August in Italy

OK, let me just say it...my interest in blogging is inversely proportional to the level of humidity.  The more humid it is the more I just want to lay down and die, as opposed to actually doing something, like going for a walk, cooking dinner or...blogging.  I know that I've said before that I'm easily distracted, but when the humidity is over, say, 55% it sucks the soul right out of me.  You're probably thinking right now "what a weenie", well, yes, I am!  I come from a part of the world where we don't even think about humidity.  In fact, we consider ourselves to be quite superior to people who live where it's humid because we had the sense not to.  Well! I guess this is some comeuppance for me!  Not that this is the most humid place in Italy, I hear that Florence and Rome are much worse,  a good reason not to live in either place, but it can get pretty miserable here anyway. 

So, I've got to ask you.  Why would someone come to Italy in August?  Do you think they enjoy stewing in their own juices, or having their clothes adhere to their bodies like band-aids?  Don't they notice that the only other people in town are other tourists,  or that none of the stores are open?  That's because the Genovese have the sense to get out of here in August.  Do these people read??  I'm sorry, that last part was mean, but really, all the guidebooks tell you what it's like.

So here's the upside.  Since Genova is really a city that mainly Italian tourists visit, and all the Italians are at the beach, it means more space for us.  Case in point.  Because the humidity was low, we went to the Palazzo Reale or Royal Palace today, and nobody was there.  I've gone before only to turn around because of lines of tourists, but today it was just us, 2 brothers from France and a couple from Australia.  This is the kind of place you want to visit without a crush of people and being herded around like cattle.  We were lucky to be able to spend as much time in the rooms as we wanted, which was great because the place is just overwhelming!

The palace from the terrace

Located on Via Balbi, this was the palace King Ferdinand of the House of Savoy chose to be his residence in Genova just before Genova was annexed to the Kingdom of Sardinia.  It was first owned by the Balbi family, then the Dorazzo's and then to Ferdinand, and 1911 it became the property of Italy.

The garden pond from the terrace.

 This pebble work mosaic is called risseu and is very common in the courtyard of palazzos and churches.  It was often done by seamen who would collect small stones and pebbles and build these beautiful but delicate pieces of art.

Please ignore my foot.

Looking from the end of the garden back to the palace.

This beautiful old royal carriage is in an alcove near the entrance.

From the atrium looking up at the entrance to the apartment of the Crown Prince, the Duke of Abruzzi

...and the last interior photo I was allowed to take of the stairwell up to the royal apartments.

I am heartbroken I can't post any photos of the interior, although there is so much decoration and art, I wouldn't know where to start. There are paintings by Van Dyke, Tintoretto and Reubens, frescos by Parodi and Colonna, and exquisite pieces of furniture.  But I have a few favorite things, the gallery of mirrors, and the massive paintings on silk done with juice extracted from herbs.  But probably my favorite is the Queen's sitting room painted in robin's egg blue with gold leaf filigree.



Once again, YouTube to the rescue.  This video will give you an opportunity to see all of those things I would have photographed if I could.

Or not, here's a link to YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv_CHC2Jpus&feature=channel. Hopefully if you paste it to your browser it will work!

The only down side of our excursion was an embarrassing squeak I developed walking around.  How does one develop a squeak you ask, I've got no idea...I just know it was as quiet as a tomb in there and every time I took a step I squeaked loud enough for people to notice.  I ended up walking on half my shoe until we reached some carpet that absorbed the sound.  I'm really not ready to start squeaking on a regular basis, so tomorrow I'm buying new shoes!

This has nothing to do with anything, I just like it.  From the garden of the palace.

I've also included this link in case you're interested in more information...in Italian, and because I have become so tech savvy.  http://www.palazzorealegenova.it/info/info.html

Trallalero

My first mistake was buying a book on blogging.  My second was reading it.  If you have been here before, you might notice a few changes to the sidebar and to the heading, because last night I decided to get a little techie with this thing.  I am the essence of the anti-techie...no that's not correct, the anti-techie is the guy sitting next to me asking why I waste my time on the computer.  No, I am the un-techie.  I love my techie toys, I just can't figure out how to use them.

I have spent all day today reading about the blogosphere, and widgets, and html editing and I still don't understand how the hell this all works, but I'm hoping that Blogger does what it says it does, because I got the idea I wanted to post a video.

