Living with Monks...Chapter Three

Living with Monks...Chapter Three

Villa I Tatti

This can be short as there are no new monk stories to relate. The day
brought another interesting field trip. Apparently some years ago ,
Harvard received a bequest that involved a villa and grounds down near
Florence. This villa was the property of some Americans who bought  it
after 1900, restored it, purchased amazing pieces of art, and created
outstanding gardens.

To find it online, go to Villa I Tatti. It was supposed to be about
twenty minutes away which worked with the fact that our gas(diesel)
gauge said "empty". We thought no problem with the reserve fuel we
could get there and back to a gas station. Anyway, the intended
destination was actually about 45 minutes away and things were getting
tight!

We did, however, get there and had an amazing tour with an articulate
and humorous lady about my age who is an expert in art history. She
has been in Italy since 1968 and married an Italian. I think she's
been with the villa an inordinate number of years. One has to book
this tour way ahead of time, furnish names of attendees and basically
sign in blood that you won't attempt to photograph, much less steal,
any of the priceless art work ! Oh, and have a tie to Harvard or can
convince someone you are worthy to visit.

The gardens include an authentic 14th century garden, lovely floral
cutting garden and a formal parterre garden plus allees of cypress and
such. Outstanding in every way! Even an inclosed limonerie....a place
to put the lemon trees in the winter.

The villa is maintained to house the art work, of course, but is the
headquarters for the Harvard Fellowship students who come to avail
themselves of the library and facilities. Each student is a post doc
but may be doing self study in any subject that would be appropriate
for the Tuscany area.

Rider did, again, very well though his mother and I had to carry him
as no strollers allowed. We did have to take a short break to play in
the driveway with pebbles but that was to be expected.   

Gardens were lovely but Rider liked the yellow hose best.

                 

The real excitement was when we returned to the car and the dilemma of
no diesel, no GPS, no idea where to find a station, no speak Italiano
and everyone left us to our own devices. Lady Luck once again smiled
on us...we stumbled upon how to get the GPS to work and discovered we
were fairly close to a gas station. Nevertheless, I definitely
lamented that two adult men ( the two teachers in charge of the
program) left two women and a baby in fairly dire straits to figure
all this out. I know my husband is too much of a gentleman to allow
that to happen. This had a happy ending but it could have been a
disaster.

Nevertheless,  we arrived safely home, had dinner and Rider and I took
a long stroll until bedtime. We are on our last nights at Capitignano
and the sunset was particularly beautiful . I am thankful to have
enjoyed the last six plus weeks with Rider and Betsy in such an
idyllic setting. The memories will last a lifetime whether mine( which
will definitely be shorter) or Betsy's. We have had the pleasure of
getting to know such interesting and varied people. Giorgio and Maria,
the caretakers, live ( to all appearances) such a simple and fulfilled
life and are delightful. They have been wonderful to us! Each of the
other students have brought their own stories to the mix and will be
remembered in their own ways. Some, I'm sure, Betsy will stay  in
touch with and the others will slip away and be relegated to memories
only. Mark A has done what he can to bring some enlightenment to the
students. His knowledge of art history is prodigious  and his desire
to make the summer interesting and fun is unparalleled.  Serge, the
painting teacher, has done what he can. The students must take what
they can surmise from his instruction. It may not be what they thought
they would take away but one learns from every experience.  Such  is
the nature of those who meet in such a specific time and place.

The gang plus Mark and the mascot, Rider

My only regret is that I didn't have more time to spend with Lynn A.
In another time and place, I think we could have been good friends.
However, this wasn't to be about me but about Betsy and Rider and I am
fulfilled that goal is about to be met. How wonderful I have the time
and resources to help make this memorable event happen. I am thankful!

