Tuesday 18 November 2014

Impressions of Italy

Say the word “Italy” and the word associations that people commonly think of are pizza, pasta and Tuscany. After our sojourn in Italy our minds think of words like landscapes, architecture and friendly people (as well as the pizza and pasta).

Italy has diverse landscapes and although we visited only a fraction of the country, we saw a variety of scenery as we drove from the snowy peaks from Austria down a long valley into central Italy and then through flat agricultural land in the region of Bologna.  
Entering Italy from the North takes one through the Italian Alps and then a gradual descent to flatter agricultural and industrial areas.

 
 
 
Not for the first time in Europe, we encountered significant haze: we were unable to fully identify the cause - fog, smog, smoke and climatic conditions all seem to contribute
 
 

As a result of ignoring the GPS instructions at Bologna, we finished up driving into Tuscany and the hill country of Umbria via a devious mountain route instead of by the main, direct highway. We had passed through some of these areas in our travels of three years ago, so it felt a little like coming ‘home’.
Scenery we didn't plan on seeing, but thoroughly enjoyed anyway. Autumn leaves continue to delight us and as we have travelled across countries we have seen many different stages and colours of autumn
 
 
 
After a few days in Umbria, we went to the region of rugged coastline known as Cinque Terre located at the top of the ‘leg’ of Italy – a precipitous hillside coastal strip that has been laboriously converted into 2,000 km of tight terraces (for olives and grapevines) using some 100 million stones (estimated – not counted). The site has UNESCO World Heritage site listing, and the effort needed for its construction can be compared to the building of the pyramids or the Great Wall of China.  We timed our arrival in this area to coincide with warm sunny weather, which permitted us to walk along the Cinque Terra path. This path connects five coastal villages which cling to the rocky coast. It was a beautiful walk (or, we should say climb, for it involves going up and down many hundreds of steps) with views of the coastline and terraced hillsides, and pauses to look around the villages with their winding, narrow streets.

 
 
 
 

 
 
Many steps up ... time out for a break .. and down
 
 
 
 
Look! We have short sleeves instead of our usual thick jackets. It was lovely to experience one warm day again

 
  
 
 

 

 
Do you  recognize any of these people?
 
 

 
The sun sets at the end of a beautiful day

Tuscany 's landscape is more undulating than that of Umbria.   The town of Cortona had big attraction to Anne, who has read books by Frances Mayes (Under the Tuscan Sun, plus many others). Italy attracts many expatriates who live out their dreams by buying an old house, restoring it and living ‘off the land’ or using it as a holiday home or rooms for tourists.



Cortona's town square (above) and houses (below)


 
 

Undulating Tuscan landscape



Just as diverse as the scenery is the architecture of the different regions.  To walk in the hill towns of Umbria takes one back to medieval times. Each has its own old city wall, complete with towers, gates, churches, convoluted, multi-level pathways and streets, reachable to the tourist only by winding roads that go up and up. One walks back into a time when fortification from enemies was the over-riding consideration when building a city.
 



Ancient stairs, towers, walls and streets: something to see at every turn














 


 




The heights of the towns provide expansive views from city walls










In our time in Umbria we stayed with Giovanna, with whom we had contact last year. It was a delight to meet her and learn from her. Giovanna purchased a dwelling’in what was a ‘ghost village’. She has restored the remains of a roof and derelict walls into a most comfortable home consistent with heritage rules. Her village house is quite remote, reachable only by a very bad road, so bad that we did not take our car on it, but left it parked in the nearby town and either travelled to and fro with Giovanna or walked in and out.
Giovanna's renovated home




 

Sections of the 'ghost village' not restored and in a crumbling state 
 
The hill town of Parrano, just across the valley from Giovanna's house, seen rising through the early mist (above) and in the light of day (below)  November's rainy weather may be seen in the background  of many photos in this posting

 
From Giovanna and her friends, to staff or other clients in restaurants and hotels, we encountered only friendliness and helpfulness.  We enjoyed watching the animated conversations of the Italians, accompanied with much expression and many gestures. 

And yes, the pizza and pasta were excellent!  (along with a delicious fish soup).



 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
We chose to leave northern Italy for France a couple days early because of forecast heavy rain. Just as well! Later news reported torrential rains, flash flooding and loss of life in the areas we'd driven through. 

Tuesday 11 November 2014

Hearts warmed by Austria - despite the cold!

What a delight it was to spend seven full days in Austria, firstly at Vienna – cold Vienna, then at a small alpine village – even colder, a day in Salzburg famous for The Sound of Music and more, and one night at Innsbruck. Each region is distinctive, each city has its own personality, and all are wonderful! As with our account of Prague, this posting is largely photographic (but only a selection of Anne’s 400 photos and Bob’s 200 taken during our week’s stay!)

