Modena

Haven't written a new post in a long while. Probably because I'm getting ready to go home in a month and also because I've run out of vacation days so doing less travelling these days. Or rather, travelling home to see Israel (the man).
Last weekend Hagit came to visit and we decided to go see the city of Modena. We went there with an Italian friend of mine - Lucia - who's originally from Modena and took an excellent guide - Marina Selmi - whom my friend recommended to be with us over the weekend. A word of advice - it's hot as hell (35-38 degrees Celsius) in the summer there and therefore one would be better off going when it's cooler, preferably during spring or autumn.

We stayed at the Cervetta 5 Hotel which is in the historical center of the city. The place was completely refurbished recently, with good air conditioning (a must when it's over 35 degrees and humid) and a nice breakfast. Highly recommended.

When we got into town we rushed immediately to the synagogue (in the pictures above and to the left) for the Shabat service. The place was almost empty. They didn't have a minyan (only 8 men) and nobody talked to us or asked us who we were. Which was weird. The synagogue is very pretty. It was built in 1873 after the unification of Italy in what used to be the Jewish ghetto. Before the building of this synagogue there were many smaller synagogues in the ghetto. After the unification of Italy the Jews were allowed to build this bigger synagogue which faces the square (in the past the main entrance was on the side but once the square was opened (originally, there were houses there) the main entrance was moved to the side of the square.

The Jews in Modena were relatively better off than Jews in other towns in Italy a lot of the time. Modena was a refuge for Jews escaping from Spain in 1492 and also when Ferrara went under the control of the papacy. The Este family which ruled in Modena was relatively tolerant towards the Jews. When the plague hit the ghetto the church ordered the Christians of Modena to help the Jews and the segregationn rules were applied there much later than in other cities. An interesting fact is that the houses of the Jews were marked with the letter "K" (see the picture on the left). Why "K"? Because that letter is not part of the Italian alphabet and so the letter "K" symbolised the separation of the Jews from the Christian Italians...
Below is a picture of what remains today of one of the entrances to the ghetto (a piece of stone where the gate used to be). Note how the house on the left of the picture is situated so as to enable the people in the windows on that side to see who is approaching the ghetto's entrance (in the picture you can see Lucia and Marina).

Saturday morning I went with Lucia and Marina to see the cathedral in the center of Modena. The cathedral and the tower adjoining it have been declared a world heritage site by Unesco. As the site states - the cathedral, built in the 12th century is a supreme example of early Romanesque art.


Above you can see the presbytery (the area above the crypt reserved for the clergy). The walls seem as if they're covered with a mosaic but in fact they are "only" painted in the Byzantine style. It reminded me of the interiors of the churches in Ravenna (although there, there were, in fact, mosaics).In the crypt one can see a beautiful set of terra cota figures created by Giorgio Mazzoni in 1480. The work, Madonna della Pappa, recreates an everyday scene in which the servant is preparing to feed baby Jesus. If you enlarge the picture you can see how real and life-like the figures seem.

On the outside of the cathedral, there are reliefs by Wiligelmus telling some of the stories from the book of Genisis:


By enlarging the picture you can see how before being expelled from the Garden of Eve Adam and Eve (who can be seen emerging from Adam's side) are sexless...



In the scenes above Lemech (with a hat, designating a Jew according to the guide, even though at the time of Lemech, Abraham has yet to make his agreement with God) is seen accidentally killing Cain and then there's the ark, oddly depicted with Noah and his wife, and not with animals which is the "normal" way of showing the ark. The guide says it shows the importance of the wives/women at the period (another rather novel idea).

Other interesting works on the outside include an arc over one of the doors describing scenes from the stories of King Arthur, possibly the earliest depiction of the story in sculpture. It's not clear exactly how these stories which are English came to be depicted in a cathedral in Italy.


Other doors depict prophets and the months of the year. In both cases the figures are made more realistic by holes made with a nail or some tool of that nature in the sculpture to designate eyes...:

Note that the quality of the work on the left is superior to that on the right. The work on the right was done by amateurs whereas the one on the left was done by experts (if I remember correctly the door on the left is a more important one than the one on the right).

For lunch (and dinner the night before) we went to Caffe Concerto across from the cathedral. Great typical food from the area (Emliia Romagna region to which Modena belongs is known for its good food) and excellent service.

During the morning we also went to the Figurine Museum of Modena. The museum, opened in 1986 by the Panini company and donated to the comune of Modena in '92 shows how figurines (stickers, basically) are created and also shows the extensive collection of figurines of the Panini family. You're not allowed to take pictures in the museum. But I did take one in the bathroom... (shame on me):

The caption says: You are kindly asked to aim at the center....

