The Leaning Tower, Italy, Assissi and Perugia

Flag of Italy

I heard that they are trying to set the  leaning tower of Pisa upright. Tourist love to be photographed leaning as if holding it up. They also climb it for a view.

 Any suggestions for the revised name? The non-leaning Tower of Pisa? The Upright Tower of Pisa. The pushed up tower of Pisa.

I put out a request for new names on Facebook. My friend Maggie from Writers Summer School suggested Realigned. That inspired my new thoughts, remodeled, recycled, reinvented, upright, uptight. .

 Perhaps a children's story? The Tower of Pisa, the Princes and the Pea. 

I heard it cost a lot of money to right it. The Loaning Tower of Pisa. 

The No Longer Leaning Tower of Pisa. The Not Leaning Tower of Pisa. The Slightly Leaning Tower of Pisa. The Ex Leaning Tower of Pisa. The Righted Tower of Pisa. 

Maybe somebody else can build a leaning tower. Enter at your own risk. The leaning tower near Pisa.

 Why not just add retaining ramps like flying buttresses. The leaning tower of Pisa Cathedral. 

Or build a second tower leaning towards it with a cross beam, like the Malaysian twin towers. 



Flag of Singapore

Or add two more towers, the central one upright, creating a hotel and shopping complex with an infinity pool on top, like Singapore's Marina Bay Sands.

I can see somebody saying, you should get out more. I can imagine somebody else saying, you should stay in more.

For those of us who have already seen Pisa and Florence and the beaches of Viareggio, what next?

St Francis St Francis The patron saint of Italy is St Francis. You can see many frescoes and sites associated with him in Assissi and elsewhere in Umbria. 

Umbria and Perugia
See my other posts on Umbria. Make sure you see the capital city of Perugia, with is massive Etruscan gate set into the cliffside. 



Etruscan gateway into Perugia, capital city of Umbria in Italy.Photo from Wikipedia.

Walk uphill on the cobblestones to the piazza with the fountain and cathedral at the top. 

So many cities on the hilltops in Umbria. Your tour bus drops you at the car park or by the roadside and off you go uphill through the steep quiet old streets to a cafe or restaurant at the top, or a church or museum with murals of St Francis. You feel like a character in one of those medieval paintings. 

Agritourisme
If you really want to go back to nature or back in time you can stay on a farm. Or in a restored medieval castle, or take the trail across the countryside from one St Francis site to the next. I went by minibus, back to a lovely castle hotel.

You can have a homestay in a guest house painted like  cathedral, marry in a teeny chapel in the building before flopping into bed in the room next door.

If you would rather pay more and see the place in style, you will find a wonderful spa hotel where you can sit chatting to old and newfriends in the water by while being massaged by the jets, and the sky darkening to stars overhead. As the sky turns from sun to stars and when it turns from warm to cool, retired to the indoor pool or a leisurely restaurant.

Umbria is the twin sister of Tuscany, and many tourists like to see both in one trip. Umbria also had a chocolate festival which is bound to feature the Perugian chocolate with silver foil wrapper, Perugian kisses.

The other local Umbrian speciality sweetmeat is truffles, savoury truffles, which can be flavouring for anything from an egg starter to a meat main course, or a truffle flavour chocolate to go with your coffee.

Dates for your diary:
I like summer in Italy, but you might like autumn or winter. If so:
October chocolate festival in Perugia
December in Assissi. (Away in a manger!)

Ciao!

To mug up on italian:
duolingo.com

Useful Websites
umbriatourism.it
http://www.montesubasio.it/en/assisi-christmas-nativity/
http://www.italia.it/en/home.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_of_Assisi

Author
Angela Lansbury, Travel Writer and Photographer, author and speaker. Please save and share links to your favourite posts.

