2004 Europe

Puccini Statue & Birthplace - Lucca, Italy



May 7 – Today we are docked in Livorno, Italy and the sky is clear but the wind is blowing a gale. The weather was so bad here that the ferry that goes to Corsica, where we just came from did not sail. Unfortunately, we were scheduled to dock at that pier so we are being held off the pilot station while they try to move the ferry to another pier. It’s not as big as we are and we won’t fit at the open pier. To say that the weather here has been unusual would be to understate the situation. Before we left the US I looked up all these ports on a weather history site and they are listed as only receiving 1-2 inches of rain in the entire month of May. I guess they get it all at once.



Last was the roughest night we’ve had this trip but not the roughest Diana and I have experienced. Both the North Atlantic and Bering Seas were much rougher on occasion.. The main problem is avoiding staggering people as you try to get from place to place. It wouldn’t be good to have a collision, especially since the average age of the passengers on this trip is probably in the mid-seventies. A water pipe broke in the main show room at 3AM.



Because of the delay our tour, which was supposed to leave at 7:45AM, did not leave pier side until almost 11AM. It’s sunny but the wind makes it pretty cold. Today we are in Tuscany and are headed up into the hills for which this region is famous. Only 10% of Tuscany is flat and the port of Livorno is right in the middle of that area so my first impression was that the area was pretty level. Turns out that this entire section of Tuscany was once a delta of the Arno River. It was very marshy and not very hospitable. Malaria was rampant and people didn’t want to live here. In order to bribe people to come here laws were passed that exempted anyone in the region from taxes and the port was declared a ‘free port’. All this happened before Italy was a country. It’s amazing how many European countries are younger than the USA. For example, both Italy and Germany didn’t exist before the 1800s. Italy, not unlike Germany, was originally a collection of city-states and principalities. Garibaldi all eventually united them sometime in the 1860s, I think. In any event putting in a matrix of canals eventually drained this lowland area and malaria was wiped out here in 1954.



In about 25 minutes we were in the foothills and a little later arrived in Lucca. Lucca is the birthplace of Puccini (above) and the famous meeting between Caesar, Crasso and Pompey took place here in 56BC. Luccans are proud to be the only city-state not conquered by Florence in the whole of Tuscany. As a result the people and attitudes are a little different that the rest of the region which lived under Florentine rule for years. They are a little less open but when approached are just as friendly. People have been living on this site since the Paleolithic era but it is most likely that the Ligurians or Etruscans founded the current city. The Romans were here big time and are probably responsible for the size and shape of the old town.



Since the old city is walled and, once again has very narrow streets, the bus had to drop us off at the wall and we went on a walking tour. The most impressive things we saw were St Michael’s on the Forum, and St. Martino’s Cathedral.



St. Michael’s on the Forum (below) gets its name from the fact that it stands on the site of the old Roman Forum. The church was built in the 13th century and is Romanic is style. It has a whimsical; fantasy style with the various courses of arches supported my many styles of columns. In the top two sets, every column is different. In the lower courses there are several columns that are just round but most are unique.



The Cathedral of St. Martino stands on one face of Plaza St. Martino. It was completed in 1204AD but the inside was redone in the 14th and 15th centuries. The front facade would be taller but funding ran out and it was never finished. No pictures were allowed inside so I can’t show you one of my favorite paintings. It’s the ‘Last Supper’ painted by Tintoretto in 1590. In my opinion, it’s far better than Leonardo’s. I bought a post card of it that is reproduced below. The colors are all wrong but you can see the composition.



The table is set at an angle towards the viewer, sloping down and to the left. I may be reading too much into this but here’s why I like it. At the top is heaven, the angels observing the activity below. The 12 disciples are gathered around the table, Christ at the head, 6 disciples on each side and the end toward the viewer empty as though inviting him or her to join in. The way the table appears to slope towards the viewer implies that the blessings here will flow downward to him. There’s even an loaf of bread perched right on the table’s edge waiting for the viewer to come and eat. One of the disciples is eating bread from Jesus’ hand, showing the personal nature of both the sacrifice and the gift. In the foreground, at about the viewer’s level, seated against two stairs leading up to the table, is a woman nursing a child. To me, this indicates the life giving aspect of the sacrifice that is symbolized in the Eucharist, the broken body and shed blood of Jesus Christ. Tintoretto painted the last supper at least two other times. One of them, a more traditional view painted in 1594, is more famous than this one. Even though that one is more formal, it is still more lively than Leonardo’s.



Leonardo’s Last Supper, with it’s horizontal table and everyone seated on the one long side, has always had a cold, uninviting feeling for me. It’s almost like he’s saying, “You are not invited.” The tribunal form of the dais reinforces this feeling. It looks more like a panel of judges than a celebration of the greatest sacrifice ever made. I don’t think this feeling is accidental. Leonardo was no great fan of the gospel or the church. The latter was probably justified, keeping in mind what was going on in the Roman church at the time, but the former was a big miscalculation on his part. To be fair, Tintoretto painted his canvas 100 years after Leonardo. Leonardo’s version is the first great figure composition of the High Renaissance. He chose to capture the moment when Christ announces that he will be betrayed by one of the apostles. Tintoretto’s was painted in the Mannerist-style and captures the moment when the Communion was instituted. The Cathedral had many other fine works of art, but for me they all pale in comparison to the Tintoretto.



