A week-end in Sottomarina

While the bura is howling in Croatia, we are having stronger than usual winds and a lot of rain in Sottomarina, leading us to choose to spend Friday a casa.  When it cleared up on Saturday we went for a little walk in the neighborhood, then Franca and Angelo invited us to go look at a boat for sale by a friend of theirs in a nearby town.  Franca and Luisa have been friends for 50 years!  Luisa and her husband have a little riverside resort where they rent moorage and boats and have a little bar.  They served us a delicious sangiovese (from the Veneto) and a delicious array of antipasti  made by Luisa.  Following are a few pictures from the week-end.

There are recycling bins on the corners for compost, plastics, paper, glass and cartons

 These are pictures of a couple of fancy houses in our neighborhood that Tom likes and wanted me to see.

This is the automatic car wash near our house--it is so tiny!

No wonder Gina likes Tom best--he is always enticing her inside with food!

Franca and Angelo examining Lorenzo's boat for possible purchase

full moon at the marina

Marina where we visited  F & A's friends

Venezia in Novembre

After returning from Bologna and Ravenna we spent a few days taking care of routine chores like cleaning house, doing laundry, paying bills, and a little shopping, plus, of course, daily trips to "our" cafe for coffee or a spritz and use of the free wi-fi.

Tom ordering an Americano in 'our' cafe

Why Starbucks can't get anywhere in Italy

The cafe near our apartment isn't an old world charming place.  It is very modern and large, but the coffee and drinks are good, the wi fi is free, and they don't seem to mind when we camp out at a table for a couple of hours.   Starbucks doesn't have a chance here--the price of coffee is regulated by the government, with expresso 1E and a cappucino 1.20, plus the cappucino is a lot better even at our cafe than it is at Starbucks.

We also found a barber for Tom and a paruchierre (hair stylist) for me and got our first Italian haircuts.  Everything like that is an exercise in learning new vocabulary--I had to look up the word for haircut which turns out to be taglio di capelli (cut of the hair).  I enjoyed chatting with the stylist who likes Seattle because she watches Grey's Anatomy which is quite popular here.  It is on every night, dubbed into Italian.  Sandra Oh makes commercials for Sky TV, also dubbed.  George Clooney makes commercials for Nescafe which seems to be really popular here. I told Annabella that Macklemore is from Seattle (a song was playing at the time) and she was quite impressed and asked me to translate the words for her.  My translation of  "I'm gonna pop some tags, got $20 in my pocket..."  was pretty stilted--"Ho intenzione di rimuovere alcuni cartellini dei prezzi. ha ottenuto 20 dollari in tasca"  She appreciated the effort though.

Yesterday we made another day trip to Venezia--we feel like old pro's now, catching the bus to Piazzale Roma, then the traghetto down the Grand Canal.  This time we visited the Peggy Guggenheim museum.  She retired in Italy, where she collected a lot of art by  Picasso, Salvador Dali,  Magritte, Kandinsky, Calder, etc., many of whom were her friends or proteges.  She bequeathed her palazzo and art to the city.  The Guggenheim was a nice change from a steady diet of madonnas and crucifixions.  No photos allowed inside (although as far as we can tell we are the only two who ever heed that rule), but these are from the sculpture garden.

Entry to the Peggy Guggenheim museum

One of the sculpture gardens with a piece by Henry Moore in the back

Another sculpture garden shot--I liked the neon writing in the vines.

After the Guggenheim we walked along the streets until we found a restaurant for lunch, then continued on to the Accademia, the opposite of the Guggenheim--a collection of Venetian art from the 13-17 centuries. Following are a few pictures we took along the way.

Some scenes on the way to the Accademia

Church in a piazza where we stopped for a breather

You see a lot of artists in Venice

Gondolier on his cell phone

One of the rooms in the Accademia

A few weeks made a lot of difference in the number of tourists in Venice. Mid-October had about half the number of tourists as we saw when we visited in August years ago, and November probably half that of  October.  We didn't even have to rush to get the coveted (by tourists) seats in the front of the traghetto.  We didn't hear or see many Americans, the tourists that were there were mostly Asian or German. There were quite a few people at the Guggenheim,  but not at the Accademia, even though there was a special Leonardo exhibit there.  The Leonardo exhibit had mostly smaller works, and pages from notebooks, as well as works inspired by Leonardo, but it was still fascinating.  The Biennale has a few weeks left to run, so we will probably go another day just to looks at some of those exhibits before they are gone. Next week we head to Trieste and then Rovinj--first time in Croatia.

