ROMAN CHRISTMAS TAT CAN BE FUN!!

I have a confession to make - despite a professional life which has focussed in recent years on teaching students the arts of connoisseurship in the decorative arts - I've always had a penchant for tourist junk. I find it fascinating. At home we have a huge collection of fridge magnets I've collected on our recent cruise ship travels (we need to get a bigger fridge to put them on) and whenever we go to a place where there's a thriving souvenir trade - you can bet your life I'll be attracted to the shops and stalls like a moth to a light bulb! So it was in Rome last night. On our walk back from the Piazza Venezia to the Barberini hotel we came a cross a whole street full of brightly lit stalls with vendors hawking souvenirs to the Christmas tourists. Highlights (which I didn't incidentally buy) included miniature badly crafted painted plaster models of Romulus and Remus feeding from the she -wolf (loosely based on the wonderful Etruscan bronze sculpture of the same in the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the Capitolone Hill) the Colosseum and every other famous Roman monument you can think of, figures of Papa Francesco with and without glasses, T shirts with unprintable slogans on them and horror of horrors Roman plastic helmets complete with plumes - perfect for those wishing to have their photo taken in front of the Colosseum.

ROMAN TOURIST SOUVENIRS

Maybe these objects are an antidote to the high quality stuff I've been used to dealing with in my professional life. The fact they are an affront to good taste I find a source of amusement and they tell us a lot about the places we all love to visit when on holiday.

What I did buy from one of the stalls was a bookmark calendar for 2015. There were lots to choose from and I picked out one with views of tourist attractions in the city centre. At a price of 1 euro (about 80 pence in sterling) this was an excellent value object with a practical use - a bookmark for every month of the year with a good quality image and a monthly calendar to boot. It's interesting to list the images for each of the 12 months of 2015 - they are as follows:

January                Saint Peter's from the Tiber

February              The Trevi Fountain

March                  The Spanish Steps

April                     The Colosseum

May                      Roman Forum

June                      Piazza Navona

July                       Pantheon

August                  Castel Sant Angelo               

September            The Colosseum

October                 Piazza Venezia

November             The Old Appian Way

December             Saint Peter's Basilica

Of the famous monuments listed - 6 of them are of Roman origin (one gets two photographs - guess which), 5 date from the  Renaissance/ Baroque periods from the 16th to the 18th centuries and only one building is from the late 19th, early 20th century. There is nothing from the modern period at all! If this selection of images has been carefully put together so it appeals as a souvenir what it appears to be saying is that tourists don't especially come to Rome for the legacy of the last two centuries. I have actually seen this point of view expressed in some popular guide books about the city. Rome maybe the capital city of modern Italy but tourists and visitors are drawn to it at all times of year because of its amazing cultural history. We all studied the Romans at school (do children still do that today?) and we are all aware that the city was at the centre of a vast Empire which covered just about all of the Mediterranean area and extended northwards as far as Britain; we know that many aspects of European language, its legal systems, architectural styles and art can be traced back to this period of imperial brutality and exploitation in the city's history. Likewise, although only about 3% of the city's current inhabitants regularly attend mass in its 600 plus churches, we all know Rome as the epicentre of one of the world's great religions. The faithful still flock to Rome and the independent Vatican state to pay homage to its significance as a major symbol of their catholic faith and the curious still want to see where the Pope lives or see the amazing art within its walls. In some ways the city is a huge disneyland - a theme park for culture junkies like me. There is visual evidence of all these great chapters in the city's history round every street corner and down every alley and its all there to be discovered, either by making pilgrimages to the big set piece attractions, or often when you are taking it easy wandering about and thus least expect it. The latter was the case on one of our morning walks this Christmas.

THE GHETTO 

We'd decided to visit the area marked on the city maps as 'The Ghetto', an area of narrow streets on the eastern bank of the Tiber opposite Trastevere. South of the Via del Portico d' Ottavia its an atmospheric district of narrow streets and alleys and traditionally associated with the city's Jewish community, so even today there are lots of kosher restaurants and Jewish bakeries, workshops and wholesalers of ready to wear clothing. Its been a significant Jewish community since the medieval period, but it was Pope Paul IV, father of the Inquisition, who decreed that the city's Jews should be forcibly contained at night in a walled ghetto in 1555. In the tenements abutting the narrow streets Jewish families lived in overcrowded conditions, the only advantage being that at least they enjoyed a degree of safety and security at night. In 1870 one of the first decisions of the newly formed Italian government, after the liberation of Rome, was to tear down the walls of the Jewish ghetto. Today most Roman Jews live elsewhere, but the area still has a great atmosphere and we were glad we'd visited. The big surprise came when we headed back towards the river and turned a corner to suddenly be confronted by a huge structure which turned out to be the remains of a vast Roman theatre complex. Begun by Julius Caesar and completed by Emperor Augustus it was dedicated to the latter's son Marcellus and it remained in use until 235AD when it fell in to disrepair after events were transferred to the amphitheatre. In the middle ages its advantageous position near the river determined it's future as a fortress but later, with many changes of ownership, parts of it were converted to domestic use. It was Mussolini who first secured it as  an important monument of the city's Roman past by removing adjoining buildings giving it the more detached appearance it has today. Another nearby vista from the Jewish quarter showed, close to the theatre, three picturesque classical corinthian columns once part of the Temple of Apollo rebuilt by the Romans following the demise of an earlier structure in 33BC. All of this then was revealed to us in just a short 45 minute walk - made all the more interesting by us not having read the area up before visiting. In this instance doing the research and follow up afterwards was fun.

OUTER WALL OF THE ROMAN THEATRE OF MARCELLUS
& ONE COLUMN FROM THE TEMPLE OF APOLLO

I remember last year being taken by surprise when we first visited the Piazza Navona to discover it's strange shape - its long and thin with a semi-circular end. This is the result it's Roman origins for it's in the shape of a classical athletics stadium of a type that originated in Greece - 900 feet long. The original stadium was built by Emperor Domitian in AD85 for the annual games he intended to hold in honour of Capitoline Jove. By the middle ages it was being used to cultivate vineyards and for storage barns which were built amongst the classical ruins. It was during Rome's resurgence as a city from the 14th century and especially later during the reign of Pope Innocent X that it was developed into the iconic Baroque piazza seen by visitors today and at Christmas its the location of the Christmas toy fair which specialises in the sale of nativity figures - it's a joy to visit it at this time of year.

PLAN OF ROMAN STADIUM OF DOMITIAN

PIAZZA NAVONA AND THE CHRISTMAS TOY FAIR

And now that I've finished this posting it's time to reflect on Christmas Eve and to look forward to telling you about our special visit to St Peter's basilica later that day.

TRAVELLER'S TIPS
Many sites, especially the more popular ones, have information boards - often in Italian and English.
Use your mobile phone to google sites round Rome as you visit them. You will find lots of maps, images and short articles to help decipher what you can see. If you have one of those apps to photograph those black and white square patterns that yield information that will come in useful too.

