Buon giorno!

Les & I have just returned from a lovely 4 days in Tuscany. But before leaving France, we took time to visit a small French town called Ceret, near the Spanish border. It's a lovely little town made famous first by Picasso, then other artists, as they summered & worked there. See our small album called "Ceret, France" for pictures. We even managed to buy 4 lovely prints to brighten up our walls.

From there, we headed to Girona, Spain, to catch our one hour flight to Pisa, Italy. We had just enough time to arrive before dark at our remote hill top olive farm, where we would spend the next 4 nights in a special unit called "Il Forno" (the oven), complete with 2 terraces and 2 friendly dogs! The owners, Simon & Verity, have created a lovely country place, full of charm & lovely views. Since we'd skipped our evening meal, they provided us with a bottle of wine, some cheese, freshly baked bread, & a bit of salami. Ravissimo! The pictures tell it all: our album is entitled "Tuscany".

Friday morning, we were off to Siena, a town we'd visited before, without really knowing what it was. This time we were ready! En route to Chicago, we listened to 12 hours of a CD titled "Italy Before the Italians". This explained the complicated history of Italy's city states before the "Risorgimento" in 1861, when Italy became Italy. That CD began what we are now using as our theme for the summer: Good & Bad Government. Throughout this "learning series" CD, there were so very many examples of good & bad government.

Siena is known for its frescoes, which show "The Allegory of Good & Bad Government", painted in the Palazzo Publico on their city square. The city, like other pre-Italy cities, had numerous rulers, good & bad during the Middle Ages. But at a key point in time, they decided that government should be for ALL people, not just the wealthy. So they created a "Council of 9", who governed the new Republic of Siena. They even divided their square, the Piazza del Campo" into 9 equal sections, still visible today. Each of the "nine" governed for a 2 month shift, staying & working at the Palazzo. To reinforce this new "commonality" theme, they had a painter (Ambrogio Lornzetti) create frescoes on the walls of their council room. Unfortunately, while this good government seemed to make the city thrive for quite a while, the Plague arrived in 1348, decimating the population. Siena never fully recovered, & was eventually absorbed by its main rival, Florence. See our album for a peak at these incredible frescoes, & to get an idea of what this lovely city looks like today. Good or bad government, it's a beautiful city!

We happened to be there 3 days before their big horse race, "Il Palio". They had already lined the "square" with mud & grandstands, so we could understand how it works. 12 of the 17 neighborhoods (quadroni) are represented in this historical race, which appears to be quite cut-throat. The winner gets the "palio", a banner. Each neighborhood supports their horse & rider, of course, & there is much bantering & jostling inside the track as well as outside it. It reminded us of the track at the Kentucky Derby.

Saturday was "hill town day"! We managed to get in 3 of the 4 we'd planned on, & they were all wonderful. The first was Montepulicano, the second Pienza (where we visited Pope Pius II's palace), & the last, our favorite, was Volterra. Volterra is an old Etruscan town--in its heyday, 25,000 people, & one of the 12 most powerful Etruscan cities. They still have one arch that dates to 4 BC. Eventually conquered by the Romans, they have a Roman theater & Roman baths there that was buried under ruibbish until the 1950's. After the Romans, they had to deal with other governments, including Florence & the Medici. They had a lot of pluck, however, & were brave enough to flaunt the Medici by throwing one of his agents over the wall. That, & the plague, put Volterra into a downward swing.

During WWII, Volterra was under Nazi occupation. On June 30, 1944, the Nazis wanted to blow up Volterra's Etruscan arch to stop the Allies who were soon to arrive. Deciding to save their arch at any cost, the Volterran women & children (the men had all been taken away) dug up the city streets to block up the arch, then managed to convince the Nazi leader that by doing this, the Allies wouldn't bother to come into town. It worked! And we happened to be there 3 days before the 70th anniversary of this brave event. See the pictures the town displayed for us to understand how monumental (& inspiring!) this act of bravery was.

Sunday was our "Florence" day. We've been there several times, but this was our "government trip" for sure. We had reserved an afternoon tour of the "Palazzo Vecchio", their town hall for the last 500 years or so. After hearing so many stories about all the Tuscan cities who had been eaten up by the Florentines, it was interesting to be at the very center of this city's power. We listened & looked for 3 hours, absorbing the many stories related by our guide Elizabeth. So many Medicis--Lorenzo the Magnificant, Lorenzo his grandson, Cosimo the grand duke, etc....And lots of art to go with it. Definitely art that showed power, all the way back to antiquity. They really knew how to portray themselves to the people! Once again, some good government, some bad.

We'd seen the Uffizi, the Duomo, etc, so this time we settled on a hands-on museum for Leonardo da Vinci. He was an incredible visionary, & to be able to hold, spin, & manipulate some of his many inventions was so much fun!

The weather was perfect! Highs in the mid 80s, nice breezes, sweaters at night. The food is incredible--not as expensive as French food, fresh & delicious. The people are happy & welcoming. We loved it all!

And, as we always say, you can't beat the view from a terrace!

Love,

Elise & Les