173. Fiesole and Salsa

A bright, sunny Sunday afternoon forces us out of the flat and up to Fiesole. It's been a while since we've visited this beautiful part of Florence and so we drive up to Mt Ceceri and have a ramble in the woods and enjoy the Autumn colours.

After our party, we're invited to Jane's party for a lesson on how it's supposed to be done! We finally buy a D.V.D. player and can now enjoy watching some films in English, but don'rt worry we won't spend every evening in front ogf the gogglebox as we've also enrolled in Salsa lessons at the very cool, happening Jaraguar near Costa San Giorgio! We've paid in advance for four lessons, let's see how long we can keep it going for!


(Original journal entry 21/11/04)

172. Allez Francais! Est Arrivé...

A surprise french evening - I spotted an ad for a cheese and wine tasting event and so after work we go and check it out... It's at the French institute in Piazza Ognisanti. There is a mélange of things going on... they are celebrating 50 years of the twinning of Florence and Reims, there are some great Beujolais Nouveaus and French cheese to taste and a photography exhibition.

We bump into our British Institute director, Vanessa Hall Smith... so this is how she spends her free time! There is a classical concert going on as well which we stay for and we also bump into another work colleague, receptionist, Leonardo.

Vive le France1

171. Fiorentina vs Inter

Well what do you know, my good mate, Piero has managed to swing a couple of tickets for the big game. Brazilian superstar, Adriano and his pals at Inter Milan are visiting 'purple paradise' and we are ready for the battle! After gaining promotion from serie B, The viola are now back where they belong with the big boys of serie A and I'm ready to see some top notch calcio! The season has started ok, with Fiorentina having won 3 lost 2 and drawn 4, with three of them scoreless, so we're lying mid-table.

We have some good players this season, including Giorgio Chiellini, Fabrizio Miccoli, Angelo Dilivio, Christian Maggio and Giampaolo Pazzini. The legendary Dino Zoff has replaced Emilio Mondonico as our manager, but it hasn't been a particularly good start to the season... Inter on the other hand have one of the best squads in Italy, with Adriano, Mihajlovic, Veron, Recoba, Edgar Davids, Vieri, Materazzi and our old keeper, Toldo in goal... an almost impossible team to beat!

We meet up for a pre-match pint at a local pub and make our way to our seats in the Curva Ferrovia. Fiorentina edge the first half with a 26th minute goal from defender Dainelli. Inter press hard in the second half and we resist until the 81st minute when that man, Adriano pops up to score the equaliser! The game finishes in an amicable 1-1 draw.

We pop to the fiddlers pub for a consolation drink and ponder on what might have been... a thoroughly entertaining evening however and welcome back to the big time for Fiorentina!

170. Big Night 2

It's party time at the Cooper household! Even though our flat isn't big enough to swing a cat in we've decided to invite ten of our closest friends. Much cleaning and cooking ensues and they all turn up! I've cooked my legendary melanzane alla parmigiana and Jaime Oliver inspired rice. We've got our classic 'toasty bits' and of course various bottles of red and white wine. The only questions are, will they speak to each other and will they have a good time...



Fortunately the answer seems to be yes! We have Nadia and Alberto, Gemma and Tiziano, Alison and Piero, Bea and Riccardo and Jane and her friend, Luca. That's three English and seven Italians.


The music I've chosen in true 'Lee' fashion doesn't inspire anyone to dance... maybe they needed something more to drink first! Everyone seemed to get on well, the food is eaten and wine consumed. So a great success!

169. Umbria All -Saints

After our dip into Umbria a few weeks ago we now get the chance to explore Tuscany's neighbouring region in a bit more depth. It is the All-Saints holiday weekend and we have three days off work. We've managed to book a late room in an Agriturismo farmhouse near Todi. While Tuscany and the rest of Italy seems to be under cloud and rain - we enjoy some sun on all three days of our short break.

Saturday - Lake Trasimeno

We pack up the car and set off nice and early and arrive at our first destination, the beautiful Lake Trasimeno to the south of Cortona in time for our picnic lunch, bathed in glorious sunshine. Afterwards we go for a wander reminiscing about the last time we were here. Next we drive on through Perugia and down to Todi. The countryside is beautiful, it's less touristy than Tuscany with more off-the-beaten-track, less well-known  places.

We find our farmhouse after a short drive and as usual it turns out to be in the middle of nowhere! It's just outside of the tiny hamlet of Doglio with wonderful views. We meet our host, Franco, who seems to be a bachelor, friendly, but a bit rough and ready! We unpack and have a little 'pisolino' (nap), before changing into our gladrags and heading out to Todi for the evening. Unbelievably I put deisel in the car instead of petrol, but we are rescued by a nice man at the garage who kindly pumps it out of the tank and we are on our way again.