If you are interested in reading novels with a Roman theme try the Inspector Zen novels by English author Michael Dibden. The first one - Ratking - was published in 1988 and the last in 2007 was entitled Endgames. They are mostly set in Rome and highlight a side of the city not usually apparent to visitors. Inspector Zen is an interesting middle aged anti-hero character who seeks to manage his job and private life within the framework of a challenging set of police cases. It's attractive to read about sites in the city you may well have visited. Three of the novels were televised for the BBC and filmed in Rome and shown on TV in 2011. 

A ROMAN CHRISTMAS - ITS A GREAT TIME TO VISIT THE SITES

I've said before that I find Christmas difficult. It's not that I don't like it as I find many of its sentiments attractive - despite the fact that it's preceded in Britain by almost three months of the most awful aspects of modern day consumerism. I particularly hate having to endure Christmas songs being repetitively played in shops, supermarkets and on television for weeks on end and if I have to listen again to "It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas" I think I'll expire sooner rather than later. Seriously though my problem is more to do with with feelings of being divorced from it at home. We don't go to church and we have no choice these days but to pull up the drawbridge and spend it in splendid isolation - Christmas Day highlights being watching the Queen's Speech (actually I am a sucker for this) and perhaps also the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special! Both Jon and I have no close family to celebrate it with and after my Mum died three and a half years ago we have lost the will to make it special at home. To avoid melancholia taking a hold - keeping "the black dog at bay" as Winston Churchill would have put it - we have chosen to spend it in Italy these last three years - the first two of the three in Florence and the last one at our apartment in Citta della Pieve. We have come to thoroughly enjoy it there for all sorts of reasons - not least because although it's very important in Italy - it isn't the frenzied greedfest and mega shut down that its become at home. Last year, just before the main holiday, we went down to Rome by train and spend a night in a hotel near Termini station. I was staggered at what we were able to achieve in just 24 hours, so this year we decided to give it another go - for four days this time before going on to our apartment in Umbria for New Year.

We didn't do much planning before setting off other than to book the flights from Stanstead to Rome and then to choose a decent hotel in a convenient part of the city at the best possible rate. In the old days this used to be hit and miss affair - the best option being to get a recommendation from a friend. Now, it couldn't be easier with on-line detailed research available even to computer morons like me. I would strongly recommend the website "booking.com" for this - it is quite simply amazing. Choose where you want to go, (anywhere in the world) set the perameters and dates and press the button. Pictures, customer reviews (how hotels must hate these) and free cancellation/ pay later options are all usually available, the latter at a small extra charge. I must confess to using this and cancelling the first choice a few weeks later. I did this after making a new reservation close to the departure date when I found a better hotel in a great area available at a super rate. If you follow the site over a couple of weeks its fascinating to observe how rates can change, so the non-refundable option is not the best choice. So what did we settle for in Rome for our Christmas stay?

PIAZZA BARBERINI & THE LOCATION OF THE BARBERINI HOTEL

BARBERINI HOTEL

We chose a smallish 35 bedroom hotel called the Barberini just off the Piazza Barberini which is a superb location half way between Termini station and the Piazza Veneto and there is a Line A metro station just 200m from the door of the hotel. Loads of buses also pass through the Piazza which can take you almost anywhere you want to go. Stand on the front doorstep of the hotel and you look directly across to the impressive 17th century Palazzo Barberini designed by architect Carlo Maderno for the Barberini Pope Urban VIII and completed by Bernini. This building is testimony to what happened to the profits from the Papal Treasury in the 1630's! Now owned by the state it houses the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica and its magnificent art collection including works by Raphael, Tintoretto, Tiepolo, Caravaggio and Holbein. Look left from the front door, down past the piazza directly up the Via Sistina and its possible to see the obelisk which stands on a pedestal at the top of the Spanish Steps and outside Trinita dei Monti church - five to ten minutes walk away. Go east from the hotel along the street and you arrive at Boromini's small square of the four fountains the Quattro Fontane (currently under restoration) and thence on to the magnificent Sant Maria Maggiore church. All of this was part of a grand boulevard scheme planned by Pope Sixtus V. A ten minute walk south from the hotel takes one to the maze of streets which lead to the Trevi district and its famous fountain - more about that later. The four star hotel itself is a  five storey19th century building which has been drastically modified to accommodate a new layout in recent years. You enter at street level down a flight of white marble steps into a commodious reception area in what originally would have been the basement. Here there's also a small bar and a sitting area. Upstairs the double/twin rooms are quite small (there are I belived a small number of junior suites) but furnished traditionally (silk damask on the walls and tasselled window curtains - what more could one want?) with decent quality stuff and each with an excellent marble bathroom with power shower. By far the most important feature of the hotel however, and really why I chose it, is the breakfast room on the sixth floor. Its relatively small and intimate, is fully glazed on two walls and has outstanding views out over the Roman roof tops to St Peter's and the Vatican. What better way to spend Christmas morning than to join fellow guests in this wonderful space and partake of the excellent buffet breakfast and this spectacular vista!

BREAKFAST ROOM ON THE 6TH FLOOR AT THE BARBERINI HOTEL

After settling in on the afternoon of the 23rd we went out to grab an early evening meal in one of the many restaurants nearby (nothing to write home about) and then decided to soak up the Christmas atmosphere in the eternal city. We decided to walk south down the Via della Tritone so we could see the Christmas lights in Rome's fashionable shopping district. The city does Christmas lights big time (we'd seen what was on offer last year) so we knew we were in for a treat. Our first stop we decided would be the Via del Corso.

CHRISTMAS LIGHTS IN THE VIA CORSO

The Via del Corso is one of Rome's principal streets and leads from the Piazza Venezia to the Piazza del Popolo. It's lined with an array of historic buildings and monuments, such as the Triumphal Column of Marcus Aurelius and its an important shopping street too. Not surprisingly its a major venue for Rome's annual Christmas lights show - the equivalent of Oxford Street in London, but in the Italian capital the show is far more extensive and impressive. This year the whole length of the street was decorated and lit with an array of flags of the world some of which can be seen in the photograph here.


We walked down the Corso to take a look at the spectacle in the huge square at the end of the street first laid out in 1538 for Pope Paul III. This is the Piazza dell Popolo, built over a number of years with contributions form Michelangelo and Bernini to provide an impressive northern entrance to Rome. Three straight roads lead off its southern end, of which the Via dell Corso is one. The pair of twin domed churches were added in the 1600's. In the weeks before Christmas the square plays host to a charming Christmas market and this year the lights looked wonderful - an array of white shooting stars with tails.

SHOOTING STARS IN THE PIAZZA DEL POPOLO

Next it was a walk down the crowded Via del Corso to Piazza Venezia - this is the square in front of the huge white wedding cake like building at the top end of the Roman Forum built in the early 20th century and dedicated to the King of the newly united Italy - Vittorio Emanuele II.This is the site of Rome's  principal Christmas tree and its always a beauty. I saw London's effort in Trafalgar Square recently and thought how poor it was. Comparing it with this one - well what can I say? We need to do better at home next year.

HUGE CHRISTMAS TREE IN THE PIAZZA VENEZIA

By now we were beginning to feel footsore and just a little bit weary so it was now time to head off back to the Barberini for a good night's sleep and to prepare for Christmas Eve the following day The plan was to make and enjoy a good cup of tea and map out our next day itinerary; we knew by now that we had the great privilege of being able to attend mass inside St Peter's basilica - that would surely be a highlight of the whole trip!