See Rossi, Multiple Motorcycle Winner On Home Ground In Italy

Flag of Italy

Problem
How do you get a good seat when Rossi is announced in pole position (front of the racers at the start of the race)? Some enthusiasts sleep overnight in 'seats' ready for the next day, after the day when pole position is announced. They know that after the announcement that Rossi is in pole position, there will be even greater demand for the best seats.

Go online and you can watch the race, and previous races. You can see the yellow smoke from supporters celebrating. The supporters of Rossi are wearing yellow caps and yellow tee-shirts.

The red white and green of the Italian flag edges the circuit. Britain and public roads worldwide have yellow no parking lines along the edges of roads. Italy has red white and green. Like sitting inside a giant colourful cake.

My family are wearing headphones watching re-runs of races on the largest screen in the home. They race to the supermarkets in England every Wednesday to buy Motorcycle News.

Rossi has won for about ten years, from about the age of 19 to 29 and though he might be ageing a bit and past his peak and slowing down he is still highly successful and highly popular everywhere, but especially in his homeland.

My family went to Italy, to Tuscany, one year to watch. They recall, "It's a wonderful circuit, up in the mountains. A great ride up and terrific views. Unique. Nowhere else like it."

See next post on what else to see in Tuscany and neighbouring Umbria.
(See my previous posts on Umbria.)

Italian Spelling and Pronunciation
Note that in Italian a soft c (like the s sound in Venice, with a z becoming ts as in Venezia, and Ufizzi, and instead of K for hard sounds like the English word kick, a double c followed by h, as in Pinocchio and Vecchio). In English we place an e after the hard g to make a J sound, as in garage, but in Italian you double the g, as in Viareggio.

UK
Visit the national motorcycle museum.

USA and Worldwide
In the USA and worldwide many motor museums display not just cars but also motorbikes. See my previous posts on Harley and other museums.

Useful Websites
REPLAYS / TICKETS
www.motogp.com
UK
http://www.nationalmotorcyclemuseum.co.uk/product-category/books/biographies-rider-profiles/valentino-rossi/
ITALY
Airlines:
www.alitalia.com
pinocchio.it Park to entertain the children, with a butterfly house and the popular puppet, Pinocchio.

Learn Italian online for free:
https://www.duolingo.com/course/it/en/Learn-Italian-Online
I have several posts about learning Italian and other languages. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Author, Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Where To Find Italian Chianti And What To Notice

Problem
Where does Chianti come from and how will I find one I like?

Answer

Chinati has been called, "The unmistakable Taste of Tuscany". Tuscany is the area on the West coast of Italy.

I went to a guided tasting at Prowine Singapore in 2018 when we tasted six different wines, with information from speaker Edwin Soon. He told us that the Chianti region has hills to catch the sun, and terraces to stop erosion. A river keeps the temperature even, not too cold in winter, but cools the vineyards in summer. Too much water leads to watered down wine.

Where Is It From

Chianti comes from a region stretching between Rome and Pisa and Florence. A prime attraction in Tuscany is the leaning tower of Pisa, leaning like a tipsy bottle of wine. Since these are some of the most popular tourist destinations, if you've been to Italy the chances are you have drunk wine from the local Chianti region, whether or not you knew it, chose it and liked it.

In the old days there was plenty of cheap Chianti, drunk young and not necessarily good, in a bulb-shape bottle, so it had not established a great reputation. However, local producers got together to enforce standards and classify the wines so buyers knew which was which.

The locals wanted to protect their regional name and identity.  Now you will see D.O.C . , quality wine from a specified region the Italian equivalent of the French AOC, Appelation or name, of Origin Controlled, in Italian D.O.C. Denomination of Origin Controlled.

Chianti Classico
I assumed that Chianti Classico was old style, like Classic Coc Cola. I was wrong. Chinati Classico is a region.

What about D. O. C. G?  The extra G for some wines shown on the labels? G stands for guarantia, guaranteed, the upper stratum, or very best of the DOCs.

What is the difference between a co-operative and a consortium? A co-operative is a group which co-operates, operates together, to make wine. A consortium is a group, a trade body, people who have already made wine who come together to market and sell it.