We went to see the Ducal Palace which was built by the Este family and which today houses the Military Academy in Italy. Note how the left side of the building resembles the right side but is in fact less decorative and less elaborately designed. The left side was built later when the Duchy was less rich and so they could only afford to copy the basic design without the elaborate decorations of the facade...

The academy and the city were hosting a few military bands from around the world on that weekend (an annual event as we understood). We saw them in the main square in the evening preforming some music. The British were by far the best band - organized and also played well. The Americans were the most elaborate with cheer leaders in the front. Unfortunately, the square wasn't cordonned off so it was hard to see the bands amongst the crowds who came to see them...

The next day we went to see how they make parmesan cheese in the Hombre Organic Farm owned by Umberto Panini (il hombre) - of the same Panini family mentioned above who produced figurines. His farm also houses one of the most extensive collections of Maserati vehicles in a special private museum.

Organic in this case means that the cows can only eat naturally grown grass and the like but no artifically created mixtures. Also, they cannot be treated with antibiotics if they're sick. The cheese is aged for 2-3 years and bears a sign indicating that it's the official Parmesan cheese and has been monitored continuously by the authorities to guarantee its quality and high standard. Parmesan cheese aged for 4-5 years is used in hospitals for children and adults with intestinal problems (I didn't get exactly how or why the cheese is good for them, but I was willing to accept this as fact).

Below you can see Hagit and me with Mr. Panini in a rare appearance and another showing the rows of cheeses. These cheeses get cleaned and turned around every once in a while with a special machine - as they age.

The Maserati (and other vehicles) is an impressive collection - even in the eyes of a laywoman like myself. As Hagit mentioned it seems that collecting cars is what rich European men do with their money (see also the car collection at Iscar).

The city of Modena is a center for car making since the beginning of the car industry at the beginning of the 20th century. It started out as an industry to create machines to assist farmers - therefore the tractors. Originally, the wheels were made of metal (I look the way I look in this picture because even though it was still morning it was already over 30 degrees):

From there we went to a little town called Nonatola near Modena. What's there you might wonder? A villa called Villa Emma in which 73 Jewish children from Germany, Austria and Croatia were hidden for more than a year from the summer of 1942 until Sep. 1943 during the Second World War. They lived in the villa rented for them by Delasem (the relief organization of the Italian Jewry). When the Germans took over the village (after Italy signed the armistice with the allied forces) in Sep. 1943 the children where put in hiding overnight by two locals - a doctor and a priest - in the seminary of the local church and in the houses of the local farmers. The children were than smuggled out of Italy through Milan and Varese to Switzerland and all but one (Salomon Papo who was recuperating in a sanitarium when the Germans came and was deported to Auschwitz where he died) were saved. The doctor and the priest were pronounced "Righteous among Nations" and a foundation - Fondazione Villa Emma - was created in 2004 to commemorate the story of the villa.

This is a picture of the Villa which today is privately owned and is not open to the public. We were walking around the grounds of the villa trying to find a way to get closer (the place is fenced) when a neighbor across the street sitting in her porch shouted down to us that we should walk over the fence and get closer since there was no one in the villa. We did as she suggested (the fence seemed like others had crossed it before us). We were walking along the lawn towards the house when a servant from India or somewhere like that came out and started shouting at us to get out. We did, but not before we managed to take a few pictures up close of the villa (unfortunately, not of the plaque commemorating the events which happened there during the war). Another neighbor who saw us coming out said jokingly that we should have been shot.

From Nonantola we went to see how they make balsamic vinegar - the real and traditional thing - in the Acetaia Villa San Donnino. The production of balsamic vinegar is very long (can last anywhere between 10 and 25 years and more) and consists (briefly) of the cooking and then natural fermentation and progressive concentration of white grape must in a series of casks made of different woods without the addition of any aromatic substances. Some of the process takes place in the attics of houses where the temp. can reach 50 degrees Celsius. This heat and humidity is necessary for the creation of good balsamic vinegar. Here are some pictures we took in the Acetaia:

If you're wondering about the pieces of material - they're covering square holes in the casks. The vinegar needs to breath... and if you're wondering about the taste - the real stuff is dark brown, thick and tastes as different from the kind you get in most supermarkets as the real maple syrup does when compared to the commercial kind. The vinegar is almost sweet and can also be added to ice cream. Exquiste. How much does it cost? A small bottle costs 40 euros and a bigger one 70 euros. Dark gold.

After having lunch in the extreme heat in the garden of the villa (I think by this point the heat reached 38 degrees and the humidity was fantastic) we went to take a look at the Villa Donnino itself. A refined example of the Emilian Liberty style built in 1910. The villa which is not open to the public is packed with works of art and artifacts from that period. The villa can be seen for a few min. in Bertolucci's film 1900.