TRAVELLER'S TIPS
Many of the sights in central Rome are walkable - nothing seems that far from anywhere else in the central area. If using public transport its a good idea to buy an integrated travel ticket which is valid on buses, trams and the metro. It costs 6 euros for 24 hours and 16.50 euros for three days. Weekly tickets are also available. There is no restriction on the number of journeys that can be made Buy them at the automatic machines at the metro stations with cash, Don't forget to validate your ticket in the slot machines on the buses and trams. Oh - and watch out for pick pockets who are notorious in Rome and very skilled. Metro platforms and trains are a magnet for them! Take care and you'll be fine.

SAFFRON - AN AUTUMN FESITVAL IN CITTA DELLA PIEVE

As Jon drove us back that afternoon along the narrow roads from Gioiella to the valley bottom so we could join the main road to Citta I suddenly had the colour yellow on my mind. Was it because I'd been thinking of the importance of the bright yellow found on many of the tin glaze pots made at Deruta I'd been thinking about earlier, or something more immediate? - and then I remembered. The theme of the festival being celebrated in Citta this particular weekend was saffron! I knew saffron was harvested from the stamens of crocus flowers as I'd watched a programme on British TV about the historic town of Saffron Walden in Essex recently, where crocus bulb cultivation had been economically important round there in times past, but I had always associated crocuses with spring and not autumn. The wonderful displays of spring crocuses in purple and yellow seen on the green grass areas of the Stray in Harrogate, Yorkshire, came in to my mind - another recollection of my upbringing in that beautiful part of England. But what were we going to find in Citta della Pieve? - I was intrigued. As we approached our little town up the steep hill road suddenly I saw a poster on the side of the road advertising the festival - it had been dark the previous evening so we hadn't seen in then. It was headed "ZAFFERIAMO" - 24,25,26 Ottobre - Centro Storico - so we knew where to head next.

I picked up a copy of the leaflet advertising the festival and detailing the events in the entrance hall of the Palazzo Corgna in the main square of Citta. A listing of  all the happenings filling the three day programme was contained inside - everything from cookery demonstrations to art exhibitions and even tours of the crocus fields outside the town. The last event on the Sunday (which we wouldn't be able to go to) was a guided visit through the town to look at the saffron hues in Renaissance painter Perugino's Citta Della Pieve works found in different churches and chapels. Downstairs at the palazzo was a display of fine local embroidery done on textiles dyed with saffron. We started our saffron experience with a display of contemporary works of art on the first floor of the Palazzo in its fresco decorated rooms and every painting, done by a variety of Umbrian artists, was themed on the yellow colour of saffron. This imaginative and thought provoking display of landscapes, still lifes, figurative and abstract works was an interesting start to our saffron sojourn. Walking along the main street the purple colours of the crocus had been used to theme window displays in various shops and the local gelateria was offering saffron flavoured ice cream! But where to next? - the market hall and outside square opposite it seemed the best choice as this is where most of the saffron festival activities were focussed.


Saffron is one of the most ancient of spices and its been traded and used by man for over four millenia. It's thought to have developed as a native plant of Asia Minor and was then cultivated there for centuries. Over time its been used not only as a colouring agent and dye for fabrics, but also as a medicine and flavouring agent in cooking. Cleopatra is known to have tinted her skin with saffron and the Greeks used it as an aphrodisiac. In the Middle Ages saffron was used to produce brightly coloured foods for elaborate banquets and it was a well know symbol of wealth amongst the nobility in Italy. It's a 13th century Dominican monk who's thought to have introduced it to Italy from Spain  and since then its been grown successfully as a commercial plant in different parts of  the country, particularly in Tuscany and Umbria; Florence became an international trading centre for saffron and the spice developed as one of the most costly by weight. Now unknown in the wild the latin name of the plant is Crocus sativas and its purple flowers develop from bulbs planted in early September in this part of the world; they flower in the middle of October. Saffron is harvested by removing the three tiny deep orange stamens in each flower and these must be hand picked on a daily basis so they are selected just when they are ripe and at their most colourful. All are then dried to make the pure form of saffron which is usable in the different ways mentioned. Today its been estimated that to produce one pound or 450g of saffron its necessary to harvest the stamens from between 50,000 and 75,000 flowers. It takes forty hours of picking to harvest 150 thousand flowers. I don't think I'll be applying for a seasonal job harvesting saffron!

THE YELLOW STAMENS ARE VISIBLE INSIDE
PURPLE CROCUS FLOWERS

STAMENS ARE DRIED AFTER PICKING TO
PRODUCE THE PURE SAFFRON

In medicinal use there is evidence to suggest saffron may be important in the treatment of depression and possibly in connection with certain eye conditions and some cancers. In food its traditionally been used to add colour and as a flavouring in European, Turkish, Arabian and Asian dishes and it's also been used in the making of liquers and confectionary.

Down the main street in the second of the town's principal squares the saffron festival was in full swing when we arrived. Outside the market hall a couple of young chefs demonstrated the making of various pasta dishes to an engaged crowd of seated onlookers, but we decided to go in to the hall to see the "Zafferano...e non solo" - or "saffron... and not only" market.

 All of the stalls were displaying and selling wares made with saffron so it was possible to sample local olive oil, honeys, cheeses, gelatins, breads, fruitcakes, sugared almonds, liquers and grappa all made with saffron and the tables were decorated with the violet crocus petals of the saffron crocus. It was a pleasure to mingle with locals and visitors and to listen to some of the animated conversations about the food and other products being displayed and sold. One local stall holder, who we'd met before - Jon bought some locally made artisan products from her last Christmas, explained where the nearby saffron fields were and tried to persuade us to go on one of the walks; we must make sure we can do it next time round

We ended our saffron day with a fixed price three course dinner (only 29 euros) at the nearby Vannucci Hotel where all the dishes were saffron themed. I had a golden coloured saffron based soup, followed by salmon fishcakes with saffron batterand saffron rice and of course a saffron gelato for dessert! And the taste......... well saffron tastes to me a little bit like eating dried hay with a slightly sweet note. I am not sure I would want to sample it every day. Overall the saffron festival provided another example of the local community coming up with an event celebrating a tiny dimension of the local economy in a significant and enjoyable way - for locals and visitors alike.

THE CITTA DELLA PIEVE SAFFRON FESTIVAL IS HELD EACH YEAR IN THE MIDDLE OF OCTOBER AND LASTS THREE DAYS. DETAILS ARE PUBLISHED ON THE TOWN'S WEB SITE.

AUTUMN IN UMBRIA AND THE OLIVE HARVEST

We've had our apartment in Italy for over a year now so have been able to experience the local Umbrian landscape through at least one complete cycle of seasons. A couple of months ago, in late October, we made our first trip out to Citta della Pieve in autumn and it proved to be a rewarding visit - albeit a short one; we had only four full days available to us before we had to return home. We arrived in town from Ciampino airport in our little hire car late on a Thursday evening, so it was impossible to make any judgements about the local weather, or how everything looked outside. The following morning, however, we woke up to bright blue skies and for the time of year a warmish ambience which I felt when I stepped out on to our tiny balcony. I was surprised how green the valley below our apartment still looked with so many of the trees still having most of their leaves. One noticeable difference to our last visit was the absence of our friends the swallows who had long since departed for the warmer climes of north Africa, It seemed strangely quiet without them and the thought passed through my mind that it would be six months before we would see them again.