If you get a chance, on holiday or business, go to a place which offers tastings so that you can compare wines, or order two different wines or glasses of wine with a meal and make a note of which you prefer and why?

Red and White
For years I did not drink red wine. It tasted sour and gave me headaches. Later I larned this was due to tannins. Is it an allergic reaction, or just an intolerance? An allergic reaction would make my eyelids and mouth swell up. Panic-stricken. An intolerance just makes me feel headachey and nauseous. Unhappy.

Dry or Sweet?
Do you prefer a dryer or sweeter wine? Can you tell the difference when drinking a wine of a specific good year? I discovered that I like sweet wine and if it's dry the year doesn't matter to me because I don't like it anyway so no point in paying more for myself.

I tried five dry wines, and the Chianti Rùfina D O C G Riserva 2011 had a distinctive aroma. If I had to choose a dry wine to please others or to go with savoury food or because I had no chance to choose a sweet wine, this is the one I would go for.

Colours of red wine.

Compare the colours of two wines of different ages. The one on the right is browner and older. Wines deepen in colour as they age, like apples going brown. Like ripening fruit, the wines from late-picked grapes are sweeter.

Many people would choose a sweet wine only to go with sweet food, with dessert. My firm favourite was the sweet Chianti - I had not even known anybody made sweet Chianti. The one I sampled was Vin Santo del Chianti Monespertoli D O C Riserva 2007.

How can we remember the name? Vin Santo means holy wine. Del Chianti means of the Chianti region. Monte - mountain. Spertoli - that's the only hard part to remember. I'll just think of myself and the wine maker as experts. Montespertoli. It is a riserva, reserved from 2007, not just bottled early and sold off cheaply when it was plentiful, but has already spent more than ten years maturing.

Italian - English
colli - hill
del - of (the)
consorzio - consortium
Fiorentini - from Florence
Superiore - superior or better
Riserva - reserved or saved - extra special, worth your time and money reserving it and storing it to sell later
santo - saint
vin - wine
vin santo - holy wine
vino - wine (noun)

Useful websites
WINES FROM CHIANTI IN ITALY
General Information
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chianti
Information from the Chianti suppliers
www.consorziovinochinati.it
READING WINE LABELS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_wine_terms
TRAVEL TO ITALY
http://www.italia.it/en/home.html
WIKIVOYAGE
Information in the free encyclopaedia without the advertisements.
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Chianti
WIKITRAVEL
The free travel website which also carries advertising which could be handy if you are ready to book and need companies and prices.
https://wikitravel.org/en/Chianti
TRIPADVISOR
Reviews from members of the public plus travel ads and price comparisons.
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g187895-c3060/Florence:Italy:Tuscany.Chianti.html

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts. See later post on tannins and quality.

Novelty Photos You Can Try - Wearing A Welsh Hat, Holding Up The Eiffel Tower

Problem
How can I do a different personalised photo?

Answer
Put yourself in a picture like this:
1 Wearing a hat at an exhibition.
2. Holding up a building.
Favourites are the Eiffel Tower and the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I've also seen similar things done in Cambodia at temples. You can do similar tricks with falling walls.

In Prague, Czech Republic, adults and children alike pose beside a naked man fountain in front of the Franz Kafka museum.

You can also pretend to fight dinosaurs, and do similar trick photos with statues.

Stories
I wanted a photo of myself next to Jemima, the Welsh heroine.When I saw that one model of the Welsh heroine, Jemima, was wearing a hat, I realised I could be photographed wearing the hat.
www.visitwales.com

Travel Tips
https://www.visitbritainshop.com/world/ (trips, tours, offers: London; England, Scotland, Wales)
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk (You get the UK version when you log in from the UK)

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.
Please share links to your favourite posts.

Angela Lansbury and Welsh hat at The Last Invasion Tapestry museum alongside the library in The Town Hall, Fishguard, Wales. Photo copyright Angela Lansbury.

