Limburg

We went to Limburg for a birthday brunch for one of Ben's colleagues. Afterwards we walked around the old town some, but it was very cold. Limburg has a lot of half-timbered houses. It is not where Limburger cheese comes from.

Marburg

We went to Marburg on German Unity Day (a national holiday). It has a pretty neat castle and old town, and the weather was good.

Art Nouveau in Bad Nauheim

Bad Nauheim is an old spa town. There is mineral water flowing around that you can still sample. It tastes strongly of salt and iron. You shouldn't drink much of it. There is a spa complex (the Sprudelhof) that was built in the early 1900s, therefore in the art nouveau style (Jugenstil in German). It has bathouses that are still in use today. So every year the city has a Jugendstil festival with antique vendors and people walking around in period costume. The reason we went, though, was the opportunity to ride an old-timey bike (apparently called a penny-farthing). The guy who owned the bike had to hold it up the whole time we were on it, but that still counts.

One of the pros riding around

Wetzlar

Wetzlar has a nice old town with a lot of half-timbered houses. Like everywhere else in Germany, Goethe lived there for a brief time. Two of his friends who lived there influenced his book The Sorrows of Young Werther, and you can visit their houses.

some half-timbered houses

Tuebingen

We went to Tübingen on one of the few summery days this year. We walked around the old town and saw parts of the university, where Kepler, among others, studied. We had lunch at a restaurant on the river, then walked around some more and up to the castle. The castle has nice views over the city and a museum that includes a prehistoric horse figurine.

Roman Germany

The Romans did make it into Germany a little. Like Hadrian's Wall in England, they built a limes marking the edge of their territory in Germany. The Romans built a fort in Aalen, and some ruins remain. We also went by a villa rustica, this one a Roman winery, in the Palatinate region. They grow grapes there today, too.

rare silver mask at the Roman museum in Aalen

ruins in Aalen

part of the villa rustica

reconstructed tower that was part of the limes

Schloss Nymphenburg

We went to a Neutral Milk Hotel concert in the evening in Munich, so we used that day to go to Nymphenburg Palace near Munich. We ate lunch in a park nearby that has a beer garden right next to a deer enclosure. The palace is very similar to a number of other palaces we've seen in Europe. The buildings in the gardens were pretty neat.

from the front

part of the interior

in the Hall of Mirrors in of one of the garden houses (Amalienburg). That's all silver there, even though it looks goldish in the picture.

grotto-like chapel

Another Castle

We went to Sigmaringen.

Augsburg and Ludwigsburg

We took some weekend trips again recently, this time to Augsburg one weekend and then to Stuttgart and Ludwigsburg the next.

Augsburg is less than an hour away by regional train, and is probably most famous for being the home of the Fugger family. In the late middle ages and Renaissance, Augsburg was one of the wealthiest cities due to trade routes with southern Europe, especially textiles and banking (the Fuggers bankrolled popes and emperors). The wealth of that day can still be seen in the massive Rathaus, and some impressive churches. In addition, Augsburg is home to the oldest social housing complex still in use, the Fuggerei. To this day, inhabitants pay less than one Euro in rent per year, as well as three daily prayers. In modern times, Augsburg might be best known as the birthplace of Bert Brecht, one of the greatest playwrights of modern times.

The next weekend, we visited some friends in Stuttgart and took advantage of the proximity to Ludwigsburg, home of an impressive palace (sometimes called the Swabian Versailles). The palace itself is much too big to take in in just one afternoon, so we restricted ourselves to the ceramics museum (including a room full of Italian maiolica), as well as to the fantastic and expansive castle gardens (formal English style in the front, and "wild" French style in the back).

Mittelaltermarkt

Here are some pictures from the medieval market Ben wrote about.

München

Last weekend, we finally took a trip to München (Munich for all you English speakers). Finally because it's only an hour 15 minutes away by train, and because Kristen hadn't been there before (although she did go right by during her high school trip to Europe, even stopping in Dachau). Anyway, we took the train and then walked into the city center, where we were just in time for the moving figures in the clock on the Rathaus (town hall). We then wandered a bit through the old town before heading over to the "Englischer Garten", the München equivalent of Central Park, where we had lunch in the beer garden at the Chinese tower (originally from the 18th century). The weather was fantastic, and many other people, both native and tourists, had the same idea. After satisfying our bodily necessities, we were keen on also stimulating our intellects, so we walked over to the Alte Pinakothek, one of the great art museums in Germany (and indeed the world). The nice thing, being a Sunday, was that admission was only 1 Euro, although we paid extra for a special exhibition on Vermeer's Woman Holding a Balance (which turns out to have been a loan from the National Gallery in Washington, so we had probably seen it before). From there, we headed back into the city, walked through the Platzl quarter (part of the old town), and relaxed some in a cafe in the pedestrian area before heading back to the train station and taking the train back to Ulm.

