A bit of Italia as I remember it - or almost

We just returned from our little trip to the countryside. And I made peace with Italy - at least to some extend. We decided to explore the Marche a bit - an Italian province to the southeast of Tuscany and bordering on the Adriatic Sea. This is the region where we some time back thought we would buy our winter house - when and if we ever buy a winter, or any season house - and we thought it a good idea to actually have a look at the region before buying houses there ;-) So we took off in pouring rain over the Apennin mountain range in our little rental. The temperatures dropped to 4 degrees Celsius, which is almost freezing, with heavy clouds - my favorite kind of weather - not! It reminded me of a particularly bad November day in my home town of Konstanz which "enjoys" lots of fog in November due to the lake. Anyway, with suicidal thoughts due to seasonal depression we reached Sansepolcro, a nice little town which technically speaking still is in Umbria but close enough to the Marche to count. We got out of the car and the rain intensified so we walked around for a few minutes - even Max was asking for a jacket - and then sought shelter in a bakery (a dangerous place to seek shelter). The rain hadn't stopped when we emerged three tortinas later and so we hurried to the car thinking "this could be nice, if only ..."

An hour later we reached Urbino, one of the most written up towns of the Marche and, indeed, it is lovely. An old town surrounded entirely by a wall, historic buildings wherever you turn, if they are restored it has been done in style. To boot it has a university - tiny as it is - and therefore lots of young people hanging around the Piazza de la Republica and having beers and slices of pizza. Urbino is another of those "work-out towns" like Frigiliana was with many stairs and steep steep streets which you can only walk and living here would certainly keep you fit. We found ourselves a hotel 30 seconds from the Piazza but far enough away to be quiet with a reasonably large bathroom for Uli and I to spend the evening, and set out to do some more exploring. We found a couple of playgrounds and a piece of modern art that looked like a canon - at least in Max's mind - a bunch of "iglesias" (no real candles) and enough pigeons to chase to keep Max happy. Dinner was a couple of slices of pizza in some student hangout - far preferable and cheaper than the ristaurantes which where on the expensive side and completely empty during this pre-season time. There is hardly anything more uncomfortable than having dinner with a tired child in an empty restaurant so the pizza place with the other kids of all ages suited us just fine. It was refreshing to walk around a town and hear mostly Italian, see mostly Italians and do as the Italians do - not as the Italians think the tourists think the Italians should do.

The next morning, bright and early, or rather more early than bright, Max woke me up by whispering something about canons into my ear and I decided it would be a good time to take an early morning stroll now that I was awake and the chance of me going back to sleep where zero. So I left the guys to the TV set (Italian, English, German and Dutch stations) and took a refreshing morning hike around town shooting some pictures. I have to admit, though, that shooting landscapes and in general "postcard sights" appeals less and less to me. It is much easier to buy a postcard than to wait for that particular orange evening light that bathes the city in that particular sheen (or rather use photoshop to make an ordinary picture look like the city is bathed in that particular orange evening light). I really care most about photographing people - openly or stealthily - these days. Anyway, it is always interesting to watch a city wake up and if I could just drag my lazy butt out early more often I would certainly shoot more interesting pictures - but I hate to get up early and need to do more than my fair share with the Maxenator.

Later we had another little walk around town and decided - as much as we like it - we wouldn't want to live here. The whole place is too close and tight with the narrow steep streets and the wall surounding it all. But we thought it would be a great idea for Max to spend a summer semester here during his studies so we could come and visit. By the time we are done with this sabbatical we'll have poor Max's study plan - or at least study locations - all worked out for him. No idea what we'll do if he wants to go study in LA or Phoenix when was supposed to be in Urbino.