What the news teachers travellers, builders and planners

Even on a sunny day, hiking in Romania, after a day of rain, an 'easy' level path had a pond.
Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Problems
What can the news teach us about safety, before and after major events?

Answers
Do you work or deal with people who work in hotels, restaurants, construction or insurance? Most of us do every year, every month, every week, every day.

This year I have read news items about the fire in the Grenfell skyscraper in London, terrorist attacks worldwide, crocodile, lion, dog and animal attacks, earthquakes in Turkey and Greece and floods and Tsunamis. Today I looked at photos and videos of people hiding under desks to avoid flying objects in an earthquake in Turkey, and Kos island in Greece, and a toppled minaret, and a chair and pushchair delaying people rushing out of a restaurant.

My first thought on seeing the toppled minaret was, haven't we learned anything from the Leaning Tower of Pisa? Towers are an example of seeking attention, rather than thinking of health and safety.

Why do we need towers? Church towers with bells and minarets can be used to summon people to prayers. Clock towers can be used to signal time to all. Flag masts atop towers can be used to signal welcome, royals in residence, danger, or at half mast to signal mourning. High towers in Italy were used by rich, rival families to advertise their importance. The highest tower in the world nowadays gets into the Guinness book of records. Tallest, like biggest, is a sales attraction for tourists, status seekers, investors.

But just as cars are nowadays required by law to fit seat belts, and other safety devices, which began as novelties and rarities, in some new models, in all new models, in older ones adapted at great cost, prices come down, in all or most, in some or all countries, so with building regulations.

What can the tourist do?

DOCUMENTS / INFO /FINANCE IN POCKETS
What should you do? If you are ultra cautious, in an ideal world you have copies of all vital documents including credit card, phone and phone numbers in pockets so you don't delay yourself and others taking luggage.

Luggage Delays
Imagine the plane is filling with smoke, like it did in a plane this month (July 2017). You don't want delay getting luggage out from overhead. Nor do you want people obstructing the aisle with wheelie bags. Sometimes your luggage is at the other end of the place because the locker was full.

Chutes
You can't or shouldn't take your carry on luggage when exiting from an aeroplane via a chute. The luggage falls to the bottom. You hurl into it, fall over it, obstruct your quick exit. Don't delay yourself and everybody. Duty free drinks bottles break and cut your feet which are without shoes if you were on the plane without shoes or had to removed high heeled shoes.,

This is the path on day one, the easiest day, on a hiking holiday in Romania. Two toads are clearly seen in the middle. Several more camouflaged until they move and swim. The mud on the side is slippery. I fell once and covered my clothes in mud. The mud sucks your shoes. Better to wade through the water. Try not to wet your shoes, slip in the mud, kill the toads. This is good weather on a good day. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Waterproof Boots
I looked at people in a tsunami flood in Greece and Turkey. Only the emergency services and park rangers and nearby residents had access to their waterproof above the ankle boots. When going by car, I am thinking about packing waterproof boots or Wellingtons in the car boot (called car trunk in America).

Even in a minor flood and puddles boots mean your feet stay dry. In deeper water, they can protect your lower legs from wet, and dirty, flood water, as well as surface and hidden underfoot debris.  Plus wildlife. Toads in shallow puddles.

Waterproof kniee-length boots, used for gardening, wet and snowy weather, known as Wellingtons, or the style of Wellington boots. Bought by mail order from shop advertising on Ebay. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Tips
News updates from news sources found on Google and from travel agents who have their own bulletins
https://www.ttgmedia.com/news/news/tourists-killed-as-aegean-sea-earthquake-strikes-greece-and-turkey-10979?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Midday%20Bulletin

The UK Foreign office has guides for travellers from Britain on British passports but the safety advice may be applicable to others going to specific countries. Here's just one example of the safety and security webpage for Japan.

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/japan/safety-and-security
Author, Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.