Spectacular Walled Cities

What a spectacular way to start the day:  In Italy...... with a Cappuccino!

Believe me....it doesn't get much better than that.

After enjoying a lovely breakfast, we began our gallivanting with Dennis behind the wheel, chauffeuring us across the Italian countryside to walled city west of Cittadella called Marostica.

As we neared this city, the view of it was amazing.  This is the best photo that I could capture from a moving vehicle.

If you look closely, you can view the upper castle with a wall running down both sides.  What you can't see is that the wall continues to the lower castle, which is where we parked and began our tour.

Here you can see my friend, Morena with the lower castle in the background.

Doesn't she look fabulous?

We walked through the lower castle into the center courtyard.

One of the features that makes this town so unique is that there is a larger than lifesize chessboard set into the plaza. This photo from the display kind of gives you an example.

Every even year, on the second weekend in September, a Live Chess game is re-enacted in Marostica.

The game dates back to 1454 when 2 noblemen fell in love with Lionora, daughter of the Lord of Marostica.  They challenged each other to a duel for her hand.

 The Lord did not want to make an enemy of either suitor, nor did he want to lose one in a duel, so he forbade the duel according to Venetian Law.

Instead, he proclaimed that the rivals should play a chess game and Lignora would take the winner as a husband.  The loser of the game would marry his younger daughter, Oldrada.

The game took place on this square with armed living persons.

Seems like a win-win for the Lord, since both daughters would have a husband.  And since the daughter wouldn't have a choice whom she could marry anyway, why not kill two birds with one stone......right?  

OK, I was just kidding.....Can't help but wonder what Lionora had over Oldrada in the first place,  unless, as the eldest, she was required to marry first.  I'm afraid that I'm not up on the social etiquette of the 1400's.

But I found it fascinating knowing that this duel is recreated in very much the same sense as the original, except, I'm presuming that the winner isn't forced to marry someone's daughter!  Feel free to research this for me.  I'm too busy exploring.

Back to my adventures....

For four hundred years Marostica was ruled by Venice, and its dominion is recorded by a statue of the lion of St. Mark, Venice's symbol, in the piazza

At the foot of the mountain where the Upper Castle stands majestically over this walled town, there are two churches, the one in the distance being part of a Carmelite Monastery.

The lower church, on the right above, is dedicated to St. Antonio Abate.  The church was open for public viewing, so how could we resist taking a look around?

At the top of the steps stands "The Church of the Madonna del Carmine".

It was built in the very early 1600's.  Isn't that amazing?  The interior is much smaller that St. Antoniono, but there is a peaceful tranquility as you gaze upon the beauty inside.

The church is at the base of the rocky steps leading to the upper castle.

Could we resist such a challenge?  Heavens NO!

So, Marty and I began our ascent to the top, which, I will be quite honest with you, had me breathless a couple of times on the way up.  

But stopping offered some great photo opportunities!

You can see olive trees loaded with fruit, ready for picking.  (I'm not going to mention here that my climbing partner couldn't resist picking one).

Finally......we were at the top of the steps at the base of the Upper Castle.

Almost there......

The view from the top was amazing, as you can well imagine.  But I was surprised to see that it was very difficult to make out the walls around the city among the rooftops of the houses.  As you had seen, the wall was obvious to spot from the road.  But with the various tall trees and high houses, the wall got lost in the view.

But, that didn't make it any less spectacular.  I zoomed in on the lower castle just to get an idea of the confines of Marostica.

The white area is where the Chess Board is inlaid into the plaza.

Believe it or not, Marty managed to spot Morena and Dennis from the top as there were not a lot of tourists in the town. We headed back down the trail, which you probably don't have to guess, was much easier than the climb up.

We joined our friends for a relaxing drink

which was much appreciated, since the day was quite warm.

On the way back to the car, the sun became brilliant, and we certainly could not pass on that photo opportunity, could we?

It was nice to relax as Dennis drove us back to Cittadella where the first thing on the agenda was lunch at an outdoor cafe.