To end this long post (this is what happens when you take a guide - there are a lot of explanations - she was really excellent) here is curiousity Hagit and I noticed in Modena - curtains on the outside of the windows, supposedly to keep out the heat (although with heat like they have there I think nothing but industrial strength airconditioners can help):

and a nice "picture" in a woman's clothing store over there (yes, we went into a few stores, the sales were on, I even got a dress...):

and to really end the post, instead of ducks here is a cat we saw in the San Donnino Villa resting next to us in the heat:

It was a nice trip. I really didn't think Modena would be so interesting.

Skiing in Val Gardena - late winter

Remember that in Nov. Israel came to visit and we went searching for places to ski in the Dolomites?! Well, after going skiing in Courchevel in Jan. and loving it Israel declared that he would like to go skiing again this winter, somewhere else. and when Israel decides there is no stopping him (not that I wanted to stop him, just that I'm running out of vacation days...). So we went skiing last week. Where? Val Gardena, of course. One of the loveliest places to be...



Before going there we had to find a place to stay. Since we wanted to go during the most busy time of the year this was not an easy task. I made about 20 phone calls before I found a place that sounded nice and had space for us. I was working and calling at the same time (shame on me...). I was getting confused from all the calls and had to write down whom I'd called already and what they'd said. The main thing was trying to find a place that was near the center of the village and the ski school. Pension Elisabeth in Santa Cristina (see photo on the left), where we finally went, boasted both - 5 min. from the ski school and 3 from the center of the village. Maybe, if you're in an elite unit in the army you can get from the pension to the center in 3 min. Normal people need about 10-15 min. and with ski boots on, probably more time... The place was lovely. Very quiet, at the end of the village, with a nice dining room and excellent local food prepared by the owner (Bruno something, although Israel insisted on calling him Gunter...). There were two slightly weird things there - one, the tendency of the family running the place, to avoid eye contact and not to smile (we spotted ghosts of smiles here and there) but then maybe they're shy?! and the second - that the owner tried to dissuade us from using the car during our stay to get to the ski slopes. He had elaborate plans for us to walk down to the village center, take our skiing equipment from a special deposit half way down to the chair lifts and then continue the rest of the way down on foot (with the ski boots and the skiis...). This, by the way, seems to be very common in St. Cristina - i.e. people walking down the streets to the chair lifts and cable cars in full skiing gear (very uncomfortable walking since the ski boots are heavy and not flexible and the skis are "just" heavy) is a common sight there. After doing this one day and realizing that we can conveniently park the car right next to the ski slopes, Israel was having none of this and announced that we would take the car up to the slopes on the next days, which we did. and what a relief... A friend suggested that maybe the business with not driving the car had to do with the people there being very environmentally conscience and wanting people to use cars as little as possible. Who knows?!

And the skiing? What about that? Well.... looks like I'm improving. I managed to stay on my skis without falling the entire time we were there. But more importantly, I got the hang of this parallel skiing thing (no more snow plow is allowed...) and skied quite well (i.e. for someone who has been skiing for about two weeks altogether...) down blue routes. The red ones are harder, but I managed a few of them. The first one I tried was really scary, and Israel had to be extra supportive for me to manage to get down it without dying of fright. What seems to be frightening is the angle of the piste, especially if you've got a bit of fear of heights - like me. To explain, the routes are divided into three or four types - green, very easy (in Val Gardena there are none of these, they all belong in the next group), blue - easy, red - scary, black - very scary. When you're a beginner you have to go down the harder pistes pretending they are really blue ones - both mentally and in the technique to negotiate down them - you don't look down and you go forward (or downwards really) making these "s" forms along the route which keep you to a certain extent on the same plain (instead of going fast, headlong down the scary piste - which is what more advanced skiers do). To learn and do all this we signed me up for some more skiing lessons. This time with a guy named Hans, a veteran ski instructor from St. Cristina. He is an excellent instructor although very German in his approach, in the sense that we kept going again and again up the slopes for learners doing various exercises to improve our skiing abilities and style. This procedure was very effective but got sort of tedious after the third day. Obviously, like when one studies the piano (which I did, for many years when I was in school), the only way is to practice and practice and practice, but it can get a bit tiring and boring after a while. Also, the lessons in Val Gardena are longer than those in Courchevel which also tires one out more. However, I think, all in all, that the learning experience was a good one, the learners' slopes are not too difficult to negotiate and the views around are fantastic. On the fourth day we were deemed advanced enough to proceed up to the Alpe di Suisi - lovely. We were also lucky with the weather - except for one day when it snowed, the rest of the time the skies were blue and it was lovely to be outside for so many hours (one gets sort of used to being cooped up in an office for all the hours of the day - it's a pleasure to be out instead...).

