Thursday, 27 September 2012

Cinque Terre


23/9

Today was really all about a big drive over the alps to the beautiful Cinque Terre, argued to be Italy’s most attractive national park. 

We’d exercised and the kids had worked their magic at school leaving only one remaining job - a big wash up of Ed’s exterior.  Whilst the kids were working, we’d buzzed about inside cleaning & scrubbing, checking on any small repairs and organizing our folder of all important documentation & paperwork, feeling very satisfied with Ed’s condition for sale.



The kids finished their writing whilst the “genitori” (Italian for parents) crawled all over Ed’s outside at one of many, many large car washing outlets. €10 later, once again satisfied, we kicked back for a beautiful drive through really pretty valleys, mountain passes and small towns before stopping for a playground lunch in an even smaller town.  Kel found a wee friend and they gesticulated easily and pushed Snuggy about on a swing, both mothering intensely.  An incredible sculptured story board of the women behind the men who fought for and built free Italy through WW2 stood quietly & artistically at one end of the tiny playground.








Jeff drove on further for a few more hours up and down narrow difficult switch backs whilst the kids read & read and listened to music (Wil listened to the whole PInk Floyd The Wall album amongst other things) and Jen snapped away madly gushing at the scenery.  



It’s interesting that whilst the typical north Italian abode is simply a rendered concrete or stone block/box somehow they are so pretty compared to, for example, the communist box.  We argued the reason to be that are they are free standing despite being closely huddled and painted up in wonderful pinks, reds, yellows, oranges & chocolate colours with their spilling flowers and  often very Christian themed individual decorations.  They aren’t anywhere as pristine & postcard-like as the Austrian or French homes but their charm is in their relative chaos and unpredictability. 
Over the rise was the featureless Med with it’s characteristic lack of horizon exciting whoops of excitement to see the sea!



Finally, we found a wonderful welcoming campsite in Levanto, at the western end of the Cinque Terre stretch, showered and planned tomorrow’s bike ascent.

24/9  CINQUE TERRE - LEVANTO

The bloody church is 1 m (maybe a bit more) behind the camper and bongs a piercing high pitched startling tone for the full hour as well as the quarter hour every 15 minutes - 15 bongs at 12:45!   It tops the list for the most vigorous chiming in Europe so far.  So, from 0600, Jen waited for enough light to spring from bed and mount bikes.  The sky threatened a storm and a wind seemed poised for a blast but if we lay around we’d possibly miss out!
Thank goodness we didn’t because as usual, we were rewarded with a magnificent ride uphill past little yawning communities slowly gathering their morning rhythm as wonderful wafts of warm bread & coffee spilled from opened windows.  Turning around after 50 minutes, we beat the rain home to snuggle next to our babes for breakfast and a discussion on the fall of the Roman Empire - gonna miss all our talk time over meals. 

Maths tests completed, we pondered an excursion but the skies opened pouring heavily for about an hour and completely flooding the campsite.  We sat dry & cosy in Ed watching with fascination & interest the staff and other campers digging ditches, sweeping small waterfalls over half walls away from their tents & redirecting streams/rivers into huge storm water drains.  Soon the rain stopped, the camp was dry, staff had leveled the gravel, scooped up the piles of leaf litter and smoothed over water eroded gullies.  Clearly, this is life in Europe.  Boots hung on stick ends, soaked clothing draped over tree branches & kids jumped vigorously in the quickly disappearing remains of puddles.

Unbeknown to us just up the road 4 Aussies were seriously injured in a landslide just after the storm but we found out from the Di Cicco’s in Australia about it.

With the luxury of time, we cooked up a monster tikka chicken curry and settled in for an Italian lesson and reading.

Whilst Jeff loaded Ed’s advert, Jen and the kids walked down the road to the beach.  In a mere second, they were striped off, Kel in her undies, and in the ocean.  We puzzled over when last we swam in the sea and simply can’t remember anything since Spain.  Kel kept yahoo-ing and spinning in circles and Wil swam in and out practicing his freestyle and catching the smallest waves.  Both of them in their stretching gangly & happy, healthy bodies.



