Ushpizin and activities in Milan, Lago Maggiore, Padua, Venice, Ravenna and Vicenza

For the holidays I had "ushpizin" (visitors) - Gil from Israel and Peleg and Yosi from Paris. If the weather is good (which it was, it hardly rained and was quite beautiful) Oct. is the best time to visit Italy. Not too hot and not so crowded. Finding a hotel in Venice was a breeze which it rarely is. I got a chance to eat well, see a lot of art and new places which I enjoyed a lot (on the left you can see a picture taken in Padua). It was fun having friends stay over (even if they did make fun of me over the stones for my nephews...; Gil decided the Italian lady on my GPS was a bit irritating - svoltare a sinistra, entrare nella rotonda, etc. and I need to be more independent and do without her. He made it his mission during the visit to help me pass the 3,000 km mark with my car (which we did...)).

With Gil we drove over to Stresa on the banks of Lago Maggiore. As you may recall, during my previous visit there it started to pour halfway through and I had to cut my visit short. This time we got to see the lake in all its autumn glory. We took the cable car up to Mottarone - well worth the 40 min. trip - it's so quiet and peaceful up there. We could easily have spent more time there but we came late and just made the last cable car back down to Stresa. With Yosi's encouragement one of my pictures from there of Isola Bella has become my computer wallpaper:

and here are two pictures of the view from Mottarone (according to the information they give out over there you can see five lakes from the top of the mountain, we had to take their word for it, since it was hazy, I think we only saw 2 lakes....). By the way, strangely enough, we ended up going up the mountain with an Israeli family who were terribly impressed that we could talk Italian with the Italian "driver" of the cable car:

Gil and I did some experimenting in the ice cream department. Two contenders for the title - best ice cream we tasted - were from a place called Chocolat which has two parlors in Milan (and at least one other outside of Milan in Parma) and GROM (which Gil tried in Venice and I had tried in the summer in Milan).

On our way home from Parma one day (we went to a big antique market that Paola and Enrico wanted to go to) we stopped at a trattoria on the way to have a local specialty - pastry? bread? kind of salty puff pastry called torta di fritta. Nice.

We had a divine gnocchi and macaroni dish in a place called La Briciola (the owners, oddly enough, own and run a restaurant by the same name in Santo Domingo...). It was so good we returned there a second time with Peleg and Yosi.

But probably the best dinner we had was at Paola and Enrico's - Paola promised Gil ravioli and gnocchi and served us three different types of these with some of her great tiramisu for dessert (did I gain weight you wonder, yes I did, but it was worth it and I'm working hard now to lose the extra bits... went to the pool twice since the ushpizin left).

Gil went off to Venice at a certain point and I spent a couple of days with Peleg and Yosi in Milan. We had made a booking to see Leonardo Da Vinci's Cenacolo (Last Supper) at the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie. I had seen the fresco before (six or seven years ago when I visited Paola and Enrico coming from Hungary), but this time I was going to see it after having seen other "Last Supper"s by other painters and after having been exposed to many other works made during the Renaissance. The fresco is beautiful in spite of being in bad shape. You get this feeling as if the fresco is a continuation of the refectory (where the monks used to eat) and you could step into the picture, to say nothing of the feeling of animation and life in the fresco. Truly amazing (on the left you can see Yosi and me leaving the refectory).

We went also with Paola to the Villa Nechi Campiglio which recently opened its gates to visitors (its run by the FAI foundation). The villa belonged to a rich Milanese couple (they owned a factory for sewing machines). Amazing to see these villas and their contents. People with so much money and a chance to do exactly what they please in their homes. Their bathrooms were particularly amazing to my mind.

We did quite a bit of shopping in Milan - especially, I was happy to chose new glasses with Peleg and Yosi (but no pictures yet of them - next post....). In the picture on the left you can see Peleg and me in the Public Gardens (Giardini Publici).

After Peleg and Yosi returned from Florence and Gil left back to Israel we took ourselves to fair Padua as it is called by Shakespeare in Taming of the Shrew. The town is just lovely. Peleg found us this nice boutique hotel - the Methis Hotel along the Canale Piovego. In the town we went to the Prato della Valle, the biggest piazza in Italy and one of the largest in Europe. We got there just in time for the monthly antique market. In the picture you can see Yosi and me in a mirror on sale there.

One of the highlights of our visit to Padua was going to the Cappella degli Scrovegni to see Giotto's frescoes in the chapel. I've always liked Giotto's frescos and these were particularly interesting because you could see that Leonardo, Michelangelo and others had probably seen these frescoes and were influenced by them in their paintings of the Last Supper (Leonardo) and the Day of Judgement (Michelangelo).

