One early morning in October we decided to go tree climbing down at the Baldeneysee with our cousin Sofia. Much to our surprise and horror a cold front swept across during the night, sending temperatures plummeting to below zero. Our central heating kept this fact a secret until we emerged in climbing gear at 10am - with temperatures still no higher than 5C! It was freezing! Afterwards we came home, guzzled hot chocolates then immediately booked tickets to Tuscany for the Herbstferien (Autumn Holidays). Surely 1, 175km south would be warmer...
1 week in Italy. How many pizze can one eat in that time?
Well if you are like Mia, who (if allowed) would eat pizza for breakfast, lunch and dinner, that would be 21 pizza meals. Fortunately we kept it to a mere 11 (that's 2 breakfast, 2 dinners and every lunch!!!). And of course 7 gelati each. As you can see, this visit to Italy was not a culinary exploration. This time we concentrated more on Italy's rather turbulent history and arguably it's most famous writer, Dante.
For those who don't know (and I didn't know before this trip, so don't worry), Dante Alighieri (1264-1321) wrote what many believe is Italy's most brilliant piece of literature called The Divine Comedy. It's about his travels through Hell, Purgatory and Heaven (Inferno, Purgatoria e Paradiso) guided by the Roman poet Virgil. On his journey he encounters a host of familiar faces (wealthy noblemen, recent Popes and even critiques of his literature). Rather cheekily he placed many who opposed him in hell, including Pope Boniface VIII... they were described as swimming in pools of poo with their faces submerged, or frozen in ice or attacked by devilish monsters. The girls were positively gob-smacked (we read the kid's version). After the book's publication, the rich and powerful in Florence (his home town) sentenced Dante to death - so outraged were they by his 'comedy'. The Siennese, who constantly rivaled those in Florence, gave him refuge. We were fascinated. We even visited his home in Florence which is now a Museum.
Voltera, San Gimignano and Monteriggioni were all gorgeous towns. It's amazing how many have retained their old city walls and have preserved their inner cities for pedestrians and local residents only.
We spent the last 2 nights in Pisa, a rambling town with 3 universities and 65,000 students. Mia was longing to climb the leaning tower of Pisa. Its restoration and reinforced foundations had long since finished, so we were keen to compare its ascend to the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately Hubertus returned from the queue with bad news, only visitors over 8 were allowed to climb to the top. Mia collapsed onto the ground and howled for 20min. That still did not sway the merchants selling the tickets. In the end Hubertus climbed alone - and it didn't fall over - phew!
Mia loved the pizza, Stephanie loved the Pinocchio puppets, Hubertus loved the medieval towers and I loved the views from San Gimignano.
The girls missed bretzels. Hubertus missed the Autobahns. And I missed the food I had last visit - pizza is OK but not everyday!
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