Italians have their own set of time tables, and by 1:30, the kitchen was closed, but the waitress was more than happy to make us up a cold plate of salad, ham and cheese with fresh bread which was quite tasty.  And, of course, the pleasant company added to the meal as well.

Our afternoon was spent walking the walls of Cittadella. 

The walk is open only during certain hours of the day, and you must purchase a ticket to make the walk.

I had known that the walls had been under preservation for many years, but we were surprised to find that we could actually walk the entire way around the town on the walk.

I just couldn't get over the beauty of the Duomo with the Bell tower right in the middle of the city.

Marty, of course, couldn't resist one of his clever self-portraits with my camera.

Here is the view of Cittadella from the back of the Duomo.

And here we are:  gallivanting geismom, husband and friends

Don't we look great?

Well....I've got to run.

Another day......more gallivanting!

An Italian Adventure

Ready for some celebrating?  You know that birthday tune:

Happy Birthday to me........I'm in Italy.......in a town named Cittadella.....how lucky for me?

Well.....to be quite honest with you.....I wasn't feeling so lucky earlier in the day when I got so sick at the airport I didn't know if I'd board the plane.  Luckily I keep immodium in my purse, and it once again saved the day.

Or when I was randomly picked to go through a separate body scan search after I had cleared the first security line with flying colors.  That lead to another pat down and a set of interesting questions:

How old are you?  Today's my birthday.  I'm 55.  Where does that put me?  (The range was 51-70, so the birthday was a moot point.)

Where were you born?  In the United States.

Where do you live?  In the United States.

What religion would you consider yourself, if you have one? 

Really?  How does this tie into body scanning? 

Roman Catholic.

I must have passed the question test, because they finally let me through security.  

Also wan't feeling so lucky when what should have taken 2 1/2 hours of driving time ended up being nearly five.

But my spirits immediately rose the minute that I was greeted by my good friends, Morena and Dennis, who are in Cittadella themselves for a 3 week holiday.

When I learned of their plans, I couldn't resist asking Morena if Marty and I could tag along for a week so that she and I could spend our birthdays together.

I was already going to be in Scotland with Marty, and EasyJet offers some ridiculously low fares from Edinburgh to Milan........so what did she think?

Needless to say.....she was thrilled.  And the plans were set into motion.

Cittadella is such a lovely little town.  Since I hadn't had anything to eat all day, we stopped for a light bite at this lovely outdoor cafe in the center of the town.

Isn't that a beautiful view?

I didn't get many photos today, but I do plan to do so these next few days.  Here are a couple that I took while we walked around a bit.

It's like going back in time......with modern conveniences.

Our hotel is located inside the walls.....and actually, there is quite a bit of hub bub activity going on outside.  Apparently Friday night is Party night......or perhaps everyone is celebrating my birthday!  

Well, we did have a lovely dinner out with Morena's cousins 

and their extremely entertaining husbands, 

including mine. 

We don't speak Italian, but we still managed to have a wonderful time this evening at dinner. You would have thought that we were family!

It looks like we'll be having some real adventures over these next several days.  

Gallivanting looks better than ever this week!

Gold for Aberdour

I knew that this charming town was a real gem,  but I was surprised to read that it took the prize for the Best small coastal village at the Beautiful Fife Awards.  Apparently a LOT of people are unaware of this, because there aren't many tourists around.   That's probably why Marty and I enjoy it so much.

It's QUIET!  Non-hurried.....charming, don't you think?

There's a lovely bakery on the corner near the train station

I've seen lines out the door when I've visited before.  I was so looking forward to their tempting delights.  But this sign squelched that idea.

Oh well...that's probably for the best anyway.  

                                                

There's not much more to this town, except that it does boast 3 small, lovely hotels

and, obviously, an interesting dress shop.

Honestly, it wouldn't be a  place I'd be interested in visiting, but, even if I did, I wouldn't have been able since it has had a Closed sign in the window every day.