I liked Padua a lot. As we walked the town we came along the Piazza della Pace dedicated to (and I quote) Ytzhak Rabin (I think this is the weirdest spelling of this name that I've ever seen. I wonder where they got this spelling from, maybe they copied it off some of the signs in Israel...). We also visited the Basilica del Santo dedicated to the patron saint of Padua - Sant'Antonio. His remains are still in the church. Since it's believed that he could and still can help cure illnesses - there is a lot of activity in this church and many people make the pilgrimage to his tomb and leave their requests and offerings there.

As it was getting darker we came across a sign indicating that the Jewish ghetto of Padua was not far away. We stood at a certain corner trying to figure out which way to go when a nice gentleman came up to us and asked what we were looking for. I explained and he offered to show us. It turned out that he belongs to the Jewish community there and was on his way to a lesson at the synagogue. He explained that in the past there were three synagogues - the Italian, the Sepharadi and the Ashkenazi (all within 100 meters of each other). Today only the Italian Synagogue is active and the community is very small. It turned out that he represents an Israeli company from the Golan.

We then went on to have an aperitivo in a small place serving various anti pasti and some great wine. The couple running the place seemed like retired hippies.

For dinner we went to a trattoria near our hotel. The lady running the place was a bit scary and to a large extent told us what to eat rather than actually taking our order. We managed to get a smile out of her when we complimented her on the tiramisu served there which she said she makes herself. The cook, who was rather big (especially his hands), shuffled around serving the food.

I'll end the Padua part of this post with two of a number of pictures of me and a "living statue" taken by Yosi.

From Padua we took the scenic route along the river Brenta to Venice. We passed by some of the famous villas along the river. beautiful.

In Venice we stayed at the San Moise Hotel which Peleg knew but which had been renovated since he'd been there. The hotel is very elaborately decorated with huge Murano chandeliers, and furniture recreating the Venetian Republic period (to quote from the web site of the hotel)...

Here are two pictures I took of us in the room there so you can see what it was like:

The highlight of the visit to Venice for me was the visit to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. There's something so tranquil about the place, a lot of light. I like it a lot (this was my second visit), I like to see collections made up of people's own likes - which is usually varied yet personal and in a way more interesting than what you might see in a museum. Also, it was nice to go there since I'd seen a movie about the life of Jackson Pollock - who was discovered by P. Guggenheim. A few of his works are exhibited there. By the way, in her garden, beside her own grave all her dogs are buried. Below you can see pictures of Peleg and me "trying out" two sculptures in the garden there. The left one is by Anish Kapoor. The right one - I'm not sure (maybe Peleg remembers?!).

I also went to see an exhibit of wooden models based on Leonardo's inventions in the San Barnaba Church. Beautiful. It's intriguing to see the products of his imagination - the helicopter's propellor, the idea on which the gear box in a car is based on, ball bearings, the armored tanks and many other inventions. I liked this room of mirrors which allows you to see all sides of an object placed in the middle without turning the object (me, in this case):

It was in Venice that Yosi was quite disappointed that his Spaghetti, which was supposed to be alla Bolognese didn't really have that much ground meat on it... (I asked a friend later who told me that in Italy there is really no such thing as Spaghetti Bolognese, it's a foreign invention... this is backed up by the article I found on this issue on Wikipedia).

It started raining on the way to Ravenna which is about 220 km south of Venice. We drove south along the coast - hoping for a pretty ride. But, due to the rain and the trucks (so many which I was a bit afraid to overtake...) it was just a drive.

Ravenna is a bit out of the way, so if you're not going there to see the mosaics, then you don't just fall on it on the way from here to there. However, the mosaics, from the early Christian and Byzantine period are well worth the detour (some are world heritage sites). The craftsmanship is amazing. I was telling my Italian teacher that if I lived there I would probably try and take a course to learn how to make mosaics. I discovered that the great grandfather of a friend of mine did the restoration works in some of the churches there (on the left, a part of the mosaic in the Basilica Sant'Apollinare Nuovo and on the right the ceiling of the Basilica di San Vitale - click on it to enlarge the picture and see it better).

and with this we finished our three day tour and headed back to Milan. In Milan we went to get my new glasses and Peleg and Yosi helped me make the guest room more cheerful with some pictures (which I had but couldn't decide how to hang...).

In between all of this I also went to Vicenza (about half an hour from Venice) for a business trip and to receive a prize on behalf of the Israel Coin and Medal Corporation for this lovely medal based on the prophecy of Isaih "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb” (Isaiah 11:6) - (picture taken by Giovanna):


The organizers of the event also arranged for a tour of an exhibition of the works of the architect Andrea Palladio who was born in Padua and lived and worked in Vicenza - in honor of his 500th birthday (also some of the buildings planned by him are on the world heritage list). There I discovered that the White House was built in the Neo Classical style which was influenced by the works of Palladio.... Yup. Here is a picture of one of the buildings planned by him (Piazza dei Signori e Basilica Palladiana):

I will end this (rather long...) edition of my blog with a picture I took of some ducks in Padua? Why? I don't know - I like ducks and I liked Padua. I hope you enjoyed the read. Good night.