Every day, several times a day, we pinch ourselves, being always present to the privilege of our children this year.  They are so transparent, their minds so easy in the simplicity of our lifestyle and in their relationships within our nuclear family only. Their bodies are so pretty and they are so unaware of their nakedness focusing just on the pleasures of their movement & sensations of their skin.  They both played initially fascinated by each others tricks in the calm water and then by the smoothed and shaped marble & stones that make up the sand.  Wil’s humour shone as he fashioned tractor seats in the sand and built inverted castles in crater walls whilst Kel’s imagination gobbled her up in the building of a great complex castle with surrounding moat, to the tune of her non-stop chatter.  We came home with a hatful of green, terracotta and black pebble-beauties to “fancy up Ed.”   And in the forced company of mainly one another, Kel so adoring and desperate for his attention, eagerly engages as an attentive & willing student & audience to hear of his teaching about features of defensive castle walls, sports motorbikes, popular musicians…. Wil, unthreatened by the lack of peer observation, squeaks away as “Snuggy” playing endless BK games and watching soppy girlie kiddie movies revealing his actual great pleasure in them.  Furthermore, the privilege of time as adults to chew the fat so frequently doesn’t go unnoticed.  After lunch and over another coffee, we talked deeply about Jeff’s heavy book, “The Name of the Rose,” by Umberto Eco and Jen’s lighter read, “The Pursuit of Italy,” by historian David Gilmour.  We are fully mindful & deeply appreciative that we are having the time of our lives.  

Back in Ed, we warmed up over soup and crawled into our lovely beds ready for a day of hiking tomorrow - weather permitting!

25/9 CINQUE TERRE - MONTEROSSA to RIOMAGGIORE (and accidentally to La Spezia)

Jen marched with the early morning church bells from about 0300, waiting ‘til 0500 before creeping into the night to call APHRA in Oz to sort medical registration.  45 minutes,& no remaining credit or charge later, having been hung up on 3 times, it was sorted and back to bed for a short bit before we left our gorgeous curled up squids and snuck out into the early morning via a cappuccino fuel stop to climb the other pass.  Jeff led and chased the steepest little village roads maximizing the gradient until we turned an hour later.  Zipping downhill, we stopped off at the bakery selecting an unleavened bread, heavy & warm to take on our adventure.
Back home, once fed with packed bags we took off for explore the gorgeous Cinque Terre national park with it’s 5 village treasures.  The plan was to walk only the first leg to Monterosso and train the rest (which is closed for piedi).







Carleen and the kids from Perth 



The challenging walk wiggled up, up and down along a high coastal path passing small farms, tiny vineyards, olive groves & homes and offered incredible views. At odd times it felt like we could be walking through the Australian coastal scrub prompting the kids into the Aboriginal healing ‘yabidday’ dance invented lasy year in Yurrigur NP back home.




The kids sped along often running, singing and playing backwards word games.  On the descent into  Monterosso about 3 hours later, we met up with 3 Aussie kids (aged 11-14) and their gutsy single mumma Darleen from Perth, on a whirl wind 1 month European tour.  The younguns raced ahead talking feverishly and managed to get lost.  But, we 3 adults split up and in no time and our not so quiet 5 were localized before we all sat to a gelati.

The Perthians elected to do the return walk whilst our kids stripped off for a swim before enjoying our delicious packed lunch of bread, cheese, salami, cheese & fruit lightening Jen’s backpack somewhat - the simple things.



Planning on train hopping through the other small villages, we mistakenly followed the herd & ended up on a direct line to La Spezia, chatted with a cool Japanese traveller and simply caught another train back meeting a pair of Aussie travellers from T’ba whose kids go to UQ!  

The ancient little, traditionally vine growing towns peep & ooze out of great cracks in the coastal ocean walls & spill right into small harbours where the fishing boats are simply pulled up into the main streets alongside the fancy cafes.  







Colourful umbrellas offer a second rate shade compared to the ubiquitous freshly washed undies & linen hanging from small green shuttered windows.  Whilst great sheets of paint peel from the old walls, their gay colours of red, pink, yellow, orange & grey against the green vineyards & olives groves and the blue of the Mediterranean give them such fresh appeal.  