Reply

Forward

Send

Saved

Discard

Draft autosaved at 9:49 AM (0 minutes ago)

Drawing to a Close

Rider, his mom  and Mimi

Time to begin to wrap up the adventure...Thursday, July 21 was exam day for art history and Italian, farewell dinner and the art show at Capitignano. Each of the students displayed the efforts of the six weeks of plein air painting. Every artist had their favorites and, predictably, those who perused the showing usually chose other paintings as their favorites. Interesting to see what appeals to each person and to see the changes in style, palette and such of so many of the painters.

 The show was attended by the students, of course, as well as Lynn and Michael Aeschliman, owners of the estate; Diane and Tony Aeschliman
 ( Michael and Mark's brother and his wife - who is a professional portrait painter); the summer instructors, Mark A and Sergei; other guests at the villa from Germany and Scotland, a few local friends plus Rider and me. There were some paintings sold though that was not the object of the showing. Lynn bought one of Betsy's paintings with the idea of hanging it in the apartment where we had stayed. It's so nice to know that a piece of her work will stay in a place we enjoyed so much.

After hors o'deuvres and wine, as sunset approached, most of us adjourned to the pool area for an al fresco farewell dinner. Regional Tuscan fare with roasted vegetables and grilled meats dominated the menu with plenty of local red wine.

 Totally a delightful evening in a spectacular setting.

Some of Betsy's paintings on display.

Living with monks...Chapter Two

We have a new routine which is sometimes annoying but works. I guess I need to put it out there in the universe...Betsy and I have discussed this point...when we planned the trip, the baby was much more docile than  he is now. He is more mobile, sociable and noisier. Therefore, there are aspects of the trip that are just more difficult than when he was 4 months old. I would say this is harder with an older baby and probably would suggest not doing such a trip unless the baby was quite small or a bit older. However, I also want to say, he is very adaptable and hangs in there pretty well especially as we cart him pillar to post, constantly adjust nap time and bedtime and generally play havoc with his schedule. He just requires one on one attention every waking hour! Thank goodness, he's so darn cute.

One view on our walk

We had to adjust our breakfast schedule, there are no chairs in the kitchen nor adjoining dining room so trying to feed Rider was almost impossible and lighting the gas burner was beyond me so we have been packing up a "breakfast bag" and going to Capitignano to prepare breakfast and feed Rider in a high chair. Betsy then goes off to class. I stroll Rider either there or at the monastery and he goes down for a nap. At  12:30 we meet at the estate for lunch. Again playtime or walks with a nap to follow.

Down the road at Capitignano

Naps can last an hour or up to two if the gods are benevolent. After he awakes there are many hours to fill before dinner ( we do feed him around 6:00) for adults at 7:30, 8:00 or, last night, 8:30. Dinner time is dependent on the afternoon activities.

Yesterday we hit the jackpot! We went to Castello Del Trebbio in the hills near Florence. Both wine and olive oil are produced there and it is steeped in history. We enjoyed a tour of the castle  and cellars , had a wine tasting and shopped.  The castle dates to the 12th century and once belonged to the Medici family. There is even a coat of arms (of the original owners) displayed by Donatello and a Raphael ( a replica of another of his paintings but drawn and partially painted by the artist himself but completed by other artists in his studio) hanging in the family's quarters which we got to visit. The vineyard produces Chianti, a white wine, vin santo and excellent olive oil. We learned that for olive oil to truly be extra virgin, the olives must be pressed within hours of picking. However, there is a way for producers to label oil extra virgin if they mix a certain percentage of the quickly pressed oil with oil that is pressed after the allotted period.

Castello Trebbio

After tasting oil that was pressed on the estate within 5 hours of picking, I can attest to being able to tell the difference. Frankly, Betsy and I both have so enjoyed eating and cooking with olive oil that I think we'll be using it extensively in our kitchens at home. Both lunch and dinner at Capitignano, a salad of butter leaf lettuce and radichio is served to be dressed with balsamic and olive oil. It always seems perfect and is also healthy!