Perhaps the owner is on holiday with the baker?  Who knows?

Today is another delightful day, and I chose to stay in Aberdour and enjoy it.  I was able to get some laundry done, as the proprietor offers his laundry services at a very small cost.

I popped into the post office to ask the man there about the possible future of the post cards that I had already mailed but forgot to list USA when I addressed it.  He seemed fairly confident that the Scottish postal system would realize that the recipient was in the United States, and that they would be sent on.

I mentioned that I was sure that the postage was way too high for a post card, because the woman who sold me the stamps did not know which stamp to sell me.  He agreed, and insisted on exchanging them for the Scottish Thistle stamp with the correct amount for a post card.

It was obvious that he was very proud of the Thislte stamp being unique to Scotland.  You see, Scotland is scheduled to vote for independence from the UK in 2014, so these locals are quite devoted to Scotland as a country in itself.

While I was chatting with this man (rotund little guy with a big grey bushy beard and entertaining accent), he felt the need to share a postal story with me.

Apparently someone from the town went on holiday to an  island and decided to mail home post cards. She had addressed one of them with just a name.  No address.....no country, and the correct woman received it!

I couldn't even imagine how that could happen, since Scottish surnames aren't exactly unique.
He went on to explain that the woman had written out several post cards, and someone in the mail room had noticed that the handwriting was the same on about four of them.  Three of them had the same town and county, so he just added it to the one missing the information........and it ended up at the correct house!

Such a typical story for this quaint little place.

I do have to admit, though, that this confirms my theory that postal workers read the post cards before sending them on, because it would often take way too long for me to receive one that would have been mailed to me.  I had always figured that the mailroom passed them around for review if the sender had shared an interesting story.  It appears that I wasn't off the mark in that analysis.

This evening was our last in Scotland, so we decided to have dinner at the Room with a View.

We decided to walk the coastal trail to the place since the weather was so lovely. 

You can see the house in the distance, just before the cliffs.

The views around the house were just lovely.

The atmosphere was relaxed with soft music playing in the background.  This was the view from our table.  Pretty nice, don't you think?

Really, we couldn't have asked for a more perfect evening.

And, believe it or not, we made the walk along the trail, back to the B&B, thanks to the wind-up "torch" that Howard loaned us. (We Americans call that a flashlight!)

Looking back, you can see just why we would need that light to find our way along the dark trail.  But really, it was no problem walking in the dark. 

Well, I'm off to bed for now.  We have an early morning that starts a whole new adventure.

Stay tuned........

Art in Edinburgh....plus a whole lot more!

The weather turned cold and rainy today, so it was the perfect opportunity to head into Edinburgh and finally visit the Art Gallery.

So, I bundled up and headed to the train station.  Once again, Trevor remembered my name, and as he printed up my tickets, he asked how my visit to the Museum of Flight had been.  He began to tell me about his experience working on the Vulcan, which I had seen at the museum, and he promised to drop off a book and DVD that detailed the particular plane at my B&B later in the day.  He said that Howard could return it to him.

Really.......can you beat that?  And, sure enough, when Marty and I returned to the room late in the evening, there was a DVD/book combination detailing the Vulcan sitting on the desk.

The art museum is very close to Waverly station,  so I only had to step out into the rain for a brief walk through Princes' Street Gardens.   The umbrella did get soaked, however, and there's always that question of what to do with a sopping wet umbrella while touring a building.

But....no worries.....conveniently placed by the door was a stand loaded with hanging plastic bags and a sign asking to please put your wet brolly into one.  Couldn't beat that!

Edinburgh can be a great place to visit, especially since most of the museums are free to walk through.  They are all well maintained, and you never have to worry about finding a bathroom. The people on staff are extremely friendly and willing to direct you or answer any questions that you might have.

You do have to deal with crowds on the streets and lots of foreign tourists (I suppose I'd be one of those.....except, remember, I've moved up a rank to frequent traveler!) bumping into you.  The hustle-bustle can be intense.