And what was Israel doing while all this learning was going on?! He was skiing happily down all the pistes he could find and having the time of his life. He announced towards the end of the ski vacation that he thinks all in all that the skiing is better in the Dolomites than in France (a statement much appreciated by my staff who kept asking me how come we keep going to France and don't prefer Italian sites for skiing - like good Europeans, Italians are very proud of their country especially when compared with France...).

Even though he was enjoying the pistes near St. Cristina, what Israel really wanted to do during this ski trip is the Sella Ronda circuit. This is a 40 km circular ski route in the Dolomites with magnificent views and lots of scary and difficult ski routes.... The thing was - I was not up to doing this route and we were trying to figure out who he could go with on this route. Luckily, we went to visit some friends of Israel - the Ga'ash family - one evening, and when we asked them, what are you doing tomorrow? they answered - the Sella Ronda... So off Israel went with them the next morning and had even more of the time of his life. Here are some pictures that he took during this day (the picture on the top left is one of the Ga'ash family):



What else did we do? We walked the streets of St. Cristina and ate a lot of apple strudel. Did we enjoy the vacation? Yes!! For Israel - this is easy to say, he loves to be outside, he loves the cold, he loves the skiing and the adrenalin rush that goes with it. For me - it's more a learning experience, since I'm not a big one for cold weather, but surprisingly - with the right company (and clothing...) it turns out to be a lot of fun. Also, I really enjoy doing sporty things and being outside, so the combination is wonderful. Will we go again?! absolutely.... Where? who knows....

I'll leave you with a few more pictures from the trip and I wish you a very nice weekend:

My birthday - Macugnaga, Mottarone, Lago Maggiore and Lago D'Orta

My mobile phone rang on Tue. during my Italian lesson. Israel was on the line, sounding pretty serious. "I was thinking..." he said."Would it be better if I came on your birthday this weekend or on Valentine's Day?". A huge smile spread on my face, "It would be lovely if you come anytime you want, can we talk about this in an hour after my Italian lesson?...". "Sure" he said, "no problem". Half an hour later, Alon, his neighbor, calls. "I'm in the middle of my Italian lesson" I say, "Can this wait for half an hour?!", "NO", he says, "this is more important... are you free this weekend?" I said, "sure, nothing special going on...". He says: "We're thinking of buying Israel an air ticket to come and visit you for your birthday, would that be OK?!" I figure this has been cooking for a bit in the Golan, "sure it would, but you better move fast, because Israel just called to discuss this and I told him I was in the middle of my Italian lesson...". Alon answered "Got it, we'll let you know when he's coming" and that was it. Thursday evening I was waiting in the arrivals hall of Malpensa to greet my birthday present...

Luckily, the Gods or whoever's in charge of the weather dealt us a good hand. Clear skies for the first time in days. "Where do you want to go?" I asked Israel. "It's your birthday, you decide" he said. "Some mountains maybe?! Covered with snow...?" I asked. A big smile spread on his face, "Yes, when do we go?" he asked. "Wait, I've got to check things out on the internet....". "No you don't", he said, "let's just go". I managed to write some names of places I thought might be nice on a piece of paper, we packed a few things, I took the GPS and off we went. I forgot to take the atlas so we were totally dependent on the GPS (not terribly smart, but there you have it) and my memory of some names of places.

We set out in the direction of Lago Maggiore. I was told that Eremo di Santa Caterina del Sasso, a hermitage on the eastern shore of Lago Maggiore was a nice place to visit. We arrived there exactly at lunchtime and the place was closed and deserted. We went down to the hermitage (lots of steps) but there wasn't anything going on there. You can see me over there looking out at the lake. In summer it's probably a nice place to visit, coming in with a boat from the lake (the hermitage hugs the cliff of the mountain). "What now?!" we asked ourselves? lunch and then to the mountains.