Cortona

Today, we went on a day trip to Cortona, one of the many Tuscan hill towns that has become more popular recently due to it being the setting of "Under the Tuscan Sun," which we've neither seen nor read, however. The weather was supposed to be gorgeous, and in Florence it was still nice, though on the train to Cortona it became progressively more hazy and cloudy. Oh well. We took a bus up to the town, and walked to its main square, where an antiques market was setting up. This being January, there were very few tourists to be found, and some restaurants were still on holidays until March. We got a slice of pizza, and then went past some of the oldest surviving medieval houses in Italy to the Duomo, which was closed, and the Museo Diocesano, which was opening again shortly. Inside the small museum, the highlights were an Annunciation by Fra Angelico and some works by Luca Signorelli. After this, we slowly made our way up the hill to the church of Santa Margherita, which houses the remains of the saint. Then we walked back down into the town, where we had to wait an hour for the next bus to the train station. A tip for tourists: don't go to Cortona on a Sunday. In the meantime, we had a coffee/tea and a "brutti ma buoni" from a local pasticceria. After the 15 minute drive to the train station, we saw that we had just missed the train back to Florence, so it was off to a bar for another hour and another coffee/tea to stay warm while waiting.

Pontassieve

This was to have been a post about our trip to the olive oil and new wine festival in Pontassieve. But alas, Italy did not disappoint, and a train strike canceled all local trains in that direction. So instead of reading about the incredible new harvest olive oil and the cases of wine we would have bought, you're left with a black square.

Orvieto

After the summer holidays and the visitors we had recently, we finally got around to exploring more of the area via a day trip yesterday. Actually, "area" is pretty generous, since Orvieto is a two and a half hour regional train ride away from Florence. Nevertheless, we got to this city on top of a slab of tufa and took a cable car up the mountain. Once up, we immediately descended again, though this time in St. Patrick's well, which was dug in the 16th century to provide the city with water while under siege. A nice work of engineering, it has two spiral pathways (one for going down and one for going up), down to the water. After making it back up, we were ready for lunch, for which we walked into the city center. It seems like the main tourist season is over, since the main drag was not too crowded. (Then again, we're used to Florentine crowds...) After some pasta, we went towards the highlight of this town, the cathedral. Since there was a wedding going on at the moment, we first went to see the Etruscan collection in the Museo Claudio Faina e Museo Civico. The Etruscans had some interesting vases!
After a brief break for gelato (I had nectarine and fig, Kristen had pink grapefruit and grape/strawberry), we looked at the cathedral in detail. The facade is amazing -- a symphony of colored marble, glittering mosaics, sculpture, and masterful carved panels. And the interior isn't too shabby, either. The highlight is surely the Capella di San Brizio, which was frescoed largely by Luca Signorelli with scenes of the Last Judgement. That's always my favorite topic of religious paintings, and this version had fantastic studies of the human body. Apparently Michelangelo studied these frescoes before painting the Sistine Chapel. Since my ticket for the chapel included the Museum of the Duomo, I went to visit that afterward and was pleasantly surprised. While these museums are typically one depiction of Madonna with child after the other, here the old religious art was interspersed with a temporary exhibition of modern art and sculpture. Along with the jazz soundtrack playing on the stereo, it gave it more of a gallery vibe, and made the experience all the more pleasant.
After this highlight, we walked around the town a little more, seeing the interesting ten-sided bell tower of Sant'Andrea and the Palazzo del Popolo, before heading back. Unfortunately, the next train was not for another hour, and furthermore delayed, but we did manage to make it back to Florence.

Visitors

We had several visitors the past few weeks. First was Ben's friend Marc and his newly-wedded wife Kristine. After driving down to Florence from Germany, they toured Florence one day, then we all went together to San Gimignano and Pisa the next day. This way, they were able to cover four out of five goals of their trip: Seeing Michelangelo's David, eating real Italian pizza, seeing the leaning tower of Pisa and taking the standard tourist shots, and eating a bistecca alla fiorentina. The Colosseum in Rome will have to wait for another trip.
Next was another of Ben's friends, Martin, and his girlfriend Eva. The evening they arrived, we went to Piazzale Michelangelo to wait for the sunset. It was bridal rush hour -- we saw three brides take pictures in the hour we were there. Martin and Eva then toured Florence the next day before leaving for San Gimignano and Volterra.
The following weekend Kristen's parents visited. Since they had already seen Florence, Sienna, Pisa, and San Gimignano, we took them on a day trip to Bologna. Then Kristen went with them to Venice for a day. They stayed another day there, then went to Rome.