After an early breakfast we decided to drive into the countryside and visit our friends in Gioiella - a small village on a ridge between hillside slopes leading down to Lake Trasimeno in the east and Lake Chiusi in the west. It's in beautiful Umbrian countryside and I was keen to see what it would look like at this time of year. As soon as we left the valley bottom and started to climb the gently rolling hillsides I was conscious of the rhythmic nature of the annual cycle and its steady progression in this part of Italy. Perhaps it's due to the seasons seeming more clear cut here compared with our part of the UK Midlands. Not only do the seasonal weather conditions seem very distinctive in this part of Umbria, they also seem to accurately reflect what we can see on the exposed hillsides. Today the landscape had a beautiful earthy tone to it, making it even more special in the morning bright, sharp light. In an area still dominated by agriculture involving crop growing, olive cultivation and vineyards not surprisingly various activities associated with the autumn season were evident on this fine morning. In one field a farmer was ploughing the soil, in another preparations were being made to harvest the olives and in yet another vine leaves were turning to a wonderful golden hue perfectly poised for the snip of the pruner's shears later on.

AUTUMN IN UMBRIA NEAR GIOIELLA

Suddenly and surprisingly I became aware of how this array of distinctive hues of blue, greens, yellows and browns had permeated the palette of colours used in the craft based making of Italian tin-glazed pottery and traditionally made in Umbrian towns like Deruta and Gubbio for centuries.

EARTHY TONES DOMINATE CERAMIC
OBJECTS IN A SPECIALIST
SHOP IN PRESENT DAY  DERUTA

I've been familiar with and enjoyed this type of pottery for years, but never before has the penny dropped so loudly as to how exactly the colours were inspired by the local landscape. The characteristic colour range of blue, brown, yellow and green, found on many of the wonderful pots made during and since the 16th century in this region, resonates in my mind with what I can see before my eyes this morning.

But it's time to move on and Frances and Michael will be awaiting our arrival at their village house just outside Gioiella. I'm keen to know more about the annual harvest of their olive trees.

Frances and Michael are expats from Ireland and England respectively. They used to live in southern Spain but ten years ago decided, after visiting the Italy a number of times, to settle there and buy a property in Umbria. They bought a stone house with an adjoining field containing about thirty mature olive trees and have annually harvested them to become self sufficient in high grade olive oil. But on the phone last week they'd indicated there were problems with this year's harvest so it was time to investigate. On arrival at the house, after parking the car, we took a peek at the field with the olive trees next to the house. Everything looked pretty normal to us but a quick inspection of the nearest tree showed there was very little to harvest. Where were the olives?

FRANCES & MICHAEL'S OLIVE TREES NEXT TO THEIR HOUSE IN GIOIELLA
LAKE CHIUSI IS IN THE DISTANCE

Olive trees have been cultivated in the Mediterranean area since at least 3000BC and the trees were probably first introduced from north Africa via Egypt and the island of Crete. For centuries the olive tree and its branches and fruit have been considered variously a symbol of peace, wisdom, glory and fertility as well as being the source of a major foodstuff - olive oil. Cultivation of the tree began in Italy between the VIII and V centuries BC. Today Italy has 1,700,000 hectares of land under olive cultivation, though 80% of production is concentrated in the south, especially in Puglia, Calabria and Sicily. With 28,000 hectares of land under olive cultivation in Umbria, our region produces only 2% of the national output, but the oils produced are generally of premium quality and many carry DOP status (protected denomination of origin). As olive oil is an important part of the Mediterranean diet its not surprising that Italians consume 12kg of the stuff every year - though not all of this is from Italian sources - much of it being imported from Greece and Spain. The high quality and valuable Italian oils, including those of Umbria, tend to be exported to countries like the United States and Great Britain. Umbrian oils are particularly favoured for their piquancy of taste caused by the high levels of antioxidants in the oils, the unique flavours the result of the unique combination of local micro-climates and soil types.

The trees owned by Frances and Michael came with the house purchased and were not the reason they chose the property, but it was a challenge to them to farm them and produce their own oil. All their trees are approximately 40 - 50 years old and include a mixture of cultivars or types. Each shows the characteristic twisty gnarled trunk beneath a squat bole and wonderfully silvery green leaves. Like everyone else in the area they prune their trees in February/ March and feed them with potash mix pellets in June. They allowed their neighbours to harvest the crop in their first year there so they could learn the procedures involved in harvesting and turning the olives in to oil. With good quality Umbrian olive oils costing up to 20 euros for half a litre in some upmarket shops, the idea of producing the same thing as an interesting hobby was very appealing.

In the first year Frances and Michael harvested 6 kilos of olives - considered a poor harvest by locals. In the several years following though the yield often reached 400 to 480 kilos of olives producing an oil yield of between 9 and 20 percent. It follows that from the thirty trees they owned, in the best years they could expect about 60 litres of good quality extra virgin olive oil - which if stored correctly could be kept for up to 2 - 3 years.

Under normal circumstances the olives would be harvested at this time of year with rake heads attached to broom sticks with nets set below the trees to collect the crop. Taking their time and perhaps with a little help from friends, the harvest would normally take about a week. After collecting the olives from the nets they would be placed in stackable boxes and left for a day or two for the fruit to dry and for any "worms" (insect larvae) to drop out of the fruit. They would then join a small consortium of neighbours so they could combine their crops to reach a minimum pressing target of 100 kilos.The olives would be collectively taken (or collected for a small charge) to the local mill for pressing. There are a few mills left in Umbria which operate with traditional pressing stones like the one at Paciano, but the one Frances and Michael use has more modern equipment and can be found run by a local family in the village of Petrignano. The mill operates 24 hours a day during the harvesting period and arrivees have to wait their turn to get their olives pressed. When pressing begins the olives are poured first into a washing vat before going to the press which has four outlets for the oil. It takes about four hours for the first pressing of the load through a series of filters; when the oil "comes through" it looks a wonderful luminous green colour. As oil made from the first pressing it is designated to be of "extra virgin" quality and the pulp left behind, which is usually pressed again, is of a pinky colour, the texture of a coarse pate or hummus.

MICHAEL HOLDS UP A STAINLESS STEEL
OLIVE OIL "FUSTO".

Everyone in the little consortium would have their estimated oil volume drained into stainless steel containers callued "fustos" which can be of 10, 25 and 50 litre sizes. Once filled they can be taken home and the consortium would pay the millers their modest fee of about 90 euros for the pressing. But what of this years harvest?

