May 13, 2024

Selcouth Chronicles Week 18

Hello family and friends! Welcome to week 18 of the Selcouth Chronicles.

Week 18: May 5 - May 11

May 7 🚗 Orvieto -> Bagno a Ripoli
May 11 🚗 Bagno a Ripoli -> Modena 🚗 -> Ferrara

ITALY

Highlights: Revisiting favorite spots in Orvieto, handmade pasta, the hills of Tuscany, Florence’s duomo, Uffizi Gallery, Accademia Gallery, pistachio gelato, Piazza Michelangelo, Modena’s bucket

Abby: 

This week, we had wonderful and delicious days. We opened with a slow morning on Sunday, after a tiring Saturday. After a yummy homemade breakfast, we took a walk around Orvieto. Nine years ago, we came to Orvieto with the exact same group. (I was one year old and James was four, so we don’t remember, of course.) Mom and Dad went looking for the apartment that they stayed in last time, and actually found it! They even found the leather shop where Mom got a bag from last time. She was very excited, and ran into the guy who handmade the leather products while he was dropping off his dog at the shop! Coming back to the Airbnb after an exciting morning, we all took a nap. For dinner, we stayed home for fresh handmade tortellini that Mom and Meems bought earlier that day. Meems, Dad, James, and I went for a walk and got some delicious Italian gelato to end the night. We even got whipped cream on top, which was the best part.😅

On Monday, Mom, Dad, James, and I took a lovely walk through town to St. Peters Well, the famed 174.4 foot deep architectural interest. After a cold walk down to the bottom of the well and taking matching pictures from 9 years ago, we ran into a small park with a great view of the plains surrounding Orvieto. We relaxed on the benches until we decided to head to lunch at a mini piazza. From there we headed back to the Airbnb for some games and relaxing time.

We woke up on Tuesday for a big breakfast and packing. After we finished, we left our luggage at the house and took a stroll through town. We came back to the Airbnb and collected our things to stuff into the rental cars. After a two hour drive, we met up at a grocery store to buy food for the next three nights. We eventually got to our destination - Bagno a Ripoli, a tiny hill town just outside of Florence. We had a big homemade pasta dinner and set off to bed for some good rest.

Wednesday, we took a day trip to the famed city of Florence. First, we took a walk through the city with a Rick Steves audio guide leading us. The tour included Florence’s duomo, topped by Brunelleschi’s Dome. We admired the work of this beautiful cathedral for a while before we continued walking. We got to see lots of statues of famous painters, sculptors, knights, mythological heroes and more in the many piazzas - especially Piazza Signoria and Palazzo Vecchio. Afterwards, we grabbed a quick lunch before getting in a huge line for one of the most famous museums in the world - the Uffizi Gallery. There were many, many works, featuring artists like Boticelli, Michelangelo, Rafael, and da Vinci. We marveled at the masterpiece paintings and statues that we have only seen in pictures. (Dad had to leave for work in the middle of the visit, so there were only five of us by the end.) We finally finished! …The top floor. The museum was humongous! We all decided to only do the one floor because just that had taken so long. We headed out to get some gelato that we brought with us for a little stroll along the streets. 

Thursday, we saw the world-famous statue of David, by Michelangelo. Before heading to the museum, we sat down for a pasta-pizza lunch. (Italian food never fails us!) We slowly made our way to the meeting point for our tour. After meeting up with the tour guide, we got in the huge line for the Accademia Gallery. Finally, we got in. Seeing the statue of David is really cool, because I’ve been seeing pictures of him all my life, and to see it in person and see how big it really is is very awe-inspiring. We admired the statues and paintings for a while, and even hopped into the Musical Instruments section of the museum where we found out that a Hurdy-Gurdy is an instrument! 😆

Friday was a relaxing day. We took a drive up to Piazza Michelangelo, which has a wonderful view of Florence. We admired the city for a while, then we went to a beautiful nearby Iris Garden. (Which was apparently founded by Flaminia Specht! I wonder if we’re related to her.) After sitting at benches and sneezing from the pollen, we headed to see an old church and cemetery. Then we went to collect the cars, where we found that we had gotten tickets. When we parked, somebody who was leaving told us that we didn’t have to pay, and we didn’t see a meter to pay at. But when we came back we found the parking meter… and the tickets. (We never should have listened to them!) After a short drive back to the Airbnb, we all had a little lunch and took some time to hang out, snuggle, and pack.