It turns out that to get to the mountains from where we were, one needs to take a ferry across the lake to Intra (see on the left). Strangely enough, the GPS directs you to do exactly that. I was a bit wary of this. Why? not sure really. Never took a car on a ferry before. The trip was short, calm and uneventful. Israel took the opportunity to take some pictures of me on the ferry. In the pictures you can see that I've been primed from a young age to have my picture taken. I keep making faces at the camera.... At one point Israel said, "smile already and stop making faces!" I did as ordered:


We got to the other side and drove along the highway. Israel asked "where are we going?" I said, "Macugnaga, my colleague recommended going there". He said, "Is that in the mountains?" I said "yes, a village at the end of the road before Monte Rosa, the highest mountain massif in Italy after the Mt. Blanc". He said, "Good!". At some point we turned off the highway and started driving through small villages and climbing towards the mountains. "I like this!" said Israel. The temp. dropped, we were loosing centigrades rapidly.... I was driving. The road was getting narrower, the snow on either side -higher and I was getting nervous. Israel, on the other hand, was having the time of his life. Israel is like this - the higher the mountains, the narrower the roads - the happier he is....


The views were magnificant. No one on the road, practically. A few cars coming down the mountain. We saw our first glimpse of Monte Rosa in the distance:


Finally, we got to a small village in Macugnaga called Staffa. Israel urged me to go on to Pecetto, the next village, but the road was getting icy and I was worried about driving further on the ice. We parked in the center of the village. The temp. was by this time down to -9. What does one do in a tiny village when the temp. is -9 and the tourist information is closed for the day? Well, you start with a hot chocolate at Flizzi's (I swear that's the name of the place, I've got evidence which you'll see later down the post)... This is Israel over there:

Then you take a short tour of the place (short, because it's freezing cold and there's not that far to go, everything's buried in about 80-100 cm of snow....). On the left, that's a car....:


It's cold but the sunset is glorious:


We took a room at the Flora Hotel which you can see in the picture on the left. Nice hotel and nice owners. We also had dinner there (we could have gone out to find some other place to eat but who wants to go out at -9 or less?!). The food was good (fixed menu made by the signora of the house) but expensive compared with the price of the room and the fact that there were no choices on the menu. Nice ambiance in the dining room with a wood burning fire.

Sunday morning I got Israel and myself out of bed at 7:30 to move the car which was parked in an area you need to vacate by 8:00. We rushed down only to find that everything was dark in the lobby and the hotel's entrance door was still locked... The signora came out a bit bleary eyed and asked what we were up to. I told her we needed to move the car. She looked at me like I'm crazy and said that she thought they start giving tickets only at 9:00.... She opened the door for us and we went out. Sure enough, there was no one in sight except for one woman with a friendly dog. Dead silence (this was Sun. morning after all). Looking around, I doubted anyone was coming to write tickets that morning... But I moved the car anyway and noticed in the process that the temp. had dropped to -14 during the night. Brrrrr.....


Did we go back to the room?! No, we didn't. I told Israel let's go for a walk... He, being a good sport, agreed and off we went. In any case, the signora told us that the brioche were not ready yet... In the picture on the left, by the way, you can see, if you click on it, the name of the place where we'd had the hot chocolate... On the right you can see me on our walk. What does -14 feel like?! Very cold...

We also went by this small, very old church, full of graves of former residents buried in deep snow:


After breakfast we left Macugnaga not before Israel took the beautiful picture at the top of the post (as he did all the other pictures here...) of the Monte Rosa massif. We didn't go up to the top because there were strong winds that day and the signor at the hotel said he didn't think it would be worthwhile to go up when it's so cold. By the way, the Monte Rosa is on the border with Switzerland. On the other side you find the Matterhorn and the village of Zermat.

"Where to now?!" Israel asked. I said I wanted to show him Lago D'Orta. It's a small lake, west of Lago Maggiore. Small but beautiful. I'd been there with other friends last summer. In the middle of the lake there's a tiny island - San Guilio.

We stopped for a few minutes at the Sacre Monte di Orta which is a Roman Catholic devotional complex on top of a hill. The place is made up of 20 chapels dedicated to St. Francis of Assisi and was built during the 16th and 17th century. The chapels represent episodes in the life of St. Francis and Jesus. The place is a UNESCO world heritage site and was used by Christians who couldn't go to the Holyland. This is a picture taken in the chapel representing the canonization of St. Francis:


Since the order of the day was mountains I decided to take Israel to Mottarone, a mountain near Stressa, which I've described in previous posts - from which one can see 7 lakes in the area. I'd only been up there in the autumn or early summer and for some reason I didn't realize that it's a big ski resort with lots of people skiing and doing cross country. Driving up the mountain we got some magnificant views:


Unfortunately, it was difficult to get to the top top of the mountain from where you can see all the lakes. There was too much snow and really the only way up was on your skis. Israel looked longingly at the ski slopes and told me he's coming back to ski this season....

We had the time of our lives - even without skiing, as you can see in the pictures below (I'm squinting because the sun was in my eyes...):


I had a wonderful birthday (thanks again to Alon and Neta for the present).... I'll leave you with another picture of winter from the road up to Mottarone: