Last blog from Italy

La Speranza
The name of our nearest restaurant ( which has become our regular Friday night haunt for the past 5 weeks) means ‘Hope’. I think it refers to ‘I hope I’ll be able to get a booking’. Had our hosts not recommended it we would never have darkened its doors. It is basically a truckie stop built right on the edge of a fairly busy road – the façade is bland in the extreme and covered in dust. We first planned to eat there on our second night in Italy. The four of us turned up at 7pm ( my sister and niece were staying at that time) only to discover that it didn’t open till 7.30. There’s a little grocery store and bar next door so we sat there having a drink waiting for La Speranza to open. As soon as it did, we sauntered in and asked for a table for 4. They asked if we had a booking. We said “no” but didn’t expect that to be a problem because there were at least 200 seats in the place. But they were fully booked. We tried to tell them we would eat quickly and vacate our table for the next lot but no luck. We made a booking for the next night and have eaten there every Friday night since. It is a really interesting place with very good home style cooking, pleasant service, immaculately clean, fresh table cloths for every new diner and very cheap. We always start with the platter of antipasti misto – a mixture of crostini, bruschetta, salami, olives, artichokes etc. Then we share a bowl of pasta (made fresh on the premises so it is very tender) – we are working our way through the range of sauces but will have to come back again if we want to try them all. Then we share a grill with some veges. The grilled meat is probably the best part of the meal. Outside the restaurant is a huge pile of firewood which is brought into the kitchen in a wheelbarrow – the meat is cooked straight over the coals and tastes wonderful. Phil said last night’s steak was the best he had ever eaten. Then it’s time for dessert – forget it!! Not only do you not have room for dessert but they are horrible cheap shop bought cakes. I don’t know why they bother. Everything else is just so good. The whole meal for the 2 of us including a bottle of wine, a bottle of water and coffees comes to less than 30 euros ($50 Aus) - it’s hardly worth cooking at home for that. On top of a great meal, the clientele are fascinating. There are clearly truck drivers who usually sit at a table on their own. There are heaps of families. There are farm workers who arrive with mud still on their boots. There are very well-to-do groups of middle aged locals. There are tables of a dozen or so young men who have a good time without being disruptive. There is even the occasional tourist but not many. La Speranza is open for lunch and dinner 7 days a week and rarely has an empty seat – it’s amazing.

Siena again
On Wednesday we back to Siena again. Phil was keen to climb the tower on the Campo and go to see the art again in the Palazzo Pubblico. And there were a couple of churches he hadn’t been into. We are at the Campo before 9.00 only to discover that it doesn’t open till 10.00. What a shame, we’ll have to go to Nannini’s for coffee and a pastry. YUM!! Back at La Torre at 9.50 – Phil is a bit disappointed that we are second in the queue (he needn’t have worried – they are 20-somethings – we pass them after about 200 steps while they are taking a breather ). It is certainly worth the 400+ narrow steps – the views are superb. We feel sure there must be another set of stairs to go down – the staircase is so narrow but, no, we just have to squeeze past each other. Fortunately the advertising makes it very clear that there are over 400 steps and this obviously deters the big fat tourists one sees from time to time.

After a swig from our water bottles we go into the Palazzo Pubblico. We were last here about 8 years ago and have often reflected on the major art work in this building. The building continues to be the Town Hall but they open their fabulously decorated medieval sate rooms to tourists. The one we find most interesting is the ‘Sala della Pace’ – room of peace. Back in the early 14the century the “members of the government wanted art work in the room to emphasise the political convictions that motivated and inspired their activity”. Ambrogio Lorenzetti completed his ‘Allegory of Good and Bad Government’ in 1338 – almost 700 years ago. It depicts Good Government based on Justice for all, Peace, Fortitude, Prudence, Temperance and Magnanimata – something like generosity, compassion. There is then a massive landscape next to this depicting the results of well founded government - productive fields tended, farmers bringing their goods into the town to be sold, in the town there are all sorts of trades – builders, potters, weavers, bakers and also musicians and dancers. On the opposite wall is a much deteriorated landscape representing bad government who is shown as “a tyrant with devil like features protecting his own interests rather than seeking the common good. He is aided by Vice and has bound up Justice.” You can still make out rubbish strewn streets, buildings in disrepair, murder, rape and fields lying idle and overgrown with weeds. It is a very powerful message. We have talked about it many times since we first saw these paintings – mankind has known for so long the implications of good and bad government but even in our democracies there is not always the will for our leaders to put what we known for centuries into practice.