Saturday was a travel day. We were heading from Bagno a Ripoli to Ferrara, with one stop in between. We stuffed our bags into the cars early in the morning and left on a road trip to Modena, which is just outside Bologna. In Modena, we saw the famous (to us) old bucket on display. This bucket has quite the story to tell - James will tell you about that!😉 We also had a delicious lunch and a nice walk around the city. Afterwards, we headed back to the car and set off for Ferrara. In about an hour, we got to our destination and settled in for an evening of preparing for Mother’s Day and making pasta.

Next week, we sadly, sadly, leave Meems and Papi and set off to Venice. We only have about two months left in our journey! We can’t wait to see you all when we get home! Ciao! 😘.

Sean:

This week gave us the opportunity to revisit a town in Italy that holds a special place in our hearts. Nine and a half years ago, leading up to Jim and Liz’s 40th anniversary celebration, we all stopped in Orvieto together. It’s a town perched on a hill overlooking the Umbrian countryside. At the time, we knew very little about the town, but fell in love with the old streets and cozy alleyways. Neither James or Abby remembers it, as they were 4 and 1 respectively, so it was an opportunity to reintroduce them.

Orvieto has a long history, with scholars believing that there were Etruscans beginning in the 9th century BCE. Due to its intricate web of caves and numerous wells, it was a prime location, and the Etruscans were able to hold out against the Romans for two years before eventually falling. The area lay almost empty for centuries, until the middle ages, where around 1200 CE the new city grew into wealth and power. During a civil war in Rome, the Pope at the time stayed in Orvieto and ordered the construction of both St. Patrick’s Well and the Duomo of Orvieto.

We were lucky to stay at a beautiful Airbnb just a few minutes walk from the center of Old Town. From there a walk down a seemingly nondescript street brings you to the Piazza where the Duomo rises up into the sky. The facade of the cathedral is stunning and very intricate, with beautiful statues and paintings all the way up to the top. It rises higher than any other building in the city, and the sunrise is impressive as the light touches the top of the Duomo first. On various walks through the city we stopped multiple times to admire the beautiful structure. We also made our way to St. Patrick’s Well, which lay on the outside of town, a true engineering marvel. The well goes 62-meters deep, and is 13 meters wide. To make it easier to bring water up from the well, two ramps were built in a double helix pattern, so one group could be going down while another was making its way up, without having to pass each other. It was an incredibly precise feat of engineering, especially for that time period. The journey down the well has some amazing views, as the sunlight streams down from the opening in the top. 

Our last journey here was so memorable that we have three pictures of Orvieto hanging in our house at home. The return was beautiful and welcome, though it does appear to have been found by other tourists and the main road was taken over by more tourist trap feeling shops, so I’m not sure we’d return again in the future, at least not as a standalone trip. I would encourage anyone who hasn’t been there to consider it, as the beautiful streets and vistas from the edge of the city are incredible. 

Caitlin:

This week brought us to the quintessential Italian countryside - the hills of Tuscany. After leaving Orvieto, we had decided that being outside of Florence would make a nice break from being in the center of things. Our villa was set up in the hills overlooking the city. It was a beautiful old stone country home, complete with olive trees. On the winding drive to the house we could see the city of Florence, and it felt like we were far removed from the bustle of the big metropolis. To my surprise, it took us less than 30 minutes to drive out of the hills and into the center of the city. It was the best of both worlds!

Florence is known for being the birthplace of the Renaissance movement, which pulled Italy and the rest of Europe out of the Dark Ages in a magnificent burst of creative force. Accordingly, the art museums of Florence are some of the best in the world. The Uffizi Gallery was our first stop, filled with works by Boticelli, Raphael, da Vinci, Caravaggio, Michelangelo, and more. It was pretty amazing to see pieces in person that you’ve known most of your life - things like Boticelli’s The Birth of Venus, which depicts the goddess rising out of the ocean waves on a half shell. Seeing a work in print or online just can’t compare to the grandeur of seeing the original huge canvas hung on the wall in front of you, with the subtlety of the light and colors used in the painting. Renaissance art, I confess, is not my favorite genre, but one cannot fail to appreciate the genius of the great masters of this era.