After the walking tour we left Lucca and headed higher into the mountains and the farm where we are having lunch. The European unification has had a terrible effect on the small farmers of Italy so the government has created Agri-tourism. They provided funds for the farmers to update and modify their farmhouses to become B & Bs. The farm still works but they receive supplemental income from the tourists.



We arrived at Maionchi Farm just after 2PM at the result of our late start. We ate in rooms that were in the half basement floor of the house. It had half windows high up on the rough stone walls. When we arrived there were three bottles of wine on the table, one white, one medium red and one dark red and a bowl of small green olives. We were seated with Joan & Ian from Scotland and Gloria from NoCal (below). The guide told us that the climate in the area allows them to grow olives but only small ones. These are not exported but are all consumed in Italy, mostly in Tuscany. She said we should eat the olives with the bread and the white wine. Of course, being of German extraction, I followed her instructions exactly.



Next came a Tuscan vegetable and bean soup served in a large pottery crock. Soup here is a little different. It’s more like a stew in the US. They make the soup the day ahead and then reheat it when they want to eat. They line the crock with bread then spoon in a layer of soup, then more bread followed by more soup, until the crock is about 2/3 full. As the result of this process there is no liquid remaining after the crock is filled, the bread has absorbed it all. The weight of the whole thing becomes quite impressive. When the server brought ours, for a table of 6, she reached past Diana to hand the crock to me. When I took it I understood why. The soup had broccoli, zucchini, carrots, a medium sized purplish bean I didn’t recognize, and some other things I couldn’t identify. It was flavorful, delicious in fact, but not spicy. With this course we were advised to drink the medium red wine and they went very well together.



Next came three plates of various things we would associate with antipasto, cheese, various meats, beans, olives, etc. With this course were advised to have the dry red wine. As we were eating this course several plates of bread came out. The first one had melted cheese on top. The second was something like the garlic bread we have in the States. The third was like Pennsylvania Dutch bacon bread. After frying the bacon, the skillet is brought to the table and everyone takes ¼ slices of bread on a fork and sops up the grease. (It just occurred to me that this is actually a grease fondue) Their version is prepared in the kitchen and is slightly saltier, but very a very nostalgic flavor for me.



Then came almond biscotti and slightly sweet raisin bread with a mildly sweet white (straw colored) wine. The biscotti and the wine were a perfect match. Since the wine did not come in a bottle I asked what it was. It’s called Aqua Sancta (Holy Water). Apparently they take the best grapes and hang them in a dry place until they become raisins. They then mash the raisins, hoping that there are natural yeasts forming on the skins, put the whole mess in a barrel and age it for five years without any further attention. Then they open the barrels and see what they have gotten. Sometimes there was no yeast and therefore no fermentation. Sometimes there is too much fermentation, but they find that out early when the barrel explodes from the pressure. Most of the time they find Aqua Sancta. There is very limited production and it is not generally exported. It is also very expensive, which explains why they served it in the glass and not the bottle. That was followed by strong coffee. Just when I thought I’d escaped and was making my way out of the restaurant the momma came up with a tray of glasses and a bottle of grappa. She seemed like she would be insulted if I didn’t accept some so I took a ¼ inch serving. It’s clear 100 proof Italian firewater. I’m sure the local arsonists use it as an accelerant in starting their fires. It did not have a bad flavor or really much flavor at all but you could feel it all the way down.



After lunch we boarded the bus to go to a French country villa from 1500, the Villa di Camigliano. It was the summer residence of a wealthy Luccan family. In 1636 it was bought by the Marquis Nicolao Santini, ambassador of the, then, Republic of Lucca to the court of Louis the XIV. The family still lives in the villa in the summer so we couldn't take any pictures during our tour. The ceilings were all done in elaborate frescos in the 1600s. They have never been restored, only cleaned, and the colors are vibrant and the detail mostly perfect. The furniture and decorations are all original except for some family pictures in frames on desks and tables. There were some great pictures from the 1920s & 30s of the owners in their finery. Some of the furniture was nice but the highlights for me were the ceilings. While we were touring the house a thunderstorm swept down the valley. It was awesome. One bolt of lightning would produce about 3 minutes of thunder as the sound echoed off first one set of hills then another. I managed to turn my video recorder on after one flash fast enough to record the sound. We walked through several of the gardens on the way back to the bus while it rained and thundered. It was great!



Then it was back on the bus for the return trip to Livorno. We arrived back at about 7:30PM and had dinner in the Lido at the buffet. They were serving an Italian style dinner that included crab legs and claws. I love crab claws, easy to eat and lots of meat. Yummmmm!! The show for the evening was Jon Courtenay. He does a very good variety show, some magic, some singing, some comedy and a lot of very good piano. He was just as good this time as he was the first.



During dinner we had an announcement by the captain that he was going to remain at the dock in Livorno so the ship would not be bouncing around in the night. I was little disappointed as I find the motion very soothing but I seem to be in the minority. The ship’s movement has not been at all violent, more of a pitch and roll motion. Tomorrow’s at sea and I’m looking forward to the rest. All this hiking up to medieval cities is tiring.

(c) 2004 Rod Longenberger