Wed 10/19

This is our last day in Tuscany and we have a few items on our to do list of places to go. We started in Sansepolcro, birthplace of Piero della Francesca, the entire area's claim to fame. The museum in Sansepolcro has four paintings of della Francesca so we wanted to see them. It's a short drive, about 15-20 minutes to the town and with a couple stops to ask for directions once we were in the city, the museum wasn't too difficult to find. The museum is in total chaos with restorations, moving of art, positioning of lights, etc and it turns out that one of the main works that we are there to see is being restored.

Yes, it's being restored behind a glass window so that you can see the top and the bottom of the painting but not the middle. 

Being restored. Photographer reflected in glass over restoration.

There was only one that was available for viewing and it is dramatic and beautiful.

It was completely unclear where the remaining two were but they were definitely not available for viewing. There was minimal other art in the museum to see so it made for a short visit. Then we headed for Caprese Michaelangelo, a town in the hills where Michaelangelo was born and his house is still there. We wound around some nice scenery and arrived there after about 45 minutes of driving but somehow lost our interest in seeing a HOUSE. So we left and headed for lunch, something we could have tremendous interest in viewing. And, surprise, lunch was a hit! A restaurant pretty much in the middle of nowhere but near the town we visited yesterday to see the della Francesca painting of the pregnant madonna. It was clearly a place for locals with a set menu for 12 Euros for a first and second course and a side dish. We've only been getting one course because it's more than enough but who could turn down "such a deal?" Dick got a first course of spinach ravioli filled with ricotta with a nut sauce (we think it was walnuts.) I got orechiette with sausage and broccoli. (As usual, partially consumed prior to remembering to photograph it.)

For our second course, Dick got beef and I got roasted guinea hen.

Game hen, partially eaten and moved around. Was much more delicious than it appears here.

Beef

Our side dishes were mixed salad and roasted potatoes (which looked more like french fries.) All were really excellent. The pastas were delicious and the beef and the game hen were perfectly cooked, moist and really flavorful. Here's the shock….I didn't get dessert!! Total cost including wine and bottled water: 39 Euros!

After lunch, we had one more assignment: there is a museum in Anghiari that advertises "discover the lost painting 'Battle of Anghiari'  by Leonardo da Vinci."  We needed to see that, right?  This was false advertising at its finest! Turns out that Leonardo was commissioned to commemorate the battle in a painting for the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence but the unfinished painting was damaged by an experimental drying process and WAS DESTROYED to make room for frescoes by Vasari. The museum has photos of some drawings that were done by Leonardo in preparation for the painting. There is also a model of the battle consisting of 2200 lead and tin hand painted soldiers as they were arrayed in the battle of the Florentines vs the Milanese.

Overall, a snoozer. In addition there were  pottery shards (my favorite….zzzzzzz) and coins etc from ages past.

In the piazza is this statue that has no name. It has a caption that seems to say either Rome or death. The real punch line however is a series of pics of Dick dating back 20 years in which he is pointing the direction that he thinks everyone need to take. (A 50/50 chance of being correct.) They all look a little like this:

OK, this made me need to have gelato so we stopped in the piazza for gelato before coming home to pack for our trip to Milan airport tomorrow. 

Tues 10/18

A drizzly, cool start to the day with a weather report for little improvement made us a bit uninterested in driving too far from home. We are in the area in which the artist Piero della Francesca was born and spent much of his life. He was not given much acclaim during his life but in the 20th century his work became very well known among arty sorts. Since he's a local "son," there is much attention to his life and works in the area though there are very few of his paintings actually remaining here. Most are in the important museums of the world. There are a few here though, several in Arezzo, a couple in the town of Sansepolcro not far from where we are and one in the tiny town of Monterchi just a few miles from where we are staying. The work is a fresco called "La Madonna in Parto'" translated to the pregnant madonna and it is rare that she is shown pregnant so it is an important work despite that it isn't della Francesca's best or most elaborate. It's definitely Monterchi's claim to fame so we went to visit her. It is the ONLY work in the Monterchi museum other than two bits of fresco said to have surrounded the madonna but not done by della Francesca. There was a 35 minute movie about della Francesca that was interesting and very well done and showed many of his other paintings and frescoes. "La Madonna in Parto" was very nice but other than the time spent with the film, it was a fairly brief visit. We went to see her both before and after the film and left feeling that it was nice but other things he had done were much better. We felt ourselves to be better persons for having learned about this artist!

