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Saturday 7 October 2017

Singapore bound

Friday was a 3am rise for the taxi to Galileo Galilei Aeroporto di Pisa.  No traffico.

This is the Alitalia aircraft that flew to Rome - a 50 minute flight. It was taken from inside the bus - hence the reflections.

Countryside seen flying into Rome.  Presumably the brown bits are the harvested areas.

And the Singapore Airlines A350 from Rome to Singapore.

According to Flight Path, this is Ashgabat in Turkmenistan.  There's a lot of folks living there with no need to switch of the lights.


Our last supper

Thursday night was our last dinner together.  We had the delights of a wine tasting and a demonstration of cooking risotto with porcini mushrooms and 'erbs.

The wine expert - the sommelier.


Fresh porcini mushrooms.
Cooking.  A happy chef!  Note the block of butter - most of had disappeared (into the pot) by the end of the process!
Cooking the mushrooms.

And later - note the remaining butter!

Friday 6 October 2017

Out and about in Lucca

Piazza San Michele.  Chiesa San Michele is on the right of the picture.
Look at those stairs!
Chiesa San Michele and campanile from the front.
Another case of "we can't decide which pillars we like".
Fancy running out of marble in Italy!  Chiesa Maria Bianca.
A saint of whom we have a photograph. Saint Gemma Galgani. You can kneel before her and put money in the tin at Chiesa San Pietro Somaldi.
Delis are always interesting.  Seen in one:

This is a close-up. I guess you can bake it or steam it.
Lunch.  Gee they do good pasta.  I will miss it. Succulent and meaty.  Have almost got used to olive oil on my tomatoes!
Well behaved dog.

Nonna! (grandmother).  As I was walking in the Piazza San Pietro Somaldi, I heard someone call out "nonna".  They meant me!!!  I thought it was someone asking directions, but it was a helpful local who wanted to make sure that I went into the church because it was "very good". Think I prefer Aunty - covers a wider range of ages!

Thursday 5 October 2017

Pietrasanta - Marble workshop.

Our first visit today was a marble workshop.  I finally got to see how all those marble statues get made.  It all begins with a block.  Some blocks are more valuable than others.  I gather the upper block is more valuable, because it is whiter.
Then a smaller model (a maquette) is made, then a full-size plaster cast.  The cast forms the basis for carving the marble. In the pic below, the cast is on the left. Now you know what "set in stone" means.

Measurements are transferred.

There is  tool for everything.  Chisels ain't chisels.

Then it all needs to be polished.  Religious statues get polished...

and architectural things get "highly" polished.
This is the master craftsman.  I don't know what the newspaper hat is all about, but pics on the internet also have this.  And they don't wear masks.  Marble is not toxic.
They take commissions.  This was one of them.
He commented that this one was particularly challenging.
And a detail.  It was translucent and just beautiful.
And they do use machines in the early stages.


An interesting snippet is that our visit was to Pietrasanta and this is their marble.  Most of us have heard of Carrara marble.  Michelangelo used carrara, and spoke less favorably about marble from Pietrasanta, but there is a rumour he was getting kickbacks from Carrara.  No ICAC in those days!

Pietrasanta - Duomo, and lunch

The Duomo, with the campanile on the left.

Campanile and close-up of the bell.
The Italians really do "buy local" - so there is plenty of marble.  Even the confessionals and pictures have marble frames.
The pulpit is marble too.  In the second pic you can see the marble stairs.  Apologies for the blurry stairs - it is not due to vino russo.
Lunch.  Steamed seafood salad ordered by another lady on our tour, and my ravioli with beef ragu (aka bolognaise sauce).



Walk through Compitese villages

On the way to the Compitese villages, the white areas in the mountains were pointed out to us - that was marble.  Not sure how well it comes out in pics.

On the walk.
A fontana (fountain) of fresh spring water.

Cyclamens in the wild!!!
A watch-tower - no bells here.
This is a close-up of the box is where the head of an executed prisoner was displayed as a deterrent.  None there today, and it seems a bird has moved in.  We speculated as to who got the job of climbing up to put the head in!
 And olive trees everywhere.  Here are a couple of close-ups.  Tried one but it was bitter.






Wednesday 4 October 2017

Walks, olive oil and Villa Oliva

A walk along the walls.
We had lunch at Fattoria Colleverde - Greenhill estate.  They produce olive oil and wine.
This is the olive oil explanation.
And a pic of the estate.
From our walk..

And the views.

We walked to Villa Oliva.
The front...
The back...
One of the supervisors - conversing in Italian.