Adventures With Harvey

Visitors!

We have been super-excited to share our adventures with visiting family over the last week or so – yes, Ian & Sophia Bilby (Anita’s Dad and Step-mum) have been our recent travelling companions, starting in Rome and heading north into Tuscany. However before we get onto that report, there are a few gaps in the earlier story that need to be filled.

You’ll recall that the last blog was dedicated to my Grandfather, Ralph Woodfield, as we followed his wartime journey through southern and central Italy. In amongst all that we also visited some other delightful towns which I’ll quickly fill you in on now. The first has a name that will be familiar to most of our New Zealand readers: Gallipoli. I had no idea that as well as Turkey, there is also a town by that name in southern Italy, the spelling is even the same. The old town is on an island and it is quaint and delightful with crystal clear water, a cute little harbour with many old fishing boats, and a beach full of sunbathers. Did you know that in the days prior to electricity, much industry in Europe was run using olive oil? Not the same as you might pour on your Greek salad, but industrial quality oil used for powering street lamps and the like. In Gallipoli we visited an underground olive press which included a huge wheel which would have been powered by a horse and produced massive quantities of oil each olive season!

Several other travellers we bumped into said we shouldn’t miss Matera so we made the necessary detour… and were very glad that we had. Although no-one knows for sure, this town is believed to be the third oldest continually inhabited city on earth, the earliest residents living in hillside caves from as long as 8000 years ago! The look and feel was very different, elsewhere around here you have buildings white-washed, or a variety of other colours however Matera felt almost middle-eastern with almost every structure being unpainted or earthen toned. Many of the caves remain occupiable today and of course there are plenty of interesting places in town to visit. We learned a new term during a visit to a cave monastery: negative architecture. This is where a house/church etc is created by digging out rather than constructing up as is the case with dwellings and other ‘buildings’ in Matera. An interesting sidebar is that the town was forcibly emptied out by the government in the 1950s; the cave dwelling residents, being largely impoverished with poor sanitation etc, were moved to a newly developed subdivision nearby. It wasn't until a few decades later that the historic value of the town was recognised, some residents returning and the town being reborn and gaining UNESCO World Heritage status.

As part of this in 1991 the city undertook a major renovation of the town square including repaving and other improvements. Some bright person suggested that while digging they should try and find the ancient cistern that reputedly lay beneath the square – the Palombaro Lungo. It was talked about in books but as the entrance was covered up during a previous repaving around 1920, no one alive knew for sure what was there or where to look. The books mentioned 6 holes into which buckets could be lowered and water obtained for residents to use during the drier months when their own individual water storage was exhausted. And sure enough, they found it – full of more than 5 million litres of water, the first people to enter were a couple of scuba divers who found a variety of paraphernalia which had been mistakenly dropped through the holes over the years, including several metal buckets which were pushed hard up against the ceiling by the water leaving a metal rust ring, several of which were still visible!

After Matera we spent 3 lovely days in Bari which was sunny and warm, our parking spot was just a few hundred metres from the main city beach which we visited for a little sunbathing and swimming. In fact my lovely travelling companion actually fell asleep in the sun one afternoon and made her skin almost match the colour of her pink bikini!! We did our usual walking tour which included a viewing of the tomb of St Nicholas in the crypt under the city’s main cathedral. We made friends with a couple of Aussies on the trip and enjoyed a refreshment with them when a break in the exploring was needed.

The only other unreported stop before rendezvousing with our visitors in Rome was the nearby town of Tivoli for a visit to Hadrian’s Villa. Built in the 2^nd century, this is the largest Roman Villa known to exist - the site covers more than 1 square kilometre and is absolutely colossal! Your author was heard to comment as he walked around, of his astonishment at the scale and complexity of the site.

“We modern day humans are quite smug, we think we’re pretty smart with all our scientific breakthroughs, modern technology, medicine, architecture etc” he mused…

“But these guys were creating bath houses with hot & cold running water, huge and complex structures, large portions of which remain standing almost 2000 years later. I’m really not sure that modern man is as superior as he thinks he is!”

It was with great excitement that we welcomed Ian & Sophia to Europe when we met them at Fiumicino Airport in Rome last Friday morning. Being their first trip to this part of the world, they had asked us to be their travel agents and tour guides for our time together so we wasted no time (after a medicinal coffee and catch up) in making our way to the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. We youngsters had previously visited Rome but both more than 20 years ago and not together, so it was a brilliant excuse to revisit this historic town. Your author is often known to marvel at the scale of these places and the Vatican Museum is no different, the sheer number of sculptures, paintings, mosaics, and frescoes is mind boggling, it’s just room after room of jaw-droppage! Following that we were delighted to introduce the new arrivals to a proper Italian pizza, one of which was a simple but totally delicious margherita – they certainly don’t make pizza like that at Dominos! The afternoon was a visit to the Capitoline Museum for more amazing artwork and sculptures before we escorted a couple of rather jetlagged parents back to their hotel for a much deserved & well needed sleep!

