Holiday update
Okay, said I'd do it so here it is- a proper update on what I got up to.
The Garfangana Valley (aka 'land of wolves and bandits.' Honest.)
As viewed from the house at sunset :). This is the valley below the house we were staying in. To the one end- shown here- lay Castlenuovo and beyond that, the Gotto del vento, a biiiig series of caves originally discovered by a four-year old girl who squeezed into the original tiny entrance hall as part of a bet by her brothers. Little boys can be such brats. To the other end is Barga, and just down from out house was a little village called Albiano, which centred around a bar, local shop and very good resteraunt, called La Terraza. I recommend the wild boar ;).
The House
(I don't really like this picture, but it was too hot to finish it properly) The house sat on one of the terraces on the side of the mountain, accesable only by a steep, narrow twisty little road that zigzagged up to it. Like the other houses in the area, the walls were white, the roof terracotta, and the windows and doors narrow, with wooden shutters. The pergola at the front provided a lovely shadey spot to sit in the heat of the day. Within the first couple of days of arriving a family of stray cats attached themselves to us- a beautiful feral tabby and white female with black circles about her eyes, and her three kittens- two white with grey spots, and one tabby and white like its mother. The kittens were rather tamer, and horribly, horribly cute. (try eating a meal with three mournful sets of little kitten eyes watching. It's hard.) There was also a noisey male tabby we called nocchi ('nuts' or 'dumplings' in Italian. He was- well, very very very obviously male) and an elderly, mute tortoiseshell female that would sit and watch me draw. We also saw an all-black male and another tabby, but they were more feral and didn't stick around.
Did I mentain, there were lots of cats?
There were also plenty of insects- slugs up to six inches long, mini black scorpions, large, chunky grey spiders, and these things:
Which remain horribly unidentified. There were lizards as well, which the cats ate. In fact, the cats ate most of the above, apart from scorpions and slugs. The kittens tried to eat the pergola several times, without sucess.
Barga
Barga comes in two sections, old and new town. The new town's pretty dull by day, but has several good restraunts and on Wednesday evenings hosts a night market which is worth looking at- lots of pretty jewellry stalls, and you can haggle most of the prices down. The old town is surrounded by a deep, medieval dry moat- now a park- and slopes steeply up the hilltop to the Duomo, a 12th century cathedral. Artists' studios open onto the roads through the old town, and most are open for visitors to wander around and look at work in progress. (Be aware that if you are also an artist, you may be in for a looooong visit and a possible cup of coffee. The artists here like other artists ;))
There is a plaza halfway up the hill with (another) very good resteraunt and a few shops and bars, where I settled and drew this-
Which is prettier in real life (the gold ink didn't scan well). The resteraunt is reflected in the doors- I can't remember its name, but it does wonderful salmon pasta. A couple of locals wandered over to see what I was doing and grinned at me. They do like artists :).
Lucca
Lucca is another major nearby town. It is an ancient (pre Roman) walled city-town that has hardly changed in design since it was built- the walls remain the same, and have never been breached. The streets are narrow and shady, with the occaisional broad plaza opening out in front of churches and other big buildings:
was one we came across- the sketch was rather hurried because of ther big black clouds that were building up. Stopped at a resteraunt for lunch and got a free hot chocolate and handshake from our (rather tasty) waiter for doing a sketch on my placemat :). Wandered through the rest of Lucca in the afternoon- really is a very beautiful place, full of tall towers- including one topped rather bizarrely by an oak tree. However the trip was cut a bit short when the clouds turned into a massive thunderstorm right on top of the city- lightningbolts striking only a few streets away. None of us had clothes for wet weather- it had been scorching all day- so when it started pelts down we had to dash back through the city to the car- rather nice, actually. Very cooling.
Other places
Florence
If this hadn't involved a horrible train journey to and fro, I'm sure I'd have enjoyed it more, but I didn't really like Florence a lot. Crowded- very crowded- with japanese tourists, very expensive, and stiflingly hot. There were some nice stalls on the street, the buildings were very beautiful, and the art gallery was impressive, yes- but apart from that, I could have done without visiting it. Probably lovely out of the summer months- maybe one for visitng in autumn or spring.
Pisa
Rather like Florence- hot, touristy and without shade. It all centres about one square containing the cathedral, baptistry and, of course, the tower. The tower is impressive, but the price to go up it was steep, so we didn't bother, and instead went for the Cathedral. There were armed gaurds on the door who would pick out any women wearing skimpy tops (which included me and my sister- it was a very, very hot day) and hand out these bright blue paper-fabric-cheescloth type blanket tunic things, which effectively covered you entirely from neck to knee. This rather soured the experience- the interior was very beautiful, and had some magnificent paintings- ironicly many containing religious figures completely in the nudd. But wondering about under this stifling itchyblue thing I felt like I'd been picked out as some sort of slut- something that needed covering over and hiding from respectable people. Likewise my sister was majorly pissed off, not least because several men had got in with string vests and shorts.
Seems the catholic church's god is offended by the sight of female anatomy in particular. Bleah. I'm very glad sometimes I ain't catholic.
(okay, semi-religious complaint over)
Viareggio
(no sketch of this either, I'm afraid) A big, built up seaside resort with ranks of parasols and sunbeds on the beach. Went went in the afternnon, when it was cooling off- being out in the midday sun in Italy is a very unpleasant experience. Warm, calm water, soft sand and very few screaming kids- it was lovely. One minor nuisance were the people that would try to sell you things. Offers included- sunglasses, watches, beachtowels, fake designer handbags, temporary tatoos, and one perticularly enterprising man tried to sell us a whole pinapple. What he expected we'd do with it, I'm really not sure 0_0
Anyway, that's most of what I got up to- I can't tell you everything- it'd take days to write :)
The Garfangana Valley (aka 'land of wolves and bandits.' Honest.)