Arezzo

The weather forecast predicted a sunny, warm early spring day, so instead of going to see some museum in Florence, we decided to hop on a train to Arezzo, one hour away, today. Though not usually as high on visitor's places to see as Pisa, Lucca, or Siena, it is a pretty city with plenty of art, and was where much of "La vita e' bella" ("Life is Beautiful") was filmed.
The first stop on our itinerary was the House of Vasari, where the famous architect designed and decorated his own house. Kristen got in for free here, since it was the "Festa della Donna" today. From here, we first stopped off at an art museum to try to reserve tickets for a church we wanted to see later in the day. Though the woman there couldn't reserve the tickets there (our guidebook was wrong), she was very friendly and called the reservation number for us. Next was the church of San Domenico, where we looked at the Crucifixion by Cimabue from afar, since mass was taking place. The same happened in the Duomo, though it had already progressed to Communion, so after a brief walk through the park and finding the Medici fortress closed for renovations, we returned and were able to look at the stained glass windows, stone tombs, and fresco of Marie Magdalene by Piero della Francesca. A short walk further was the Piazza Grande, which was unfortunately being repaved. Maybe we'll come back sometime for the Joust of the Saracen.
After a quick lunch, we then walked to the church of San Francesco, where we picked up our prereserved tickets and then went in to see the fresco cycle "The Legend of the True Cross" by Piero della Francesca. It's rightly famous (and was seen in "The English Patient"), and I was thrilled by the effects of light, as well as the chaotic battle scenes. Finally, we headed back to the train station, stopping at the ruins of a Roman amphitheatre on the way before catching the train back to Florence.

Carnival in Viareggio

While the best-known carnival activities in Italy are surely the ones in Venice, those have also become quite touristy apparently, and very expensive. Somewhat less known outside of Italy is the carnival of Viareggio, on the Tuscan coast, where we had been in the summer to go to the beach. During the Sundays in February, there's a big celebration here, and a parade with floats, costumes, loud music, and whatever else you expect from a carnival. We went there today with some of Kristen's classmates. After walking to the seaside promenade where all the activities are held, we looked at some of the floats that were already set up (the parade basically does one big loop on the promenade), before stopping for some lunch. I got "fish & chips," which in Italy apparently means "fried frutti di mare with french fries" ("extra tentacles").

Berlusconi cooking the opposition

By now it was almost time for the parade to get started, so we waited around some while getting blasted by extremely loud Italian party/carnival music. In the parade, a lot of the floats were quite elaborate, with moving parts, smoke machines, etc. Many of them had political themes and made fun of Italian politicians or the political situation in Italy, so except for picking out Berlusconi, I wasn't able to get the humor of a lot of them. Nevertheless, the parade was fun, and we had a good time.

White Gold

I had been looking forward to today for a while – a trip to the truffle market in San Miniato, a hill town 40 minutes by train from Florence. Fall is a great season for culinary treats in Tuscany, from the porcini mushrooms to the new harvests of wine and oil all the way to truffles. Now, to be honest, I still don’t quite understand what all the fuss is about – I mean, they taste good, and they’re rare, but I wouldn’t pay exorbitant sums for a tuber (and couldn’t afford to, anyway). Nevertheless, a taste of luxury isn’t bad, and so we ended up in San Miniato, which has a truffle fair and market for three weekends in November, along with a crowd of tourists trying to get on a small bus from the train station up to the town. The weather was perfect – one of the coldest days so far (highs around 10 degrees), but sunny and a visibility for miles and miles. Once in town, we first did some sightseeing, after all San Miniato also has some sights, such as a 13th century castle built by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. On the way we passed many stands selling all kinds of sausages, cheese, specialties from around Italy, and wine, but only when we got to the Piazza del Duomo did we find the real treasure – white (and some black) truffles for sale.
They seemed to start at around 15 Euros for a small cherry-sized specimen, so we passed on that and got some new olive oil instead. We were not to go without truffles altogether, though, since outside the tent with the truffle salesmen were several food stands, where we indulged in frittata al tartufo (truffle frittata) and tagliolini al tartufo (egg noodles with truffle). After lunch, we made our way through the rest of the town, which was in full truffle festival mode, with many opportunities to eat and buy truffles, other food and drink, and crafts and plants. Finally, we took the bus back to the train station, where we had to wait for almost an hour before the train took us back to Florence.

