Like any true American, I love a good 4th of July celebration -- small town parades, fireworks, and the shameless array of good summer eats (nothing beats Ohio sweet corn). But this July 4th, I have to admit my thoughts also wander back to a year ago when my husband and I celebrated the holiday week-end in Florence, the opening scene of a wonderful vacation through Tuscany and the Cinque Terre of Italy. Would it be terrible to admit I didn't mind trading in a grilled hamburger for a plate of trofie al pesto...just this once?
I hadn't yet begun this blog, so comments and mementos of the trip were not posted. Maybe it's because I've been harvesting basil for pesto off my lanai, or maybe it's simply incurable nostalgia, but here are a few of the highlightsof a memorable trip to Italia:
* the wonderfully informative and entertaining art tour we had of Florence, including the Uffizi Gallery, the Duomo, and the Galleria dell'Arte that houses Michelangelo's David. Did you know you can tell a medieval building from a Renaissance building simply by the size and symmetry of the windows?
* the ancient Etruscan walls that surround Volterra, a beloved landmark miraculously saved by the townspeople from destruction by the Nazis;
* the rich, vibrant colors that leap off the canvases by Botticelli, Rafael, da Vinci -- centuries after their works were created!
* the unique political status of the powerful city state that existed on the peninsula during the Renaissance, and the bitter (and often bloody) rivalry between the cities. No wonder it was the 1860's before Italy united as a country for the first time.
* the drama that played out in a world of big commissions and even bigger egos -- how Donatello, Brunelleschi, and Michelangelo himself outwitted their patrons.
* seeing Fra Angelico's Annunciazione "glow" within the modest exhibit room of the diocesan museum in Cortona. Interesting note: the artist painted the angel's words of greeting to the Virgin Mary upside-down so they could be read from heaven.* being enthralled with the over-the-top ornamentation of the cath
edral in Siena, the medieval towers of San Gimignano, the breath-taking coastal views hiking between Vernazza and Monterosso;* breathing air laden with lavender, rosemary (bushes of it over 10' high), and roses...
* rolling down Tuscan hills covered with sunflowers, olive groves, and vineyard
s in a tiny Mini-Cooper. Surprised we fit in it!I don't need a coin in the Trevi Fountain to guarantee my return one day. Arrivederci literally means "until we see each other again". Enough said!
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