Todi

Unfortunately the rain has started and we wander the streets of Todi under our brolly! It's a beautiful town with some wonderful stone roads and houses and we just manage to find a restaurant, dedicated to one of Todi's most famous sons, Jacopone - the food is very traditional, they are famous for a type of canelloni, which Annette tries. I have the pork chops, which are great with a mushroom, olive and truffle sauce and we share a smooth, fruity bottle of Rosso di Montalcino. We decide it would be better to come back to Todi on Monday and explore further in the daylight. For now we head to our Agriturismo for a well-earned sleep zzz

Sunday - Assisi and Spoleto

By chance, today we have decided to visit Assisi, home to Italy's patron saint, Francis...

Today is Halloween and tomorrow is All-Saints day and so what better day to visit Assisi - home of the most important saint in Italy, St. Francis.

As you'd expect the place is packed. In fact it takes us about two hours to make the thirty minute trip. Eventually we make it to this ancient and very beautiful city. The streets and houses, like Todi are completely unspoilt from modern architecture. We find a gorgeous cafe to have lunch in. It's right on the corner of a busy square, San Ruffino, where we can watch the world go by...

After we make our way through the cobbled streets, to the very impressive Piazza del Commune, where there is the first century Temple dedicated to Minerva. The sky is cobalt blue, the sun has come out and everyone seems to be enjoying themselves. We reach the main cathedral, the Basilica of San Francesco, which is the head of the Fransiscan order. Built in 1228 it is a beautiful example of early gothic architecture. I take a peak inside as there are some world famous frescoes by Giotto, Cimabue, Simone Martini and Pietro Lorenzetti. The frescoes dipicting the life of Saint Francis are simply breathtaking.

Annette has a browse round the shops, Saint Francis would turn in his little tomb if he could see all these tourist shops! However there are some interesting, tasteful shops and Annette buys a couple of of scarves as well as some candles for our big party next week. We finish our day in Assisi with some tea and local strudel cake before leaving this beautiful city.


Spoleto

Our accomodation is quite a distance from here and instead of heading back for a rest and change, we head straight out for dinner, very tired, destination, Spoleto. This looks like somewhere we would like to spend a bit more time in. After booking a table at the 'Ristorante Apollinare, we head to the main square, Piazza Duomo and I get my first taste of Umbria's most famous wine, Sagrantino di Montefalco - it's wonderfully rich, smooth and has an earthy, funky, spicy backbone which lets you know you are drinking something a bit special! The restaurant has changed the menu to the one we saw outside in the window, but turns out to be a very jazzy place. Three out of the four courses are sublime and there are some nice touches like amuse bouche and complimentary grappa and we stagger home completely exhausted!


Monday - Todi and Perugia

We appear briefly the next morning and take our big breakfast back up to our appartment and after a more relaxing start to the day, pack up our things and enjoy a pleasant walk in the countryside around this lovely farm. Today is a bank holiday in Italy, 'Ognisanti' or All-Saints, but the real celebration is tomorrow's 'I Morti', or All-Souls. Sounds confusing? Anyway we see many people visiting their dead relatives at the local cemetries.


Todi

We take a drive back to Todi and enjoy a daytime tour of this beautiful city. In the main square, while admiring the view of the surrounding countryside we get talking to a local who decides to give us a long and detailed history of the area. Apparently there are 365 castles in Umbria, that's one for every day of the year! The simple Gothic Cathedral and three 'Palazzi', the Lombard-Gothic del Capitano, del Priore and del Popolo are built from this wonderful silvery, white stone that gives it an almost other-worldly quality. We walk to the edge of the city and admire the Bramante inspired Santa Maria della Consolazione temple, which actually had about seven different architects including Sangallo the younger. It is pretty impressive. Here we catch some lunch, a simple slice of pizza and head off for our last stop on our 3-day Umbria tour. We have to choose between Gubbio and Perugia and seeing as Perugia is on the way home and we'd like to devote at least a whole day to Gubbio we pick the latter!

Perugia

Perugia is the capital city of Umbria famous for its Jazz festival and yummy chocolate - unfortunately their annual festival was last week... d'oh! We park up and enter the hill-top city through the ancient sewage system (now, fortunately non-operative!). It's quite cool actually moving up a series of escalators while looking at the ancient ruins. Again the weather is quite pleasant today, which for November isn't bad, but not quite bright enough to light up a dreary city. Eventually we manage to find a chocolate shop. We enjoy a wicked chocolate cake and purchase some little chocolates to take home. I have a peek at the local museum, but there's not much to interest me there. The local artist was Pietro Vannucci, or Perugino as we know him and he painted mainly madonnas. The cathedral and main square looks like it's in need of a bit of love and a facelift so we head home...

It's a two-hour drive back to Florence and by the time we arrive back we are starving and so decide to stop at Porta Romana for a pizza. Not exactly the relaxing weekend we were hoping for, a desire to see everything and everywhere proving too much again! Maybe a weekend at home doing completely nothing would be in order... Nah!!!


(Original journal entry 2/11/04)