That's her

Next, we drove to Anghiari, the town closest to us. It's a medieval town famous for a battle in 1440 in which the Milanese were defeated by the Florentines and the borders of Tuscany were established. We were interested in wandering the town a bit but REALLY interested in lunch. We went to "Il Feudo di Vacario," a restaurant known for fine meat dishes so even though we were hungry for more pasta (and the offerings sounded sooo good) we ordered meat. Dick got famous Chianina beef and I had equally famous cinta senese pork with porcini's (cinta senese are the pigs that are black with a white belt and have been imported to the U.S. because their meat is so delicious.)

Pork with porcini's

Tagliata di manzo (beef)

Both were exceptionally good meat dishes! We had roasted potatoes and salad as accompaniments and, of course, some delicious red wine. I had something called vellutata di mascarpone for dessert (which I forgot to photograph because I was too busy devouring it) which I could only translate as mascarpone cream soup. It was creamy deliciousness served with a biscotto and a little drizzle of chocolate around the edges. The restaurant is quite small and full of character.

Next to our table

On back of toilet. Translation: what you have in your hand is not a hydrant and there isn't a fire on the floor.

An American woman came in as we were finishing our meal and we ended up in conversation with her. She is a chef  from Santa Fe and we had a nice chat before leaving to explore the town a bit more.

The town is old, walled, charming, on a hill with nice views…..pretty much the norm in these parts.

Very, very long, straight street through Anghiari.  It extends behind several hundred yards.

We met a friendly calico cat on our walk and did a general meandering.

After we got home, we found information telling us that their museum has a Leonardo da Vinci painting of the "Battle of Anghiari" so I think we will have to go back to see it and maybe hit that restaurant for one of those pasta dishes.

Sun 10/16

We slept in this morning, mainly because our upstairs neighbors woke us at 6:30 A.M. clomping around their apartment in their clipless bicycle shoes as they got ready for a big bicycle race taking place here in Anghiari. They finally left at about 7:30 and we went back to sleep.

When we finally got going, we went into Anghiari hoping to see some of the festivities for the race but there was truly NOWHERE to park and the cyclists were still coming into town from the ride so there didn't appear to be much happening. We drove to the small medieval town of Citerna (also on the bike race route) where there were more cyclists but easy parking.

Fixing a flat at the hydration station

Citerna is one of the "most beautiful towns of Italy" and it is really charming. High on a hill overlooking a gorgeous valley, it has a perfect location.

The town dates to the 16th century when it was controlled by the wealthy and powerful Vitelli family. It was a walled and completely contained city that had a huge cistern (and is the basis for the town's name) and a giant underground storage area for supplies to fortify the town in case of attack. We walked around the city admiring the views and the ancient dwellings.

One of the churches had a restored statue by one of the della Robbia's and was quite a nice small church.

We had lunch at an interesting restaurant in Citerna. Each table had a small stack of books on it, all of which had to do with food.

Reading one of the food books

Adjacent table

It was a quite modern looking restaurant built into the 16th century wall of the town. Lunch was terrific. We shared a pasta first course of chitarra (a pasta cut using something that looks like guitar strings) with pistachios and pesto and gorgonzola cream sauce….really delicious and ridiculously rich.

Dick had sliced beef with fresh porcinis for his main course and I had braised rabbit with porcinis. Both had roasted potatoes and a vegetable mixture as accompaniments. I remembered to take pictures but not until we had already had a bite or two.

Beef with porcini's

Braised rabbit with porcini's

I had a dessert of mascarpone cream with crispy pastry layers and an apricot sauce. (Also partially eaten before the picture.) It made me quite content!

