Italy - Jesi's girl 2025-05-19

 

Do not touch the wires; danger in death

Good to know and applicable in so many situations

As with most languages, Italian does not have several English letters, "J" being one of them.  They substitute, in this instance, and "I" for the "J", spelled Iesi, pronounced "E S E". Iesi is in the region of Le Marche and has a population of around 20,000. In looking at places we'd like to live, Iesi caught our attention. Small, but mighty, it has an opera house, an impressive art supply store, a train station and medical services. So, we took the early train from Florence, changing trains in Foligno (Fo lean o) to spend a whirlwind 24 hours in this lovely little town.

Iesi is about one hour west of Ancona - a port city - and pretty accessible. What we (I - Stacey) forgot to figure in was that it is SOUTH and HOTTER than Florence (which has been hotter than average) and whose mosquitos were out in force, so not a great start for me as I am heat intolerance and allergic to those flying blood suckers.

The Iesi train station is undergoing updates - as are most of the smaller ones on this route. As we found out later, it's a little underdeveloped area that is on the other side of the tracks (pun intended) from the city Centro (pronounced chentro - meaning Center). There is a distinct divide in socioeconomics from the rest of the city for about a five block radius. First order of business was to get rid of our day packs at the VRBO we rented. As has been our experience for the most part, communication was great and less than a half hour later we were on our way to find food. It was getting near La Pausa - the time when Italians close their stores/restaurants and rest for a few hours and then reopen around 3:30-4:00pm so the press was on. Smaller towns and places outside major city centers also observe La Pausa, so it's something we have structured our day around.

Iesi is a city of small streets and is hilly - SURPRISE (not). So cute!

JR found us Trattoria Antonietta for lunch. A small restaurant with seating for less than 20. The lovely owner, when we indicated we only knew a little Italian but were trying to do more, smiled, nodded and then spoke to us in slower and less complicated Italian - it filled my 'speak Italian with Joy' need as well as 'eat all the good food' need. I had a 'medium' carafe of house red, which was a large carafe everywhere else, along with strozzapreti, a pasta very similar to pici with butter, guanciale and cheese - DIVINE! JR had tagliatelle with ragu which I hear was also spectacular. After satiating our bodies and spirits, it was time for our La Pausa as well ;)

After a nap we walked around just enjoyed the town - and of course saw lots of street art in our pursuit of more good food.

 

Sunset from the lower portion of the city looking toward the church.

Italy - Jesi's girl Part Due 2025-05-20

 

Since we stayed in a B&B, they offer breakfast. Since this is a one-off and not part of larger place, they had plenty of juice, milk (yes, they have shelf stable liquid milk here), bread, butter, jam on the table and at 8:30am (on the dot) they brought us 2 brioche (croissant); one with marmalade and one plain. Delish! Fortunately, checkout time was late - up to 14:00 so we were able to leave our day packs and explore before our 14:25 train back to Florence.

Although the day before had been hot - thank goodness there was air conditioning in the apartment - the day dawned cool and breezy.  First stop - Cattedrale San Settimo. For such a small parish, this church was well appointed. It spoke of it's more working class economics while also being in keeping with the original and restorative efforts. The door was amazing, telling the story of Christ's birth on one side and death on the other. The church dates back to the 13th century.

We were lucky enough to step inside this beautiful space while the organist was practicing. The music filled this enormous space for something short of half of an hour. Organ music in a church setting is so inspiring.

We found a most fascinating museum - Palazzo Pianetti which combines a ground floor archeological exhibit, a first floor of medeivel and renaisance art, and a second floor of contemporary art. As a former palace of its time, the ceilings on the first floor were completely over the top. These figures may look three dimensional, but with clever shading aided by current lighting, the flat images seem to jump off the wall.

The museum contains works by Lotto as well as these fabulous apothecary jars. There were 3 sizes and were stunning to see side by side.

These were Stacey's 2 favorite art pieces from the rest of the exhibit.

