drinking water.  It gave me this incredible sense of home, not a sad one of missing home, but one where I had a strong sense that this was in a way home too.  It is hard to describe.  I'm not sure how far it was, but we were gone for a good 2 and half hours at a blistering walking pace.  It felt amazing!

I will send a few pictures in a little while, as soon as I download them from my camera.

Baci a tutti!

Marissa

Rachtober Fest

Making the Veggie Chili for Rachtoberfest-Cortona 2011

I haven't heard a peep from anyone... how did it go?

Love-

Mariss

Hi Mariss,

I just looked at my e-mail, been working all day trying to clean up everything. Mom's been washing dishes and I've been putting stuff away. Last night it started out ok but then it starting raining, it put out both fires, it got cold and windy. The turnout wasn't that good and they forcasted rain. And of course they heard you and Chris weren't coming. Mattie wake up this morning and said "Mommy, I love the Rachtoberfest" and Kat had had a great time decorating, but said she missed you and Chris helping her.

Love,

Mom and Dad

Hi Daddy and all-

Making the cornbread for Rachtoberfest-Cortona 2011

Sorry to hear it was wet and cold for Rachtoberfest.  We had our little satellite version of Rachtoberfest-Cortona and it was beautiful.  Nice turnout and amazing weather.  My chili came out really well since we are in a tiny town with few resources for that type of food. And, I made cornbread from scratch and it came out really well even though I didn't even anything to measure with.  I did it Eva style and eyeballed everything.  

The moon even put on a little show for us.  Around 10 or 10:30pm it tuned flaming orange and then dropped below the horizon line like a sunset by 11pm.  It was incredible.  I will post photos on Facebook soon for you to see.

Hope everyone is recovering.  I have had a bad cold and a broken toe for a little over a week now.  Moving slow, but still enjoying everything.  

Take care, love-

Mariss

Sunset potato cutting for Rachtoberfest-Cortona

Adventures in Cortona

Bouna Sera Tutti (Good Evening Everyone),

Lovin' the terrace...

Well, we've been settled into our new, temporary home in Cortona for about two weeks now and it is amazing.  We have to pinch ourselves every morning when we go to sit on the terrace to sip our coffees and eat German yogurt with whatever yummy piece of bread and fruit that I picked up at the market the day before.  Wednesday night was our big adventure though...

Wednesday night we were invited to join friends from Florence for dinner and drinks and to meet two artists that they were hosting.  We thought it would be a little difficult timing wise, but we decided to do it anyway.  So, we hurried our way out of Cortona.  I had to leave the Italian culture and film class that I am taking early, but this isn't something we'll be doing too terribly often and how often are we this close to Florence.  So, we took the bus to the town below, Camucia, in order to catch the train.  We grabbed our bus tickets at the Tabbacaria just in time and ran to the bus stop.  Yay, we caught the bus.  We go knowing that the little train station is often desolate and unattended, so we decide to take our chances with the ticket vending machine instead of hike up the road to the travel agency to get train tickets, since we are running a little short on time.  Of course, there are two German tourists taking their sweet time with the machine that is labeled with the actual destinations... Chris figures out from a key which code we need to punch in on the other machine to get our roundtrip tickets to Florence and we are golden.  Meanwhile, in all of the commotion of the train tickets we forget to check the night bus schedule for when we get back.  Keep in mind, Camucia is famous for stranding people with no way to get up the hill to Cortona.  It has happened to Chris a few times when bringing students for the day.

So, we are off to Florence and have an amazing time visiting with our friends, having yummy cocktails, and eating an amazing dinner, keeping in mind that the train we "know" how to get to Cortona from is leaving the Florence station at 9:30 pm.  Our hostess kindly reminds us at around 9:05 pm that we should start getting ourselves to the station.  We call a cab just to be safe and get to the station around 9:20 pm.  As we feverishly search the boards for the platform to our train we realize it is leaving at 9:22 pm, 8 minutes earlier then was listed when we checked on-line and on the station board when we arrived in Florence!  We run.  As we arrive at the platform, luckily, a gaggle of Carabineri (Italian military police) are searching a group of men wanting to get onto our train, slowing the trains early departure just enough for us to jump on.  