Rome - Vatican museums, Villa Borghese and the best tiramisu

On Rosh Hashana I took myself to Rome. Spent two very nice days over there.

I flew over with Meridiana - an airline I hadn't used until now, which turned out to be a cheap and reliable airline (although maybe two flights are not enough of an indication).

Together with a friend from the embassy we had pre-booked a visit to the Villa Borghese and a guided tour of the Vatican Museums (which includes also easy entrance to the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica, which, if you recall, I tried to visit in May but didn't feel like waiting on an hour long line to enter).

For the Villa Borghese one needs to book a visit about a week in advance. People are let in in batches every two hours. We picked up our tickets half an hour before entering (as required). What we were not told is that we would have been better off depositing our bags at the same time (every kind of bag, even small ones), because towards the entry hour a long line of people wait to deposit their bag. We ended up waiting on the wardrobe line for about 15 min. because of this.

The Gallery is beautiful and houses some very impressive sculptures by Bernini (I especially liked the one in which Daphne is escaping from Apollo - by having herself turned into a tree...) and Canova (who's sculptures I'd also seen in Milan but wasn't that impressed with them there, they somehow seem more at home in the Villa Borghese), some lovely pictures of Carravagio (especially this one in which a young man/boy is seen holding a basket of fruit) and a wonderful picture of Correggio's - Danae, which is currently in Parma (and which I had seen when I visited there). I just found a good link to the exhibition on Correggio which I saw in Parma (and was previously in the Villa Borghese) with a picture of the Danae and other beautiful works by Correggio.

Sorry for not putting in my own pictures here but sending you off to links - this is because I was not allowed to take my camera into the villa.

After the Villa we went up to the Janiculum for a panoramic view of Rome (with a special bus (but which is part of the public transportation system) that is designed to be able to negotiate the small streets of Rome). The view is quite beautiful although I still think it's more interesting from the top of the Vittoriano - because the monuments and points of interest are closer there. Here are two pictures from the Janiculum:

In the evening we went to have tiramisu in Pompi which is considered to be one of the best places for this in Rome. It sure was good.... (after ice cream, I think tiramisu is one of the best desserts imaginable).

The next day we went to the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. These three places house some of the finest art from the Renaissance period which tends to leave you speechless it is so wonderful, creative, and somehow new, in spite of the fact that the art works were created approx. 500 years ago. Also, there are some fine examples of sculptures from the Greek and Roman period used by the Renaissance artists as their models for their own sculptures (since they had to re-learn how to sculpt in marble and create real-life sculptures, knowledge that was mostly forgotten during the middle ages).

The guided tour was excellent. Without it you can get a bit lost amid the vast amount of pictures, frescoes, sculptures and other works of art. Here are pictures of my two favorite sculptures Artemis (on the left) and the Belvedere Torso (on the right):




I also liked this sculpture but unfortunately I don't remember what it's called and also didn't find it on the internet.... (if anybody knows what it's called and can update me - let me know):

We then moved on to the Raphael rooms. The colors of his paintings are wonderful, as are his characters and the play of light and dark. Here are some pictures I took of the paintings on the walls:

This is the Parnassus - Apollo with the muses.

The school of Athens - in which Raphael painted many contemporary artists as philosophers from the Greek period. In front there is a bearded guy wearing purple - this is believed to be Michelangelo who was not originally supposed to be in the picture but whom Raphael added after seeming some of his work. This figure is believed to have inspired Rodin in his creation of his "Thinker".

Raphael also drew himself at the very side of the school of Athens picture among some other artists of his period (probably a sign of humility in the presence of the other great artists, a gesture which I liked). He's the guy in the black hat looking at the viewers.

In case you're having trouble seeing things in my pictures (which should be clickable - creating larger images) - see also this link.

We then went on to the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's. I hadn't been to the Sistine Chapel after the restoration of the frescoes. The end result is spectacular. The colors are magnificent and the pictures are wonderful (and there aren't enough adjectives to describe these frescoes without sounding banal and overused...).

We finished our tour in St. Peter's. I somehow remembered it differently. But it is still grand and as in my previous visit there many years ago (1990) I still like the way the light comes into the church and lights it up (many churches here tend to be dark and gloomy which I don't like that much). I'll end with a picture I took of Michelangelo's first Pieta. The Pieta is behind glass to protect it following an attempt by some crazy person to hack it to bits at some point. I had a glorious visit to the eternal city of Rome. If you haven't been - go, if you have - I hope you enjoyed my take on it.