After lunch we went to see an exhibit of a single clay sculpture by Donatello. We went into the town hall to buy the tickets and the young woman told us that she would give us a tour. She took us into a small church (16th century) and described all the art of the church which was quite interesting and she was very knowledgeable. There was a fresco by Signorelli, a painting by an artist from the school of Raffaello and a couple of other painting by artists that weren't familiar names that I, of course, have forgotten. Then she took us into the locked room where the Donatello lived. The story here was that the statue had been in the church for 600 years and was of an unknown artist when an art student doing research on clay sculptures came to see it and became fascinated by it. Ultimately, it was found to have been repainted many times over the years and sent to Florence for restoration where its true provenance was discovered.

Photo of before restoration which highlights how much more beautiful the original is

It is truly a remarkable piece of art with incredible expressiveness on the faces of the madonna and child and beautiful detail in general. There is gold and lapis lazuli used in the colors which demonstrate that it was a very expensive piece and was probably originally owned by the very wealthy Vitelli family.

This little "tour" was really a highlight of the day…maybe the trip!

We were ready to be back home where we played with the dogs, went into the common room to do some internet stuff (there is no internet in the apartment) and where I spent an hour trying to get my Skype account straightened out so I could make a couple of phone calls

Mon 10/17

Today we planned to drive north to a couple of small rural towns in the hills of Tuscany. The dogs were at our door to tell us good bye. (They don't pose very well.)

Fall has arrived and the colors just get better every day! Our first stop was Bibbiena, a medieval town that has some renown because it does NOT have a castle which makes it less of a tourist mecca. We had read of a church that had some works by della Robbia and we started at San Lorenzo church where there are two really beautiful large della Robbia tableaus. The church and the tableaus date to the 16th century.

Next we were peering through the glass doors of a small church dedicated to St. Francis when a local man came up to us and explained that he was a volunteer from some society (lost in translation)and that the doors and church were alarmed but that he could let us in. (He later explained that the key was the key to everything in Bibbiena.) As we entered through a side door we saw some tourists that were just behind us and Dick beckoned them to follow us in. Now began our very own, personalized tour of Bibbiena. The man was incredibly knowledgeable of the history of every building in Bibbiena and every art work in every building.  There was beautiful art featuring St. Francis in multiple scenes, a relic of cloth of St. Francis clothes and a gold covered small bed that is used in a procession at Christmas for the baby Jesus.

Baby Jesus bed

Relic of cloth fragment

Altar

There was also a rather creepy coffin with the entire skeleton of some random priest (as far as we understood.) Next we went outside and as we were thanking him and saying goodbye, he pointed out another medieval church and he ended up taking us there and telling us about all the art in that church which included a really lovely fresco by someone from the school of Giotto and an altar piece that was truly spectacular that dated to the 15th century.

Gothic altarpiece

By now, we were best friends with the German family (husband who spoke perfect English, a wife and a son of about 10 years old) that had followed us into the first church. Our guide was describing other things for us to see including a theater from the 1800's, places to eat, views to see and then had us follow him to the theater where he took us through a side entrance (using the all purpose Bibbiena key) into the theater. The theater seats 130 and is used by the community for all sorts of theater…opera, music, plays, etc. It is entirely of wood and is constructed with a sloping floor so that the orchestra level seats afford a good view from every seat. The upper levels are boxes arranged in a horseshoe.

Our guide and our new friends

As we left, he opened another attractive door, told us he was at his home and said good bye. All in all he had spent 45 minutes or more giving us a great tour! What luck for us!!

We left Bibbiena and headed for Poppi where there was reputed to be a terrific castle. First on the agenda was lunch, however, and we found a tiny 8 table restaurant where we had a very good pasta and an immense salad. I had gnocchi with a pumpkin sauce that was delicious and Dick had meat filled ravioli with a meat ragu', also delicious. I didn't take photos because it was so  small I would have felt conspicuous. 

After lunch we visited the castle, a 12th century marvel that was owned by successive members of the Guidi family. It is famed for its extensive library and its copies of Dante's Inferno. There is a prominent bust of Dante in front of the castle to honor a very famous battle in which Dante fought alongside the Guelphs, the  political group that the Guidi family supported.

Dante

View from castle

Fresco in castle by Gaddi, a student of Giotto

View from castle

We meandered back to our apartment through some winding roads through the hills and called it a day.