SketchTravel in Italy 2010

October 22, 2010

Visiting Rome for the first time
The amazing neighborhood of Trastevere
Our airport cabbie said he couldn’t get us to the hotel, but he could get close. What? It turned out to be true, as the cobblestone roads in this neighborhood get too narrow for even the tiny Italian cars. Trastevere is the Greenwich Village of Rome, full of twisting little roads meandering through cafes, shops, and fountained squares.

After dropping our bags, our son took us on a foot tour of the city – to Campo de’ Fiori to see the statue of Giordano Bruno, the Pantheon with its fabulous oculus, Piazza Navona, Trevi fountain, the Spanish Steps, Villa Medici, Villa Borghese, and Piazza del Popolo.

Next day we saw the Roman forum, the coliseum, the Vatican. My son was doing a semester in Rome for his Cornell architecture program, and had just taken a class on Rome’s history. He was living a half block from the ruins of four temples called the cat Pit, near where Julius Caesar was killed.

exploring tuscany

The sketch of grape vines was made from our patio. After sharing my sketches with our hosts, and in spite of the fact that we had no language in common, they brought out and shared their homemade wines, limoncello, olive oil and appetizers. We had a great time and laughed a lot, as you do when making failed attempts at communicating.

Florence, of course

Everyone loves Florence, and for good reason. We visited the usual museums like the Uffizi Museum, visited the Pitti Palace and museum as well as that fantastic duomo. I did an audio recording of a stunning violin player on the steps of of the Uffizi, and then of a cheesy accordion band in a square. After seeing so much renaissance art, I was missing Miro and Kandinsky!

Venice, where wine was cheaper than water

It’s true, but then wine was cheaper than water all over Italy. We left the green hills outside of Florence, taking the train to the station tight on Venice’s Grand Canal. The waterbus takes you close, and then it’s all walking from there on – no cars or motorcycles anywhere. Our room was right on a canal, where we watched how the gondolas and boats worked. Some gondolier operators sang or whistled. They yell at corners as a warning, since the navigation is so narrow. It was so still at night, with the occasional boat passing by like a ghost. I’d washed a few clothes out in the sink and put them on a line to dry. Later I noticed some tourists taking photos of it – local color haha!

The Basilicus of San Marco was awesome to see. We entered on boardwalks due to flooding. They didn’t allow packs in, but after seeing a few people with them anyway, we held them to the outside and slipped through undetected! The most fun was just wandering around through the labyrinth and over the countless canal stepped bridges.

The Cinque Terre

You can’t really drive to the villages of the Cinque Terre, but there are no roads there anyway. We took the train, and as we were getting close the train tunnel gave us short glimpses of steep cliffs leading to intense blue Mediterranean water. We stayed in Vernazza, a beautiful tiny village clinging to the cliffs with as picturesque a beach setting you could wish for.

Our room was up a gazillian steps, and the top floor was a deck overlooking everything. The only structure higher was a turret behind us from the castle ruin. We walked the trail that connects to Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore. It was closed the other direction to Montessoro al mare, so we took a train there.

 We also took a boat down the coast to the larger town of Portovenere. I have fond memories of my son and I sitting on the rough rocks just above the splashing waves in Vernazza, both doing a sketch of that beautiful church St. Margherita de Antiqua.

Positano and the Amalfi coast

It was a long train ride down to Naples, where we got a bus to Positano. Clinging to the steep cliffs, Positano seemed like one of those places a James Bond film would be shot. Stunning white buildings huddled on top of each other with walkways going helter skelter, and accessed by a narrow winding road made more for a Ferrari than a tour bus. Our bus driver stopped on a hairpin turn and pointed down a narrow walkway, so we got our bags and eventually stumbled onto our room a few blocks away in the maze.

on to paestum

From here we took a boat to Salerno and a train to Paestum, where some of the best preserved Greek buildings exist. We stayed until closing time at 5pm, where the late sun brings out a golden hue. The train booth was closed so we got on anyway and the conductor who eventually came to take tickets gave us a stern lecture. But they wouldn’t sell us round-trip tickets earlier, so what do you do?