Caroline's Garden and Travel Record

Most of the time, anyway… Although we didn’t visit any gardens, not even the Boboli in Florence (lack of time and energy, sadly), we saw lots and lots of container gardens everywhere we went.  Let’s start with a huge pot from Impruneta, this one found in a courtyard at the Palazzo Riccardo-Medici in Florence. Okay, not a container garden, but it sets the tone for classic terracotta pots.

Here’s a typical balcony planting.  You can see the cactus as well as the laundry drying.  This is a plant I should know, clearly Mediterranean, but I’m blanking.  The most amazing thing is that, as far as I can tell, it’s planted in two terracotta pots, one on either side of the doorway.Bougainvillea??  Here’s a closeup.  The flowers have almost a papery quality.Lots of succulents, as you might imagine in this Mediterranean climate.  Here is a window pot in Volterra,and another one.  This array of xeri-plants including cactus and yucca was outside a house in Montalcino on our way into the main piazza.  Below is mandevilla in a windowsill.They also had some beautiful geraniums.  I know, you don’t usually think of geraniums as beautiful, but in this case they are perfectly proportioned and fit the color scheme of the shutters just right.  I like this shot of sprawling ivy geraniums against the view of a narrow street in Montalcino.

This picture was taken from the bus coming back into Florence on our last day.  I’m not sure how the gardener waters these plants — does she crawl through that tiny little shuttered window, or does the low wall really hide an inset terrace? 

This part of Italy was settled by the Etruscans, or the mysterious Etruscans, as they were better known.  They liked food and drink, and to prove it they left behind funerary urns decorated with what look like real people, portrayed lounging on couches as they eat and drink.  They also made tiny animal statuettes and alabaster vases, especially in Volterra, which is known for its alabaster.  Their language has yet to be completely deciphered.  After a thousand years of prosperity in Tuscany, they were defeated by the Romans.

A side note on alabaster:  the windows in Volterra’s cathedral are made of alabaster, letting through a milky, soft light.  We visited an alabaster shop with attached workshop.  As you can see, everything was covered with a fine, talc-like dust.  The shop had some beautiful lamps and vases, but the message here was, buy something large, gorgeous and light-filled, or just pass it by. 

Back to the Etruscans.  Volterra is known for its Etruscan Museum, founded in the 18th century by an abbot who was fascinated by their civilzation, and touted as the third greatest collection after the Louvre and London’s National Gallery.  Well, they certainly had lots of things.  Here are lots and lots of alabaster vases.  And here are lots and lots of terra cotta vases.  There were lots and lots of everything, in fact.  This museum may have had a great collection, but it was exhibited without much art.  Here are some little animals – look closely and you’ll see that one of them has fallen over.  How long ago?  Some of the object were quite oddly displayed.  Here were two funerary urns placed behind a rectangular hole in the wall.  If you peered inside, you could see the second one, but otherwise not.  What was that all about?  Still, there were some objects that really gave a sense of the culture. The funerary urns with their all too human statuary were very appealing.  Best of all was the famous Shadow of Night statuette.  Since there is currently an exhibit in Paris called “Giacometti and the Etruscans,” this was on loan and we were actually looking at a copy.  Oh, well, it was still quite wonderful and clearly must have influenced Giacometti, who saw it here in the 1960s.

Cortona has an Etruscan museum, too, not quite so extensive but much more creatively displayed.  Here are some metal pot decorations that caught our eyes.  One odd thing about these museums and most others in Italy:  once you come to the end, the only way you can leave is by retracing your steps back to the entrance. Hmmm.

On Monday, we picked up our car, an automatic because of the HILL towns we were planning to visit.  A bit molto grosso, but that’s what you get when you ask for the exotic automatic transmission in Europe, and it served us quite well.  (We had to take its picture so we could find it again in the parking lot.)We were equipped with an atlas of Tuscany, a map of Siena from the B&B, another map of Siena from the Avis office, and Alison’s map of Tuscany, plus some Google maps directions that I sent to Alison’s phone.  Even so, we found that the route numbers on the maps rarely matched the route numbers on the roads.  The best way to navigate was to determine the next town and look for signs.  We asked directions a few times, too, and people were quite helpful.  You need to know sinestra (left), destra (right) and diritto (straight ahead), and you’ll manage just fine.

Once we got out of town, always interesting in a foreign city, we were soon on a boring but safe divided highway and made our way to Volterra (Monday), Cortona (Tuesday) and Montalcino (Wednesday).  Since hill towns are all unique but all share the same elements, I’m combining them here.

First, the approach:

You wend your way along the valley floor, looking at the bare hills (did they just harvest sunflowers??), grapevines, and olive trees.  As you approach your destination, you see it looming ahead of you, like this view of Cortona.  You can see why the feuding Tuscans chose hills for their cities.

Then you navigate up hairpin turns, of which I have no pictures because it was all I could do to keep my hands on the wheel and avoid the cars barreling down the hills at a great rate of speed.  Some of the approaches were just a bit scary, but if you don’t look over the guard rail you don’t have to know that it’s a sheer drop to the valley floor.

Next you find a parking place (easy) in a nearby lot and take another picture so you can remember where you parked.  Then you climb the steep stairs to the town itself.These were the 200 steps up the hill to Volterra.  On the other hand, if you visit Cortona, you can take the escalators!Much easier…

Then you find your way through the narrow streets to one of the several main piazzas in town.This is the Piazza Pubblico in Cortona, with its imposing town hall.  As in Siena, these often include a civic museum.

There is also usually a Baptistery, octagonal of course, often faced with marble like this one in Volterra.  And, of course, a cathedral.  The one in Montalcino had a small tree growing in its campanile (bell tower).  We were still in search of ART, and we saw some great things in Volterra and Cortona.  I must confess that, by Montalcino, we were all wore out and didn’t set foot in a single museum or religious institution.  But first, we saw this thirteenth century deposition of Christ in Volterra.  We paid 50p to have the light turned on so we could see it clearly for three minutes.  The Diocesan Museum in Cortona is known for its art by local Luca Signorelli, whom Frances Mayes adores but we found a bit melodramatic.  Both of us much preferred Fran Angelico’s Annunciation, also here.Then, of course, there is lunch.  In Volterra, we went to a hole in the wall recommended by  Rick Steves and enjoyed it mightily.  La Vena di Vino had a nice red wine and delicious zuppe de pane, the local equivalent of ribbolitta.  In Cortona,  we had delicious melone e prosciutto, so perfectly ripe and delicious that it must be the food of the gods, followed by thin crust pizzas.  Mine had rocket (arugula) and stracchino.In a fit of snobbery, we were somewhat appalled when a group of loud Americans plopped down and proceeded to order cheeseburgers, French fries and diet Coke.  IN ITALY!  What is the point??  And in Montalcino, which is all about wine, we had indifferent salads and antipasto accompanied by a glass of quite good Brunello.  Next: the Etruscans.