Paula's Tour Talk

Loving Italy: Two Good Books

Italy makes people so happy that they want to write books about their delightful experiences. This makes me happy because I love to read about Italy when I am not there.

I recently read two I enjoyed: Living in a Foreign Language: A Memoir of Food, Wine, and Love in Italy by Michael Tucker and Venice for Lovers by Louis Begley and Anka Muhlstein.

Michael Tucker's book is a lot of fun. You remember Tucker; he and his wife Jill Eikenberry starred on
the popular TV series LA Law for many years. He was the balding short guy and she was the tall blonde beauty. They are both wonderful actors.

After the show ended, these two ended up buying a dream house in Umbria, fixing it up, and as far as I can tell, living happily ever after. They both still act sometimes back in New York and Los Angeles, but their "real life," as Tucker puts it, is in Italy. What makes this book such a pleasure to read is Tucker's genuine voice. His personality shines through, as does his deep love for his wife and for his life. He finds tremendous joy and satisfaction in the food and wine, the shops and shop keepers, the pace, and the beauty of his little village. You really won't learn  anything at all about Umbria, but you will get a taste of the good life through the eyes of a very charming man.

I didn't think I would enjoy this book as much as I did, and I am hoping there will be a sequel.

Venice for Lovers is mis-named. It a book for lovers of Venice, and will most likely bore those who are not.  Novelist Louis Begley and his wife, the biographer, Anka Muhlstein have put three short pieces (two by him and one by her) together to make a book. Each one is self-contained. The first by Muhlstein is my favorite. 

She writes evocatively of how the couple, who for years have spent summers in Venice, have come to love and know the city well. They go to Venice to  write, and maintain a rigorous daily schedule. They seldom socialize and shun the crowds jamming the  Piazza San Marco. Instead, they frequent a few restaurants, take long walks, and get intimately acquainted with daily life in this most beautiful city.

Anka Muhlstein's essay, The Keys to Venice, describes the city they have come to know so well.  She is thoughtful and observant, and interesting. I enjoyed word pictures, savoring the sights, sounds, and scents they conjured for me.

Begley's contributions less personal. One is a novella, called The Only Way to Enter Venice, about a young man who pursues and is spurned by an older woman. He learns, instead, to love Venice. The other is a fairly scholarly essay about how Venice figures in the works of Henry James, Marcel Proust, and Thomas Mann. If, like me, you love Venice, these will interest you.

Both these books are worth reading, and Tucker's is a lot of fun. But these are definitely not the titles to choose if you want to explore Umbria or get tips on honeymooning in Venice!

Donatello's David

The Bargello Museum in Florence is celebrating the return of the newly restored statue of David by the 15th century master sculptor Donatello. This famous work underwent a massive restoration process beginning in June of 2007 and just put back on display in November of 2008.

You can get a full report of the process, in an English language PDF at the official restoration site.

This beautiful statue has always raised a bit of a ruckus.

It is the earliest nearly life-size (it's 5' 2" high) nude statue since the days of ancient Rome, over 1000 hears before. The statue was probably commissioned by Cosimo Medici and certainly stood in the courtyard of the old Medici Palace in 1469.

Even though David is a revered Old Testament figure, this was not a work suitable for a church.

And it's an unusual depiction of the giant-slayer. Donatello imagines the boy-hero as a slim, graceful, rather effete adolescent. He gazes down at the severed head with a smug, self-satisfied expression. His left toes poke at Goliath's unruly beard. David wears a laurel wreath, an ancient symbol of victory on his shepherd's hat. The Florentines loved David and saw him as a symbol of spirit and struggles, an underdog who defeats much greater enemies. 

Over the centuries much has been written about this work of art. It's generally agreed that Donatello was gay, and some have seen his David as a piece of erotica. Some have even suggested that this David looks like a girl with male parts.

As interesting as such speculation might be, I think it misses the point. Donatello created his David according to ideas found in Plato and his praise for "beautiful boys." It is more important to see how the artist has combined Platonic ideals with Florentine politics in a biblical figure.