Day 2 in Rome was the BIG day, so named because it involved visiting BIG things, the first of which was the Colosseum. It’s hard to believe that when operational (for over 4 centuries) it held 50,000 spectators (around the same as Eden Park) and some of the events hosted there lasted more than 100 days. Again, the technology is astonishing with an entire level below the performing surface used to house gladiators, wild animals, other props etc, all of which could be raised to ground level by a system of pulleys and winches. The next BIG thing to visit was St Peter’s Basilica and my goodness, talk about huge!!! We Travelling Woodies have visited a few dozen churches and cathedrals on this trip but nothing even gets close to St Peter’s for size, scale and opulence. Every internal surface is either marble (some of which was pilfered from the Colosseum) or a mosaic – not a painting, but a mosaic! What looks like a painted surface is, if you look very closely, a series of tiny tiles – and these adorn every ceiling, chapel and nook, it’s truly mind-boggling. Your author had a firm memory from his last visit of being particularly moved by Michelangelo’s Pieta, the carved depiction of Mary cradling the dead Christ in her arms on the right as you enter the church. This time it was slightly less emotional because the surprise factor wasn’t there, however this piece, carved by a 25 year old Michelangelo, is an astonishing work of art and the only one he personally signed. Last visit your author wasn’t organised enough to book a ticket to climb the dome but that error was not going to occur twice – this time he was able to look down on mass from the rim of the dome, then shortly later, photograph Vatican Square and the surrounding vista from above. Another life-long memory to add to the list!!! Also squeezed into the day was a visit to Mamertine Prison where, around the time of Christ, prisoners were held pending execution. A tiny place with only two cells one above the other, two of its most famous guests (although not at the same time) were St Peter and St Paul, both of whom were later executed.

Our third day in Rome was a little quieter with a few less bookings. Firstly, Ian and I visited the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill while the womenfolk went off in search of a market and some much-needed retail therapy. Walking through the Forum it’s like one’s head is on a swivel – there’s just so much to see and the history is just so fascinating. The markets contained over 1000 stalls and the girls were only able to cover a small portion of it, but still came back laden with bargains ranging from electronics to clothes. When the 4 of us re-convened it was to visit the Parthenon, a 2000-year-old temple right in the middle of Rome – essentially one enormous dome which remains a working church to this day. A walk around the interior reveals several chapels and monuments, including the tomb of the artist Raphael. Next stop up the road was the Trevi Fountain which (even having seen it before) takes your breath away as you walk around the corner – no wonder it’s on the must-see list of any visit to Rome. Final stop of the day was the Spanish Steps and with that, a limoncello spritz and another pizza, our whirlwind three-day tour of Rome was over. It is an amazing city and such a privilege to see it again – thanks Ian & Sophia for giving us an excuse to return!

Next day the 4 of us piled into Harvey, our trusty workhorse, and bumbled (yep, Harvey doesn’t drive, he bumbles) our way 330km up the motorway into Tuscany and the start of 7 days based in the walled town of Lucca. The olden folk had a lovely little apartment booked right in the middle of town and we youngsters found a Harvey park around 1km down the road, so easily within walking distance of one another. The first day was a rest day with a load of laundry and other chores done and everyone enjoyed a little explore of the town followed by a lovely meal served by Sophia in the apartment.

Next morning it was a train trip up the road to Florence and a full agenda checking out as much as we could in the day. Stops en route included breakfast at the ancient food markets, Duomo (cathedral), Bargello Museum and Pitti Palace all of which were magnificent! We queued for around 45 minutes to enter the Duomo which, compared with some others was a little ordinary, however the outside, made of green, pink and white marble, was truly magnificent! Sadly the Uffuzi had been booked out weeks in advance but there was plenty more to see. There are so many galleries in Florence it was hard to decide which one to choose with only one day – the Bargello isn’t usually top of people’s list however we thought in the middle of summer with things being so crowded, it might be a better option. Sadly, this meant missing out on seeing the original of Michelangelo’s David however there are replicas all around the town so that’s not a bad alternative… and the Bargello had plenty of Rubens and other masterpieces to marvel at. The Pitti Palace and gardens were another jaw-dropping experience with room after room of the most magnificent oil paintings and ceiling art, it’s very hard to fathom the opulence and wealth the original owners must have possessed.

