Walking the way of love

Lovers’ locks on the along the Via Dell’Amore, or the “Walk of Love,” linking Manarola and Riomaggiore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Patrick Comerford

Today, 28 October, is being celebrated in Greece and by Greek communities around the world as Ochi Day (Επέτειος του «'Οχι», Epeteios tou ‘Ohi’), marking the Greek rejection of the ultimatum from Mussolini on 28 October 1940.

But today, 28 October 2012, also marks the 1,700th anniversary of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. My attention was drawn to this anniversary earlier this week on the Facebook page, the Church of England’s Diocese of Lichfield, drew attention to this anniversary by the Revd Dr Peter Green. He is the Chaplain of Abbots Bromley School, 12 miles north of Lichfield, but is about to move to the Diocese of Lincoln as the Dean of the Chapel at Bishop Grosseteste University College.

The Battle of the Milvian Bridge was one of the most momentous events in the history of Christianity, but it is hard to imagine that many church bells are being rung throughout Europe to mark this anniversary this morning.

Dr Green says: “I suspect that most Christians today in the UK would feel rather ambivalent about it – but then others would argue that if something like it hadn't happened, you probably wouldn’t have become a Christian in the first place.”

The battle was fought between the Roman Emperors Constantine I and Maxentius on 28 October 312 at the Milvian Bridge, or the Ponte Milvio, an important crossing point over the Tiber on the way to Rome. During the battle, Maxentius drowned in the Tiber. Constantine, who had been proclaimed emperor in Eboracum (York), won the day and set out on the path that led him to become the sole ruler of the Roman Empire.

For Eusebius of Caesarea, Lactantius and other early historians, the battle marks the beginning of Constantine’s conversion to Christianity. Eusebius recounts that Constantine and his soldiers had a vision of God promising victory if they daubed the sign of the Chi-Rho, the first two letters of Christ in Greek, on their shields.

As the two armies prepared for battle on the evening of 27 October, Constantine had a vision that led him to fight under the protection of the Christian God. Lactantius says that on that night, Constantine was commanded in a dream to “delineate the heavenly sign on the shields of his soldiers.”

He followed the commands of his dream and marked the shields with a sign “denoting Christ.” Lactantius describes that sign as a stavrogram or cross with its upper end rounded in a P-shaped fashion. However, there is no evidence that Constantine ever used this sign or the better known XP sign described by Eusebius.

Eusebius says that when Constantine looked up to the sun he saw a cross of light above it, and with it the Greek words “Εν Τούτῳ Νίκα” (En toutō níka), usually translated into Latin as in hoc signo vinces, “In this sign conquer.”

The sign first appears on a silver coin from the reign of Constantine ca 317. But other coins that depict him quite overtly as the companion of Apollo the sun god were minted as late as 313, a year after the battle.

Whatever happened the night before the battle, Constantine entered Rome on 29 October, the day after the battle, and was met with popular jubilation. Maxentius’s body was fished out of the Tiber and he was decapitated. His head was paraded through the streets of Rome, while his disembodied head was sent to Carthage – the Ponte Milvio had been a symbol of military might, dedicated to the triumphant victory of Rome over Carthage in the Second Punic War.

Contrary to popular perception, the Edict of Milan in 314 did not make Christianity the imperial state religion, but merely promised religious toleration for all. Nevertheless, as Sean Freyne says: “The age of Constantine was indeed a golden age of a kind for the Christian church.” Constantine’s victory gave him total control of the Western Empire, paved the way for Christianity to become the dominant religion in the Empire and in Europe.

But I much prefer the story of how the bridge has become a symbol of peace and love in recent years rather than a symbol of marching, conquering Roman legions.

The Ponte Milvio has been invaded by an army of young lovers ever March 2007, when an Italian romantic movie based on the novel Ho Voglia di Te was released and started a ritual now wildly popular with young couples.

In the movie, a teenage couple is seen writing their names on a padlock and locking it with a chain around a lamppost on the Ponte Milvio. Both the novel and the movie were hugely popular with Italian teenagers, who began to imitate the practice on the Ponte Milvio, then throwing the keys into the Tiber in a gesture of undying love.

By April 2007, so many young lovers had imitated the ritual that the lamppost had begun to buckle under the weight of so many padlocks. The loss of the lamppost did not stop young lovers from throughout Italy coming to chain their locks to the bridge.
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Recently, the Mayor of Rome, in search of a solution, had all the lovelocks moved to the City Hall where they were put on display. But lovers arriving at the bridge can still lock up their love as the city has installed posts upon the Ponte Milvio where the lamppost once stood.