Our second afternoon was dedicated to the Accademia Gallery. When I went to book our (quite expensive) tickets I realized to my chagrin that I had no idea what this museum contained apart from the one piece that draws over a million visitors each year: Michelangelo’s David. This singular piece, however, was worth the ticket price on its own. We had the advantage of a guide who was clearly moved by the sculpture, and she gave us an added level of appreciation for what we were seeing. I knew that David was a large piece, but he is a stunning 17 feet tall, which is quite a sight from ground-level. I’ve always been intrigued by the creative process that allows sculptors to coax a figure from stone, so I was interested to see that leading to David was a series of unfinished works by Michelango, collectively titled Slaves. These pieces are in various degrees of completion, and there seems to be some debate over whether this was an artistic choice, showing the struggle of humanity to be free of our “material trappings,” or perhaps just a result of Michelangelo’s habit of leaving work unfinished when his attention was attracted by new ideas and opportunities. Either way, the juxtaposition of the unfinished work is a fitting lead-up to the astonishing near-perfection of David.

The museums did not disappoint with their collections, but I was dismayed by the huge number of visitors in Florence. Does shoulder season no longer exist? The main attractions were jammed with people, and long lines - even with timed entry tickets - were the norm. I shudder to think what the city is like at the height of summer crowds. So it was a pleasant surprise when, wandering the quieter side streets back to our car, we stumbled upon some small workshops with artisans working on their crafts. We were thrilled to find a ceramic artist who let us watch her apply a glaze that etched texture into her work, and a paper craft store where a few artists quietly made their charming small prints by hand. These discoveries made me feel that, despite the concentrated crowds at the main tourist spots, the creative heart of Florence is alive and well. I would love to go back for an extended visit, with time to meander the smaller city streets, while returning in the evening to the idyllic Tuscan countryside.

James:

Every Italian city we’ve visited has had its main attraction. Rome has the Colosseum. Florence has David. And Modena has… an old bucket.

The Modenese stole the infamous bucket from their rival city-state, Bologna, in 1325. For years, people believed that the stealing of the bucket caused the war (hence the name), but it is more likely that the bucket was taken as a war trophy after fighting ended, to royally insult the Bolognese. The two cities had hated each other from the moment they were founded. They fought constantly in a series of battles, one of which (the Battle of Fossalta) ended with a donkey being launched via catapult into Modena. Later, when the Ancient Roman Empire (which they were part of at the time) fell into disarray, of course they were on opposite sides. Bologna was Guelph and supported the pope, while Modena was Ghibelline and supported the emperor.*

It was around that time that Bologna unofficially started The War of the Bucket by taking a little jaunt into Modena and burning down a huge swath of farmland. Modena’s leader at the time, Passerino dei Bonacolsi, decided that this was an act of open hostility and formally declared war. He laid siege to, and captured, one of Bologna's two major defensive forts in the south. The Bolognese were understandably furious about this, and since they had superior manpower - about 30,000 infantry and 2000 cavalry on their side vs. 5000 infantry and 2000 cavalry in Modena - they went on the offensive.

Half their forces went to take back their fort, while the other half took up defensive positions to prevent the Modenese from crossing into their territory. That failed on both accounts. While they were struggling to recapture their own fort, the Modenese tricked them into thinking they were attacking up north, and when they moved their army to stop them, they went down south and promptly attacked Bologna's other major fort. The Bolognese panicked - if they lost both forts, they would lose any control they still had in the south. They sent their entire army down to stop them, and as the sun began to set, they squared up for battle. Modena knew that if they wanted to win, they needed to deal a quick and hard blow to their opponents. They charged into Bologna’s unprepared and unorganized line, destroying their front and putting them on the defensive. Then they did the most predictable thing possible: they sent their cavalry around the side and flanked their opponent. The Bolognese, believing they were nearly surrounded, went on the run with the Modenese in pursuit. When they reached Bologna, the defeated Bolognese could only watch as the Modenese set up their camp right outside their city. But before they left, the Modenese troops noticed something: a single bucket, sitting atop a well outside the gates of the city, and they took said bucket with them as a war trophy.

Ever since then, the bucket has been on display in Modena. It was first hung from the roof of their cathedral, and later moved to a local museum, where it is still on display to this day. We took a day trip to Modena to see this wonderful bucket because I already knew about its history, and when I learned that we could see it in person I jumped at the chance. It sits proudly on a pedestal in the middle of the room and is protected by a glass case, a red velvet barrier rope, and motion sensor alarms. It’s nothing special to look at, but it may be the most famous bucket in history. I loved learning about this crazy bit of medieval Italian history!

*For more info on the War of the Bucket and backstory on the pope vs. emperor conflict, watch this: The War of the Bucket - OverSimplified 

See you next week!

Sean, Caitlin, James, and Abby

Catching up? Read week 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, , 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, or 17.