So, it was by no surprise for me to find the art museum filled with people as I entered the doors.  But I had no problem reading the placards and admiring the art.

The walls featured many famous artists from El Greco to Raphael to Picasso.   One interesting fact about this museum is that each painting has a placard which lists the title, year of painting, artist (or presumed artist), a description of the scene, and how the Museum acquired that art.

Some were donated from family.  Some were purchased through funding, and some were on loan from other art museum.  Photos could not be taken of the borrowed paintings.

One such grouping, displayed in a small round room, were Poisson's set of The Seven Sacraments.  The paintings were relatively large, and each one was amazing detailed.

Regarding the overall Art Museum, I have a few favorites that I'd like to feature here.

The Honorable Mrs. Graham, painted in 1775 by Thomas Gainsborough.  I can't explain what drew me to this painting, but something about this woman captured my attention.  The painting is quite large, and in such a spot that you can't help but get drawn into the beauty of it. The photo does not really do it justice.

She was Mary Cathcart, the daughter of the 9th Earl and she married Thomas Graham. When she died, her husband couldn't bear to look at her painting, so it was packed away until it was discovered by one of her heirs.  Can you imagine such a beauty being squirreled away somewhere?
The painting was bequeathed to the gallery under the condition that it never leave Scotland.

The Hunter Blair Family painted in 1777 by David Allan, Scottish Painter

I don't know why, but I couldn't help but laugh at the expressions on the faces of this man's many children.

The bottom level of the museum is devoted to Scottish artists.

Do you remember those Cadzow Oak trees that I mentioned earlier in the week?  The 800 year old trees?  Well, there was a painting entitled "A Glade in Cadzow Forest", painted in 1863 by Alexander Fracer.

It appears that their beauty has been appreciated for centuries.

Then, there was "The Falls of Clyde painted by Jacob More sometime in the late 1700's.

They actually appear to be the Corra Linn Falls, but it could be that in that time period, all of the waterfalls were considered to be part of the Falls of Clyde, since they are part of the Clyde River.

Sir Henry Raeburn painted this one:

It is entitled "The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch" in 1795.  When I gaze upon this piece of work, I can't help but smile and feel like I'm right out on the ice with him.

This next painting, another family scene by David Allan  just looked like fun:

James Erskine, Lord Alva and his family, painted in 1780. What a unique presentation!

It's probably quite obvious to you that I thoroughly enjoyed my jaunt through this art museum, and I am so glad that I put it on my list of things yet to do in Edinburgh. 

I would have thought by now, that I'd seen pretty much everything that there was to see in this city, but as I was walking up Market Street to make dinner reservations for Marty and me later in the evening, I passed a beautiful black wrought iron fence and noticed a sign, "Museum on the Mound:  free admission."

Free?  How could I refuse?  As I walked towards the building, a pleasant man opened the door for me, and directed me inside.   I had no idea what to expect in regards to the title of the museum.

Much to my surprise, this place featured the history of Scotland's Banking Industry.  I walked into Gallery 1 where there is a huge wall display of the metal plates that had been used for printing money over the years.

As early as 1696, Scotland was the first in issuing paper money. printed in 1716 still survives.

Here is an example of one of the printing plates.  Most of the museum had the articles preserved behind glass, so it was difficult to capture a good image.

That is a Five Pound note.  The plate is a mirror image of what the note will look like.

The genealogy of the Royal Bank of Scotland was featured on the wall.

I never really thought of a bank having a family tree, but I suppose, when you consider yourself first among the ranks....you know where to begin!

I particularly liked this banking emblem:  Safe and Sound.

And this one with the boar and the ram was rather interesting

Of course, you need something in which to keep all of that money safe and sound, and this trunk and key with a lock was purchased in January of 1701.  

It is the original trunk.  Two keys were made up, and two different people were responsible for holding onto them.

Here you see the first night watchman chair from 1806:

It was designed to prevent drafts while the guard was sitting in it. 

The museum went on to feature many firsts: An original document of  the first mortgage granted in May 1953.