FRANCES INSPECTS THIS YEAR'S
SHRIVELLED OLIVES

Over a cup of hot coffee Frances and Michael told us of the problems facing this year's olive growers in Umbria - especially those with organic plots. A combination of a warm, wet winter which prevented the cryogenic frost action needed to stimulate spring growth in the trees combined with  an extraordinarily wet summer has stunted the growth of olives in this part of Italy. Though the olives looked to be progressing normally up until about August, they failed to swell and ripen and the double whammy of an infestation of olive fruit fly (their larvae grow inside the olives and devour the flesh leaving only skin and stone) has meant there will be no harvest this year at all for Frances and Michael and many of the larger growers in the area. Those fruits that did exist have dropped off the trees in a dried and shrivelled state and are of no use to anyone. In a recent email Frances has told us that the local pressing mill has actually closed early through lack of olives to process. All in all its a disastrous year for those depending on olive production for their living.


We left Gioiella feeling sad after hearing the story of the failed olive crop and it was a reminder to us of the precarious nature of farming as a means of making a living in Umbria or anywhere else for that matter. Suddenly it made the issue of climate change seem that little bit more real. Was this year's slightly odd Umbrian climate pattern a blip or part of a greater trend that would affect the area in the years to come?  My first impressions of the autumn season in Umbria had been slightly misleading and I found that a bit depressing. It was time to head back to Citta della Pieve and cheer ourselves up there. We'd heard there was a local festival being held in the town that weekend so we set off to find out what it was about.

THE LUMINOUS GREEN OLIVE OIL OF UMBRIA

PULCINELLA - A CERAMIC FIGURE FROM NAPLES

Recently Jon and I spent a day in Naples and whenever we visit this amazing city we love to wander through the historic, narrow streets of the old town. Though many tourists resist the temptation to visit this area I've always found it a wonderfully atmospheric place - a bit of old Italy which welcomes visitors but refuses to compromise its heart. I've never felt unsafe there and as long as basic precautions are taken like not wearing ostentatious clothes and accessories I think any visitor will be absolutely fine and I would recommend it. There are some wonderful things to see and experience including churches, monuments, museums, fragments of Roman Naples and an amazing series of subterranean caves and passageways which have been used by the inhabitants of the city for centuries.

VIA SAN GREGORIO ARMENO - NAPLES 

Today my article is prompted by a 5 inches tall ceramic figure I can see on the window sill above my desk which I purchased in Naples during this visit for 7 euros. It came from a very distinctive narrow street in the heart of old Naples called San Gregorio Armeno which specialises in the sale of artisan made ceramic figures. It's near the 16th century Benedictine cloister which bears the same name. Lining the street are small shops with workshops behind selling figures which essentially relate to "presepe" - Italian Christmas nativities which I've written about in previous postings. Since the 17th century craftsmen have modelled and painted traditional Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus figures, shepherds, kings, sheep and all the other usual accompaniments for a Christmas crib scene and sold them all year round in the booths in this street. In Naples however presepe have, for several centuries, traditionally also featured characters from everyday life  - individuals cooking, cleaning, shopping, and working  - for inclusion in elaborate Bethlehem settings and the craft of making and selling these continues through to the present day.

AN ARTISAN PAINTS FIGURES IN THE VIA SAN GREGORIO, NAPLES 

 Some of the shops, in recent times, have extended the tradition to include celebrity figures from contemporary life and I found it amusing to view miniature Barack Obama's, Hilary Clintons, Silvio Berlusconis and even figures of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with Prince George!

THE DUKE & DUCHESS OF CAMBRIDGE WITH PRINCE GEORGE
PORTRAYED AS NAPLES CERAMIC FIGURES!

The figure I chose to purchase, however, fits in to none of these categories but into another which has connections with the history of the city and one that has had an impact not just on Italian cultural life generally, but on the artistic life of Europe as a whole since the 16th century. The little white costumed figure with painted hat and black mask with tambourine in one hand is Pulcinella from the Commedia dell Arte. 

"PULCINELLA" PURCHASED IN THE VIA SAN GREGORIO, NAPLES 5" tall

The Commedia formed in the early 16th century, probably originally in the south of Italy, as a group of professional actors and actresses who made their living from staging productions in different towns and cities throughout the country. By the middle of the century troupes were performing not only in Italy but in different parts of Europe and they became especially important at the French court in the late 17th century. The term translates into English as "Comedy of Crafts" signifiying that "artigiani" or artisans were important in the productions which were usually staged outside on temporary stages. Using a combination of speech, movement, song, dance and mime - visual display was an important aspect of the events. In northern Italy the tradition of the Commedia was especially strong in Mantua, Florence and Venice where it became associated with Carnivale held between Epiphany and Ash Wednesday. Good troupes were patronised by the nobility and during carnival periods towns and cities often employed particular groups who made extra money from passing round the hat at performances. 

Interestingly there were no scripts for the theatrical events - the actors and actresses relied on improvisation for the development of stagings but based on a limited range of popular themes or scenarios which appealed to the public. Characters were based on specific and easily recognizable "stock types" such as the foolish old man, the military officer full of his own pomp or the devious manipulative servant determined to see the downfall of his master. As the Commedia evolved so did the stock characters and the were given names such as Pantelone - the miserly Venetian merchant, Dottore Gratino - the pedant from Bologna and Artelino - the mischievous servant from Bergamo.

A PERFORMANCE OF THE COMMEDIA DELL 'ARTE
Karel Dujardin 1657

 My character, Pulcinella, appears to have originated in Acerra in Campania, but he is best known for his appearance first of all in Naples productions of the Commedia. Characteristically he is dressed in white pantaloons and smock with red accessories, sometimes has a humped back and large belly and he has a big nose, a black mask and a squeaky voice. His nose is supposed to be reminiscent of a cockerell's beak and it may be that the name is derived from a dialect corruption of 'pullicino' meaning young chicken. Typically he would behave in a coarse fashion and take the role of a charlatan who could be both cruel and kind, funny and frightening but not a person to be trusted! Mostly he would have the capacity for getting himself out of most of the scrapes he got himself in to and in this sense he was popular with the crowds. He probably would be again today!

As I mentioned earlier Pulcinella's fame and celebrity spread and in the late 17th century when the Commedia was popular in France his part was played by Neapolitan actor Michelangelo Francanzani in Paris in 1665; he was a great success at the court of Louis XIV. Porcelain figures of Commedia including that of Pulcinella were even made at factories like Nyphenberg in the middle of the 18th century. In the 1760's the distinguished Venetian artist GiandomenicoTiepolo painted Pulcinella in to the series of frescos he did for the Villa Zianigo in Venice.

"PULCINELLA IN LOVE" by TIEPOLO

 But why did I choose him rather than Harlequin or Columbine or Pantalone? Well - the literature on the subject of the Commedia all implies that it was Pulcinella who was the origin of the violent Mr Punch in the English traditional puppet show - Punch and Judy - itself based on deep rooted mythologies and which first appeared in England in 1662 and went on to be popular in France and even in the American colonies. 

today

TRADITIONAL ENGLISH SEASIDE PUNCH AND JUDY SHOW 

 Punch and Judy shows are still a major attraction at many traditional seaside resorts and once again this story has brought back fond memories of 1950's seaside holidays spent with my Mum and Dad at Skegness in Lincolnshire and Morecambe in Lancashire - both a very long way from Naples. 