Clever entrepreneurs are selling padlocks by the Ponte Milvio for the throngs of teenage lovers ready to show their devotion, but have forgotten their locks. And the habit has spread throughout Italy, so that I noticed last month along the coastal walk in Cinque Terre that all along the Via Dell’Amore or the “Walk of Love,” linking Manarola and Riomaggiore, lovers’ padlocks have been clipped to the fences and railings along the trail.

For some young people in Italy, the 1960s slogan, “Make Love Not War,” still resonates with an essential truth today.

But I still think the Cross is a more powerful symbol of love than the XP symbol, or padlocks for that matter.

Walking along the Via Dell’Amore or the “Walk of Love,” linking Manarola and Riomaggiore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Montecatini Alto ... a charming town at the top of a hill

Montecatini Alto ... all the charm of a walled, hilltop mediaeval Italian town (Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Patrick Comerford

For the past week, as I toured the historic towns and vineyards of Tuscany, I was based in the Grand Hotel Plaza and Locanda Maggiore in Montecatini Terme, a spa town with a population of over 21,000 in the province of Pistoia, at the eastern end of Piana di Lucca.

Walking around the streets of Montecatini Terme this morning [4 September 2012], it appeared most of the tourists and holidaymakers here are Italian. This is this not so much a resort as the biggest spa-town in Italy, and one of the most popular destinations for thermal spa tourism, with the town’s 200 or so hotels selling over two million bed nights each year.

Apart from the spa and thermal baths, many visitors also find Montecatini the perfect base to visit neighbouring Lucca, Florence, Pisa and Siena. But the town has its own attractions too with golf, markets, theatres, restaurants and night clubs, concerts, art exhibitions, festivals, a production of Verdi’s La Traviata last week and a concert by Luciano Pavarotti this week.

The funicular links Montecatini Terme and Montecatini Alto (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Montecatini is really two towns linked by the funicular Funicolare. The old hilltop town of Montecatini Valdinievole, now called Montecatini Alto (Upper Montecatini), has a population of only 700. It is built around an old castle, and was the seat of the local government until 1905. The newer, lower town of Montecatini Terme has modern buildings, spas and fine hotels dating from the belle époque.

In 1530, the first baths were established at the foot of Montecatini to take advantage of the spa waters, which were then known as “Medici” and “of blackbirds.” But by the 18th century the waters there had become stagnant. Grand Duke Leopold of Tuscany – later the Emperor Leopold I of Austria – initiated the cutting and digging of new water channels, land was reclaimed, and three baths were built to facilitate the use of the popular hot springs: Tettuccio (1779), Bagno Regio (1773) and the Terme Leopoldine (1775).

The thermal baths in the spa town became more famous than the castle and old town (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

The thermal baths in the lower part of Montecatini soon became more famous and more important than the castle and old town up in Montecatini Alto. The resort hotels grew in number and quality, and the place soon developed fashionable restaurants, theatres, nightclubs and a casino.

The celebrities who came to Montecatini included the composers Verdi, Puccini and Rossini. In1905, what was once a small village at the foot of the hill became the City of Bagni di Montecatini. But the name was not popular and it was changed to Montecatini Terme in 1928.

After Sunday night’s heavy rainstorm, we took the ten-minute steep journey on the Funicolare up the hill to Montecatini Alto on Monday afternoon [3 September] for lunch and to walk around the old town.

The hilltop town probably dates from the early 11th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

People may have lived on this hill since Palaeolithic times, but the town was first fortified in 1016, and the castle is first mentioned in 1074. By then the town belonged to the Bishop of Lucca and the guilds of Maona and Montecatini.

By the end of the 12th century, Montecatini was an independent commune with its own constitution, and it allied itself with Lucca in wars with neighbouring Pistoia, and later in the wars against Florence.

Montecatini was seen as a strategic stronghold and it was captured in 1315 by Uguccione della Faggiuola, the ruler of Pisa and Lucca. But the walled town finally fell to Florence in 1330. In the 16th century, Montecatini fell prey once again to the feuds between Florence and Siena.

In 1554, the town was captured by Siena and Cornelio Bentivoglio declared himself a liberator. But the once-impregnable fortress of Montecatini had fallen into poor repair after centuries of battles. When Florence recaptured Montecatini, Cosimo de Medici ordered his troops to “destroy the foundations” of the town.

Over two days and two nights, 800 Florentine soldiers destroyed the walls, the towers and the houses of Montecatini as plundered the town mercilessly. They took away even the doors and windows, and after their onslaught, 160 houses, three convents, the Palace of the Podestà and the Palace of Justice were all that was left standing of a once great walled city.