Old bottles of chianti..not in raffia anymore

Grapes are even grown on the buildings
                                                                                             I want to relate the making of vin santo as I am likely to forget the details if I don't write them down. Vin Santo is known as "holy wine" and is a thickish, sweet dessert wine usually served with a hard biscuit ( Americans would say it is a cookie ) I learned why it is so expensive...the process for making it is more laborious than for regular wine. The grapes are actually hung to dry out to a certain state before they are juiced to make the wine. Castello Trebbio has a particular room with just the right natural humidity and light to dry the grapes. Obviously there is more sugar that stays in the grapes and not as much juice so it makes more grapes to make the wine. Then it's aged a certain time ( can' t remember how long ) before it is drunk. When one buys it, it is in smaller bottles as you drink it as a aperitif in an appropriate glass. 

The monk keeps trying to converse with me and today we almost understood one another in French! Last evening, he left when we were going to dinner and he had on a Philadelphia Eagles tee shirt. I smiled and said, "Go, Philadelphia Eagles" to which he pumped his fist and said, "Score". Maybe he knows more English than we thought? His cell phone ring is the "call to post" at the Kentucky Derby...

Today Betsy did our first wash here. She used Rider's bathtub and did a soaking kind of wash and I hung things outside to dry on the clothesline. I do wonder how often these fellows have women's bras and panties on their line.
After a big storm in the early morning, the day is clear but windy and a bit cold. We did have a need for a sweater...just when we thought we wouldn't.

PS. Strangely enough, I had read about Castello Del Trebbio in the wine book from Total Wine. While we were there, I kept thinking this name sounds familiar and I had brought the pages about the Tuscan wines with me and found the reference when we got back. The Castello Del Trebbio Chianti purchased at the vineyard is only about $3.00 a bottle cheaper than in the US.

Living with monks...Chapter One

Living with Monks...Chapter 1

Last Saturday we begin our newest(and possibly) strangest adventure. we had to vacate the lovely apartment at Capigtinano and move to San Cresci where we would stay for the final week in the countryside. I don't know but a modicum about the Catholic church so I asked what I should call the monks with whom we are living. Evidently, they are not "padre" (father) or "papa"... that's  reserved for the pope...so it is  Giuseppe and ???( the other one who is away illuminated manuscripts or some such).  Giuseppe , as far as I can tell, never wears a habit, hair shirt or anything like that. He usually has on linen pants, a tee shirt and his only English words are, "Oh, my god!". He is very nice and appears to accept these two American women and baby pretty well though he wan't so keen on Betsy bathing Rider in the kitchen sink!

THE BATH

I should digress to explain why we'd even need to bathe the baby in the sink: we have a true European bathroom. That is, it is down the hall and is tiled from top to bottom so one can shower, brush your teeth and go to the toilet all in the space of a phone booth ( some people possibly remember phone booths). The positive...it's easy to clean. The negatives...it's hard to keep your toilet paper dry when you shower and some people might not even fit into the space that comprises the shower. The third negative is that you have to be a gymnast to bathe the baby in this bathroom. Anyway, we've been giving him a bird's bath but tonight will try out the small basin  that Giuseppe gave us.

The room we have has a large, double bed and a set of bunk beds plus a pack-n-play. The ceilings are 14 feet with long , shuttered windows and lovely views of the Apennines. There are two chairs about the right size for midgets or small Italians and ten feet of armoires which are all filled to capacity with sheets and blankets as is the one dresser. I have to believe the stockpile is a result of gifts to the church and not because they have that many "guests".There are religious items in abundance as one might expect and many knick knacks that I presume have been gifts to the previous priests and monks. This church is without a priest as the last one died a year or so ago so it is staffed by the two Benedictine monks who came to help with restoration and ,by design, haven't returned to the order. I understand a supply priest says mass one a month and there are often weddings but no other services on a regular basis.

Home , Sweet, Home #2

Since there are two other empty rooms on the hall, we asked if we could put Rider's crib in the room next door as he doesn't sleep very well in the same room as us. He's so sociable and wants to be in on the action and we're not usually ready to go to sleep at 8:30. With a little help from Lynn, we negotiated the deal for ten extra euros a night. Seems like a deal for the church as they weren't going to rent the room anyway and all we did was move the crib into the room! Nevertheless, everyone is sleeping better.

