November is without a doubt the busiest month since we arrived! Our fourth set of guests is here: Mike and Eileen Young and their daughter Danielle from Minnesota. As I write this, Nicole has gone to school and I am here at the computer, while Kim drives the Youngs off to Assisi. We have to return the car to the rental agency Monday and I think Kim’s trying to put on as many kilometers as possible.

We took the students to Florence Nov. 21-23. I’m not posting pictures from that trip yet: they’re still in the camera. Of course I was only able to take exteriors for the most part. The majority of the significant churches and museums all prohibit photographs. I did see several people “sneaking” pictures of Michelangelo’s David, but that’s not my style. Another interesting tidbit: recently they’ve begun charging admission to Santa Croce, San Lorenzo and other churches. Filiberto explained that Napoleon confiscated church property in the late 18th/early 19th century. The government retained control when Italy became a nation in 1860. The clergy is allowed to use the churches for services, but the state maintains possession.

Brunelleschi’s dome on the Florence cathedral is undoubtedly the architectural masterpiece. Nicole and I walked up the steps as high as the drum, but didn’t make it all the way up and outside to the lantern.

Florence is a “great place to visit but I wouldn’t want to live there.” Lots of noise, pollution, traffic, tourists, etc., make it a real zoo. The director’s wife almost had her wallet stolen just as we were leaving town. Then, the experience of seeing Florence with 30 college students, two boyfriends and a mom (not to mention my family, the program assistant and her boyfriend, and the director’s wife) make schlepping anywhere a real challenge. We spent 2 1/2 hours in the Uffizi Gallery. By the end, we only had a handful of the students left with us.

I probably won’t have another update until Dec. 5th or so. One of the things I’ll be doing is meeting with the producers of Passaparola, an Italian game show that airs 6 nights/week. Kim, Nic and I will also attend a taping. I have hopes of getting an article published about the unique aspects of this show. Ask me about it sometime: I love talking about it.

Some old pictures:

The fortress at Urbs Salvia. Here’s a picture from inside.

I have to tell you about our favorite restaurant in Macerata, Trattoria da Ezio. It’s just down the street from our house, and run by a husband and wife who are open for lunch and dinner, 6 days a week. The routine: each morning she goes to market about 7 a.m. When she returns, she begins hand-making the pastas for the day. They open for lunch from about noon until 3 or so, then for dinner from 7 until whenever people are finished eating. The “menu” consists of whatever she found that looked good in the market. Nothing is ever frozen. The couple is delightful. We end up there for hours, because after we eat we often sit and talk. The atmosphere is nothing special – except for the Ball State logo, which they now proudly display on a shelf. The food, however, is first-rate. We have taken all our guests there.

Despite the fact that it’s a rental car, Kim insisted on a car wash.

We still have lots to learn. We thought these were Christmas lights when they went up around Nov. 15 or so, but they’ve since been taken down. They may instead have been for a 50th anniversary celebration of Macerata’s declaration as a “City of Mary.” There was a big celebration the weekend of Nov. 16/17, including a gathering in a piazza with local churches processing
into the square.

Here’s a view of the Adriatic coast from another medieval town, Potenza Picena about 20 miles from us.

Here’s Kim on market day, which is every Wednesday morning.

We have nicknamed the cat who lives in our complex ugly cat, and I think you can see why.

This picture is from the first week of Sept., back when we visited Cinque Terre. Nicole thought she was a mermaid.

We are currently enjoying the company of our third set of guests. Wayne and Ferne Davis of Ames, Iowa, were the only Americans to visit us 7 years ago when we spent a semester in Slovenia. They are here in Macerata now.

Tomorrow morning we leave for a 3-day trip to Florence. The students are looking forward to it: everything except having to be on the bus by 5:30 a.m.

This monument in Macerata is a war memorial. Every town has at least one. The students refer to this one as “the Jackson 5.”

This is a picture from the piazza in Loreto. Their website has a lot more pictures, but this is one I took.

One more winery picture. At Belisario (linked in my last report), this man served as our guide. He even taught us the proper procedure for ordering a bottle of wine in a restaurant, how it should be opened, etc. Belisario is a cooperative, and he’s one of the partners. He also happens to be the mayor of Matelka. I think he bears a striking resemblance to Mike Ditka.

Last weekend was one of the many festivals for the feast of St. Martin (officially Nov. 11, celebrated most of the first half of the month). The feast coincides with the opening of the new wine, and with chestnut season, both of which are plentiful. It also coincides with the Italian version of “Indian Summer” (is that term no longer politically correct?). Here in Italy, the occasion of warm fall weather is called “St. Martin’s Summer.”
It was like being at a Renaissance Festival on a smaller scale. There were musicians and performers strolling along the streets. Chestnuts are, in fact, roasted on an open fire.

