Nice

We arrived in Nice, on the Cote d'Azure, France's Riviera, with the intention of staying one night and then heading to Barcelona for a couple of days. We hoped to show Rory and Jasper the Guadi architecture, a Dali museum, and a bunch of works by Joan Miro, a Barcelona born surrealist artist.
Unfortunately, upon arriving in Nice, we found the train to Barcelona completely booked up for the next day. Due to a series of scheduling mishaps too convoluted to go into, we had planned to go back to Italy, just across the border, to an ecovillage for a week of work/study after our quick Barcelona adventure.
So we ended up bagging Barcelona and decided to stay in Nice for 4 nights, spending Halloween here as well.
I didn't know much about Nice before coming, but I learned that there was a very strong modern art presence here and all along the Cote d'Azure. The hostel where we're staying is a converted convent, with art on all the walls and crazy stained glass windows in the 'cyberchapel' where I'm blogging right now.
Nice is France's fifth largest city and is surrounded by opulent places like Cannes and Monaco. But the amazing thing to me is that Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall, Joan Miro and Pierre-August Renoir all called this area home and praised it's light and color.
The Marc Chagall museum here is fantastic with many large canvasses. It's so great to get up close to these huge paintings and see the detail.
The pictures show details of Chagall paintings, Jasper with the Hostel Mascot, Rory on the Pebble beach in Nice, Jasper acting out in front of the Nice Tram, and me in the Cyberchapel.

More on Nice later. Tomorrow we're going back across the border to Torre Superiori.
Ciao for now

Medesano arrivederci , bon jour nice

The second day in Medesano, we promised ourselves a day of rest and relaxation, and maybe we'd just zip into Parma in the afternoon to look around. Besides we, especially myself, were still suffering with a bit of lingering crud.

We should have listened to Rory and Jasper when they said they didn't want to go to town that day! We cajoled them into the car but then there was a last minute phone call and Vito was delayed.

When we finally left we had a death defying drive into town to catch the bus. We got to Parma and looked around. Went to the cathedral which had some stunning frescoes on the cupola. Then we went and bought food because we'd arranged to cook a chile relleno casserole for dinner. We also bought an international electrical adapter since our camera battery was dead.

Feeling pretty smug we got to the bus stop 20 minutes early and, just to be safe, I asked in my rudimentary Italian where the bus for Medesano came. I was told by one bus driver that it came to this stop--yeh! But the next one I asked said it came across the street. I began asking a random sampling of people and the answers fell into four distinct groups; 'yes, it comes here', 'no, it comes across the street', 'no, it comes somewhere over there', and finally 'I don't know'--probably the most honest answer.

Well, 6:28 came and went and then 6:45 and we began to get a little worried realizing that Vito was going to pick us up in Medesano at 7:15.

We tried to phone and couldn't get through. Now mild panic set in. We went to the main train/bus station to see if there was any other way to get to Medesano. By now it was nearly 8:00 and there wasn't anyone around who could help us through the labrynth of the Italian transportation system.

We began to consider taking a taxi the 15 or so miles to Medesano but didn't really think we'd be able to find the house in the dark, as it's a few kilometers out of town.

In desperation I tried the phone again and miraculously, Erica answered. I told her where we were and she said that Vito was waiting for us at the Bus stop in Medesano and she'd let him know to come pick us up. Yes! Saved, once again.

On the way back home, Vito told us of a similar experience they'd had with Servas hosts in Australia. The hosts came 50 km to pick them up but they'd missed the ferry. When they called the hosts said, no problem, mate, we'll come pick you up at the next one. According to Vito, the hosts ended up making 5 or six 50 km trips to get them.

That night, we got home late and had vegetable soup and crostini that Erica made. It felt great to be home.

Now, we were faced with a dilemna. We had planned to leave the next day, after our 'day of rest.' After looking at all the options, we invited ourselves to stay one more night in Medesano and leave the day after, feeling like the guests that would never leave. But Erica and Vito are the most gracious hosts in the world and said that that would work better for them too.

So the next day we really did rest, only walking into Medesano in the morning. We came back and worked out our travel plans for the next week (Nice, to Barcelona, back to Nice for Halloween, and then back to Italy for a week at an Ecovillage).

That night we had the chile relleno casserole and another friend, Maria Pia came over and brought a delicious strudel for dessert. Unfortunately, I was suffering from full blown sinusitis by this time and my face felt like it would explode. Vito wanted to go walking in the woods at night, and if you can believe it, I declined.

When they heard about my infirmity, they instantly set about making a tisane (an herbal tea) from 'fresh grass' as Vito called it, a mixture of fresh herbs from the garden. I felt better instantly and by morning was on the mend.

We left on the train from Fidenza to Nice the next morning.

Thanks Erica and Vito for a stupendous time!