So, we get on the train, fully aware that getting back up the hill to Cortona may be an issue having realized that we had forgotten to check the bus schedule.  We have the phone number for the only taxi driver in Cortona, but when we first tried calling to make a reservation there wasn't any phone service on the train.  We decide to wait until we get closer to Cortona to call since we aren't exactly sure when the train will be arriving.  Around 11pm I tried calling again since we knew we were only one stop away from our destination.  No answer and no way to leave a message... hmmm, unsettling.  The train arrived in Camucia at around 11:15pm and we immediately went to check the bus schedule posted on a sign in the piazza outside of the station... the last bus was at 9:04pm.  Ok, so we try the taxi number again... still no answer and no way to leave a message.  His phone is off!  So we decide to walk to a café further into town, because surely they will have another taxi number, right?  We get to the café and ask and the barista and she takes us outside to show us the sign with not only one, but two other taxi numbers!  So I call.  I reach a woman who, with her gravelly voice is obviously in bed and has no intension of coming, refers us to another number and I ask if it is the other gentleman posted on the sign and she responds quickly that that is her son and he won't be coming either.  She gives me another number and it is actually the Cortona driver who's phone is off.

A collaborative piece Chris and I
did as an art postcard...

Long story, not so short, we decided to bite the bullet and make the 5 mile or so trek, all uphill climb (what seemed like a 45 degree incline, but ok Chris is right; that is ridiculous, but it is steep) on foot in dress shoes (thankfully flats).  It actually ended up being short of fun.  It was a little scary since there are no street lights along the narrow hairpin turns, but the moon was pretty bright and the weather was perfect.  It was quite a beautiful walk with the cypress trees glowing silvery in the moonlight, lining the way.  There was a nice light breeze to cool us as we got heated up and wafted smells of the Tuscan country air towards us.  Admittedly there were a few frightening (better check your pants) moments of large snarling dogs coming at us in the dark, but luckily even though we couldn't see them, there were thin wire fences holding them back.  We have also been hearing plenty of stories of wild animals here in the hills, such as wild boars, foxes, and wolves, but we didn't run into any of them, though we did hear some not too distant howling of what I would guess to have been a coyotes.  We sang some songs to both occupy ourselves and scare any possible critters.  

Just as we were getting close to the top, finally after what seemed like dozens of cars careening down the tight turns past us, practically pinning against retaining walls and steep ledges, a nice older gentlemen stopped and offered us a ride up to the main piazza.  After a few moments thought we decided since we had made it this far we may as well finish the job.  So, we headed to the two escalators and a flight of stairs that finish the final ascent into town, but of course with the way our evening was going, they were both turned off.  As we climbed the last bit we were saying we didn't really need to share our little mishap with everyone.  Poetically, while we made our final push up three large flights of stairs to the top, of course a friend who has been teaching with the program on and off for years was sitting right at the top of the steps at a little café with some italian friends to catch us at the end of our embarrassing little adventure.  All we could do was laugh when we saw him.

All together it was actually a lot of fun, good exercise after a big dinner, an authentic experience, and it surely makes for a memorable story.

Cortona

So, upon arriving to our beautiful new (temporary) home/ apartment in Cortona, we were greeted with this incredible sunset from our terrace. I wish you could be here to see it! We could sit and have a glass of wine and talk about the last 10 years that we have missed. 

This cute black kitty was following us in the park, playing and running around us in circles, but we completely lost his attention when this ginormous frog showed up...

Florence

At the Bargello Museum

Blowing out the candles on my Birthday gelato at Emily's house

My 32nd Birthday at Emily's house. How fitting that I spent it in Florence with her exactly 10 years ago to the day.

I love the Bargello!

A fabulous lunch at our favorite (secret) restaurant in Florence...

Still the same amazing view of Florence from San Miniato

Emily's adorable new little kitten, Guelfo, who is a little purr machine and I just couldn't get enough of him!