Heading North

October 14, 2003-Italian Jews
(photos:David in synagogue pulpit-Pitigliano,
Piazza del Campo-Siena)

We found two Jewish souls in Pitigliano. They are custodians of the history and artifacts of a vanished community of five hundred. It was with the help of the general population of Pitigliano as well as Tuscany that they re-built the old temple in 1995 and preserved parts of the ghetto. It was a haven for Jews from the time of Count Orsini until the 16th century when the Medicis took control. After the Medici rule things were good until the Nazis came in 1939. The Jewish woman we spoke to in Hebrew said that the townspeople hid the Jews in the countryside and kept moving them to keep them safe. There’s a family photo of a bar mitzvah celebration on display and she’s in it. She was six at the time. The temple is used once a year when Jews from Livano bring their torah and hold services.

All the rooms we toured were subterranean. The mikvah (ritual bath), winemaking rooms, slaughterhouse, and matzo bakery are carved from rock and gave us the feeling of being in caves. The aroma of wine lingered in the storage room as a haunting reminder. The synagogue itself had a central bimah (pulpit) with burnished wood seating around it. The room was plain yet dignified with wrought iron chandeliers and stark white walls. We stopped at the operating bakery next door that had “sephardic Hebraica” style goods. Sephardic Jews were those who lived in the Mediterranean countries rather than Eastern Europe. We bought pastry, bread, and matzo made in the round lacey pattern shown in the photos we’d just seen.

Siena

We left for Siena with a mission to do the town up quickly and spend the night just beyond Florence. The topography changed from rich dark soil to a golden sand color as we went north. The crops had been harvested so it appeared that villas were marooned on sand dunes. David considers himself lucky that we only bought that ceramic fountain in Orvieto and not a villa. They’re entrancing and alluring, but so far, resistible. There was more industry along the road and the architecture changed from stone to stucco and brick. For those of you who remember our quest for black sheep in Australia you’ll be happy to know we did see one today in Tuscany.

We would have been more taken with Siena had we not seen Orvieto and Pitigliano. Siena lacks their charm and comes in a far 3rd. One of the great things about medieval towns is their curving streets and hills. That’s also one of the negatives. We trekked uphill most of the time and wandered every alley to find the Piazza del Campo. It’s said to be the prettiest square in Italy. I haven’t seen them all but I’ll take the word of the experts. It’s a large bricked piazza surrounded by colorful multi-storied buildings featuring a bell tower. The square has at times served as a Roman forum, a city market, a place of executions, and an arena for bull fights.

We paid homage to yet another Gothic-Romanesque Duomo. This one was started in the 13th century but construction had to stop due to the black plague. It took until the 15th century to complete. This exterior was wrapped in green and white stone stripes. The inlaid marble floors had elaborate pictures telling biblical tales and geometric optical illusion designs. Looking down from the ceiling were carved heads of all the popes to the time of completion. Karen thought it looked like a collection of bobblehead dolls. Michelangelo was to do several statues for the church but had only completed two when he got the commission for the David and went to Florence. We got a chuckle over the Piccolomini Library. The room was done with elaborate frescos but for those of you who went to camp you might remember a song whose only word was “piccolomini.” I never realized it was a person and a very wealthy one at that. There was a EU5.50 entry fee for the church and a EU0.50 charge to use the rest room. Even though this was a knock your socks off cathedral we resented the charges. The others had been free.

Signs and Portents

Speaking of socks, we ate a simple lunch of pasta and divine bruschetta and almost encountered a miracle or our own. I looked down at David’s right sock and thought it had blood on it. It turned out to be tomato from the bruschetta, but we thought we might be able to declare it the miracle of the bleeding sock. We imagined “sepulcher of the sock” and the “tomato stigmata.” It may have been because we were giddy but we were definitely irreverent. No, Karen didn’t wet her pants this time.

We found such a safe place for the car in a pay lot that it took us an hour of walking those darn hills and asking directions until we found it again. Little did we know but it was a portent of things to come. As we passed Florence and started looking for a place for the night we realized that all the hotels were booked. It was 9 PM when we pulled into Barbarino (as in Vinnie). We hadn’t panicked yet, but I was already trying to figure out how all four of us would sleep in the car. Ron and I had been turned away from six hotels and decided that we had bad karma. We sent Karen into the 7th and she got lucky. It’s a small family run place with a basket of children’s toys in the sitting room. I have no idea what the name of this hotel is. The bars of soap seem to indicate it might be Albergo Il Cavallo. Toothbrushes and paper slippers are provided in the rooms, which made us suspicious this might be a pay-by-the-hour establishment. It’s clean, the bathroom fixtures are new, and the shower doesn’t wet the floor. The rate is EU70 including breakfast. Life is good.

We’re in between heating and air-conditioning season here so I’ve started writing the emails in bed with the computer on my lap. It warms me up before I go to sleep. The temperature has been in the low 70’s during the day and down to high 50’s at night. It will probably get colder as we near Venice tomorrow. Gondolas ahoy!

Toby