Finally your author caught a bus out to the airport, collected a small rental car, and returned to collect the remainder of the weary party and deliver them back to Lucca. It had been a long day!!!

An early start wasn’t required the following day but we were all super-excited to be underway to see the world’s most famous inclined building – yes, the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Located in a grand, open, park-like setting, the tower was built as the belltower for the adjacent cathedral however, famously began to list shortly after construction. Overall it took more than 200 years to complete, along with several unsuccessful attempts at realignment along the way. Not until the early 90’s were the foundations shored up once and for all meaning the angle of incline will no longer continue to increase as it had done for the preceding 800 years. Things have changed a little in the last 20 years – Anita recalls sitting on the lawn for a picnic lunch with her travelling companion on her previous visit however these days walking on the greenery is strictly prohibited!

Our previous visit to Cinque Terra was partly market research because by then we knew the Bilbys would be visiting and we’d want to take them back. Our favourite town was Vernazza, the only one of the 5 with a beach and with the best gelato in Italy. Unlike the weather during our first visit which was drizzly and cool, this day was one out of the box – beautifully fine and sunny with light breezes and the water of the harbour was crystal clear! We found a restaurant right on the waterfront and thoroughly enjoyed our lunch of seafood pasta, shellfish and a bottle of local white wine! Later in the afternoon we jumped on the train for a brief visit to Riomaggiore, it would be silly to come this far and not check out another of these delightful seaside cliff-hugging villages.

Next day was a gentler pace with a shorter local loop planned, there are a number of little villages within an hour or so of Lucca so off we went to explore. Italy seems to proliferate with hilltop villages and Barga was a classic example of this. These tiny hamlets were built on the high ground with defence in mind because a few hundred years ago there was a genuine risk of attack from invaders. Italy didn’t become unified until the mid 19^th century and so provinces such as Florence and Pisa were frequently at war with one another. In amongst all this, the little towns were conquered at times, or changed allegiances from one city-state to another and Barga was no exception to this. For the 10 years prior to 1332, they were subservient to Lucca however in that year, Lucca was conquered by Pisa giving Barga the opportunity to change sides. Therefore for the following few hundred years they were the northern outpost of the Florentine empire who provided military and other assistance as required. At the very top of the hill in Barga is a 12^th century church which has tiny little stained glass windows, giving some clue to its age, the newer churches generally having much larger windows. It felt dark and eerie!

A spectacular drive through the hills was followed by a yummy pizza lunch and wander around Pietrasanta, another gorgeous little Tuscan town although sadly all the shops were closed due to siesta. Finally, we dipped our toes in the Mediterranean Sea at Viareggio before pootling back up the motorway to Lucca and a delicious feed of Woody burgers on the bbq at Harvey.

The last 2 days at Lucca were very chill and relaxing, your correspondent delivered the rental car back to Florence, returning by train while Anita spent some lovely time hanging out with her folks and further exploring the streets of Lucca. On Monday morning it was sadly time to bid the Bilbys farewell as we walked them to the train station – they have another 3 weeks in Europe starting with a river cruise, then 10 days in Holland which is Sophia’s old ‘hood. Having walked them up hill and down dale and fitted in a huge amount over the time they were with us I’m sure they are ready for a sit down on the river boat. It was such a special time hanging out with them and having them join Adventures with Harvey for the last 10 days.

That’s about all to report for this edition, we hope you’ve managed to stick with us for a rather long – we Woodies are now heading to Northern Italy for a couple of weeks before heading to Croatia and another family rendezvous!

With much love as always!

Dave & Anita

Greetings from Trani, just up the coast from Bari

the waterfront at the Italian version of Gallipoli

olive-press wheel at Gallipoli

if you didn't know otherwise, you might think the town of Matera almost looks middle-eastern

cave church at Matera

underground cistern

cave dwelling, these tiny homes often housed families as large as 12!

caves in the hillside - people first lived here up to 8000 years ago

pretty flowers, pretty girl :-)

Hadrian's Villa #1

Hadrian's Villa #2

statues from Hadrian's Villa

welcome to Rome Mr & Mrs Bilby - let's start with a visit to the Vatican Museum & Sistine Chapel

Vatican Museum #2

Vatican Museum #3

huge bronze at Capitoline Museum

looking down onto the Roman Forum

this enormous monument was built to celebrate the unification of Italy

when you emerge from the metro station, this is the view!

Colosseum #2

another view of the Forum

St Peter's Square

Michelangelo's Pieta, quite an extraordinary sculpture

this photo taken during my climb up to the St Peter's dome - you can see the individual tiles in the mosaic which from the ground looks just like a painting. Almost every 'painting' in St Peter's is in fact a mosaic