OK, the other downside to all this is that we are up some twenty-one pretty steep, stone steps and we have to have work with four keys to stay here. One key for the cucina (kitchen), keys for each of the bedrooms and a key for the door to the hallway on which our bedroom is located. We are not using the key for the kitchen or Rider's room and , today, I decided we'll also not use the key to our room but we're required to use the hall key as it is to the outside.  Also deserving a mention is no Internet nor phone service.

We've already had a key incident that isn't quite resolved. After a fitful moving in process on Saturday morning, we took the train into Florence for an easy afternoon of shopping and strolling. Rider had his first carousel ride and loved it,

Always liked blue horses!

we window shopped the frightfully expensive Ponte Vecchio and ate in the indoor food mart ( and bought wild boar salami). The market was much like the Eastern Market in DC.

Just the place to buy salame di Cinghiale al Tartufo

 We bought trinkets in the Duomo market and generally had a pleasant afternoon though the train ride back was too long through our own choice...it was either sit in the dirty and noisy Santa Maria Novella train station or spend longer on the clean and comfortable train. Rider made friends with a darling, seven month old Somalian boy named Mohammed. It is consistently amazing how babies gravitate to one another....they sat in the aisle and communicated with gestures and grunts and touched one another's feet.

Rider on the Firenze train

We got back to the estate just in time for dinner. That is a plus for moving to the monastery, we are eating meals at Capitignano though we take our breakfast foods with us.

Meals al fresco..perfecto

 Anyway, dinner was over after nine and Rider was toast so we piled into the car bound for our new home only to discover, upon arrival, that we couldn't find the outside door key and the monk wasn't home. Disaster!

Much searching ensued to no avail so we went back down to Lynn's to seek help. She couldn't get him on the phone either so we proceeded to prepare for a long night in the vacant room ( the girls were staying overnight in Florence) over the kitchen. By now, I was feeling a bit like Cinderella or another character in a  fairy(?) tale.  After rearranging the room, baby proofing and the like, he was just drifting off when Giuseppe called back and we decided it would be best to wake up in our own space so we undid everything and trekked to the monastery. By the time we collapsed into bed, we didn't care where we were!

So we are now on day three at the monastery and it is an adjustment but we'll make it. The key has not been found so we have to presume that somehow it was lost in Firenze and will never be found. Evidently though it is not an easy key to replace so we don't yet know the damage for this debacle. Still, accidents happen.

Life VERY quiet and we could slip into the sanctuary to pray at any given moment if we so desire. Now, how many of you  could say that?

San Cresci

Another day...another fresco

Yesterday we made a marathon trip to Arezzo in Umbria...a four hour round trip for a gelato and two churches...one of which had lovely frescos.

 Maybe this was stretching it but I can say I drove through Rufino as in the Chiati wine fame.Actually we drove through very lovely wine country and the city of Arezzo was charming and untouristy. I'd love to spend more time there probably without a baby.

On the piazza

Incredibly beautiful piazza and restaurants of renown.Also saw a church that was "undecorated". My mistake, however, as it was a Franciscan church and they were so dedicated to putting their money toward helping the poor, they chose not to embellish their churches. Refreshing after the adornments we've been seeing!

Today Rider and I eschewed the Florence marathon Pitti Palace and more to stay home. I was preparing to vacate our lovely apartment and move tomorrow to the San Cresci Church to live with the monks for the next week.Didn't think I'd ever live with monks but not too old to try most anything. Rider and I took two walks, I did a load of clothes ( hopefully my last experience of hanging clothes on a line to dry ), Rider took two much too brief naps and we celebrated his 10 months of life by sharing a limone popsicle. This was his first popsicle and he was intent on holding it...the actual popsicle part ...which made for very sticky hands. Wish I had been able to film the event. Very cute!

