Time in Tuscany

Florence, Italy

Oct. 25

We're sitting on a patio terrace, overlooking the city of Florence. Dominating the skyline is the massive Duomo, which we toured yesterday -- a 14th century looming cathedral with a soaring dome (which gives it it's name). The inside of the dome is painted with exquisite scenes from the Bible, but it was the outside that really captured our fancy; it is candy striped!! The entire structure is made of rows of marble in shades of green, white and rose, so in a cathedral of these immense proportions, it's pretty amazing.


It's not the Duomo that is distracting us from the inevitable homeschooling this morning however -- it's the olive harvest. Even here in the city, no olive tree escapes giving up its bounty. As the trees in the campground have been picked, the olives have been dumped onto a corner of the terrace, so now they've come along to shovel them all into sacks and cart them away. I can't find anyone who speaks enough English to tell me where these are going -- I imagine they'll end up at the local mill to be pressed, but whether or not they come back for use in the campground restaurant, or are sold to pay for running costs, I can't figure out! Two days ago, as we were doing our work in our campsite, we were interupted by the arrival of the men to pick. They were working on the tree just over the fence from us: first they laid down a tarp to catch the fall, then one of them went up and ladder and attacked the fruit with a sort of hand-held rake. Considering these trees can live for centuries, he was pretty rough -- chunks of stems and branches went flying as well as the olives! His partner on the ground seemed to be there primarily to extract the largest chunks of tree from the heap of olives on the ground. Another type of harvest in another country. The olives in the area of France we were in are controlled by the 'appelation controllee" rules for the area (first developed to standardise grape production), and they cannot be picked for another six weeks to two months. Essentially, producers in each region -- even just people with a tree or two in their back garden -- have to abide by picking times decided upon by the local authorities which will yield the highest quality fruit. It's all extremely interesting for this farm kid... especially considering we're smack in the middle of a city!

And what a city -- it's leaving me feeling a bit overwhelmed. The statistics listed on the sightseeing boards list in the city centre: 214 palaces and towers, 167 churches and religious buildings, 61 museums!! Good grief!!


Oct. 27


Sunday was a gorgeous day; we drove out through the Tuscan countryside and enjoyed the sunshine and clear skies. Just to wander through the little towns, or stop off at a particularly interesting looking castle (they're so prolific we've almost become blase) makes for a gentle, happy day. This trip is really showing me what a country girl I am and will always be.

And quite by accident -- as is usually the way -- we stopped at the medieval castle and fortress of Monteriggio, drawn in by the spectacular beauty (and sword play potential) of it's immense walls. We had to take quite a long and winding detour through the countryside to get to it, and then there was another substantial hike up the hill... but what a reward we found inside! The walls themsleves were all that remained of the original big structures, but housed within one of the smaller buildings was a little display of mediaval armor, and they let us try it on!!! The boys were absolutely beside themselves with excitement... and I am sorry to say that the Cox family played our part in adding to the scarring on the low timbered ceiling in a room that contained an extra-long broadsword! Caelan was absolutely dwarfed by that armor, but he was in there with a grim determination that was comical and painfully sweet at the same time. He could barely lift the biggest sword, but when Lochlan wielded it, he had to have a go as well. We're coupling these kind of experiences with some great audio tapes about history... I don't know what use it will be in the big picture of their lives, but they know it inside out!




I had been hankering for Sienna since we left France, but all our unplanned detours that day meant that we didn't get to it (our original destination) till dark. But even that was okay... we've seen the inside of enough churches and monuments already that we could just wander through the walled town and soak up the atmosphere. Again, for the kids there was something magical about being in such a folk-tale kind of setting at 'the witching hour'. We found a little hole-in-the-wall bar that served reasonable food -- 'real' restaurants don't start serving meals at the ridiculously early hour of 7:00 pm, and they're outside of our current budget constraints at the moment, anyhow. Eating out in any way is a big treat for us, but as we munched on re-heated lasagna off plastic plates, the kids pointed out to each other that we will have 14 nights of gourmet food while we're on the cruise!



Oct. 28

Well, we've done our best to get to know Italy, but it has been raining off and on since we got here... it's so much easier to fall in love with a place when I'm dry!!! But the kids have been real troopers; we've spent a couple of days in the reasonable warmth and 'dryness' of a designer outlet mall. Our plan has always been to buy Mitch a suit in Italy... he needed a new one, Italian clothes fit a slim guy like him perfectly, and it saved us dragging one with us all this way just for the cruise. So we set the kids up with their school books, a walkie-talkie, and money to buy themselves some lunch while we tried on and compared suits of all kinds. They were SO happy to have this kind of freedom... they agonised over the best deal for their money (which of course included gelato!), and ordered in Italian... these kind of growing-up days stand out as epochs that leave me proud and wistful. Of course, we were never far away, but the foreign language made it all that much more adventurous -- and courageous.

Then today we decided to get out of the rain and follow up on a brochure to see a display of Leonardo da Vinci's machines while cashing-in on a "free lunch" with admission. When we finally found the place -- the tiny, one-way and usually unmarked streets of Florence are pictureesque but a nightmare to navigate -- we were wet, bedraggled and ravenous for lunch. When we saw that the 'included' sandwich was a pre-packaged job like you can buy at chemists in England, it made me laugh, but we all bellied up and picked out what we wanted from the selection of two types... then we watched in wonder as the guy behind the counter solemnly took out his tongs and fished a half sandwich out of a packet, put it on a plastic plate, and put it in front of us!! So much for our free meal... even Cachell was still starving when it was finished in three gulps!

Fortunately, the exhibition was great. Da Vinci is one of my heroes, and my enthusiasm has rubbed off on all the children. An excellent documentary film on his life done by the History Channel was playing (did they have a license to show it, I wonder?). It was really only there to add to the ambiance as it was in English and an hour and a half long, but we all plonked down and watched the whole thing from beginning till end. Well, almost end; when we got to the part where it discussed his study of medical anatomy late in his life, it showed da Vinci in a hospital morgue preparing to do an autopsy on an old man and a child. The kids had sat through countless war scenes and graphic descriptions of horrible machines for mass killing he designed, but the morgue scene drove them out of the room! Lochlan came back in, but when we left after it finished 5 minutes later we found Caelan lying on the floor under a huge model of a flying machine, where he had apparently passed out!!! Poor guy! Fortunately, the models were mostly hands-on, and so interesting that he was soon cajoled back to feeling fit again.


We all really learned a lot... I am fascinated and slightly repelled that Leonardo respected all living creatures to the point of being a life-long vegetarian, but at the same time, a large portion of his career was spent designing instruments of war for Italy's leading tyrants, including the Borgas. He also absolutely hated Michalangelo... but learning these things made him more human, and therefore much more knowable. We were all vibrating with the awareness that he had walked the very streets we exited onto, and we had to pass Michelangelo's David on our way back to camp... we'll never forget Florence or da Vinci and his contemporaries.