Cremona

After the chocolate festival, we went back to the house and made sandwiches for a picnic to be taken to Cremona, a town about 45 minutes north of Medesano in the neighboring province of Lombardy. We were compelled to go to Cremona because of it's fame as the birthplace of the 'modern' violin, the location of the workshops of Amati, Guarneri, and Stradivari.

Cremona has a long and ancient history, dating from pre-Roman times, long before it's fame as a hotbed of musical instrument manufacture. We saw some beautiful buildings in the main piazza, but mostly went for the Stradivarius museum. Sorry for the fuzzy pictures but, of course no flash was allowed there. They had a huge collection of tools and drawings from the great man's workshop, as well as instruments from many different workshops in Cremona, including the greats mentioned above. We even got to hear (in a video) the violins being played, as they are apparently periodically to keep music flowing through them.

After leaving Cremona, Vito picked us up at the station in Fidenza to take us back home where we were to have dinner with the couple from downstairs--Erica and Lope. Now, mind you, this is all one day--the parmesan factory, the chocolate festival, Cremona and then around 8:30 a dinner of polenta with ragu (tomato meat sauce).

We were already a little worn out when we got there but by the end of day one, we were completely exhausted. We had a lovely dinner--Erica and Lope are super folks and very friendly--and then we had to sing some songs. Vito is well versed in the music of the 60's and we sang some favorite folk songs; Teach your children well, The Times they are a Changin, Guantanamera. It was great fun.

The pictures show; Vito's car being filled up with propane!, the piazza in Cremona, a Stradivarius violin, an astrological clock in the piazza, Rory with her favorite musical instrument-a chocolate grand piano.

Further Medesano adventures

For some reason the last two posts are out of order. In case anyone is confused, we went from Trento to Medesano-Parma, so that should be the last post.

Let's see, where were we...

Oh yes, we had just left the Parmigiano factory/farm (after taking quick peak at the pigs---and we were told that they were very sensetive so we should be quiet).

We went back to Vito and Erica's 1800's restored farmhouse for breakfast. The farmhouse is actually very large and once belonged to a rich family who had a large farm. Erica and Vito bought it with another family and remodeled about 25 years ago. They bought such a large place with the intention of having 'public area' where they could have meetings, seminars, and have groups of people (like the Krehbiel-Norths) come to stay. Interstingly, this is precisely the 'co-housing' model that Theresa and I have long talked about and been unable to make happen in Hood River. Currently, besides having Servas guests, Vito uses the meeting area to conduct non-violence training.

Well, as if things could not get any better Vito told us that after breakfast we could go to Medesano where they were having a chocolate festival!

The pictures show the chocolate festival, the kids getting balloons, the chapel in front of Vito and Erica's house, and Jasper with one of his new friends.

Venice to Trento

After leaving Venice (and we were glad to go with the high water coming in and the rain--see pictures at the bottom) we took the train up to Trento, near the German speaking area of Italy. We were extremely fortunate to make contact with Patrizia and Giorgio, another family of Servas hosts who agreed to have us come stay.
We got to the station in Pergine (near Trento) and Giorgio picked us up and drove us the 10 minutes up the hill to their home in the tiny village of Penedalo. We had a lovely dinner of vegetable soup, bread, cheese and Spek (a local cured pork). Giorgio speaks english fluently with a perfect British accent which he maintains by watching a lot of British and American movies.

We had planned to stay only one night and then move on to our next host, but, thankfully, Giorgio and Patrizia invited us to stay another night and have a 'day off,' just hiking in the hills around Penedallo. We hiked up to a nearby lake and learned that this area had been a very important silver mining region in the middle ages and the mine shafts are seen all throught the woods. The area is very beautiful with many surrounding hills and higher snowcapped peaks of the Dolomites (part of the Alps) seen in the background.

We enjoyed relaxing at their home and using the computer to blog! Rory and Jasper really liked Noce (pronounced Noche) the guinea pig who is very friendly, so much so that he crawled up Jasper's pant leg and Jasper had to take off his pants to set Noce free.

The second night we had a 'spactaculo' with all the kids performing; Simone, age 4, started out with 'the Pirate Song.' We didn't understand all the words but we really enjoyed the gusto of the presentation. Then came Bianca on the Cello (or Violincello as the say it). What a lovely sound. Then Ana entertained us with some acrobatics. Rory finished up with a performance of her latest song and dance routine that she's writing. Jasper couldn't be persuaded to do anything. Finally, I had to get out the guitar and sing a couple of songs.

The next day, we all went in to Trento, after Patrizia made Panini for all of our lunches. Trento is a lovely quaint town with a definite German flair. The neighboring Alto Adige, still predominantly German speaking, was part of the Austrian Empire until 1918 when it was annexed by Italy after World War I. The city itself has been successively ruled by Romans, Ostrogoths, Byzantines, Lombards and Francs, eventually becoming part of the Holy Roman Empire in 1027. It's famous for the council of Trent, in which the Catholic church tried to come up with reforms to staunch the flow of the faithfull to protestantism in 1545.