For months now, when I've wandered down to the centro storico,  I've been hoping to find a group of Trallaleri who are known to sing in Piazza Luccoli.  Trallalero is the folk music of Genova and always sung in the Genovese dialect.  Actually, Genovese is not a dialect at all, but a language in it's own right according to Ethnologue, and has more relationship to French than Italian.  To me it sounds more like Portuguese or Catalan, all sibilant, but I don't get to hear it often enough to get a real handle on it. Anyway, trallalero was popular among the longshoremen and the stevedores in the early 1900's, but by 1950 was almost extinct as a song form.  Then, by lucky chance, the musicologist Alan Lomax heard it for the first time and began recording the singers.  Somehow, that inspired a resurgence of the music so that now there are even festivals and contests in the city.

Today, if you're really lucky, you'll stumble across a group singing in the caruggi and piazzas of the centro storico.   This is a video of a performance in the Piazza I found on YouTube.   Note, the guy singing through his fingers, he's imitating the chitarra.























Ok, it's not for everyone.  Ollie could stand it for about 30 seconds, but I think it's pretty cool.  We've already established he's got no soul happening.  If you're interested in hearing more, you have a couple of options.  The best is to come to Genova and track them down, or, in the alternative, iTunes has the recordings made by Alan Lomax.

The Search for the Column of Infamy

Sometimes I get excited about the strangest things, and last night was no exception.  I love art and architecture, and so last night I was reading up on architectural styles common in Genova,  I found a reference to Colonna Infame, The Column of Infamy!  Why haven't I ever heard of this before??  I need to find it, and I need to find it now!

So early this morning, Ollie and I got up and headed down to the centro storico in our search for the elusive column.  The problem was, I didn't really know where it was.  I had some directions, but they read something like "look at the church on your right, then turn left and continue until you see the other church, across the piazza from that building with the edicole".  That describes every piazza in the entire city!  Well, I'm always up for an adventure and now was as good a time as any.


So what is the Column of Infamy?  Well first you have to understand the political dynamics of Medieval and Renaissance Genova.  The best description is that it was one big armed camp!  The powerful families, the Fieschi, the Spinola, the Doria and others, each had their own fortress including a church and a piazza all surrounded by tall walls.   These families were constantly plotting against each other,  and sometimes murdering each other, for power and control of the Republic.  But, in 1628, one noble family, the Vacchero's, did the unforgivable.  They plotted with an outsider.  The Duke of Savoy, who's dominion covered the area around Torino, had coveted Genova for decades.  Torino and the rest of the Dukedom was landlocked, but Genova was huge port, something any self-respecting Duke would kill to control.  Nor were the Vacchero  a family of upstarts.  They were a noble family who owned the entire area at the western end of the city.  In fact, the only other remaining city gate besides the Porta Soprana is named after them.

Porta dei Vacca  1155-1159

The Vacchero's seeing an opportunity to get a leg up on their enemies, plotted with the Duke to take control over the Republic of Genova.   When the plot was discovered, Guilio Cesare Vacchero was beheaded, his house was destroyed and his family exiled.  The city leaders, deciding this wasn't enough humiliation for the Vacchero family, erected a monument to their shame on the site of their former home, and that's what we're off to find.

Our first stop is one of my favorite places in the centro storico, the compound of the Doria family in Piazza Matteo.  This is so striking because it is no more than 150 feet from the contemporary center of the city.  The moment you enter upon the steep grade of Salita San Matteo, you leave the 21st century behind and enter Medieval Genova.

Chiesa San Matteo  1125-1278

This is the family church of the Doria family and it is here that their victories are celebrated and their dead are buried.  The black and white stripes, which once had much greater contrast, are typical of Romanesque architecture in Medieval Genova.  We're going to see a lot of it today.  What's interesting, is carved along the white stripes are the Doria military victories.

Lamba Doria house circa 1289

The Lamba Doria house is one of the rare medieval houses in Genova where the porticoes have not been walled up.  Lamba was a famous Admiral who defeated the Venetians and was given this house by the city to show their gratitude.

Note the detail

And my favorite, the house of Andrea Doria.  You can see the change from the medieval architecture on the bottom of the building to the Renaissance on the top.  Especially the exquisite loggia.

But enough of the Dorias.  We still have to find the Column, hopefully before it gets too humid and hot.  Anyway, we're going to see the Palace of Andrea Doria next week.

Our next stop in Piazza Campetto.  This piazza was actually open as a thoroughfare in Medieval times unlike most of the other piazzas which were enclosed compounds.

Ollie at the site of his humiliation

When we first moved to Genova, we lived in a hotel not far from here while we waited for our apartment to become available.  Left to his own devices for a few minutes,  someone asked Ollie a question in Italian, and he advised them that he didn't speak English...twice.  The fountain is 17th century, but it's only been in the Piazza since 1999.