And then there’s the shapes - all houses seem similar & rectangular but then there’s the obligatory shapely church, gorgeous stone bridges & small harbours and the spectacular carved rock walls the sit on top off or squeeze between.  Rows of photographers with BIG cameras, tripods and all sorts of gear are perched on rocky lookouts like seabirds waiting for the pre-sunset glow.

We sauntered through Riomaggiore & Manarola before stopping for a coffee & appertivi in Vernazza, the quaintest of the 5 villages.  












UNESCO listing has allowed an aging population to continue living here by subsidizing their local pestos, helping them shop and assisting their health care.  Not sure how it’ll work out in the future because their locations, whilst pretty, would make them difficult and expensive to live in.  From what we can see tourism will hopefully maintain them.




Back at Levanto train station on dark, exhausted, but happy with a very full and satisfying day, we flopped through our showers and into bed.  



Tomorrow we plan to leave the Luguria-Piedemont region, home of Nutella (where hazelnuts were first added to chocolate to make the beans go further..), to the much anticipated Tuscany, home of the Renaissance of many masters of art history.

26/9

We decided to simply saunter along the beachfront on an ‘off ‘ exercise day and enjoy a more relaxed pace at ‘home’ rather than make for our next destination.

The morning was mostly full of school focusing on the idea of themes in essays and famous Italians alongside running erands printing Ed’s sale sign & getting more phone credit in town, filling out registration e-forms, doing a load of washing and cooking up a big prawn curry for a late lunch whilst watching the blacks clouds swirl around occasionally dumping their load.

Late afternoon, we jumped on our bikes and took a wonderful ride along the old coastal train track to Framura. The cycle path is brilliant with regular balconies on which to pause and gaze over the churnings of the ocean which, against the greeny-black marble sand beaches, looks amazingly azure. The small town of Framura was equally enchanting but FAR less populated than the Cinque Terre with small steep vineyards snuggling close to the coloured hillside houses and the sweeping stone boulevards alongside the harbour.









When back the family frolicked in the unusually wavy Med whilst Jen snapped some 80 photos of the action!  Kel & Jeff engineered an intersecting city of 7 tunnels whilst exploring prime numbers! Jeff fixed another puncture and semi-packed up for our departure tomorrow whilst the family warmed up in showers.









A simple dinner, an episode of Black Adder and a few chapters finished of the 26th.

Sabbioneta


22/9

Unexpectedly, we’d enjoyed a really quiet night despite being camped near the Croce Rossa and the Police Station so our morning rise was not so speedy.

But Jen had to slip out early to call APHRA for medical registration (& learned it was Saturday, the little things!!) so she tied on her shoes & headed for a walk around the old town, appreciating quite a wealthy little pocket of Italy.

Our wonderful little students got on with the business of school in time for us to hit Lidl before siesta.

Having read about Sabbioneta, a small village that achieved world heritage listing only in 2008 for being “a perfect example of an ideal city planned according to the modern and functional vision of the Renaissance,” we thought it’d be an interesting stop.  Built by a chap called Vespasiona Gonzaga Colonna in the late 1500s, another of the wealthy families that established old Italy’s previous independent states or communes.

The drive through the Po Valley was wonderful, through heavy cropped regions now all recently turned & churned, obviously by enormous tractors given the size of the clay like thrown up clods of earth.  It’s been really interesting this year seeing the full cycle of planting, growing and harvesting and now the preparation for winter.
All of a sudden behind a small group of farm houses appeared these enormous moat encircled walls creating a hexagonal fortress with wedge shaped bastions at the corners & two beautiful old city gates at either side.





We arrived in siesta time to a virtual ghost town with the only evidence of life being the rowdy stragglers trickling after a wedding party.  Glitter & confetti sprinkled the steps of one of the small towns 5 churches (including a synagogue) and posters were splashed about the streets of the betrothed couple.



So we too had lunch and a siesta back at Ed before coming back in, this time a completely different town buzzing with small groups of Italian tourists & grinding coffee machines.  We looked at the old Teatro, the Palazzo Ducale, churches & the synagogue as well as the old stables and study residences of the dukes….. all from the outside, reserving our pennies for more significant monuments (& a coffee) and to not wear out the kids.





