More London

When the Queen enters Westminster for the State Opening of Parliament she enters the Queen's Robing Room to put on the Imperial State Crown and the parliamentary Robes.

This is the clock in the Robing Room. And below, the fireplace.

Buckingham Palace, The Queen was not in...as evidenced by the fact that the Royal Standard was not flying.

These guys were keeping an eye on things at Buckingham Palace and in the park across the street from the Palace. (The black swan was in the park)

I Spy With My Little Eye...

...some spectacular scenes in London.

Some of these images were shot from the London Eye, the giant rotating wheel that is 200 times the size of the average racing bike wheel, and the largest observation wheel ever built as well as the only cantilevered structure of its kind in the world. The panoramic views of London are amazing from there. The ride takes about 30 minutes.

The Houses of Parliament and Big Ben

from the South Bank of the River Thames


The Tower Bridge from the North Bank.

Big Ben through the structure of the London Eye

9/14/09 We Did It!

We left the villa in Contignano and drove for 2 hours through every little town and village between there and Cascina (it was only 78 miles). This was the shortcut that we didn't take the other day when it took us two hours too.

The rain started about half way there and never stopped but just kept getting more and more intense. Between the switchbacks and the roundabouts and the torrential downpours we were beginning to think that Massimina didn't want to be found.
But we persevered and finally made it to Cascina and found the Stato Civile where birth records are stored.

It is necessary to take a number from a ticket machine (I think they got the idea from the US Department of Motor Vehicles.)
We were feeling pretty proud of ourselves for finding the right office with 40 minutes to spare but were again frustrated when the ticket machine didn't work and the attendant who was trying to fix it left to find another one who could! Finally the machine got fixed, we got our ticket and we were only one number away from the one that was currently being helped at the counter we needed to be at. When that person left we thought surely our turn had come but the agent needed to do something at his computer that caused him to laugh and giggle for the next 10 minutes. Peter was sure he was receiving chain letter email jokes.
When we were finally called he spoke no English and although I had written the names and dates and the info that we were looking for, this guy had no interest in helping us and so he passed us off to another agent. She didn't speak any English either but was at least willing to listen to my clumsy attempt at Italian. She retrieved a large old leather-bound volume of an index of birth records from Cascina for 1876 which was the date we thought Massimina was born. There was no Massimina Barontini listed. She then called another agent over who spoke about as much English as I spoke Italian. They decided to check the years around 1876 and found a "Massimo Barontini" born to Caterina Picchi and Angiolo Barontini in 1875. I knew that was the right record even though I thought her parents were Angelo Barontini and Caterina Picchini. The agent noticed a notation in the margin indicating that the name was originally written wrongly as Massimo, wrong because the child was a girl. This is why they couldn't find her in the index. So the note corrected the name to read "Massimina." So we definitely had the right record! She further translated the address as #84 San Frediano as to where she was born. We asked how to find that address and they told us it no longer exists. Understandable, I guess.

Anyway we purchased 5 copies, thanked both women for their help and were on our way in the rain to catch our train from Florence to Paris. By the time we got to Florence we were drenched and hungry but happy to finally take Nona with us, if only on paper.
I never knew Massimina--she died before I was born so this is the closest I have been to her... we're off to see the Eiffel Tower now but I don't expect to be moved by it as much as I was this morning when I saw the original hand-written record of Nona's birth in 1875 (134 years ago). WOW!!

By the way, Massimina was born 14 years before the Eiffel tower was built.

Mazzetti Revisited

I think it was in 2005 when we made our family trip to Tuscany. It was after dark in Montepulciano and we were walking down a street when we came upon a coppersmith shop where Signore Mazzetti was working. The scene was striking because a single hanging bulb overhead shone a perfect cone of light on him in the dark as he worked at his craft.

We crossed the street to get a better look and as we stood and watched him work, he greeted us and invited us in. Moma was with us (in her wheelchair) and since she was the only one of the 4 of us who could understand and speak Italian, he began to ask her the usual questions, and as he learned who she was and about her family he began to make her a copper disk upon which he stamped with his various tools the initials of each of her 9 children with a flower to represent each in a ring around the disk with her name in the middle. He said her children were like the flowers in her garden. He then polished it to a gleaming finish and presented it to her as a gift...although we offered to pay for it, he would take no money. We then took his picture with her and went on our way. It was an amazing and memorable event.

I later sent him a copy of the picture.

Fast forward to today, Peter and I were in Montepulciano and went into Mazzetti's shop to say hello, and not only did he remember us but he showed us the picture that I sent him, hanging right there on his wall!

Another amazing and memorable event!

Grazie Signore Mazzetti!

Somewhere Over the Rainbow...

..we found some grapes to eat right off the vine, endless acres of vineyards, a honey of a town, and a family from Massapequa, Long Island.
The grapes were delicious, the vineyards were breathtaking, the town was Montalcino and it was having a "Honey Festival", and we met the Mauro Family at lunch at the Banfi Vineyard.

Lost & Found or "Getting Lost and Finding Stuff"

We wanted to go back to Cascina to find Nona's records and we decided to take a shortcut. Well, the shortcut didn't work so well and we got lost. None of the roads in Tuscany are a shortcut to anywhere. So even though we got an early start we at about 11:15 that we were not going to make it to Cascina before the agency which has the birth records would close at 12:30. So we decided to take a shortcut to find San Gimignano. When that didn't go so well either and we got lost again we both decided to not try to find anywhere but instead to just drive.

When we passed a beautiful vista (duhhh!) we needed to turn around and go take pictures of it. So we did. As we were getting back in the car to find a shortcut to Siena I found something unusual in the dry soil on the side of the road. It was a shell! What the #*^% is a seashell doing in the hills of Tuscany???? I decided that we must have found proof that this area was at one time, millennia ago, under water. I continued to search and found many more shells. Then as I raised my eyes from the ground to the vegetation I noticed that some of the shells were stuck to the tall plants.
Sea shells? I think not!! What I found were snail shells! Some of them even still had snails in them!!