The efforts to established baths at the foot of the hill were now forgotten and the stagnant waters of the abandoned spas made the area a health hazard.

But the development of the spa resort at the bottom of the hill brought new life to Montecatini Alto, and the town became a second home to the poet Giuseppe Giusti and was visited regularly by the celebrities who came to Montecatini Terme, including Giuseppe Verdi, who stayed at the villa built by Napoleone Melani, director of the Grand Hotel Locanda Maggiore, where he was staying.

During World War II, many Jewish children found shelter at an orphanage at the Villa Forini Lippi in Montecatini run by Father Julius Facibeni and a Catholic charity based in Florence. Father Facibeni was later named by Yad Vashem, the holocaust museum in Jerusalem, as one of the “Righteous among the Nations.”

Piazza Giuseppe Giusti ... the the town’s lively and bustling main square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

We began our stroll around Montecatini Alto in Piazza Giuseppe Giusti, the town’s main square, named after the poet. At street level, many of the buildings lining this charming square are restaurants, cafés and gift shop. But a closer look shows how many of these buildings are of historical and archaeological interest.

Between the tables of two restaurants is the Cappellina di Piazza, a small chapel hidden behind wrought iron gates on the ground floor of the Torre Colloresi, one of the town’s eight surviving historic towers – at one time there were 25. The chapel is now a memorial to the town’s war victims, including partisans who resisted fascism during World War II.

A little further up this side of the square is the Teatro dei Risorti, once the town assembly place and courthouse and now a restaurant and theatre.

The buildings on the opposite side of the square include another tower house – the Torre Signorelli o di Uggolino, named after a 14th century doctor who was one of the first to write scientific accounts of the healing properties of Italian spas.

We passed Giusti’s former home as we made our way on up to the hill with yet another tower, the Torre Resa Campanaria, that has become the bell tower of the parish church of Saint Peter.

The walls of the Old Castle enclose the Torre della Rocca (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

We stopped awhile in the church, with its shrine to Saint Barbara, and prayed in the side chapel reserved for private prayer, and then went on to see the walls of the Old Castle, which enclose yet another tower, Torre della Rocca.

Back down in the main square, lunch in Casa di Gala was particularly pleasant, and we watched village life pass us buy before going on to climb Castel Nuovo to look at the southern half of the town.

There we came across the Torre dei Lemmi, which has become a clocktower with an eccentric dial divided into six rather 12 hours, and large Roman lettering. Opposite it, the Carmelite monastery, the Church of Santi Jacopo e Filippo (Saint James and Saint Philip), built in the baroque style in 1764, and the Chapel of Saint Sebastian all seem to have been abandoned.

At the bottom of the hill, the views below us stretched beyond Montencatini Terme and across the plains of Tuscany. We had missed the Benedictine Convento di Santa Maria a Ripa and many other places of interest. We took the funicular back down the hill to Montecatini Terme and were back in Verdi’s Grand Hotel Plaza and Locanda Maggiore before the thunderstorm broke.

The view below spread beyond Montencatini Terme and across the plains of Tuscany (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

A day with the saints in the heart of ‘Chiantishire’

The vines, groves and terraces that have given Tuscany the name ‘Chiantishire’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Patrick Comerford

We travelled south on Sunday [2 September 2012] to Siena and San Gimignano to visit the heart of that part of Tuscany that is known to many people in England as “Chiantishire.”

Tony Blair has stopped taking summer holidays in “Chiantishire” but this part of Italy is still a favourite haunt of British celebrities – Prince Charles was once interested in buying the Villa Tegoni, a palazzo near Siena with an inner courtyard, private chapel, 120 acres of farmland and a price tag of £1.3 million; Antonio Banderas, Sting, Bryan Ferry, Sir John Mortimer, Richard Gere, Mary Wesley and Dame Muriel Spark all have homes here too.

Unesco has declared the centre of Siena a World Heritage Site. This is one of the most visited tourist attractions in Italy, and is famous for its cuisine, art, museums, mediaeval streets and buildings, and for the Palio – a horse race held in the centre of the city twice a year.

We were here not for princes and rockstars but for saints and history, and our first stop was to hear the story of Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) in the Basilica of San Domenico, also known as Basilica Cateriniana.

The Basilica of San Domenico, also known as Basilica Cateriniana, is key to understanding the life of Saint Catherine of Siena (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Saint Catherine of Siena was a Dominican nun, a theologian and a scholastic philosopher. She also worked to bring the papacy of Gregory XI back to Rome from its exile in Avignon, and sought to bring peace to the feuding feudal Italian city-states. She was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1970, and is one of the two patron saints of Italy, along with Saint Francis of Assisi.