Kim and Nicole took Ken, Tiffany and Amanda to Venice. That’s their second trip – I haven’t been. Somebody has to stay around and work once in a while.
Here are Kim and her eldest nephew Ken on the boat (vaporetto) on one of the Venetian canals.
Of course they had to go to St. Mark’s square to feed pigeons. Here’s Kim’s niece Tiffany.
Nicole was thrilled that one of the vile creatures allowed itself to be picked up.
Here’s Nic and Ken’s daughter Amanda doing more of the same.
Believe it or not, some people actually come to this square to see St. Mark’s, not the pigeons.

Two days after they visited Venice, Italy experienced a fall weather phenomenon known as the Scirocco: strong southerly winds. They caused some damage in many parts of Italy. In Venice, they cause the tide to rise, flooding parts of the town, including St. Mark’s square. Just 48 hours after they were there, water in the piazza was knee-high. They must be living right to have timed their visit so well.

We just said good-bye to our second set of guests. Kim’s nephew Ken (Guy), niece Tiffany and Ken’s daughter Amanda were just here. After spending a couple of days in Macerata, Kim and Nicole drove them up to Venice. Of course, I stayed behind in Macerata and worked. They only spent one night, returning late last night.

Here’s a few more pictures of family. My aunt and uncle in Bologna. Zia Maria is my mom’s youngest sister.
Their son, Nico, the plastic surgeon.
His wife, Massimiliana.

Since we’ve spent so much time in our car I thought I should show it. Kim’s put well over 3,000 miles on it.

This is the view our car sees from the parking lot. We have to park outside the walls since we’re not residents.

The beach at Civitanova, about 20 miles away. Nicole’s been in the Adriatic here.

Here’s the classroom. I couldn’t get a shot with both the students and the fresco on the ceiling.

Here’s a pretty decent view of the Sibilini Mountains. I have yet to find a day with absolutely no haze. I am told that happens in summer. Nonetheless, we can see them better that the video camera shows. Those are the mountains to our west – the pre-Apenines – that keep us from being able to make “simple” drives to our west.

This crest is the old seal of Macerata. The central symbol is a mill wheel, denoting Macerata’s agricultural importance. Later, the crest was expanded to include a cross to show the town’s relation to the church state.

This painting is located in a university classroom used mostly for ceremonies today. One-time classes and seminars might meet here, but no regular sessions. Too bad.

OK, now let me tell you about our class excursions. I’ll just provide links to existing websites, which have better pictures than I do. In the case of most basilicas, photography is prohibited inside, so this is the only way to show you some of what we’ve seen.
Oct. 4 we went to Urbs Salvia and the Abbazia (Abbey) of Chairavalle di Fiastra.
Oct. 8 we did a walking tour of Macerata.
Oct. 11 we went to San Nicola of Tolentino and Ascoli Piceno.
Oct. 18 was our trip to Assisi. I’ll provide a couple of other links, like this Virtual tour – in Italian and this Photo gallery, which loads quickly.
On Nov. 8 we went three places: Loreto, Sirolo, and the Frasassi Caves. I had some trouble getting the official caves website to load, so just in case, here’s another. On the way home, we also stopped at this winery, whose wines are available at some US locations.

We are delighted to have our first guests! Ilija and Dragana (their wedding party pictures can be seen in an earlier blog) are here visiting from Slovenia.

Two of our class excursions have ended with tours of wineries. Friday we visited Belisario in Matelica. They produce an award-winning Verdicchio, in addition to other very fine wines. These pictures are actually from our earlier winery tour: a place that sells directly to the public. People bring their empties and fill them from the storage tanks a la self-service gas stations.

The first step in wine making is grape collection. The grapes (in this case merlot) are dropped into a tank where they are squeezed. In the case of some wines (like the white Verdicchio mentioned above) the grinding of grapes must be much more delicate not to allow the skins to break and “contaminate” the wine. White wine can be made from either red or white grapes: it’s the skins that determine the color. The unwanted material is then dumped out. In spite of that, even good wines contain a small percentage of skins, seeds and stems. Wine is then stored in fermentation tanks. It’s obvious these are for white wine because of the bands around them, which are used to keep the wine cool. Some reds do spend some time in oak barrels but stainless steel is much more prevalent. The host on one of our tours was critical of California wines, saying they have more wood flavor than grape flavor. He explained the reason for that as the American desire for a product to always taste the same. A McDonald’s burger always tastes the same, and Americans want the same brand of wine and type to taste the same, but nature has other plans. The weather, side of the hill the grapes grow on, etc., all impact the wine flavor. In Italy and France, people understand one year’s wine – same brand and type – may have a different flavor than another year’s.