We took off around midday in the general direction of the adriatic coast but decided not to stop there. The high-rise building from afar where more than I could take - and so we kept going south and eventually back west to Ascoli Pizeno, the capital city of the southern Marche - for all that's worth - and found another cute little town with intact "centro storico" and about a church per inhabitant. As any self-respecting capital Ascoli has suburbs which aren't nice to look at but the historic center is just charming. The city was originally all build with travertine - a light colored stone - that gives it a unified and very light feel. The Piazza del Populi is an amazing square piazza, surrounded by beautiful old buildings and more than that - it has a good vibe. An all Italian vibe, a sitting-on-the-piazza-enjoying-life kind of vibe, an Nothing-bothers-me kind of vibe, the feeling that makes you want to have a glass of local wine and just sit there talking about Wittgenstein's philosphoy or neuroscience or another topic you now nothing but all of a sudden feel extremly knowledgable about. And that would actually be a really nice way to waste an afternoon if it wasn't for that little boy who wants to go over to the construction site, stand there with all the retirees and watch the guys (1 working, 1 giving instructions,1 playing with the equipment, 2 taking a really long break) putting a new layer of concrete down and keeps telling you about the proper use of landmines as seen this very morning on TV when some stupid carton was on that showed Tweedy bird blowing up the cat - whatever-its-name-is - with landmines. I could take a little detour now talking about the appaling amount of violence kids see on TV when watching "childrens' programs" and the uproar that ensues in the US when a naked boob is seen anywhere on TV - but I will be strong and resist this temptation - at least for the time being.

Anyway, we walked around town and up to hill and down again and saw like 50% of the churches - fake candles only - and piazzas and Max learned to identify all the cars around and now knows every Fiat, Citroen and Renault by heart. He will be in for a bad surprise when he notices that nobody in the US even knows these car manufactures exist, let alone drives one of those so-called "shoe-boxes" and his newly aquired knowledge is therefore absolutely useless. Anyway, I also taught him about BMWs and Mercedes', Toyotas and VWs he knows anyway because we drive them.

We caught a few glimpses of a wedding taking place in the Duomo and were watching people for a bit while Max was doing what he calls "difficult yoga" on the little stage that was erected for next day's festival "Fritto Mixto" - a food fare where fried food from all over the world (well all over Italy with Tempura and Fish & Chips thrown in for an international flavor) are being featured.

We spent a night in a hotel that hasn't seen any renovation since the 70s and that includes the TV set. Honestly, I have never seen such an old and tiny TV set and trust me, I have seen the old and tiny. Internet access was through dial-up, I mean, that is stone age, who uses dial-up these days? Does it even exist anymore? Isn't it punishable, at least in Silicon Valley, or at the very least a serious offense against good manners and appropriate technology usage. So we sat in the bathroom, Uli reading his Italian crime story and me making leopard print skull illustrations (rellay) in photoshop and reading Harry Potter (I have to admit, even me, the one with the serious aversion against Top 10 bestseller is finally reading - and enjoying - it).

This morning we walked about 10,000 stairs up to the Fortezza and had another leisurely hour of Max shooting cannons, crackers, pistols, land mines and then we took off. A quick stop at the coast convinced me that I never need to go near the Adriatic coast north of Calabria again. Andalucia was touristy but at least the hotels and buildings seemed to have been build within the last 15 years, here, however, we are talking deep 70s and we all know what time will do to a nice slap of cheap concrete. I can't really put my fingers on why it was so drepressing to me, Uli thought it was okay, but the artifical beach (bulldozer marks from hauling the sand in still showing), the restaurant that didn't have half the things on the menu and those 70s concrete highrises gave me the creeps. They had a nice bakery, though. Chocolate is always a good way to make me feel more positively about a place so I will say that: they had really nice affordable cookies.

Now we are back in Firenze - got back just in time for another game of Fiorentina agains I-don't-even-wanna-know in the nearby soccer stadion. Parking was a b....

All in all a nice little outing, where I found some of the Italian feel and vibe I have treasured for so many years and almost thought they lost it (or I am no longer able to feel it). Still not sure I would ever want to life here. Everytime I am trying to say something, anything, it comes out in Spanish. Maybe it's a sign and my next ex-pat location should be Spain or Mexico. Too complicted to answer tonight after all the Prosecco I had - that, I have to say, they still do right.