Prelude to the popsicle

Today he also did the one step, sit down routine; a one handed ciao wave and a big bite of soap during his bath. All in all, a big day.

Tonight his mother ventured out to an art opening in Vicchio with new Italian friends she met at the church on Sunday night. Her Italian is improving and she's gutsy enough to try all this out! Life is good.

Church Supper...Italian Style

So here's an easy Italian word to remember....festa is a festival. One more word to add to my word bank. Anyway, last Sunday was the celebration of San Cresci at the Catholic church up the hill from Capitignano. It was actually an all day affair with church services, an organ recital and then the church supper and raffle. Lynn had arranged for all of us encamped at the villa to be her guests at the festa and we were in for a treat.

San Cresci

We clamored up the hill and tucked the cars away in the haphazard parking lots near the ancient church. It is a beautiful old building that is being lovingly restored.

                                        
It is so picturesque that, although it doesn't have regular weekly mass, many local choose to marry there. There are two Dominican priests on site though I've met only one. Sunday he was wearing a white Polo shirt and racy Italian sun glasses while dispensing delicious local vin rosso and vin sante.

The long tables were set with yellow paper clothes and jars wrapped with raffia twine and filled with lavender that had been cut from the church grounds. Several bottles of water and wine were on each table and you could purchase more wine for 4€ a bottle and many of us did!

Each person was served several courses by the young people supporting the church. We first had salami ( two kinds), cheese and two kinds of breads. Next was a delicious pasta with meat sauce followed by salad. ( Salads are not served with the meal here but as a separate course )

I thought we were through at that point but next came the meat which was small pork ribs, sausages and slices of pork loin.

Rider with Giorgio

Of course, there was bread on the table through the courses and the whole meal was topped off with an assortment of homemade desserts and vin santo. Each course was plated and served by the kids. This was a pretty big operation as, I think, there must have been about 250 people or more.

It was astonishing to see the range of ages of the guests as most of my experience with church suppers, the attendees' average age must be 60! Dinner started at eight o'clock and lasted into the night. Once the spectacular sunset faded into darkness, we were treated to lighted luminaries floating into the night sky.

This definitely seemed dangerous but beautiful. The paper lanterns were a bit like hot air balloons...paper half globes with a base onto which a candle was affixed. The candle was lit and the heated air caused the globe to rise into the sky. The globes set against the illuminated facade of the church was very special.

Next there was a raffle just like the USA type...buy a ticket and hope your number gets pulled out of the jar. The twist was that you could just choose any number you wished and the ticket seller would write it on the ticket. Don't know what the protocol would have been if more than one person chose 744 as their lucky number. We bought a couple of tickets but my luck held- I didn't win again.

Now what was our boy doing throughout all this festivity? Actually he had a ball though it was past his bedtime. He acted like an Italian baby. They are often out in restaurants until after eleven! He crawled on the grass, sat in numerous people's laps, investigated under the table and was strolled up the lane by the church.

He sampled all the various foods and fell happily to sleep in his stroller about 10:45. He(and I) missed the dancing as I drove him down the hill and tucked him into bed!

Betsy and other class members trekked down the hill somewhat later and had an encounter with two sets of wild boars. They escaped unharmed but excited to have met them in the dark! Boar are prevalent in the Tuscan countryside and valued for their delicious meat. Don't think they are exactly domesticated though so people give them a wide berth.

It was a positively delightful evening with friendly people, great food and excellent wine. How special to be here for this event!

American flag flown in honor of Lynn Aeschliman....the church patron

Off to the Races

The Duomo in the distance

                                                                
Actually, Siena is known for some special horse race, Palio di Siena which was not on our itinerary and we weren't even there at the right time but we did instead see yet another magnificent Duomo. I thought we couldn't surpass Pisa which we saw the day before but this one had two features which I found pretty incredible...lovely mosaic floors and the Piccolomini Library.