A few more pictures of Macerata life:
This is the exterior of one of our city walls. You can tell it’s only a few centuries old because of the angle of the lower wall. When canons came along, they started reinforcing the lower parts of city walls.
This is the interior of our city’s theatre. Kim and I saw a Pirandello play, “Ma non e una cosa seria” (But it’s not a serious thing). Not only could I follow most of the play, but Kim could, too. Her Italian comprehension has come a long way (still speaking only a little though).
This is the interior of our cathedral. Macerata has 9 churches inside the city walls. Each is filled with art and history.
We had “Music Night” at Quatro Porte (4 Doors), a local student bar. Professor Zampa, who teaches the Italian history and culture class, helped us learn to sing some Italian songs. He’s a great guy.

Unfortunately I can’t take pictures in most of the churches we visit. One exception is in the Basilica of San Nicola of Tolentino. These frescoes were very impressive.
Finally, this statue is for my Ball State friends. It’s nothing tremendous, but I thought I’d have to show the San Nicola version of beneficence.

We’ve just returned from our 10 day break. I could put dozens of photos online, but it would take way too much time to upload. I’ll just try to provide the highlights.

We left Macerata and drove toward Vesuvius and Pompeii, both of which are located just south of Naples. It was a pretty drive, cutting across from East to West of the peninsula, crossing some very pretty mountains. Kim wants a T-Shirt that says “I survived Driving in Naples.” There is definitely a notable difference between northern and southern Italy. After spending a night on the outskirts of Naples, we went first to Vesuvius. We reached the info booth to the national park which we thought was near the top, but we still had 9 kilometers to drive. Great – more mountain driving. Kim was loving it – I was not. We got as far as you can drive. You have to walk the last kilometer, and a pretty steep incline. We probably would have done it despite the cold and $6/person, but the top of the mountain was in the clouds and we never would have been able to see the crater. We settled for this view of old lava flows (the last eruption was in 1948): if you look closely (through the haze) what looks like a gray river was lava.

From there we drove to Pompeii. Boy, is this place set up for tourists. Plenty of souvenir stands right outside the gate. Once you pay your admission, guides come to you right away offering you to join their group (for a price, of course). We had read that guides were really the best way to go because of the detail they can provide. In two hours we saw “the highlights,” including the main square. It’s amazing to think this was constructed 500 years B.C. Our guide also showed us phallic symbols (which “pointed” toward brothels), a brothel, and a wine shop with private rooms used by some of the clients to cavort with women. Nicole said she never learned about those things when they studied Pompeii in school. We spent another couple of hours walking on our own after the tour.

We spent the night at a hotel in Salerno, just a little further south. It was right on the Mediterranean. We paid half of what the hotel costs in the summer. Our ferry boat left from there the next day. Here was the sunset that evening.

It was about an 8-hour boat ride to Messina, the Sicilian city closest to the mainland, and home to my family. My mom actually grew up in Ganzirri, a small community outside the main city. Most of the activity is around the lake. The church in the center of the picture is where my parents were married 54 years ago. We went to mass there on Sunday.

In Messina we stayed with my cousin Cettina and her husband Matteo. Their daughter Pinella is on the left. From their patio, you can actually see the Straits of Messina and the southernmost part of the Italian mainland.

Here are Cettina’s grandkids: Piero and Matteo are Pinella’s kids. Agnese, the 2-year-old, belongs to their son Angelo. You can just barely see his wife Pinucia’s profile on the right.

Tanina is a cousin on my father’s side. She and her husband Nicola are here in their very impressive garden with Kim and Nicole. (Sicilians have great fruit and flowers.) We also met one of their sons, Dominic (who goes by Mimmo), their daughter-in law Teresa (married to their other son Valentino), and her son Nicola.

The quality of this picture stinks, but it’s impressive. This is actually a night picture of the fire erupting from Mt. Etna as seen from the hilltop tourist town of Taormina, about 33 miles away. The smoke was easier to see by day, but the flames were clearer at night. Nicole had hoped to stand on two volcanoes: Vesuvius and Etna. No one was allowed to get near Etna, so she had to settle for being able to say she stood on one and saw another erupting. We happened to bump into 5 of the American students who were also visiting Sicily over break.

Nicole also got the honor of splitting chestnuts for roasting (sounds like a Christmas song). Kim had never had chestnuts before and we discovered she’s allergic. She ate one and her mouth went numb. She didn’t eat any more.

On our way back north from Sicily, we spent a day in Sienna. The most recognized part is the main square, but we were more impressed by the cathedral. Sienna is definitely a tourist town – almost everyone there spoke some English. We ended up staying in a nice hotel – run by Germans. Really enjoyed the day we spent there and all three of us said we could easily have spent more time.

But, we had to get to Bologna to see other relatives. My Aunt Linda lives there (she was married to my mom’s brother, who passed away 2 years ago). Seven years ago she taught Nicole to sing the Italian version of “Frere Jacque” (sure that spelling is wrong), which Nicole still remembers.

Aunt Linda has two daughters. The older one is Rita, who now lives near Venice and came to town to see us. Her husband is Federico and her 9-month-old is Gabrielle.

My other cousin is Alessandra, with her husband Francesco and their children Giovanni (5) and Sofia (almost 3).