I also think it's interesting to contrast this slender boyish figure with Michelangelo's massive muscled David, completed some 30 years later.

While the Bargello is not included on Time of Your Life tour itineraries, I encourage anyone interested  in Renaissance sculpture to visit in their free time. In addition to the David,there are works by Micheangelo, Verrochio, Della Robbia, and some wonderful small bronzes, including Giambologna's owl.

Monteriggioni: A Step Back in Time

One of the highlights of Time of Your Life Tour's Taste of Tuscany Tour is the day we spend in the Tuscan hills. We visit Siena with its jewel of a cathedral, San Gimignano with its towers and award-winning gelato, and enjoy a sumptuous lunch accompanied by the exquisite local white wine, Vernaccia, at a working farm and vineyard.

But on the tour last October we had an additional stop that made the day even more special. We spent some time in the little town of Monteriggioni which is entirely enclosed in a walled medieval fortress. Seeing this ancient town is like stepping back in time.

Sitting atop a small hill, this beautiful village in the Chianti region of the Siena Province of Tuscany was built in the 13th century by the overlords of Siena to command the main roads running through the area.

Monteriggioni conforms almost perfectly to the archetypal idea of a medieval walled village.The walls and towers are virtually intact, and the visual effect from a distance is quite astonishing. It's a castle floating above the countryside.

Today inside the village there is almost no traffic, making it feel even more like nothing has changed in centuries.

Most of  the buildings inside the walls of Monteriggioni are the original structures. It is one of the best preserved medieval villages in Italy.

The more or less circular walls with a total length of about 570 meters were built between 1213 and 1219, following the natural contours of the hill. There are fourteen towers on square bases and two portals or gates.

Off the main piazza, smaller streets give way to public gardens fronted by the other houses and small businesses of the town. Back in more hostile times, these gardens provided to the inhabitants during dark days of siege warfare.

There was a real need for a defensive stronghold in this now peaceful area of farms and vineyards. It played a key role in the defense of nearby Siena, safeguarding the roads and also the farms that provided sustenance to that often besieged city.

The castle fortress occupied a strategic position in the on-going conflicts between Siena  and Florence during the Middle Ages when Florence was determined to increase its territory. From the 13th to the 16th century,Monteriggioni successfully resisted every attack and siege.

However, what Florence could not do by force, it ultimately achieved by guile. The  Sienese had placed control of the town's garrison in the hands of one Giovannino Zeti, who had been exiled from Florence. Reconciling with the Medicis in 1554, in what is known in Monteriggioni as the "great betrayal", he simply handed the keys of the town over to the captain of the Medici force.

Today, this lovely village no longer stands between warring neighbors. Instead it offers great views, charming cafes and shops, and a chance to imagine what life was like long ago.

We are pleased to have this addition to our tours, and last fall our clients agree it was the icing on the cake of a most special day in Tuscany. I can't wait to visit Monteriggioni again with the next tour.

A Little Bit of Italy in Everyday Life

Western civilization's debt to Italy is incalculable. Italy's influence on art, culture, philosophy, and cuisine is far-reaching and well known. But its influence is even deeper and surrounds our everyday activities.

Take, for instance, the abbreviation "lb" for pound. Did you ever wonder where that came from? Why isn't it "pd"?

We use lb for pound because of a practice in ancient Rome. The value of a sack of coins was determined  by weight, and the weight was measured in a unit called a librum. This word, in turn, came from the Latin word libra for scale.

In written records, weights were recorded as so many libra (the plural form of librum), and abbreviated as lb.

In the Middle Ages, in England, a pound, which comes from the Latin word pendere
(to weigh), was defined in various ways, but always abbreviated as "lb." It wasn't until the 16th century that 16 ounces became the standard measure of weight for a pound.

This is odd because the word ounce comes from the Latin uncia, meaning twelfth part, and there are 16 ounces in a pound. But it makes sense when it comes to inches, another derivative of uncia. An inch is indeed 1/12 of a foot.

I love learning things like this, about everyday quirks that we accept and take for granted. And I am always happy to discover that my beloved Italy is the source.