Our first stop on Sunday morning was the Basilica of San Domenico, which is closely associated with the life of Saint Catherine.

The brick-built church, with a lofty bell tower, was begun in 1226-1265, but was enlarged in the 14th century when it received it present Gothic appearance.

At the west end of the church, the Cappella delle Volte was used for the private prayers of the Dominican nuns, and is the location of many stories about Saint Caherine’s mystical experiences.

On the south side of the nave of the church, the main focus for pilgrims and visitors is the Saint Catherine Chapel, with the saint’s head and thumb. Il Sodoma painted the Fainting and Ecstasy of Saint Catherine and the Death of Niccolò di Tuldo for the chapel, while Francesco Vanni painted Saint Catherine’s Exorcism.

Unesco has declared the centre of Siena a World Heritage Site (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Given the associations of Siena with Saint Catherine, who was born near the basilica, it is surprising that Christianity did not reach Siena until the 4th century AD. Some archaeologists assert that Siena was controlled for a period by a Celtic people known as the Senones. But, like other Tuscan hill towns, Siena was first settled by the Etruscans, and was inhabited by a tribe called the Saina. A Roman town, Saena Julia, was founded on the site in the reign of the Emperor Augustus, but the first document mentioning it dates from AD 70.

The Roman origins gave rise to the city’s emblem of a she-wolf suckling the infant twins Romulus and Remus, and Roman legend said Siena was founded by Senius, son of Remus and nephew of Romulus.

Later, the constant streams of pilgrims passing through Siena on the way to and from Rome provided Siena with a valuable source of income. The place prospered as a city state, became a major centre of money lending, and was an important centre for the wool trade.

At first, Siena was ruled directly by the bishop, but as episcopal power declined in the 12th century the bishop was forced to concede a greater say in running the city to the nobility. In 1167, Siena declared its independence and by 1179 it had a written constitution.

The Duomo or cathedral was completed in the early 13th century. At the same time, the Piazza del Campo grew in importance as the centre of secular life, and new streets were built leading to it.

Siena struggled with its neighbouring great rival, Florence, and the 13th century conflict between Ghibelline Siena and Guelph Florence forms the backdrop for some of Dante’s Commedia. In 1260, Florence besieged Siena and attacked by catapulting dung ad dead donkeys into the city. Siena’s revenge came in 1260 at the Battle of Montapetri. But true disaster came when Siena was devastated by the plague in 1348; two-thirds of the population of 100,000 was wiped out, and the city capitulated to Cosimo de Medici of Florence.

The city slowly recovered, and in 1472 the Republic of Siena founded the Monte dei Paschi, a bank that is still active today and is the oldest surviving bank in the world.

From the Basilica of San Domenico, we made our way past the convent built on the site of Saint Catherine’s family home and through the streets leading down to the Piazza del Campo to the duomo or cathedral.

The cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta is one of the great examples of Italian Romanesque-Gothic architecture (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Siena’s cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta was begun in the 12th century and is one of the great examples of Italian Romanesque-Gothic architecture. Its main façade was completed in 1380.

The duomo is unusual for a cathedral in that its axis runs north-south. The original plan was to build the largest cathedral in the world, with a north-south transept and an east-west nave. But the black death, architectural and design problems, and shortage of money put an end to grand plans when only the transept and the east wall were completed. The outer walls and abandoned remains of the Duomo Nuovo can be seen beside of the cathedral on the Piazza Jacopo della Quercia.

Today, the planned transepts serve as the cathedral, and the magnificent faced at the north or liturgical “west end” is in white, green and red polychrome marble, designed by Giovanni Pisano.

The Piazza del Campo is the venue for the Palio horse race run twice a year (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

From the duomo, we made our way back down to the Piazza del Campo or city square, which houses the Palazzo Pubblico or Town Hall and the Torre del Mangia, but is better known as the venue for the Palio horse race.

After a disappointing lunch overlooking the Campo in a pricey pizzeria where the staff was rude but still added 20 per cent to the bill, we travelled on to San Gimignano, the walled hill town about 50 km north-west of Siena. It is best known for its mediaeval architecture and more than a dozen tower houses.

San Gimignano has conserved 15 of the towers that have become the trademark of the town (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

San Gimignano was founded as a small village in the 3rd century BC by the Etruscans. But historical records only begin in the 10th century, when it adopted the name of Saint Geminianus, the Bishop of Modena who had defended the town from Attila and the Huns. In the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance, the town was a stopping point for pilgrims on the way to Rome along the Via Francigena.