So far, all of this is pretty familiar territory, but we still don't know where the column is so we're heading off to find our next landmark which is the Chiesa Nostra Signora delle Vigne or Church of Our Lady of the Vineyards.  In this incredibly compact and highly populated city, it's hard to believe that when this church was first built, it was in the middle of a vineyard.

The original church was raised by Oberto Spinola and Guido Carmandino in 980.

The newer part of the church was built in the 12th century and then renovated at the end of the 16th century.

The Campanile shows the original medieval structure of the church.

There is gorgeous Renaissance architecture in the Piazza delle Vigne, but we'll save that for another day, er...post.  Actually, at this point I need to give a Parental Guidance warning, because we're about to enter the area around Via Maddelena.  This neighborhood is appropriately...I guess, populated by prostitutes.  Maddelena=Magdalenes=prostitutes.  Not just prostitutes, I have good friends who live in this neighborhood in a fabulous medieval palazzo, but I just didn't want to get angry comments from people who follow my journey and discover the "ladies of the night" without a fair warning.  These are definitely not the "ladies of the night" they are the ladies of anytime you want as long as it's not lunchtime.  Ollie and I came upon a pair of young women calming eating their panini while their customers patiently waited for them to finish.  They're not aggressive or dangerous, although I wouldn't take this part of the trip at night, but they're there, and they're transacting their business...there...among the businessmen, the tourists and the wealthy women in designer clothes.

And then...there it is.  Just a few feet past Piazza del Campo stands a giant fountain, and behind it to the right is the column.

And there it is.

But there this is and it's a lot bigger.  The column is in back to the right.

In the most poetic of terms from an article by Robert Fletcher it says:

Curses upon the name bestow

of Julius Ceaser Vacchero;

Who 'gainst his country dared conspire,

And lost his head by righteous ire;

His wealth confiscate, sons expelled,

No stone remains of where he dwelled.

1628

100 years later, the Vacchero family erected the fountain to shield the column from view as best they could.  The tub at the base, by the way, is Roman.  But that's not the only reason it's unique.  If you wander around Genova, you will find very few fountains.  Unlike Rome, which is overrun with fountains, there's just not room for them here.

Although the Vacchero family didn't fare well from this venture, the descendants of the Duke of Savoy, went on to be the Kings of a Unified Italy.  Tomorrow we're going to see their palace on Via Balbi.

Fear and Loathing in Italy

It's called the patente di guida.  In English... the driver's license.  Something I have possessed for more years than I care to admit.  Sounds easy enough, right?  How hard can it be to get a crummy driver's license?  Well, if the reams of blog posts and forum comments are any indication,  this is an ordeal of untold proportions.

At this point I must admit that I'm just a bit skeptical of how difficult this could possibly be.  Afterall, I passed the California Bar exam on the first try for a test that historically has the lowest pass rate of any bar exam in the US.  That exam took 3 days and one of those days was 6 hours of multiple choice questions.  I'm pretty confident the patente test doesn't take 3 days...or 6 hours...at least I don't think it is.  Geez, I hadn't even considered that as a possibility!

So let's examine the potential problems.  First, the book:

This book is 228 pages long not including practice tests.  The California Driver's license handbook is 108 pages including practice tests, pretty pictures and blank pages.

Second,

This book is in Italian.  Now it makes imminent sense that the Italian Driver's License book is in Italian, but this book is full of words that don't come up in daily conversations.  This is a whole new vocabulary on top of the one I still haven't mastered.

Note the title of that section: I Coefficienti di Aderenza.  That means the Coefficient of Friction.  The Coefficient of Friction!!!  Are you kidding me!!!  I have no idea what the coefficient of friction is in English.  Then, to make matters worse, the sample questions want me to speculate ie. guess, at the probable cause of accidents...what, bad driver's!!!!  Are they going to ask me to estimate the speed a car was traveling from it's skid mark?  I don't do math!

And 3rd, there is this little jewel:

This is a book of practice tests.  It has a mere 6891 questions.  How long is it going to take me to get through this book, assuming I can first get through the other one?  In fairness, I don't have to take the exam in Italian, I can apparently take it in English, but I have to ask myself if that's the best approach.  How can I talk my way out of a traffic ticket if I don't know what the Carabinieri are saying to me.  That is assuming it's possible to talk your way out of a ticket.  I'm still not clear on that yet, but I'll report back.  So, at least for the time being, it's my intention to take the written test in Italian.

