Now where was I? We have been on the go so obviously posting
has suffered. Friday in Siena we had to
visit the Pinacoteca Nazionale to see two paintings. Originally it was going to be three, but
Royden and Nancy who visited the day before emailed to tell us that St. Anthony
being beaten by Devils at an exhibition in Brussels. On the walk to the museum we saw a
demonstration in a square so I went over to take a few photos. We didn’t know what it was about but there
were about 50 people with signs, banners and a loudspeaker. There were also plenty of polizia
around. Well we found out what the
demonstration was about when we got to the museum and found the doors
closed! There was a notice on the door
that the museum was closed because of the Strike, obviously our
demonstration. So we stood outside
trying to decide what else we could do as it was only about 10:30 and we were
not leaving until the next day. After a while
the door to the museum opened and two folks came out to have a smoke. We went over to see what we could learn, and
miraculously they told us the museum would reopen at 14:00!!! Talk about relief, so we went and visited the
church of St. Catherine of Siena. After
that we went to the Campo to sit outside and have something to drink, Sue had
coffee I had a beer. We sat in the sun
people watching, and commenting for almost an hour and a half, and nobody ever
bothered us. Can you imagine sitting
outside in a tourist area in the US, ordering one drink and not moving for that
long? I can’t either. Anyway we got to the museum when it
opened. There was an older French couple
in front of us at the ticket window, and they were not happy. The second floor was going to be opened from
14:00 to 15:00 then closed, and then the first floor would be opened from 15:00
to 16:00. The French couple didn’t buy
the tickets, but we did as we had one painting on each floor. The galleries were arranged in chronological
order. But we found out which gallery
our painting was in and went there first thing.
We didn’t know if things might change.
We may have been the only people in the place. An attendant showed us to our painting “The Virgin
Appears to Pope Callistus III” by Sano di Pietro, and she explained a bit about
the story the painting was depicting (once again I’ll spare you the
details). I would guess that based on
her age (close to ours) and knowledge that she was more than an attendant and
that she had been pressed into service because of the strike. We saw everything on this floor, even the
spot were St. Anthony was usually beaten by Devils. At 15:00 we went to the first floor and went
right to the second painting “Nativity of the Virgin” by Domenico Beccafumi,
then because it was so nice to have the place to ourselves we saw everything on
that floor. We eventually made our way
back to the B&B to rest a bit before dinner. The B&B has three rooms and is run by
Carlo who could be 25, maybe. He was
very nice, he even gave us a bottle of wine.
Our room was nice, the price was right and it was located at the top of
the escalators that run from the train station up to Siena. We counted and there are eight escalators and
moving walkways that run the +200ft from the station to the town. That night we walked into a restaurant that
Sue had spotted the night before. It
seated maybe 20 people tops, and there were only four folks there when we
walked in. Since we didn’t have a
reservation they could only seat us if we could be done in an hour and a
half. No problem. The food was delicious and the beer even
better. Sue had sliced veal over
something (she’ll remember and update this), I had the duck breast that was
even better than hers. The beers were by
a local brewer, called artesian here.
Saturday morning we were up early to
catch a train to Chiusi-Chianciano Terme to pick up a rental car and start our
two day six town tour. To be brief (not
my strong suit) we visited Cortona (2 paintings), Arezzo (The Legend of the
True Cross that isn’t on the list, but we were in the neighborhood), Citta’ di
Castello (1 painting) and Sansepolcro (1 painting). Cortona is a hill town and the road around
the city wall is narrow and serpentine.
It took a few tries but we found a parking spot, and got help buying a
ticket from a gentleman our age who spoke perfect English. After he asked us where we were from, we
asked him where he was from. He was from
Cortona, but he went to school at Columbia in New York and in Hawaii. But he added that was a lifetime ago. The driving to Arezzo and Citta’ di Castello
was no problem with the GPS. But there
are very few straight roads in Italy. We
saw our paintings in both places without a problem. But that was soon to change! Driving out of Arezzo in basically nowhere
there was a well-dressed young lady standing in a turnout along the two lane
highway. Initially we didn’t think much
about it. But in a few minutes at the
next turnout there was another young lady who was dressed much more
provocatively standing by the road. The
next turnout had two young ladies sitting in plastic chairs. We guessed that they were “working girls”.
Our hotel in Sansepolcro was on a
narrow street with a narrow garage door for parking. The end result is that I scrapped the right
rear quarter panel pulling into the garage!
Then I almost broke the driver’s outside mirror pulling backout! The only saving grace is that in Italy you
have to purchase the CDW (Collision Damage Waiver) so that will cover
everything over €900. But for the first
time ever, I also bought the Excess Damage Refund from the booking company that
covers everything the CDW doesn’t. So
hopefully both of these policies should pay for the damage. We shall see, I’m hoping it will not be too
much of a hassle. We did get to see out
painting in Sansepolcro and attend Saturday Mass at the Duomo. Dinner that nice was again wonderful. At the moment I can’t remember what I had but
it was good.
Sunday morning we were off to
Urbino. The distance wasn’t too far but
the road went through the mountains. I
don’t think I ever went faster than 30 mph!
The serpentine road was a continuous series of switchbacks both up one
side and down the other. The views were
spectacular and we were in and out of the clouds. Fortunately there were not many cars on the
road, but it was hunting season as just about every car we did see had guys
dressed in orange. There were cars/SUVs
parked along the road at just about every wide spot. I don’t know what they were hunting but there
were a lot of them. Urbino is another
hill top town, but fortunately there is an elevator from the parking area
“most” of the way up to the town square where the Galleria Nazionale delle
Marche is located. We found our painting
and many more just like all the others we are seeing in Italy. Many of them are starting to all look
alike. We are way passed overkill on pre-Renaissance
paintings. Our next stop was supposed to
be Assisi. We went to an ATM to get
another €250 (all we can withdraw). Sue
couldn’t find here credit card!!!! Panic doesn’t begin to
describe the situation! I called our
hotel in Sansepolcro, the last place we may have used it, and thankfully they
had it. Sue dropped it right in front of
the desk when she checked us out. The
hotel had contacted Booking.com and tried to call our phone at home
(disconnected), they contacted our next hotel in Assisi, and they emailed
Sue. So with great relief we drove back
to Sansepolcro to get the card. I drove
just a bit faster on the way back, but not much faster. We did get to see some of the hunters going
home; I don’t know what they were hunting, but we didn’t see any deer or boars
strapped to the SUVs. After picking up
the card we headed for Assisi. The
weather changed from a sunny day with big puffy clouds to rain. We probably didn’t lose too much time if any
by going to Assisi through Sansepolcro rather than straight to Assisi from
Urbino. Most of the way to Assisi from
Sansepolcro was on the motorway where I think the speed limit is 55 mph per the
GPS, and I was about the only one driving that fast. Our hotel in Assisi was the best bargain of
the trip so far. It was €45/night with
parking. The parking was tight, but with
Sue’s expert guidance I managed not to damage the car again. The lady at the front desk could not have
been nicer. After dropping our stuff we
headed off to the Basilica to see our painting and St. Francis’ Tomb. We saw “St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata”
by Giotto as soon as we walked in. The
good news is that photography is not allowed.
If it was I might still be there and not on a slow train to Napoli. The four hour train ride has allowed me to
break my promise about being brief.
Where I will break tradition is just post all the photos I’ve taken
since the last post without deleting any, rotating, etc. or adding comments. There are almost 500 of them and I’ll never
catch up at this rate. I apologize in advance for the bad photos and the confusion.
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