With THAT coffee, we chatted further about UNESCO listing and what criterion the town satisfied to gain it.




Italy is very campervan friendly and only a few kms down the road, still within view of the wonderful red city walls, we pulled up in a free over night stop alongside a playground (& morning 10BX exercise pad!)  A lazy long read capped off another great day.

Cremona


21/9 CREMONA

A mossie chased Kel into Jeff’s arms at ~ 0600 where she snoozed off, delightfully delaying our morning10BX in the mangey playground, watched attentively and quizzically  by a mule and a miniature horse.  We grooved through our morning routine, pulled in the washing, did some internet business and drove out at midday for Cremona, the world centre of violin making and home of the Stratevari brand.  Apparently 3 great friends set up here in the 1700s, using the best maple wood from the Balkans and the place has since remained a centre of excellence with a renowned university for the learning of the time consuming craft.

We sourced a rest stop a few kms from the town centre in the Red Cross parking bay and walked into town, coming across Luca Salvadori’s workshop.  We rang the bell and he invited us into his small dimly lit room where he was sculpting the back board of one of his violins.  He chatted generously, telling us that it takes him 2 months to make a violin that sells for €26,000 and that the craft is so particular and all consuming that usually one makes but never plays the violin as there isn’t enough time to do both!



Beautiful, always curved, cobbled lane ways signed the workshops of many other violin makers but we got way laid in the churches.  The first contrasted against so many others we’ve seen in Europe.  Often we’ve seen one religion or religious aristocrat destroy the other’s church & build on it’s foundations (sometimes leaving a crypt).  Here 3 churches were preserved perfectly inside one another, even including their outside cloisters & entries, oldest to newest, like Babushka dolls.  Then the incredible Cathedral Cremona hang us up for a while with fresco & sculptures more ornate than we’ve seen anywhere to date that cover every mm of wall & floor.



Unexpectedly, we were then seduced by very stylish shop fronts show casing violin shaped chocolates, beautiful nougats, aromatic cheeses, glorious rich coffee and shoe and frock shops to rival Milan.  In fact, Jen bought the most elegant green & leather snug fit stretchy number from a store called IKO for only €73!  We find ourselves comparing it to Salzburg whose shops retrospectively were so busy & fussy, resembling Chinese $2 shops in contrast to the classy simplicity & balance of these.



Enchanted, we stopped to drink the last bits of the afternoon in over a divine coffee & soupy fondue like hot chocolate.



Monday, 24 September 2012

Milano!

19/9 cont


Before leaving Maggiore Kel studiously did a literacy test (getting 100%!) and Wil, a maths test, getting 98%. Woo-hoo!  They nibbled their way through the last 2 remaining Mozart Kugelballs as rewards.  Programmed to a camping site west of Milan, we had an easy drive of just over an hour and once settled into our site and having had a HUGE salad lunch, we took off, this time using public transport, for Milan.

The outer camping suburb was closed down for siesta and when finally back from lunch & a snooze, things re-opened.  We tracked down a tobacconist for a 48 hour all transport ticket (metro, tram, bus) and then sat on a parked bus for 30 minutes before it left.  About 1.5 hours later, having made a metro connection, we finally arrived in Piazza Duomo only 10 km from the campsite.  Could have walked there.





Commanding the plaza is the 4th largest Gothic cathedral in Europe and whilst this style of architecture doesn't normally grab us, this one has pleasing plump proportions and is made of sparkling CLEAN pink & white marble (in contrast to the often blackened sandstone others we’ve seen) standing out crisply against the bluest sky.  Madonna stands golden atop its tallest spire catching a heavenly light.  Apparently ‘standing at the foot of Madonna‘ refers to being in Milan.  Dressed in shorts, we tried to enter the Duomo but the heavily armed soldiers lining the entrance path, firmly ushered us away.



So off we trickled for an engaging few hours in the city that nurtured Leonardo Di Vinci, invented the bean bag & the Vienna schnitzel and from where the trade of millinery was derived.  Wandering the grand & busy streets, we walked through evidence of The Romans & Constantine, the powerful Visconti and Sforza dynasties, Da Vinci, the Spanish & the Austrians before Napoleon claimed it as his capital.  Then came Mussolini who founded the Fascist party here before WW2 saw central Milan scarred by bombs.  Now, home of designer fashion (Armani, Gucci, Versace, D&G etc…) Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, it’s wildy ritzy and glamourous. 