As viewed from the house at sunset :). This is the valley below the house we were staying in. To the one end- shown here- lay Castlenuovo and beyond that, the Gotto del vento, a biiiig series of caves originally discovered by a four-year old girl who squeezed into the original tiny entrance hall as part of a bet by her brothers. Little boys can be such brats. To the other end is Barga, and just down from out house was a little village called Albiano, which centred around a bar, local shop and very good resteraunt, called La Terraza. I recommend the wild boar ;).
The House
(I don't really like this picture, but it was too hot to finish it properly) The house sat on one of the terraces on the side of the mountain, accesable only by a steep, narrow twisty little road that zigzagged up to it. Like the other houses in the area, the walls were white, the roof terracotta, and the windows and doors narrow, with wooden shutters. The pergola at the front provided a lovely shadey spot to sit in the heat of the day. Within the first couple of days of arriving a family of stray cats attached themselves to us- a beautiful feral tabby and white female with black circles about her eyes, and her three kittens- two white with grey spots, and one tabby and white like its mother. The kittens were rather tamer, and horribly, horribly cute. (try eating a meal with three mournful sets of little kitten eyes watching. It's hard.) There was also a noisey male tabby we called nocchi ('nuts' or 'dumplings' in Italian. He was- well, very very very obviously male) and an elderly, mute tortoiseshell female that would sit and watch me draw. We also saw an all-black male and another tabby, but they were more feral and didn't stick around.
Did I mentain, there were lots of cats?
There were also plenty of insects- slugs up to six inches long, mini black scorpions, large, chunky grey spiders, and these things:
Which remain horribly unidentified. There were lizards as well, which the cats ate. In fact, the cats ate most of the above, apart from scorpions and slugs. The kittens tried to eat the pergola several times, without sucess.
Barga
Barga comes in two sections, old and new town. The new town's pretty dull by day, but has several good restraunts and on Wednesday evenings hosts a night market which is worth looking at- lots of pretty jewellry stalls, and you can haggle most of the prices down. The old town is surrounded by a deep, medieval dry moat- now a park- and slopes steeply up the hilltop to the Duomo, a 12th century cathedral. Artists' studios open onto the roads through the old town, and most are open for visitors to wander around and look at work in progress. (Be aware that if you are also an artist, you may be in for a looooong visit and a possible cup of coffee. The artists here like other artists ;))
There is a plaza halfway up the hill with (another) very good resteraunt and a few shops and bars, where I settled and drew this-
Which is prettier in real life (the gold ink didn't scan well). The resteraunt is reflected in the doors- I can't remember its name, but it does wonderful salmon pasta. A couple of locals wandered over to see what I was doing and grinned at me. They do like artists :).
Lucca
Lucca is another major nearby town. It is an ancient (pre Roman) walled city-town that has hardly changed in design since it was built- the walls remain the same, and have never been breached. The streets are narrow and shady, with the occaisional broad plaza opening out in front of churches and other big buildings:
was one we came across- the sketch was rather hurried because of ther big black clouds that were building up. Stopped at a resteraunt for lunch and got a free hot chocolate and handshake from our (rather tasty) waiter for doing a sketch on my placemat :). Wandered through the rest of Lucca in the afternoon- really is a very beautiful place, full of tall towers- including one topped rather bizarrely by an oak tree. However the trip was cut a bit short when the clouds turned into a massive thunderstorm right on top of the city- lightningbolts striking only a few streets away. None of us had clothes for wet weather- it had been scorching all day- so when it started pelts down we had to dash back through the city to the car- rather nice, actually. Very cooling.
Other places
Florence
If this hadn't involved a horrible train journey to and fro, I'm sure I'd have enjoyed it more, but I didn't really like Florence a lot. Crowded- very crowded- with japanese tourists, very expensive, and stiflingly hot. There were some nice stalls on the street, the buildings were very beautiful, and the art gallery was impressive, yes- but apart from that, I could have done without visiting it. Probably lovely out of the summer months- maybe one for visitng in autumn or spring.
Pisa
Rather like Florence- hot, touristy and without shade. It all centres about one square containing the cathedral, baptistry and, of course, the tower. The tower is impressive, but the price to go up it was steep, so we didn't bother, and instead went for the Cathedral. There were armed gaurds on the door who would pick out any women wearing skimpy tops (which included me and my sister- it was a very, very hot day) and hand out these bright blue paper-fabric-cheescloth type blanket tunic things, which effectively covered you entirely from neck to knee. This rather soured the experience- the interior was very beautiful, and had some magnificent paintings- ironicly many containing religious figures completely in the nudd. But wondering about under this stifling itchyblue thing I felt like I'd been picked out as some sort of slut- something that needed covering over and hiding from respectable people. Likewise my sister was majorly pissed off, not least because several men had got in with string vests and shorts.
Seems the catholic church's god is offended by the sight of female anatomy in particular. Bleah. I'm very glad sometimes I ain't catholic.
(okay, semi-religious complaint over)
Viareggio
(no sketch of this either, I'm afraid) A big, built up seaside resort with ranks of parasols and sunbeds on the beach. Went went in the afternnon, when it was cooling off- being out in the midday sun in Italy is a very unpleasant experience. Warm, calm water, soft sand and very few screaming kids- it was lovely. One minor nuisance were the people that would try to sell you things. Offers included- sunglasses, watches, beachtowels, fake designer handbags, temporary tatoos, and one perticularly enterprising man tried to sell us a whole pinapple. What he expected we'd do with it, I'm really not sure 0_0
Anyway, that's most of what I got up to- I can't tell you everything- it'd take days to write :)