What I learned today: Don't be afraid to get lost because sometimes when you get lost you find stuff, it's just not always what you think you found.

9/10/09 Birthplaces

Today on our way to Lucca we decided to visit the birthplace of our Maternal Grandmother--Massimina Barrontini. She was born in Cascina, in 1876 to Caterina Piccini and Angelo Barrontini. Cascina is just a bit east of Pisa. We went into the Municiple Building and were lucky enough to approach an English-speaking agent who told us where we could find records of past residents of Cascina. Unfortunately that office only has hours between 9:30 AM and 12:30 PM. It was 12:50 by the time she gave us all the information and directions we needed including where to have lunch. So we will go back there soon and see what we can find.
We did find the church that Massimina surely attended as a girl.

In searching for our lunch we found ourselves in a village called Vicopisano, built on a little hill, which was interesting for it's towers, the largest and most impressive was the medieval "Torre del Bunelleschi." We saw it but could not reach it because of the maze of steps and hills and ancient buildings (dating back pre-1407). We could see the top of it from many vantage points but couldn't get to it.

We did find the "Torre dell Orologio" or clock tower.

After Vicopisano we headed for Lucca to secure dinner arrangements for our March 2010 tour group. Lucca is best known for its beautifully preserved walls that completely surround the town-walls that took 150 years to build in the 16th and 17th Centuries. It has some beautiful Romanesque churches, cobblestone streets, lots of restaurants, and pasticherrias (bakeries) and the main mode of transportation is the bicycle. People of all ages ride bicycles everywhere.

Our two main objectives in Lucca were to find a nice restaurant for our group and I particularly wanted to find the birthplace of Lucca"s most accomplished native--Giaccomo Puccini of LaBoehm, Madam Butterfly, Tosca, and Turandot fame. Another town of mazes kept us searching for the better part of the afternoon. We weren't having any better luck finding a suitable restaurant for the group either. So I was ready to give up on that plan and resort to the internet to achieve that goal.

But I was determined not to leave Lucca without finding Puccini's birthplace. The map told us it was adjacent to Piazza San Michelle which is the site of the beautiful church constructed largely in the 11th and 12th centuries but the work continued until the 14th century. The facade is richly decorated with 4 tiers of a variety of columns-some carved, some inlaid, others in colored marble. So we found the church and took pictures of it and then continued our now obsessive search for the Maestro's house. After about 3 wrong turns we finally found the piazza where his statue is the centerpiece, there is a hotel named for him and we finally found the small street which contained the 2nd story apartment of the family of Giaccomo Puccini.
Mission Accomplished!!

I felt the same way as I did when we walked the streets of Cascina-to know that Nona walked those streets, attended that church and perhaps sat on those stone steps over a hundred twenty years ago was a moving experience for me like no other. I am as happy as I can be without actually finding her house.

So now I can imagine Giaccomo walking down this street, or sitting in the piazza, perhaps whistling the theme from Madam Butterfly. As I hum the theme from Madam Butterfly I am again a satisfied and happy traveler.

So here comes Karma again...satisfied that we had accomplished one half of our mission in Lucca we were turning to leave the street of Puccini's birth when I noticed a restaurant called "Ristorante Puccini" directly across the street. I said to Peter "lets check this out for the group in March."
It's a beautiful restaurant with an English-speaking waitress who immmediately helped us with ideas, plans, prices, menus, and showed us the room so we basically made the deal with a handshake, details to follow and confirm thru email.
This restaurant has the right ambiance and the right setting and the right name to set the scene while we play some favorite arias from Madam Butterfly and LaBoehm and have a wonderful dinner across the street from the Puccini residence.
It was an amazing stroke of luck (or Lucca) and I certainly have Maestro Puccini to thank for it.

Oh, and Giaccomo, thanks for the music too!!
And Massimina, thanks for being my Nona!!

Traveling in Style...

...thanks to Hiroko for getting us upgraded to Business Class on the flight to Rome, the flight was not as tortuous as it can be when you are scrunched between two people in tiny seats and the person in front of you has to recline his/her seat all the way back. We were served champagne, an excellent meal (better than the average plane food) and best of all we had full reclining seats with a blanket AND a pillow. Nice.
We arrived at 7AM local time, got the rental car and began the drive north to the villa in Contignano. On the way we decided to stop and visit the town of Orvieto and maybe find some pasta to hold us over until we got to our destination to have pasta. That worked just fine.
We spent the day planning some of the details of the March tour. Got set up for a Pizza night at the villa, a tour of Giuseppe's basement including history of the town, villa, farm and an olive oil processing lession and tasting. We then went to the restaurant where we will have a cooking demonstration and a dinner with the group in March, had a wonderful dinner there and then came back to the villa to get rest up for our busy day tomorrow.
Tomorrow I will post some pictures, I'm too tired now to do it...
Ciao...

Tuscany-Paris-London

Peter and I are leaving for Tuscany tomorrow (9-8-09). We'll spend about a week there planning the tour that I'll be doing in March of 2010. We need to make dinner arrangements with several restaurants for the group so we will have to sample pasta at many different places in order to secure the most delicious arrangements for our future guests. It's a hardship on us but we feel it's the least we can do for those who put their trust in us.
After our time in Tuscany we will take the overnight sleeper train to Paris where we will spend one day exploring and then take the "chunnel"(tunnel under the English Channel) train http://tinyurl.com/p6t2t to London. We'll be in London for about a week. I will post pictures and report on our adventures here.
Stay tuned...