By the time we got to Vienna, a weather system dubbed Tropical Rainstorm Gonzales, had brought heavy rain, snow and cold temperatures of eight to ten degrees to much of Europe. These events shocked our biological temperature control systems within a few hours of emerging from our hotel – notwithstanding five layers of thermal-ware, gloves, beanies etc. We went on a Hop-on Hop-off bus, guided walking tours, and our own random routes around town. Vienna is a grand city with majestic buildings around every corner, a legacy from the time of the Austrian empire and the reign of the Hapsburg’s. You know it’s a grand city when the size of the buildings means you can’t fit them all on one photo!



Our noses ran, our eyes went red....even our teeth hurt when we breathed in the cold air!




Views of the main cathedral.....unable to be captured in one photo


In front of the Hapsburg's summer palace. It was so cold we made only a quick visit
 
On the balcony of the palace....Bob and Anne receive applause from the gathered crowds.........


 
Around this corner, a palace....around the next, a gold trimmed statute.  

City streets








Vienna was the home of Mozart, the Strauss family and many others, so music was a strong theme. Concerts were held daily in churches, theatres and palaces. These street performers were pretty good also
Even the teddy bears were waltzing!

 
Ah yes, its all chocolate!!!
 
We often use the Booking.com website to organize our accommodation – usually picking a place somewhat at random or on the basis of client reviews. We were delighted to find that our searching took us to a village region called Gosau – which turned out to be even colder than Vienna. However, we were too enchanted by the scenery to pay attention to temperature trivia – the soaring, snow-clad, mountains – picture-perfect alpine villages – horses and cows grazing green fields – the chill, still lakes, clusters of residual snow-falls along the roadsides … We stayed for two nights in a warm apartment overlooking the valley, snowy peaks and frosty pastures, and spent one day on an extended lake-side walk.
 
Scenes in an around the village of Gosau
 

 
 
 
 
 
Views from the window of our apartment. Yes, that is frost on the ground (below)
 


 
Our walk around Lake Gosau was a day of chill beauty.
 
 
 
 
The steep mountain walls and the angle of the winter sun mean that one side of the lake doesn't receive direct sunshine. We were walking along frosted ground at midday. Solidified snow lay on the ground in many places


Cold but still smiling
Reflections doubled the beauty
 

 

 

 
 
Note the temperature and the time of day


We also visited Hallstatt, a small village fitted precariously between a lake and the mountains that plunge to its edges. A fascinating (though macabre) consequence of ‘living on the edge’ is that, over the centuries, there was just not enough flat ground in which to bury the newly dead. The people managed this by exhuming previously interred bodies (after ten or twenty years), cleaning up the skeleton a bit, and placing it in an orderly stack with everyone else’s skulls and femurs in a ‘charnel house’. You may have come across this term in novels or history books. Hallstatt is also fascinating in other ways!

 
The beauty of Hallstadt. It is a major tourist attraction and has  been listed in the worlds ten most beautiful sites. Arriving at the official end of the summer season meant less crowds, but also less services.  We would have enjoyed a ferry ride but they stopped for the season the day before we arrived


 

Swan Lake
 

What a peaceful place to be buried (above). It was the people below who had to move out to make room! 




Salzburg was a surprise for us and a city we really enjoyed. Music, music, music! Not in the streets as such, but historically, from its most famous sons, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Hadyn, Schubert etc, all the way through to The Sound of Music movie of the sixties. On our second night at Salzburg we attended a performance of Mozart’s ‘The Magic Flute’.  To sit in the theatre with its intricately painted ceiling and sculptured cherubs was indeed an enjoyable experience.


Salzburg from above Viewed from the castle (below)


 
Buildings line each side of the river. Padlocks on bridges are seen across Europe, used a symbol between lovers. Selling padlocks would be a lucrative business, judging by the number we've seen 
The beautiful gardens of the Mirabell palace....and they even have unicorns there




Too cold for some ...


 
There are many formal tours of the Sound of Music sights. Anne went on a quick visit to the major places (while Bob did other things of greater interest to him). The movie was shot in different parts of Salzburg and the surrounding areas and as it was interesting to see how it was all put together

 
Doh, a deer, a female deer.........

 
And to more cultured things. A statue of Mozart in his home town
 
 
It would be beautiful to see Christmas celebrated in Europe and decorations were just appearing. This shop was totally dedicated to selling Christmas decoration (hanging eggs featured largely)
 
Finally, we headed further west, to Innsbruck. This is too is a fascinating place – a large city located between alpine ranges, all whitened anew from the recent snow falls. We stayed at a ‘holiday paradise’ (Ferienparadies) a few km from Innsbruck where we were snug in a barrel – a creatively-designed cabin – beautifully warm and experiential!
On the way to Innsbruck. While it would have been a treat to have seen snow falling, we would not have wanted to drive in such unfamiliar conditions
 
 
The holiday park where we stayed, with barrels (below) and Bob in a barrel
 
 
 

 
 Scenes from Innsbruck
 

 

 


 












Bob's mother's family seem to be doing alright after going to Austria instead of Australia

 

 

We awoke early on our last morning and went for a walk at daybreak,  Its amazing to think that this year we have seen the sun come up over both the desert and over ice covered mountains!



'Morning has broken, like the first morning.
Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird.'

We left after the ice had melted off the top of the car and the windscreen .....

And we're on our way to Italy