Further coloured by Da Vinci’s original Last Supper that one has to book several weeks in advance to view, huge art galleries, the most famous opera house in Europe( and streets, coffee shops etc named after the man of opera, Guiseppe Verde), fanatical soccer, endless exceptional food outlets and streets jammed with luxury cars, motorbikes and gorgeous, gorgeous model type people makes it really exciting but really expensive city for us trailer trash.  A city that shows amazing adaptability - incredible age & history, giving layers to the world’s centre of culture and fashion.

Nonetheless, content with people watching, browsing amazing book shops & having coffee (& pizza slices) we spent a wonderful few hours before reversing our public transport journey home. The metro here is absolutely fantastic.  Are we better at figuring it all out as well?
Back at the camp gates, a wee plucky Jack Russell was yelping intensely at a small dark ball that, when Jeff raised his iPhone light, revealed a dear small local hedgehog! Apparently they are local fauna here!

20/9

AUNTY LOTTE’S BIRTHDAY!  Happy day beautiful sister!

Straight after breakfast & all skilled up on getting there & away, we jumped on the bus for another dose of Milano.  Our young German neighbours, Kristine & Daniel (gynae & pharmacist) from Cologne shared some useful information & we exchanged addresses. They invited us to stay with them if coming through Cologne on our way home to experience the town Christmas Party & we invited them anytime to our base in Oz.  Gee it would be great if some of these great folk we meet do visit! 

So...from 0930 - 1930 we… visited another really helpful & bright tourist info, gawked at the adjacent enormous red Costelli Sforzesco with its huge fountain out front, window shopped often taken by surprise at the relatively cheap wear and overwhelmed by the number of outlets, oogled at fancy Ferraris, alfas, bugattis & hummas,



lost ourselves in another 2 bookstores (got some good Italian literature) a DVD store (picked up some recommended local films), found a beloved GROM icecream, gawked at Duomo inside (best part was the marble floors in geometrical orange, black & white patterns),








took a stuffed tram to grungy nightlife Nivigl canal district (all dug out by man to float the huge marble blocks in from Lake Como region to build the Duomo), 



had another great coffee, back to Duomo for more photos from another angle, struggled past jostling Senegalese & Indian hawkers, took a peek at Peck’s famous food hall (ultra fancy but far too expensive for us),





had another look and a pic at Duomo and then finally hours later, we plonked for a rest in a stylish modern cafe to enjoy a wonderful feed of pizza slices, stuffed anchovy pockets, spinach, ricotta & egg pastry & more great coffee. 










Vittori Emmanuel II Bldg



Off again, we wandered more shops (& bought a gorgeous wee grey frock for Kel E20),Wil’s eyes watered keeping up with the stream of glittery cars & bikes, Jeff was overcome by the intense manscaping and we found ourselves once again lingering through the absolutely exquisite Vittori Emmanuel II building (shaped like an enormous crucifix) & in a bookshop before dragging ourselves exhausted, home to Ed. 







Too tired to try the apperitivi that Milan is known for where one buys a cocktail and nibbles at a smorgasbord of tasties that are included in the price.  Before jumping on the metro, we payed our pennies for a pee and a tarty sort on the phone with a fag in the corner of her mouth didn’t stop for niceties but took the money with LONG red nails & waved us into an underground homey bathroom complete with piped Dolly Parton music, crocheted toilet roll holders, shell toilet seats, fish tanks in the boyz, fake flower possies by the taps and knitted floor mats with pink roses in the corners.

Some home entertainment saw the police having a rowdy argument with a fellow Italian camper and eventually taking him & family off somewhere.

Scraping the bottom of the energy barrel, we put on a load of washing late at night only to return to find some pushy bloody buggars had emptied out our dryer load putting in their gear and leaving ours wet in a plastic bag on the floor.  So, in the dark, cursing & huffing, we strung up our lines and laboriously hung it all out hoping for a dry night. 
The soothing bells sent us off to sleep playing Ava Maria, on the hour.