In 1199, the city declared its independence from the Bishops of Volterra. The feuds between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines also brought disaster to the people of San Gimignano. On 8 May 1300, Dante visited San Gimignano as the ambassador of the Guelphs.

The city continued to flourish until 1348, when the Black Death wiped out most of the population, and forced the survivors to submit to Florence in 1353.

San Gimignano has conserved 15 towers of different height that have become emblematic of the town. They dominate the surrounding countryside and can be seen for miles around.

From the Porta San Giovanni, we strolled up the Via San Giovanni to the Piazza della Cisterna, with its cistern or well and a collection of towers, and then on to the Piazza Duomo, where the principal buildings are the Communal Palace, where Dante addressed the town council, and the Duomo Collegiata o Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta, the Romanesque former cathedral that later became a collegiate church with a college of priests.

A mediaeval parade through the streets of San Gimignano (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Behind the Collegiata, in the Piazza Pecori, there is a small Museum of Sacred Art, and a house selling produce in aid of mission work and a church project in the Third World.

Back in the Piazza Duomo, there was a taste of mediaeval San Gimignano as a colourful procession of guild members and drummers made its way up Via San Matteo to the duomo.

We walked back down Via San Giovanni to the Porta San Giovanni, and stopped to admire the Tuscan countryside and the vineyards of “Chiantishire” before returning to Monetecatini Terme.

A T-shirt explains why many tourists see Tuscany as ‘Chiantishire’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Walking the ‘Walk of Love’ on the Italian Riviera

The tiny beach and harbour and the tower houses of Riomaggiore have inspired poets and painters (Photograph: Patrick Comerford , 2012)

Patrick Comerford

I moved out of Tuscany on Saturday [1 September 2012] in to the Liguria region and caught the train from La Spezia towards Genoa to visit the Cinque Terre, a rugged portion of coast on the Italian Riviera, with five pretty picturesque villages that are part of the Cinque Terre National Park.

The area is a national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site and was included in the 2000 and 2002 World Monuments Watch by the World Monuments Fund.

The area known as Cinque Terre or “Five Hills” is made up of the five villages of Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. There are few roads into the Cinque Terre, and the one road that is accessible to cars is into Vernazza. So we caught the train first to the most northerly and the largest of these villages, Monterosso al Mare.

Walking from the train station along the path above the beach at Monterosso (Photograph: Patrick Comerford , 2012)

Walking from the train station along the path above the beach at Monterosso in the sunshine was a far more satisfying and reinvigorating experience than the disappointing visit to Viareggio a few days earlier.

Monterosso has an old town and a new town, linked by a single tunnel serving pedestrians and the few cars in the town, which was briefly excluded from the Cinque Terre trail in 1948-1949 because Italian officials at the time thought it was too large to be part of the historic trail.

We began our visit at the parish church of Saint John the Baptist (1282-1307), which suffered badly during heavy flooding and mudslides last October.

The façade of the church has four small marble columns and a main portal surmounted by a fresco portraying the Baptism of Christ. Across the narrow street, a mortuary chapel is encrusted with images of death, with skulls and skeletons.

Vernazza has made a startling recovery from the torrential rains, floods and mudslides that hit the village last October (Photograph: Patrick Comerford , 2012)

We spent some more time in the morning sunshine in Monterosso, strolling through the narrow cobbled streets, before catching the train to the next village, Vernazza, which suffered badly from the torrential rains, floods and mudslides on 25 October 2011, when at least nine people were killed.

As a fortified town, Vernazza dates back to 1080, and became a maritime base for the Obertenghi, an Italian noble family. Over the next two centuries, Vernazza was vital in Genoa’s conquest of Liguria, providing a port, fleet and soldiers. In 1209, 90 powerful families in Vernazza pledged their allegiance to the republic of Genoa.

The town walls were built after Vernazza was attacked regularly by pirates in the 15th century, and Doria Castle was built at the same time as a lookout tower to protect the village from pirates.

We climbed the narrow, steep steps leading up to the castle, only to find it was closed. Back down in Vernazza, we walked down to the harbour to watch the waves crashing in against the pier, and then returned to Piazza Marconi, the square looking out on the harbour, for lunch at Ristorante Gianna Franzi.

The harbour and the Church of Santa Margherita d’Antiochia in Vernazza (Photograph: Patrick Comerford , 2012)

After lunch, we visited the Church of Santa Margherita d’Antiochia, on the corner of the harbour. The church dates from at least 1318, but may be much older, with evidence dating parts of the building to the 12th century. The church was expanded and renovated in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The church has an unusual east-facing entrance approached by steps, a nave and two aisles, and an octagonal bell tower rising from the apse.