Two other art works in the Palazzo Pubblico stand out – Martini’s Guidoriccio da Fogliano of 1328 which is said include ‘the oldest realistic representation of landscape in the history of art’ I can’t think who was painting on England France or the Netherlands at that time so will add that to my list of things to follow up when I get home. The other is Lorenzetti’s Mappmondo – the map of his then known world with Siena at the centre – a springboard for all sorts of thoughts about the centres of people’s worlds.

I won’t bore you with details of another yummy meal at Trattoria del Torre – a classic Phil found in one of his guide books.

Ordinary people doing extraordinary things
Two other articles from last weekend’s English papers have set me thinking. One is about a young family with 3 preschool children who are volunteers for the charity ‘Care for the Elderly’. The father is a finance exec who became a driver for the charity when he was 19 and has been involved for the past 20 years. One of the things his family does is have 6 old ladies who live alone for tea one Sunday a month. It seemed like a really useful and easy thing to do but for these ladies it was a highlight of their lives. A second article was about a postman in a former mining town in west Yorkshire badly affected by mine closures. Nick, the postman, loves books and decided to set up a second hand bookshop when he heard that a shop in the south was closing down and selling off their 100,000 books cheaply. He and his wife spent every weekend for three months bringing the books north. There are lovely quotes from locals who buy from the shop about how much it means to them to be able to buy books inexpensively. Nick still works as a postman from 5 – 12am each day then takes over at the shop from his mother-in-law. We sent them a postcard to let them know we admire what they are doing. The minister from our home church has been reminding us all to be encouragers, so, Jim, that was our bit for Tuesday.

Arezzo

Yesterday we drove across to Arezzo – it takes about and hour an a half from our villa. There is a fabulous fresco cycle in the Basilica by Piero della Francesca. When we were here about 4 years ago it was under restoration so we had to content ourselves with scouring the countryside for his other works at San Sepolcro, Montrechi and Urbino. Our guide book told us that we needed to prebook because they only allow 25 people in at a time. Noone on the phone number given spoke English so I went online. Fabulous website – I chose the English option and all went well till the booking pages which were only in Italian. We decided to chance it and got another early start – we were there at 9.00 when the doors opened and were the only people in the first group at 9.30. One other person arrived about 9.45. Maybe everyone’s too exhausted from sitting up half the night watching soccer. However, we had Piero to ourselves and it was great. The story depicted in the paintings is fanciful beyond words but the art is wonderful (Paddy, there is a postcard on its way to you now). His women have beautiful faces which remind me of Phil’s granddaughter Hannah and detailed landscapes of the area around Arezzo which has hardly changed in 600 years.

Heaps of walking

With all this wonderful food you might imagine that we are fat as pigs. Fortunately one of our other passions is walking so the two counterbalance each other fairly well. Andy, we finally took your advice this week and bought a CAI ( Commission Alpino Italiano) map for our area. We should have bought it 4 weeks earlier because we have discovered some great walks right on our doorstep. This morning we started off from Scorgiano (about 10mins by car from home) at about 9am. It’s a tiny town of about a dozen houses + a palazzo. We wandered around the massive palazzo for a bit – part of it was clearly lived in but other parts in poor repair. Phil said that he could imagine it as a film set. Twenty paces on, around a bend, we did in fact come across a film being shot. There were hundreds of people on the edge of one of the vineyards. We watched a couple of ‘takes’ of a scene with young men driving through the vineyards singing lustily before starting our walk. A gentle 4 hour hike today. It is pretty hot in the afternoons – 35+ so we try not to be out walking after about 1.00