The Duomo itself is similar to Pisa as it has striped columns (plus a distinctive black and white bell
tower ) and it has large paintings on the walls as decoration.

Distinctive Columns

However, the mosaics on the floor are the feature I most enjoyed. Evidently they were done over a period of time since construction began in the 1300's.

Fabulous mosaic floors

There is also a large altar piece by Michelangelo and cravings of a 1000 years of Popes watching from overhead. The show stopper was the Pinturicchio frescoes in the Piccolomini (Pope Pius II) Library. Because they have not been exposed to much light, they are as they were when created and are nothing less than stunning. The colors are vibrant, the subject matter interesting and date from the 1400's. We have looked at lots of frescoes but to see these originals was marvelous.

Frescoes in library

        There were other things to see here like a mummified body, Pisano pulpit, Duccio's Rose window, etc. But the she-wolf mosaic floor panel and the frescoes were my favorites. Rider spent most of this visit crawling on the floor and having his photo taken by other tourists. He was perfectly happy and incredibly dirty.

We knew we could only hold on so long with him so our second choice for the day was the Duomo Museum which houses the Cathedral's art. This is strictly no strollers and no elevator so one has to be determined to visit this particular museum. Betsy and I took turns carrying him and we devised a special game for him...he thought he was really getting away with something when we allowed him to climb the numerous wide staircases!  Since it is easy to trick a baby, sometimes we even let him climb up and we took him back down to climb them again. I may not be smarter than a fifth grader but I still am smarter than a nine month old.

The art was lovely but the pay off of the climb was the Panorama dal Facciatone...the panoramic view of Siena. Actually, I know it was wonderful but only because Betsy told me. It was a skinny, very high ledge and I don't do that anymore so I entertained Rider on the steps while she did the view.

Rider pauses before climbing out for a crawl

                                                                                                        

Our entire group had a quick lunch at a sandwich place right outside the museum and then we struck out for the car.

Leisurely, we shopped a little, ate fabulous gelato, got a bit lost
and finally made our way back to the car where Rider fell immediately to sleep for our fateful
drive to locate Beth Warren ( a high school friend of Betsy's ) and her Italian husband,
Andrea, in the Italian countryside between Pisa and Florence.

Betsy was organized in that she had the directions and the address in her iPad. We knew that
the local Siena McDonald's had free WiFi ( we had introduced Rider to his first taste of
Mickey D's at that same one on a previous trip ). What we hadn't counted on is that you have
to have an Italian SIM card to access the wifi. So Betsy now had Beth's phone number and
remembers the name of the town closest to this remote villa where Beth and Andrea live. We briefly considered scrapping the whole planned visit but Rider was asleep and we would be
going vaguely in the right direction should we decide to return to Borgo so we struck out.

About an hour and a half later, we pulled into the COOP supermarket in the largest town
nearby and Betsy tried numerous times to call Beth for specific directions only to hear that the person was unavailable. Then Betsy remembered very faintly the name of the road on which
they live.So, using the GPS, she scoured the names of the roads starting with the first letter
of the name she faintly remembered. Meanwhile, Rider is awake, we've shopped at the market for
essentials (read wine, cheese, bread and bananas) and it's almost six o'clock and we have a
hungry baby. I admit, I was thinking this is very random and we probably should head back
home. However, once again good luck and a young memory prevailed. She recognized the name of
the street and the GPS routed us to the vicinity where we found the interesting place Beth
calls home.

View at Beth's

Rider's ready to go in the house!

                She drove up from work a few moments later and we spent a fun evening with them.

At Beth's

Andrea concocted a delicious pasta dish using his mom's red sauce, we drank a bit of wine and recalled good times in the past and caught up on the news... Betsy and Steve's wedding in Costa Rica, the Rat Pack adventures, new babies born and those to come, weddings of the
friends, Steve's new job in New Orleans. Plus Betsy launched them on a new profession...giving cooking classes in their authentic Tuscan atelier. With Andrea's cooking skills and his beautiful handmade (by him) glassware and Beth's perfect Italian and English, we think they've got a whole new future endeavor!