After a long period of stagnation, Vernazza’s economy got a boost when the village and the surrounding area returned to wine production. The arrival of the Genoa-La Spezia rail line brought an end to the long isolation of the village, and the population grew by 60%.

Then, on 25 October 2011, Vernazza was struck by torrential rains, massive flooding and mudslides that left the town buried in four metres or more of mud and debris, causing over €100 million worth of damage. The town was evacuated but has recovered enough to be lively and bustling on this warm summer afternoon.

Walking the Via Dell’Amore between Manarola and Riomaggiore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford , 2012)

From Vernazza, we caught the train to Manarola, where we joined the walking trail – the Sentiero Azzuro (“Light Blue Trail”) – that connects the five villages. From Manarola to Riomaggiore, the trail is called the Via Dell’Amore, or the “Walk of Love.”

Over the centuries, people have carefully built terraces on the rugged, steep landscape right up to the cliffs that overlook the sea. Along the route, we could see how the mountainsides of the Cinque Terre are heavily terraced and are used to grow grapes and olives.

At the end of our walk, we had a climb down steep steps to reach Riomaggiore, the most southerly of the five Cinque Terre villages.

Riomaggiore dates from the early 13th century, and we sat eating proper Italian ice cream overlooking the small beach and wharf that are framed by tower houses – a scene that inspired paintings by Telemaco Signorini (1835-1901), one of the artists of the Macchiaioli group.

Part of the charm of this area is the lack of visible corporate or commercial development. We could have lingered longer. But we had a train to catch to La Spezia.

A day in Pisa and Lucca

The Tower of Pisa ... still leaning after all those years (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Patrick Comerford

My tour of mediaeval Tuscany continued yesterday [Friday 31 August], beginning in Pisa, which was once a naval power that rivalled the seafaring reputations of Amalfi, Genoa and even Venice.

The waters of the deltas of two rivers – the Arno and the Serchio – on which Pisa was built have since silted up and Pisa is so far inland today that is hard to imagine that Pisa was once a great Mediterranean port and an independent maritime republic dating back to the tenth century.

Indeed the town is so old that its Etruscan origins can be said to predate the foundation of Rome by centuries.

Tourists in Pisa enjoy posing as though they are trying to push the Leaning Tower back into place (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Everyone who comes to Pisa wants to be photographed in a pose as though they were trying to push the Leaning Tower back into place. But few stop to think about why it was built and why it tilts, and fewer still go on to admire the cathedral and the baptistery that share the same green piece of land.

The coach parked some distance away, and after a walk through back streets, the entrance through the old city walls to the Piazza del Duomo (Cathedral Square) or Piazza dei Miracoli (Square of Miracles), the wide, walled, partly-paved and partly-grassed area at the heart of the city.

After a quick, early morning coffee in the square, our first visit was to the “Leaning Tower” which was built originally as the campanile or bell tower for cathedral, which stands about 60 metres high.

Building began in 1173 and the bell-chamber was added only in 1372. But five years after building began, as work reached the third-floor level, sinking began due to the weak subsoil and the poor foundations. The building was left alone for a century, the subsoil stabilised and the building was saved from collapsing.

Building work resumed in 1272, and the upper floors were added, with one side taller than the other. The seventh and final floor was added in 1319. But by then the building was leaning one degree, or 80 cm from vertical. Today, the tower is leaning by about four degrees.

But at the heart of the piazza is Duomo or Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta. This is a five-nave cathedral was built in 1064 by Buscheto, in the distinctive Pisan-Romanesque style.

Inside the Duomo, where Galileo watched the swinging sanctuary lamp and developed his theory about the movement of a pendulum (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Pisa’s most famous son, Galileo Galilei is said to have formulated his theory about the movement of a pendulum by watching the swinging of the sanctuary lamp hanging in the cathedral nave.

From the cathedral we moved across to the Baptistry, which dates from 1153, but was completed in the 14th century, when the top storey and dome were added by Nicola and Giovanni Pisano. This is the largest baptistery in Italy, and is even a few centimetres higher than the Leaning Tower.

The Baptistry is also known for its acoustics, and we were treated to short singing demonstration of this by one of the guards before we left for lunch at the other end of the square.

In the afternoon, we visited Lucca, which was saved from bombing during World War II and so the city has been preserved within its walls which also remain intact.

The open squares of Lucca ... a compact and attractive town that has remained intact (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Lucca was the birthplace of Puccini, and there is a bronze statue of the composer in the square close to the house where he was born. We walked through the squares of Lucca, with their statues of Garibaldi and links with Napoleon, and through the narrow streets and alleyways of this compact city, visiting the Church of San Michele, the duomo or Cattedrale di San Martino, and one or two other churches.