Sights and street art:

Again, Iesi is a wonderful town with a major pedestrian street, and delightful 'hide and reveal' walking. We left there having enjoyed it's riches while also realizing for more permanent housing, this city is just too far south - hot, humid and mosquito laden. Admittedly, we've also become spoiled at our apartment in Florence as the owner has installed a slider screen on the balcony doors and screens in the bedroom for fantastic crossflow and for some of us, a little too cool environment.  We'll see what June brings ;)

Italy - A little 'Divine' intervention 2025-05-18

 

We've been here a little over a month at this point and had several groups of friends spend time with us, which has made for some wonderful memories and a great way to spend time with friends that we don't normally get to see. Florence is a great city outside of it's old town as well and the many historical buildings and art. Today we thought we'd go visit the home of Dante Alighieri, a small space and a modest exhibit. It was interesting but for me (Stacey) didn't live up to the hype.

What has caught our attention here and in other small towns was the new signs calling for a Free Palestine,

an inset in the walkway outside a Synagogue

And of course, the installation in the Piazza della SS Annunziata to Italian women who died at the hands of Domestic Violence. We saw this is on our first trip here and it has, sadly, only grown; it was only one bar of flags and now there are two.  Each flag represents one woman who has died by DV. Their name and age is written on the pink fabric.

On the walk home, there's a coffee bar that also offers board games such as DND and Chess.

Because we are here for an extended stay, we have tasted foreign food in a foreign land. Today, we decided to have some Mexican food at 'Make Tacos, not War'. The restaurant is like a Tardis - bigger on the inside than it looks - and the food (what does Mexican food taste like in Italy?) was awesome and legit. The chandelier was really lovely and reminded me of Chuys (IYKYK). The art was incredible and of course I couldn't not stop and get my pic taken with the fabulous metal wings installation.

It was a nice way to spend the day and be reminded that the world exists and there's still fights to be fought and food to be tasted.

Italy - Luuuuuuuccccccaaa, you've got some 'splainin to do 2025-05-15

Lucca is a walled city and has such an interesting vibe. Our friends JimH and Ann lived there before they lived in Siena and spoke of it fondly. It's a short one(ish) hour train ride from Florence. We had already planned to visit as it's the birthplace of Puccini but boy did we underestimate it's power.

Our first stop was breakfast to 'protein up' for the visit to Chiesa dei Santi Giovanni e Reparata and the accompanying Campanili (bell tower). I might have mentioned I'm (Stacey) afraid of heights so certain climbs - like the Duomo in Florence - are not appealing to me. However, this one was only 227 stairs (give or take 5) and so I 'medicated up' with some antianxiety meds and headed up.  The first 100(ish) steps are set in stone and a fairly easy climb. It leads to a large landing and then provides SEE THROUGH STAIRS AND RISERS for the remainder. I did NOT enjoy seeing what I just knew will be the fall to my death to the equivalent of 10 stories.

Fear notwithstanding, the meds allowed my brain to tell the voice to f*ck off and concentrate on the task at hand. The view was totally worth it. Pics or it didn't happen; amiright? There were four people up when we got there and we met a lovely couple from England who entered after us. Otherwise, the stairs were unimpeded by traffic. This works well for me because I wasn't pressed for time and could mute the voice. As usual, my stupid brain was, well, stupid, and we descended without having to pass anyone or plunge to our deaths.

The church itself is lovely and there is an entire archeological museum below (which we failed to see). The altar and pulpit are bronze reliefs.

My favorite sculpture/sarcophagus was The Beautiful Lady.

Religious iconography isn't my (Stacey)  favorite but I can appreciate fine craftsmanship when I see it. And also - how heavy is that crown - actual weight, we all know the metaphorical weight is incalculable.

Ever since seeing the Book of Kells, I am now taken with the beauty of other texts that have been enhanced with art.

Next up was the home of Puccini which would not have been possible without the dedication of his daughter in law, painted here by Cesar Monti, who died a few weeks before the opening.

Notes from the maestro on his music.

Costumes from Tosca

Costume from Madame Butterfly

After a small snackie, we decided to walk the walls of the city - appx 4km. It was a great way to enjoy the weather and appreciate the City that is Lucca. It's elevated so you get panoramic views. There's plenty of room to walk or bike your way around. Highly recommend.

Since, Lucca is the birthplace of Puccini and we ended our day with an aperitivo and then listening to "Puccini and Verdi" Opera selections in a small church. After filling up on the extraordinary music, we were able to take the last train back to Florence.

OH, and what city wouldn't be complete without a door and street art ;)