Rider was long asleep by the time we actually had dinner. Betsy rigged a bed using two overstuffed chairs pushed against the wall on one side and barricaded on the other by two ladder back chairs. He slept soundly for nine hours!

The next morning, Beth was off to work so we left early and vowed to return to see Andrea's glass studio and his shop.


                                                      

Ciao, Beth

 We wanted to get back to the apartment for a little rest before the next big event that evening, the Festa di San Cresci at the neighboring church.

This is definitely a jammed packed schedule! By the way, if you note typos it's because I am simply not adept at editing on the iPad. I recognize the errors but can get the copy to scroll so that I can fix them .

More Than A Tower

Field of Miracles at Pisa

 This past week we went on two excursions. On Friday we visited one of the hottest spots I've ever visited...Pisa. There is something about how it sits in the valley and has few trees that traps the heat and holds on tightly. Anyway that was an unwelcome surprise. The welcomed surprise was that the Leaning Tower sits on The Field of Miracles ( Campo dei Miracoli) which is stunning to behold. When you walk through the gated wall of the old city, you see an extensive stretch of incredibly green lawn and in the midst there are four lovely buildings: the Tower, the Duomo, the Bapistry and the Composanto Cementery. The Tower looks exactly like all the photos but is amazing nevertheless and there are MANY people taking the photo of their friend or loved one appearing to hold up the tower. Evidently the original builders knew fairly quickly that it was going to lean and they plus numerous others have tried to correct the problem without much success. We're talking about for hundreds of years...however, it is now stabilized and shouldn't continue to sink on one side. To climb it , one has to get a ticket for 15€ and reserve a time slot at least two hours out...neither of which I was inclined to do so all any of us did was gaze at the outside and take a picture.

I'm not holding up the tower

The other three buildings were more interesting to me and one was of some interest to Rider, the Bapistry. This particular Bapistry is unique for two reasons. First, the pulpit in it was carved by Nicolas Pisano and it is not only gorgeous but he is the father of the man who carved the pulpit in the Duomo right next door, Giovanni Pisano. So it was a father and son
thing akin to the the Adams and the Bushes in the USA but these guys definitely were more artistic. Both pulpits are amazing in their intricacies.

Detail on the pulpit
The second interesting fact is that the acoustics are so perfect that one can sing harmony with oneself as proven by a guard at the building. That's the part Rider liked. He loves echoes and when we have visited so many of these old, domed buildings, he has "crowed" happy sounds and then just gets a sparkle in his eyes as he hears the echoes.

As referenced, the Duomo has the lovely Pisano pulpit and a uniqueness of a Byzantine influence as evidenced by a enchanting mosaic on the dome behind the altar. Because Pisa was a long time trading partner with Turkey and the middle east, one can see a lot of Byzantine influence in the Duomo and it is breathtaking.The ever present Greek influence via the Romans is also omnipresent with statuary and such.The columns here are striped black and white marble and, as you can imagine, very striking.

The fourth building of this expansive architectural marvel is the buidling that is actually the site of a cemetery since ancient times filled with Roman sarcophagi and a large 14th century fresco.

Lovely sarcophagi

Mark explains....

The building is even constructed somewhat of Roman tombstones.There's a beautiful courtyard that is said to hold dirt brought back from the Crusades and will actually turn a dead body in to bones in a single day. I saw no evidence that could be true but if you believe it , I have a bridge....

Notice any bones?

Rider was tolerant of all this touring and especially liked crawling on the grass but we waited a little too long for lunch and the restaurant was a challenge!
                                                                                    

Rider is ready to move
Afterward, we trekked back to the car during which Betsy almost was pick pocketed! Fortunately she thwarted the woman by slapping her hand as she was delving in Betsy's purse. We came back to Capitignano very hot and tired but determined to regroup for Siena on the next day!

Since I'm a praying woman, I prayed for a cooler day. Life is simple here.