We stopped for a final coffee in a tiny square with a fountain and a 12th century church before heading back to Monecatini Terme for dinner.

Catching trains to nowhere

The beach at Viareggio ... when Shelley’s body was washed ashore, Byron had him cremated (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

An Irish political party once ran a ‘Yes’ vote campaign in a referendum with the word ‘Yes’ in many European languages. But they left the accent off the Italian word “Sí” and so ran a “Si” or “but” campaign.

It was one of those “Yes, but ...” days for me in Tuscany yesterday [Thursday 30 August 2012] as my paltry Italian and my colour-blindness made it difficult for me to read Italian train timetables and I ended up taking the wrong train, not once, but twice.

And all I wanted to do was to have a walk on the beach ... perhaps even a shirt swim in the sea.

I started off Montecatini Centrale, heading for Viareggio on the coast. There’s only one platform at Montecatini Centrale, and when the train arrived ... I hopped on.

By the time the train pulled out of the next station, Montecatini Terme, I realised I was heading east towards Florence and not west towards the coast.

Where could we hop off?

The Cattedrale di San Zeno in the Piazza del Duomo is at the heart of the centro storico in Pistoia (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

We got off at Pistoia, and set a few hours exploring a delightful city, with its mediaeval ramparts and its centro storico.

We first visited the Piazza del Duomo and the Cattedrale di San Zeno, or Cathedral of Saint John, with its beautiful Pisan-Romanesque facade that is crowned with a lunette by Andrea della Robbia. Inside, in the Capella di San Jacopo in the north aisle is a silver altarpiece that took two centuries to erect and that was completed by Brunelleschi.

In the crypt, at the back of a simple chapel, are the tombs of many part Bishops of Pistoia, while the side walls above are decorated with monuments to many more past bishops, including Alessandro di Medici who later became Pope Leo XI and had a short reign of only 26 days.

Beside the cathedral is the former bishops’ palace, now a museum, and opposite the west door of the cathedral is the 14th century octagonal Baptistry, with its distinctive green-and-white marble stripes.

After visiting the baptistry, we strolled through the maze of mediaeval sidestreets, visiting two other churches, before returning to the station and catching the right train –through Montecatini Centrale, Montecatini Terme and Lucca – to Viareggio and the coast.

When Shelley drowned at Viareggio in 1822 and his body was washed up on the beach, Byron had him cremated on the spot.

But there is nothing romantic about the beach at Viareggio. Instead it was disappointing. There is a beautiful long stretch of white sand, and it slopes gently into the sea. But the beach has been parcelled out and divided into lots by the local hotels, so that visitors and local people alike are corralled into a dirty corner at the end of the beach, beside the rocks.

This is Italian privatisation and dogmatic capitalism at their worst. There is even a sign warning that it is dangerous to swim because the lifeguard facilities are only for hotel guests.

The Chalet Martini (left) and the Gran Caffè Ristorante Margherita on Viale Regina Margherita in Viareggio (Photograph: Patrick Comerford (2012)

After a short swim we decided to give Viareggio a miss. We walked back along the tacky promenade at Viale Regina Margherita that looked more like Disneyland than coastal Italy – although we stopped to appreciate the Gran Caffè Ristorante Margherita, which had been a favourite of Puccini, and the Chalet Martini next door, dating from the 1860s.

It was back to Montecatini – if only we had boarded the right train towards Florence. We realised our mistake by time the train got to Pisa. There was no turning back, and it was just as well the train was going to Florence and not to Rome or somewhere more distant.

At Florence we found a train to Montecatini Centrale with little time to spare. As the train pulled out we caught another glimpse of the dome of the Duomo receding in the distance.

After a heavy day of travelling to nowhere and back several times, we had just enough time for a much-needed shower and to change.

The vineyard on the slops at Fattoria il Poggia outside Montecarlo, near Lucca (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

We joined a small group heading out for the evening to Montecarlo, near Lucca, to visit an olive grove and vineyard at Fattoria il Poggia. There were saw the olive presses used to press olive oil, drink wines from the grapes in the vineyard, and dined in the farmyard under the full moon.

We had soon put behind us all those missed trains and misread train timetables. As we raised our glasses, it was no longer “If” but “Yes.”

A day in Florence starts the week in Tuscany

The Duomo of Florence and the Palazzo Vecchio seen from the terraces of the Uffizi (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Patrick Comerford

I spent most of Wednesday [29 August 2012] in Florence, on a guided walking tour of the city in the morning, and on a guided tour of the Uffizi in the afternoon.