The first mechanical calculator, and Arithometer, from 1820.

There was a story from 1755, featuring mathematician, James Dodso, who had applied to the Amicable Bank for Life Insurance, only to be told that at the age of 44, he was too old.  Not being satisfied with that answer, Dodso produced scientific tables showing the likelihood of people dying at certain stages of life.  His work was the basis for Actuarial Science as we know it today.  

Yet another Scottish pioneer!

I found many of the pamphlets on display to be quite amusing.  Banks were attempting to convince people to save their money in accounts, or to take out mortgages.

Even his WIFE agrees that they should invest in the security of Halifax!  Imagine that!  I wonder if she really did?

Children were encouraged to save as well:

My favorite line from this pamphlet is "No need to ask husband for extra cash for unexpected needs when it is always there ready for emergencies."  

Hmmm.......can't say that I think that is the best advice to advertise.

So you like the sight of money?  

Well, here you can see what £1,000,000 (one million pounds) looks like:

That converts to approximately $1,610,000.  That's a LOT of cash on display.

But, no worries.......every bill has been discontinued, so, in reality, it is worth zero.

If you walk out of the building to The Royal Mile and turn your ahead around, you can see the dome to the Royal Building of Scotland which is above the museum.

Now, I hear that the ceiling in that place is amazing. In fact, Howard, my B&B proprietor, suggested that I walk inside and take a peek.

I tried.....and was not permitted entry.  The guard was pleasant enough as he firmly held the door to prevent me from coming into the building.  Oh well.  At least he was nice about it.

One last item on the list for the day was to  head to the Scottish Museum.  I had read that there was a "Mary, Queen of Scots,  Exhibit" in the museum, and I was interested in viewing it.

I was a bit surprised to see that there was an admittance charge of £9 to get in, but considering all that I had done and seen for free, and also keeping in mind how far I had walked to get there, and that I had hours before Marty would meet me for dinner, I decided to spend the money.

It was worth every penny.  I wish that I could share some of the interior of the exhibit with you, but absolutely no photos were permitted inside.

I was awed by the collection of original items on display.  As the exhibit detailed the history of this infamous woman, one walked along a time line with cases featuring certain items from her life.

The original Lindsay Armorial from 1542 was on display.  This was Scotland's earliest Register of Arms that depicted the Arms of Scotland and its nobility.  It was on loan from the Library of Scotland.

There was a Book of Accounts from 1548 which showed an entry for 22 shillings to dispatch a royal messenger to Fife in order to recruit sailors for the gallows of the ship to carry the child queen, Mary, to France, in order to keep her safe from harm.

After she arrived safely, Mary sent a letter to her mother, in 1580, telling her of the safe arrival and how well treated she had been on the journey.

Written in 1558 was a letter from the Daughin Francois to his future mother-in-law, describing the jubilation of his impending marriage to Mary. 

I couldn't not believe that these original letters had been so well preserved for so many years!

A few personal religious items that had once belonged to the queen were also on display:

A crucifix which contained a relic of the true cross.  It had once been Mary's and she bequeathed it to the last Abbot at Westminster.  I was surprised to read that this item was the personal property of the Duke of Norfolk. 

A relic that holds a torn from Jesus' crown, also once belonging to Mary, Queen of Scots.

And, finally, the Book of Hours that Mary held in her hands during her execution.

She really was a remarkable woman, praying up to the moment of her death.  She would not renounce her religion, and thereby, was executed at the orders of her cousin, Queen Elizabeth.

I find it amazing that so many of her personal items were saved for future generations to appreciate. And I'm grateful that people thought to do so.

The time flew by quickly, and before I knew it, the museum was closing, and it was time to leave.  

As so typical of Scottish weather, the rain was gone, and the sun was actually beginning to pop through.  It's much easier maneuvering the streets of this busy city without an open umbrella.  That's for certain!

Marty met me for dinner as planned. 

A beer and a bowl of Mussels.  Now...that's one happy man!