UN TEATRO DI CARTA D' ASSISI - AN ITALIAN TOY THEATRE

Ever since my childhood I've always had an interest in the theatre and the performing arts. My mum was heavily mixed up with amateur dramatics - not in a stage sense, but in relation to helping organize social events for a local dramatic society and I recall on two occasions going off to a wonderful and perfectly preserved Edwardian theatre called the City Varieties in Leeds to see traditional music hall shows recorded by the BBC for their series "The Good Old Days".

For several years before I went off to University I took part in various productions connected with the local amateur dramatic and operatic society in the town where I was brought up in Yorkshire. My favourite recollection - playing the role of one of Mr Snow's children in a production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Carousel"!! This general interest in drama also extended to puppetry and miniature theatres. I have distinctive and fond memories of visiting Harry Corbett's private "Sooty" theatre in Shipley, near Bradford in the 1960's and actually having the real Sooty puppet on my hand. Harry was a cousin of a cousin, so it was a real privilege to meet such a famous puppet character. I was so enthused I made copies of puppets I'd seen them creating from hard sponge balls and milk bottles on a well know children's television programme. I also enlisted the help of my dad in helping to make a toy theatre which involved him constructing a rectangular wooden box for the stage and various cut out pieces of plywood for the proscenium, flats and backdrop scenery. I, not surprisingly, did all the creative stuff - painting and decorating the proscenium, making the curtains for the stage and selecting and writing the story lines and the end result was small productions in our "front room" for my mum and dad, brother and a few friends. I don't know what happened to it - it probably got chucked out in one of our many house removals and I haven't thought about it for years. Reflecting on all of this I think I must have picked all these drama related foibles from my Mum and I chuckle as I think of it all as a stereotypically "gay" set of interests.

It's strange how writing this blog was first prompted by my desire to write about my new life in Italy, but doing it has also extended to relating what I do now to episodes from my earlier life. Does everyone do this as they get in to their 60's? It might seem negative to be constantly looking backwards, but in fact for me it's the opposite. My professional life has typically been concerned with studying and teaching about the past so its seems natural for me to reflect on my own life now I am almost 64. Instead of being depressing I think it's rather fun to deepen one's understanding of present happenings by better understanding why they can bring so much pleasure in my 'silver' years. Anyway, I feel I'm getting a bit too self indulgent and philosophical now so it's time to get back to the focus of this posting.

When we stayed in Florence at the Degli Orafi at Christmas 2012 I discovered a little shop between our hotel and the Ponte Vecchio which specialised in Florentine paper products and crafts. I think I've mentioned before that I can't walk past shops like this and I always end up coming out with hand made leather bound notebooks, sheets of paper with  renaissance inspired designs and various other desk related paraphernalia. Jon says I've got obsessive compulsive disorder and I haven't disagreed with that analysis. This Florentine chain of shops (I think there are three or four of them in the city - there's certainly another one I've been in just down the side of the Palazzo Vecchio) also sells artisan made dioramas (miniature constructions of historic interiors of such things as Florentine shops)  and also small theatres in the style of larger versions popular as toys in the 19th century. They are quite charming if a bit on the expensive side! However, you know what I'm going to say next - I couldn't resist buying a small one as a memento of our trip and its shown in the photograph below. At 38 euros for a model that's only about six inches square I daren't tell Jon how much I was spending. When I did get round to settling the bill, he nearly fainted when he had to get our debit card out to pay for it - but it now has pride of place on one of the shelves in our sitting room and I see it every day.

Miniature Teatro bought in Florence at Christimas in 2012.
The scenery is of the Arno and the city from Piazza Michelangelo and the two characters shown
are Harlequin and Columbine from the Italian Commedia dell Arte

When we spend time in Italy there is nothing I like to do better than go "antiquing" at local junk and curio markets and there are lots of them in the Umbrian and Tuscan regions. The best is held once a month at Arezzo and I'll tell you about that one in another posting, but there are others held regularly in Orvieto, Perugia and Assisi. We've been to them all. Assisi holds its antique market on the second Sunday of each month so a couple of weeks ago we got up at 6am to drive over to have a look round. This wonderful town is about 15 kilometres south east of Perugia so at that time of the morning it took just over an hour to get there. The organisers hold the market in the piazza directly next to the impressive and monumental  basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels - so when we'd finished looking round the market we went next door for some serious culture and I already have it in mind to write about that experience in the near future.

The market is not huge and this being another very hot day in the offing all of the sixty or so stalls were covered with various types of awning to provide shade for the dealers from the  already intense sun.  After parking the car behind the basilica we discovered the market was getting busier by the minute and we all know that the "early bird get's the worm" so we set off systematically up the first aisle to look at the vast range of items for sale. As is the case in the UK there were different types of dealer - some with general stock and others with a specialism such as restored country bygones, furniture, ceramics and one lady who sold only table linen which she'd carefully laundered before doing the market. There was another dealer who had lots of leather goods and vintage hand bags - the sort of thing that would no doubt go down well with customers back home. Not much chance of taking stuff back on a flight with Ryanair however!! Just across the road  the locals and flocks of tourists were turning up for morning mass at the church and this all added to the general hustle and bustle in the piazza. Very soon Jon had left me behind. He has the concentration of a gnat when it comes to looking at junk so I wasn't surprised to see he'd disappeared. After about fifteen minutes I hadn't made any discoveries and I was already beginning to think about sitting down for an espresso in one of the many bars round the square when Jon came up and tapped me on the shoulder.

 Assisi Antiques Market
It's held on the second Sunday of each month.

"You'd better come over here" he said - "there's something you are going to want."
"What is it?"  I said, exasperated at being asked to deviate from my systematically planned route round the square. "Come over here and see for yourself" he repeated and walked off towards the other side of the market. I forgot about the espresso and followed his path towards the stalls immediately next to the arcade at the back of the fair to find him chatting to the couple who were running the stall and there on a shelf at the back of it was the most delightful toy theatre and I knew then that I had to have it. I edged up to the side of the stall to take a closer look. It was obvious the theatre had been restored and had had quite a lot of work done to it, but overall it was complete with scenery and several characters on the typical sticks used to move them from side to side on the stage. On closer examination it rather looked to me like a reproduction - its amazing what can be done with coloured photocopiers these days and I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't another one on the stall in a few weeks time! Overall, though I still thought it was charming and decorative.
 I was frightened to ask the price but summoned up the courage and dug deep into my shaky Italian to enquire from the lady dealer - "Buongiorno signora - Quanto costa la teatro?" She looked at me quizzically and I could see she was deciding what to ask for it. "cento quaranto euros signore" she said. I quickly computed she was telling me she wanted 140 euros for it. I mustered up the courage to say "kwel teatro ay troppoh karo" - "it's too expensive"! "Then make me an offer" she said in English and we both laughed. I offered her 80 euros for it and she said that wasn't enough so after much toing and froing we ended up with a price of 105 euros - about 85 pounds - which I thought was a good buy given I'd paid 38 euros for the little one in Florence a couple of years ago. We left it that she and her genial husband would take it to pieces and and pack it up and that I'd call back for it after we'd had a coffee round the corner. They were nice people and I enjoyed haggling and doing business with them in the Italian way. After a good espresso in a street side cafe we collected my teatro from the dealer and went back to put it in the car. We had other things to do including visiting the basilica so I had to put my little prize buy out of my mind for then.