And finally, there is the practical exam.  That would be the driver's test in the little car with 2 driver-seats in case you completely lose your mind and try to run down the examiner or some other unsuspecting pedestrian.  It's this little car that traps you into a relationship with a Driving School.  Can't take the test without the right car, can't get the right car without taking driving lessons.  And, for those of you who can't drive a stick shift, automatic 2 driver-seat cars are few and far between.  Fortunately, I've always preferred a stick, so on at least this point, I'm ahead of the game.

Oh, and lest I forget, I will have to drive under 65 mph and not drive while under the influence for the first 3 years.  Does that mean I can drive under the influence after the first three years? 

To tell the truth, I'm pretty annoyed that I have to go through this process at all.  If I'd come from France or England or one of the other EU countries I wouldn't have to do any of this.  However, for some reason, the framers of the US Constitution decided that it wasn't a good idea to let California enter into it's own treaties with foreign countries.  Well, at the time, they probably didn't care about California since it wouldn't come into existence for another 75 or so years, but you get my drift.   You may come here with an International Driver's License, but that's only good for a year from date of residence and if you drive illegally here, not only will they fine you, they can also take your car away.  That would be unpleasant!

Thus, because the US doesn't issue a national driver's license,  and California has no treaty with Italy allowing me to drive on my California license, I must, like all American residents in Italy, get an Italian patente.   Stay tuned, I'm sure there will be more to come.

Columbus was an Expat

Columbus may be a controversial figure in the US, but here he is the favorite son.  There are more statues, memorials, and references to Columbus per square kilometer that any other historical personage.  This is actually a pretty dramatic statement since this is a city of statues, memorials and plaques, most to people I've never heard of before.

So what do we actually know about Columbus's life in Genova?  Well, the answer is, not much.  In part because he didn't live here long and in part because he was a non-entity here.  Born to a family of wool weavers, Columbus had to become an expatriate to seek his fame and fortune as so many Genovese did before and after him.

This house is claimed by the city to be the birthplace of Columbus and there is some evidence to suggest this was in fact his home at one point.  Partially destroyed by French naval bombardment in 1684, the house was successfully reconstructed sometime in the 1700's.  The French were annoyed at Genova's alliance with Spain.

Next to the house, lie the exquisite ruins of the Cloister of St. Andrea.  Built in the 12th Century, it is nestled in a small olive grove.  The columns are topped with carvings of dragons, gryphons, deer and acanthus flowers.

And then the Porta Soprana.  One of the two remaining medieval city gates, these towers sit on a hill dominating the modern Piazza Dante.  Built between 1155 and 1159, they were built to defend the city against the incursions of Barbarossa (Redbeard).  What is particularly interesting about these gates is the construction.  This photo was taken from the outside of what was then the city.  Here, the towers are round in order repel invaders on ladders.   But on the inside of the city, the towers are flat consistent with the other buildings.

Walking through the gates as Columbus must have done as a child, we enter the Sestiere del Molo and the beginning of the medieval city.  From here the piazza branches off into the Vicos, or small streets and alleys that form the mysterious center.

From it's style we can see that this shrine was built hundreds of years after the construction of the gates.

But what about Columbus and his relationship to the city of his birth?  He made no reference in his writings to his youth in Genova  even though he lived in the city from circa 1450 to sometime in the 1470's.  But Genova made it's mark on him even though he lived most of his life in Spain.  It was from Genova that he learned mapmaking, a skill the Genovese were renowned for.  We also know that his desire to find a new way to the east wasn't driven by a quest for gold, but for a new path to reclaim Jerusalem from the Muslims.  This was an old Genovese dream.   Remember the Crusades were launched from this city.   It was from Genova that Columbus brought slavery to the new world, and the horrendous cruelty that went with it.  The one place where we see that Columbus had a deep connection to his birthplace is a letter written to the Casa di San Giorgio in 1502.  In this letter he states that even though his body traveled, his heart remained in Genova.  He wanted 1/10th of his income from the New World to go to reduce the taxes on the people of the city for their grain and wine.  This never happened, but we don't know if he had a change of heart since their is no mention of this bequest in his will.

The discovery of America is deeply ingrained in the Genovese psyche as evidenced by this sign in Piazza Corvetto.

This is a solar clock on the wall of Castello d'Albertis dedicated to Columbus and the discovery of America.

And once again, the most impressive monument is this one in the Piazza Aquaverde of Stazione Prinicipe, one of Genova's 2 main train stations.