Starting to drizzle--have to rush home and bring in the laundry!
Ciao a tutti

Bologna; La Grossa, La Dotta, La Rossa

Back in Chioggia after our trip to Ravenna and Bologna.  They made a good pair for a short trip (6 days altogether) because they are so different from each other.  Ravenna is a small town with many great artistic sites in a small area.  Bologna, in contrast, is the fourth largest city in Italy with a student population of 80,000 and is a much more gritty, urban city.  Bologna has three nicknames:  La Grossa (the fat--because it is famous for its good food), La Dotta (the doctor or learned because it has what is claimed to be the oldest university in Europe) and La Rossa (because it has many red buildings and because it is a 'leftist' city which has voted in the Communist party for many, many years).  There was also a huge contrast in our accommodations--from the very large suite in Ravenna (which they gave us for the price of a double because the doubles were full) to a very small room and shared bathroom in Bologna--taken to save our tourist budget for the fantastic meals promised in Bologna.  We miss the Ravenna hotel, where they even wrapped up the towels like a present every morning!

Tom validating train ticket at Ravenna station

Piazza Magiore, the center of Bologna tourism

Tom enjoys a pre-dinner drink near our hotel (you can see the portici in the background)

Piatti tipica bolognese:  ravioli with pumpkin and balsamic vinegar sauce.  Ridiculously good. 

 Bologna is also famous for its 25 miles of porticos (portici in Italian) which make it possible to walk most places without getting wet.  They started building them when there was a severe room shortage (centuries ago) due to the many students.  They let people add on rooms to the front of their buildings, and the portici were the supports for the buildings.  Many of them have intricate carvings and beautiful painted ceilings as well as tiled or marble floors. People liked them so much they kept building them.

Tom poses in (on? under?) a portico

Piazza Netuno, next to Piazza Magiore.  The fountain is considered somewhat scandalous (see mermaid below)

We walked to Piazza Maggiore from the hotel the first day, also checked out Piazza Netuno, before heading.  back. We had dinner at a restaurant near the hotel which I later found recommended on a foodie blog.  The restaurant, named Trebbi, opened inj 1946 and was packed with locals enjoying the tavolo caldo (hot table) which had a wide assortment of antipasti--help yourself for 7 euros for a large plate.  But be warned, if you pile your plate too high, they charge more.  It is not the American style 'all you can eat' or all you can heap onto one plate.

The next morning I had cause to regret selecting a room with a shared bathroom as we were unable to get into the bathroom for two hours  Turns out that this was because a British family of four was hogging the bathroom and tag teaming it--there was no problem the rest of the stay as they left that morning.  Our room was tiny but clean and adequate for our needs which were primarily flopping down on the bed and resting our weary feet when we returned from the day's outing.

There is a lot to see in Bologna, but a big part of it is hanging out on the piazzas and in the cafes and eating great food.  In addition to that, we visited Sant' Stefano, the oldest Christian church I have ever visited.  It was actually 7 churches, only 4 of which are still open, and was very interesting.  Following are pictures of places we saw on the second two days in Bologna.

Fall is coming to Bologna--vines changing color

Lots of graffitti in the portici

A

Tom next to Pilate's bowel--supposedly where Pontius Pilate washed his hands after denouncing Jesus, later proved to be from the 8th century.  Below, one of the 7 churches at San Stefano.

Pilate courtyard, San Stefano

Details from San Stefano

Deli counter at grocery store near San Stefano

Interesting lamppost

The doors along the portici are VERY tall

Teatro anatomico, Bologna--note the statues supporting the lectern are skinned to show muscles and arteries

Medieval museum.  Many of the museums in Bologna have these old fashioned wooden cases lining the rooms, very charming.

Room at museum

concrete furniture outside museo mediavale

Photographs of bolognese who were killed in the resistance --a memorial at Piazza Maggiore

Terra cotta figures at church

"Art installation" at medieval museum.  The cabinet is a 'museum' and each drawer is a different 'floor."  The current installation was from a performance piece where the artist chewed up and spit out pages from books to show ingestion of western literature.   Pieces of the books and the spit out pages are on display with pictures of the artist performing her piece.

Dominus vobiscum from the medieval museum.