Prato

Today's trip was to the nearby city of Prato. We took the bus, which was quite cheap (2.30 one way) and reasonably fast (~40 minutes). Once there, we walked from the station into town and stopped by the Biscottificio Antonio Mattei, where biscotti (or cantuccini or cantucci, whatever you want to call them) were created 150 years ago. We got a mixed bag of biscotti and brutti buoni, and then walked on. Since most of the sights were closed for the lunch break, and it was approaching lunch time, we went looking for a place to eat.
Prato, in addition to being well known for its textile industry, is also home to the largest Chinese population in Italy, and not having had any Chinese food for quite a while, we went looking for a Chinese restaurant. We wandered away from the center towards the west, and having seen more and more Chinese signs, were assured that we were going in the right direction. Eventually, we were the only non-Chinese left on the street, and we found a restaurant, though without a menu at street level. Still, we were hungry and adventerous, so we went into the Ristorante Ciao, which turned out to be a type of Chinese fondue place (again, we were the only non-Chinese in the place). We got a big pot of broth which sat on a burner in the middle of our table, and ordered various ingredients to go in there: beans, mushrooms, tofu, noodles, shrimp, etc. All in all it was quite good.
After walking back towards the center, we now visited the Duomo, probably the most important site of Prato. In here, we saw several fresco cycles, including the story of the sacred girdle, and magnificent frescoes by Filippo Lippi above the altar. On the outside of the cathedral is a pulpit from which the girdle is shown several times a year, designed by Donatello. From there, we went on to Santa Maria delle Carceri, another church with ceramics by della Robbia, and went through the Cassero, a mediaeval corridor from the Prato castle to the city walls on our way back to the station to take the bus back to Florence.

Weekend Recap

My parents were here for a few days, and over the weekend they rented a car so we could see some of the surrounding area together. On Saturday, we drove to Riccione, on the Adriatic coast to the east of Florence. My mom had gone there 40 years ago on holiday, and she wanted to see what had changed in the meantime. Since it was October, and the bathing season had ended, there weren't very many people there (the same can't be said for the summer), and those that were there did the same thing we did: stroll along the beach and go have lunch in the pedestrian area (I had a very good combination of seafood pastas).
On the way back to Florence, we stopped by San Marino, one of the smallest countries in the world, perched on top of a mountain surrounded by Italy (and yes, Italian cell phones are in foreign roaming in San Marino). Unfortunately, we were in a bit of a rush to get back to Florence, since we had opera tickets for that evening, so we did a half-hour "Europe in two weeks"-style tour of the city. Still, the city was quite nice (though very touristy), and the views from the top of the rock would have been breathtaking had it not been for the extremely hazy day. In the end, we made it back to Florence in time and enjoyed a decent performance of "Tosca" at the Teatro Comunale.
The next day, we got up early again and drove into the Tuscan hillside south of Siena. Our first stop here was Montepulciano, old hill town and famous for its wines. Here we walked up (always up!) to the cathedral, with famous triptych and della Robbia altar, and old town hall and were rewarded with some great views into the countryside. On the way back to the car, we picked up some bread, cheese, cured meats, and of course local wine, and then drove a few minutes to the church of San Biagio on the outskirts of the town. After viewing this Renaissance masterpiece, we set up our picnic in the olive groves overlooking the church and enjoyed our lunch.
Sufficiently strenthened, we continued our tour to the town of Pienza, a few kilometers further. In this town, on the UNESCO World Heritage list, we admired the Renaissance center with its cathedral and palazzi, designed by Rossellino for Pope Pius II (he of the Piccolomini library in the Duomo of Siena). In addition, we bought some of the famous Pienza pecorino, which really is a cut above the usual Tuscan pecorino.
Finally, we continued through beautiful countryside to the Abbey of Sant'Antimo, a Benedictine monastery near Montalcino. A fabulous romanesque church from the 12th century with some nice stonework inside, the late afternoon light was perfect for our visit. From here it was only a short drive to Montalcino, another hill town famous for its wines (especially the excellent - and expensive - Brunello di Montalcino). Since it was already dusk, we didn't see everything of this town before driving back to Florence, but perhaps we'll be back again for the sights and the wine.