Now, although it's a part of Italy, Trentino and Alto Adige are autonomous provinces and retain much of their local control. The city is very picturesque with many frescoed buildings and a huge fountain of of Neptune with his Trident (the name Trento derives from the Roman name, Tridentum, referring to the three jagged peaks that surround the city).

Thanks Giorgio, Patrizia, Bianca, Ana, and Simone for a wonderful visit!

Medesano-Parma

Hello again from Nice, and yes it is very 'nice' here.
But right now, I must tell you about our fun time in Medesano. We left Trento and intended to go to Bologna to participate in a 'global 350' event to raise awareness of global warming. After seeing the potential devastation to be wreeked on Venice with just a few inches of sea level rise, we were even more acutely aware of this impending problem. Unfortunately the train was late and we didn't have time to get to the event before catching the train for a small town south of Parma.
When we got to Fidenza, we were met by our next Servas host, Vito. And it turns out that Vito is the past president of Servas (or Porte Aperte as it's called in Italian). On the way to his house, Vito asked us what we planned to do in Medesano while we were there. The only plan we really had was to see how parmesan cheese was made. He informed us that we could walk 500 meters from his house and go to the farm where cheese was made. We would have to get there by 8:00 a.m. to see the process.
Below, are pictures from the farm/factory. The the whole milk of the morning is mixed with the skimmed milk of the evening before and then heated and mixed. The Cheesemaker checks it until it reaches the right consistency and then it's allowed to coagulate in the copper tank, each with a capacity of 1100 liters!. As he checked the cheese he would ocassionaly pull out a small piece of the bland cheese for us to try.
Next the huge glop of curd is lifted with a piece of cloth and cut in two halves, each weighing 45 kilos, and placed into molds. These molds are then placed in vats of salt water (the only flavoring allowed for true parmesan) for about three weeks. These now hardened wheels of cheese are then moved to a storage building where they are kept for at least two years and sometimes longer.
The whey, or leftover liquid from the cheese, is fed to pigs who then become another delicacy of this region; Parma Ham.
By the way Parmesan is the french version of the name and it's actually called parmigiano in Italian.
I'll tell you much more about Medesano, Vito and Erica, and Parma in a later post. Right now I'm off to visit the small town of Vence here on the French Riviera.
Ciao



































The pictures are from top to bottom: Jasper in the storage building-overwhelmed by cheese, the raw cheese being cut in two, Rory by empty vat, Raw cheese being lifted on cloth, mixing the milk, the salt water vats, Us with Erica and Vito in front of their house, buying cheese at a different farm, Erica and Vito, Their house, Erica with Rory, Jasper and Margherita.

Siena

I'm currently blogging from a youth hostel in Nice (yes that's pronounced ''niece'') in France. But that's a long story and I'll tell you about it later. Right now I need to catch up on Siena.
Before leaving Pisa I made contact with Sergio in Siena. He belongs to Servas, a pacifist organization that arranges home stays for people traveling throughout the world. Unfortunately they couldn't have visitors that weekend but he gave me a tip on a hotel. So when we got to Sienna we got on a bus with our 8 bags (including the guitar) and were a little chagrinned to see the city of Siena disappearing behind us. After about a half hour ride we were let off, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Luckilly, the lady from the hotel was there with her car and took us to the hotel only a block away.
I called Sergio, just to say hi and let him know we would like to meet them if there was time, and his wife Ilaria answered the phone. When she found out where we were, she said we were only a block from their house and wouldn't we like to come over for dinner. It turns out they had other friends over for dinner so there were 13 of us, 6 adults and children from 13 months to 12 years. We had a lovely dinner, speaking a mix of English, Italian and Spanish, and I learned a lot about the politics of Italy. There are many scary parallels between US and Italian politics. The kids had a lovely time getting along mostly with slapstick comedy and sign language.















Siena is a beautiful city, which almost seems frozen in time, somwhere around the 13th century. Or it would seem so except for the thousands of tourists from all over the world milling about. One of Siena's signiture events is the Palio, a barebacked horse race run twice a year in the town's main square--the Piazza del Campo, pictured above. The race pits the 17 neighborhoods or contrades against each other and the winning contrade is supposed to have good luck and success for the next 6 months.

















































We had a nice picnic on the Piazza del Campo and enjoyed walking through the narrow ancient streets. The city was a major power throughout the middle ages until a bout of Black Death in the 14th century and it's eventual defeat by rival Florence. Today it is still reknowned for its excellent Medical and Law
Schools and Jazz Festival and is, of course, a major tourist destination.