Jon waits patiently for me at an Assisi cafe whilst I do the deal for the teatro

A few hours later we were back home in the apartment and I felt a bit like a school boy when I immediately got the teatro out its packaging and proceeded to set it up on the dining room table. You can see the results in the photographs below. I was delighted with it when it was completed and though I have no plans to put on any performances I was motivated to better understand the history of these 19th century toys.

These two photographs show my Italian teatro on the dining room table.
It's about eighteen inches tall and just over twelve inches wide.
The scenery relates to a town scene and shop interior at the back.
It all takes to pieces which go into the lidded box which is the stage. 

Toy theatres like mine developed across the countries of Europe in the decades of the early 19th century and started as manufactured kits of popular plays; they were then sold in the foyer shops of theatres and bought by adults and parents for their children to create home entertainment. It's been estimated that in England alone more than 300 popular plays were adapted as toys in this way. Manufacturers sent artists to productions to record information about scenery, costumes and even the characterisation of the players in these events. The results were converted into paper prints which could be cut out and stuck down on cardboard and used to make up the theatres . In England the kits could be acquired in black and white or in coloured printed form and the former were popular with those wishing to hand colour the proscenium and scenery themselves.

Transfer Printed designs for a Toy Theatre Proscenium
& characters for the toy theatre version of Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

At a time when entertainment in the domestic sphere was homespun and family based, they were a winner. I was also interested to discover they became popular at a time when dramatic productions were underpinned by melodrama and spectacle rather than psychological complexity and that in the later decades of the nineteenth century, when the dramatic arts moved in the latter direction, focusing on "realism" in simpler settings, they went out of fashion. In 1884 the author Robert Louis Stephenson partly aided their revival with a published essay which extolled their virtues in a work entitled "Penny Plain, Twopence Coloured" and celebrities like Oscar Wilde and Hans Christian Anderson are known to have owned and used them. In the 20th century, with the advent of television and computer gadgets, they have enjoyed mixed fortunes but once again they were associated in the mid century with well known figures like F.T. Marienetti, Pablo Picasso, Ingmar Bergman and Orson Welles. In recent times they have become popular with the public again as both novelty and collector's items. There's a shop in Covent Garden which I've visited, owned and run by former Coronation Street actor Peter Baldwin, that specialises in the sale of reproductions of Benjamin Pollock's toy theatres. My Italian toy theatre, called "un teatro di carta", appears to fit exactly within the genre I have described. I plan to leave it in the apartment to get out when I visit rather than to bring it back to the UK.
I hope it will be the first of many treasures I will discover and bring back from the antique markets of Umbria.

Moving from toy theatres to the real thing - I've noticed that in Tuscany and Umbria most towns have 19th century theatres and many of them are still in use today. There is a little gem of an example in Citta della Pieve, the lovely town where we have our apartment. It was constructed at exactly the same time that toy theatres were popular and its almost as if it served as a template for many of the designs for the kit models I've described. It was constructed between 1830 and 1834 to a design by well know Umbrian architect Giovanni Santini and it resembles itself a miniature version of a grand opera house from a larger city. Its four tiered auditorium with boxes on each level seats about four hundred people. Today its official title is "TEATRO COMMUNALE DI CITTA DELLA PIEVE" and it underwent an extensive 10 year restoration between 1990 and the millenium which was carried out by local craftsman Antonio Marroni and his son Mario. The grand stage was renovated and modernised, improvements were carried out to dressing rooms, new technical systems were introduced and the auditorium was refurbished. The end result is lovely and its a credit to the local community. On December 26th last year, in the afternoon, Jon and I joined the Citta locals at a splendid concert of arias from popular operas. The three principals, two men and a woman and a wonderful pianist all came from Perugia and we experienced moving, high quality renderings of works by Verdi, Donizetti,Puccini and others. It made our Christmas. If ever you visit Citta della Pieve you must visit this little theatre and if you can book tickets to see a performance (musical events, plays and other presentations take place throughout the year) you will be in for a real treat.

Teatro Communale di Citta Della Pieve

The lovely auditorium of the Citta Theatre

P.S If you are not familiar with the novels of Donna Leon then you must try them. This American author has lived in Venice for many years and they are all centred round a police commisario called Guido Brunetti. - "Death at La Fenice" has a narrative focussed on the famous Venetian opera house and if you fancy detective stories with an Italian twist then I recommend it. But beware - read one and you'll probably want to read them all!!

"UNA STANZA CON VISTA" A ROOM WITH A VIEW!

I think I've already mentioned our Umbrian apartment has two reception rooms and two bedrooms all of which have large windows overlooking the Chiana valley and the Tuscan hills. We are using the smallest of the two living rooms as a dining room and at one end there is a pair of floor to ceiling french windows with full shutters all of which open to reveal a small cotta tiled terrace with open wrought iron balcony. From the start, even when we viewed the apartment, I found myself reluctant to step out on to it, as on this side of the building we are on the fourth floor and it's a long way down to the ground!! Jon doesn't seem to mind this at all and there's even a small white enamelled table and two chairs in the flat which the professor must have acquired to fit this space which he's suggested we set up when we are in residence, but I haven't been encouraging about this. Am I being mean here? I'm not sure, but I've told him he can sit outside with his glass of red wine and that I'll just perch on a seat inside the doors with mine!!

OUR DINING ROOM IN THE CITTA APARTMENT

What I do love to do, however, is to stand or sit near the open french windows and take in the panorama outside and when we are staying in the apartment I do this several times of day, in the morning, whilst we have lunch and in the evenings too. I've titled this posting "una stanza con vista" which translates as "a room with a view" - the title used by E M Forster in 1908 for his famous novel which begins in Florence and describes the disappointment felt by Lucy Honeychurch and her cousin when they arrive at the Pensione Bertolini in the city to discover they have been given rooms overlooking a courtyard rather than ones with Arno views which they'd requested at the time of booking. Our Italian adventure began in Florence in Christmas 2012 when we stayed in a room overlooking the Arno and the Ponte Vecchio (now the Hotel Degli Oraffi) and which had been used by Merchant Ivory to make their film of Forster's novel in 1985. As I reflect on looking out over the Tuscan hills now from the apartment in Citta,  I don't think I could have adopted the role of the chivalrous and selfless Mr Emerson in giving up my view for another individual to savour instead of me! There is something uplifting and good for the human spirit about a room with a a splendid view and its something I've already come to treasure here on a daily basis. Even when we are back home in the UK I can visualize it when I get depressed with the British weather.

THE VIEW FROM OUR HOTEL IN FLORENCE - CHRISTMAS 2013
THIS WAS IN THE HOTEL DEGLI ORAFFI - THE BUILDING MERCHANT IVORY USED FOR THEIR 1985 FILM OF
E M FORSTER'S NOVEL - "A ROOM WITH A VIEW"

I also like to think of windows in any building as structures which frame the view outside. As an art and design historian I've been used to looking at landscape pictures in frames and artists have used this device as a construct when making landscape compositions for centuries. In European art history a "veduta" is an established and recognized specific type of usually Italian landscape painting, drawing or etching which attempts to accurately represent a specific view. They were probably first produced by northern European artists working in Italy in the late 16th and early 17th centuries and were very popular with English grand tourists in the mid 1700's. I don't have the skills to paint or draw a "veduta" of the landscape visible from our terrace so I think the best thing to do is to show some photographs of it and attempt to describe a selection of things its possible to see from where we sit..