This was my second visit to Florence, but a day never does justice to this city, and an afternoon in the Uffizi only gives you a tiny taste of what is in store in one of the greatest art galleries in the world.

We began our walking tour at the 11th century Baptistry in Piazza di San Giovanni, with its east door decorated with gilded bass bronze reliefs and the “Gate of Paradise.”

The Baptistry was built as part of the complex of the Duomo or Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. The dome of the duomo is the city’s iconic landmark and stands along with the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Coliseum in Rome as Italy’s three most photographed sites.

We worked our way down Calzaiuoli and past the church and museum of Orsanmichele, before taking a detour through the side street and alleys to Piazza della Signoria, the civic heart of mediaeval and Renaissance Florence, with its sculptures, statues, fountains, Loggia del Lanzi, built by the Swiss bodyguards of Cosimo I, and the Palazzo Vecchio, the centre of Florentine political intrigue in the high Middle Ages.

The most photographed item in this square is the reproduction of Michelangelo’s David, although Michelangelo’s original is now housed safe from weather and human touch some distance north in the Accadmemia.

the Ponte Vecchio straddles the Arno at its narrowest point since 972 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

We skipped quickly through the arcades of the Uffizi to the banks of the Arno to see the Ponte Vecchio, straddling the river at its narrowest point since the year 972, before returning to the Palazzo Vecchio, and then making our way past the palazzo where Leonardo da Vinci lived while he was working in Florence.

In the Piazza di Santa Croce, we admired the basilica, which is the burial place of many Florentines, including Michelangelo, Galileo and Machiavelli; the statue of Dante; and the wide open square used once for burning heretics and still used once a year for the calcio storico, the local version of a rough-and-tumble mediaeval game of football.

The fading facade of the Palazzo dell’Antella in the Piazza di Santa Croce bears a mark that marks the halfway line on one of the oldest football pitches (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

After a pleasant lunch in Casa Toscana, off the Piazza di Santa Croce, we returned for the afternoon to the Uffizi.

But how do you summarise an afternoon in the Uffizi?

Fra Angelico. Giotto. Botticelli. Piero della Francesca. Raphael. Da Vinci. Michelangelo. A week in Tuscany, a month in Tuscany, could never do justice to one room in the Uffizi.

We gathered together again at the Baptistry in Piazza di San Giovanni and returned to Montecatini Terme, before going on to Tettuccio for a balmy evening with Verdi and La Traviata under a moon that was almost full.

‘Peace of mind ... before all the clamours of success’

The Grand Hotel Plaza and Locanda Maggiore in Montecatini Terme (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Patrick Comerford

I have arrived in Tuscany and I am spending the next week at the Grand Hotel Plaza and Locanda Maggiore in Montecatini Terme, between Florence and Pisa.

I arrived at Bologna this afternoon, and over the next week I hope to visit Florence, Pisa, Lucca, Siena and San Gimignano.

The story of the Grand Hotel Plaza and Locanda Maggiore is intimately linked with the history and fortunes of Montecatini Terme. The name Locanda Maggiore was originally given to five interconnected buildings that went on to become the major hotel in this Tuscan town.

The hotel, now called Grand Hotel Plaza and Locanda Maggiore, was given its present appearance by the architect Felice Bisleri.

As this spa resort declined in international popularity, the Locanda Maggiore closed in 1960. But a group of companies later decided to give the hotel back to the town, with its perfectly preserved halls and decorations dating back to the golden age of the most famous European locanda or inn.

From the beginning, the hotel has welcomed prominent national and international guests, including politicians, composers, industrialists, financiers, writers and musicians.

But perhaps the most interesting visitors were the composers Gioacchini Rossini, who was a guest here in 1852, and Giuseppe Verdi, who lived here between 1882 and 1900.

A marble plaque and portrait in the hotel lobby commemorate Verdi, who lived here from 1882 to 1900 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

A marble plaque above a piano and beneath a portrait opposite the reception desk in the lobby says: “For many summers, until 1900, this was the graceful residence of Giuseppe Verdi who, tired of glory, would seek peace of mind among the green fields and the splendour of the sky, which he always put before all the clamours of success.”

But, while he was living in Montecatini, the Great Maestro from Busseto never put aside his work. Here he spent many hours working on his scores, and it was here he finished the fourth act of Othello, his last opera but one, which had its premiere at La Scala in Milan on 5 February 1887.

He is remembered in the hotel with such pride to this day that the portrait in the lobby is used to decorate the wrappings and packaging on the hotel soap, bath cream, shampoo – even the shower caps.

I’m off to Florence in the morning, but there’s a promise of a performance of Verdi’s La Traviata tomorrow evening.