The view is 180 degrees from left to right with a westerly prospect in front of us and with south to the left and north to the right. We look across to a range of mountains opposite which are in Tuscany rather than Umbria and the tallest of them, Monte Cetona, is an extinct volcano and clearly visible on the left. Almost directly opposite we can see the Tuscan hillside town of Cetona and a little further along to the north west - Sarteano. Both of these are visible at night as groups of pinpricks of light against the inky black landscape and look quite charming. A bit further along still and we can catch a glimpse of the famous spa town of Chianciano Terme.

VIEW FROM OUR BALCONY TAKEN IN JANUARY 2014

THE TOP OF SPINDLY ASH TREES OUTSIDE
OUR APARTMENT IN JANUARY 2014

Citta della Pieve is a  medium sized hill top town and our apartment is on the southern edge of the 'centro historico'. Just below us is the road which circumnavigates the old town and it delivers to us a modicum of traffic passing to and from Chiusi and Perugia. Sometimes I wake in the morning to the sound of vehicles passing by beneath us, but its not disturbing and small compensation for the views which we see on a daily basis and which I'm describing now. On the edge of the road is a line of tall and spindly ash trees, full of lovely green and delicate foliage at this time of year and these seem a common tree in the Lake Trasimeno area. I am fascinated to appreciate they are exactly the same kind of delicate tree which feature in many of Perugino's 16th century paintings such as the one of the Adoration of the Magi in the Oratorio of Santa Maria dei Bianchi in the Via Vannucci. The land then falls away to a small terrace with a single, small house on it. I can see it between the slender tree trunks and here an elderly local has cleared a narrow patch to grow vegetables - today he is tending to the canes supporting his beans as I write this piece. He also keeps a small flock of white geese and these honk at various times of day. Beyond this narrow strip the land falls away sharply to reveal steep cliffs with broken ground and what looks like reddish clay slopes. I was fascinated to discover these are the remains of the old clay quarries used to make the bricks from which the old town of Citta was built centuries ago. There were no local supplies of stone here, so the the locals turned to brick making and the results have not only shown huge longevity but are one of Citta's greatest charms today.

PERUGINO - ADORATION OF THE MAGI - 1504
NOTE THE SPINDLY TREES IN THE TRASIMENO LANDSCAPE BACKGROUND

To the left of us its possible to see fragments of the restored old town walls and a range of brick built houses on top of what must have been ramparts with others clustered below; to the immediate right of us is a series of small narrow streets gradually rising up the slope from road level and they are lined with small houses with roofs made of terra cotta pan tiles. These reflect the light in an interesting way and provide a textured patchwork of rectangles and squares all at slightly different angles and producing a picturesque and pleasing end result. In the mid ground a ridge of land runs in front of the eye and falls gradually away from north to south; it has along its edge a range of different sized houses and a mixture of trees including Cypresses and Umbrella trees, both of which produce darkened silhouettes against the lighter landscape behind them.

SPRING 2014 - CETONA & SARTEANO CAN BE SEEN JUST BELOW THE HORIZON

Looking down the broad valley between the hilltop on which Citta is built and the semi-wooded hills in the distance is the broad expanse of the relatively flat Chiana valley which follows a path from south to slighlty north west across our line of view. Here its possible to catch glimpses of the array of cultivated fields on the centuries ago reclaimed land from the marshy river valley and with binoculars its also possible to see some of the farm buildings where the famous hunky Chiana white cattle are reared for the beefsteak so favoured by Umbrian, Tuscan and Florentine restaurants. Evidently they spend virtually no time outside.At the far side of the valley is the A1 toll motorway running between Rome and Florence and also the two railway lines - one for local stopping trains and the other recently constructed to take the high speed pendolino bullet trains which travel between Milan, Florence and Rome. Once again I am reminded of my old geography teacher who would have loved to call this landscape a typical geographical palimpsest. This is a term used by landscape archaeologists to describe the layered physical evidence left behind by different generations of occupants over the centuries. It's an interesting thought that the hillsides opposite us was once occupied by the Etruscans long before the Romans settled in the area. Though I can't quite see the ancient hill top town of old Chiusi from where I am sitting, I know its there and that it was an important Etruscan settlement. We've already been across to see some of the well preserved hillside tombs relating to these ancient and mysterious peoples and they are a reminder that these lands were occupied by highly civilised folk long before Christ was born.

In 1990 I attended a conference of architectural historians in the US city of Boston and I went to a lecture given by a lady who lived in a Frank Lloyd Wright house in the Oak Park suburb of Chicago. Her talk was profusely illustrated with slides she'd take of the landscape surrounding her unique property. She'd photographed it at different times of day, in different weather conditions and through the seasons of the year. The result was a visually stunning selection of images and many of the vistas have remained in my mind to this day. The experience gave me the idea of doing a similar thing here in Citta with our outside vista and though our images have only been taken with an ipad camera, or a point and shoot hand held job, we are pleased with some of the results which I wanted to show you here.

One of my favourite images was taken at the beginning of our most recent stay in the apartment. We arrived in early June to find that the migratory swallows and swifts had arrived in Citta and when we opened the shutters and doors to our dining room on that first early evening we were confronted with hundreds of birds swooping through the air outside our flat. Often they would circle the air in groups and how some of them didn't end up in our dining room I don't know. They swirled, glided and darted through the early evening warm air for a couple of hours securing dinner and chirped and screeched  at the same time. Back home in the UK where we live in the East Midlands these birds have for some reason become rare in recent years and we barely see one or two at a time so this was a real treat. Here in this part of Italy they migrate from north Africa in April and no doubt stay till September. They have become our friends and we enjoy their antics at all times of day, but especially in the evenings. Walking round the streets of town we can see the nests of some of them underneath the eaves of the ancient red brick buildings. Miraculously Jon managed to capture a couple of them on his ipad camera and the result is below. The image is a memory we can take home with us and during the winter months remember our June stay in the apartment; this is a time when the birds themselves will be sunning themselves in the warmer climes of north Africa of course.

SWIFTS IN JUNE OUTSIDE OUR BALCONY WINDOW

During the last week the weather here has been very hot by our standards with temperatures reaching 34 or 35 degrees every day. We are not used to this and have routinely followed the orders of our neighbours to close the shutters at 8am and leave them closed all day to keep the apartment cool. After venturing out in the mornings we've come home, had some lunch, and then retired for our afternoon siesta - just like all the locals sensibly do. Even the traffic dwindled to virtually nothing during these rest hours. A few days ago the weather broke in the early evening with the most amazing thunder storm and on opening the shutters the view from our balcony was unmissable. It was a truly elemental experience and the swirling, constantly moving air and forks of lightening were both dramatic and just a little frightening. After an hour or so the thunder continued to rumble and the sheet lightening continued, but the sun broke through at the same time and this produced some more memorable vistas from our room with a view. I end this posting with just two of the pictures we took that evening.

And the next morning? - it was back to clear blue skies and the prospect of another hot day!