The Great 2019 Tuscany Adventure

by Susan Schaefer

Dreamt about it for years, planned it for three and September 2019, Jeff and I did it. On Sept. 5th we boarded the WestJet Dreamliner bound for Paris and onward to Florence Italy.

The first week was a culinary adventure as we stayed at a Villa on the hills of Tuscany, surrounded by fields of grapes and olive groves. We took cooking classes using the flavours of Tuscany. We can’t say enough about this part of the trip only that we would highly recommend our hosts, www.organictuscany.com

We also did side trips. We went to the medieval city of Certaldo. There we tramped up to the fortress, stopping along the way to see frescoes that were over 1000 years old. (Fresco is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid, or wet lime plaster. With the setting of the plaster, the painting becomes an integral part of the wall).

One could only imagine Etruscan soldiers marching through the narrow streets. In fact, that night I had a hard time sleeping, as my mind kept running through the days images – like a slide show. Every day was like living 1000 years.

We had a visit and lunch at an organic orchard which has been in the family for many generations, an afternoon visit to an olive oil farm run by a baroness and

an evening tour and dinner in Sienna. As you look up and see how close the roof tops are to each other, our tour guide reminds of a famous chase scene in the James Bond 'Quantum of Solace' movie, filmed in Sienna.

For Island Arts Magazine, one of the highlights of our first week was a visit to Terry Davies Pottery Studio (see side story).

I was excited to start out week in Florence with a visit to the Uffizi Gallery. The Gallery is famous worldwide for its outstanding collections of ancient sculptures and paintings (from the Middle Ages to the Modern period). The collections of paintings from the 14th-century and Renaissance period include some absolute masterpieces: Giotto, Simone Martini, Piero della Francesca, Beato Angelico, Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, Mantegna, Correggio, Leonardo, Raffaello, Michelangelo and Caravaggio.

The Gallery boasts an invaluable collection of ancient statues and busts from the Medici family, which adorns the corridors and consists of ancient Roman copies of lost Greek sculptures. As this is quite a popular tourist attraction, we purchased our tickets for 8:15 am. They allow only 600 people into the gallery at a time. We were glad we went early, as we left the gallery we saw the huge line-ups of art lovers waiting to get in.

Standing in front of these paintings created by the masters was a humbling experience. After a couple of hours of seeing these Renaissance Rock Stars, my brain was once again over-saturated and, besides, it was time for lunch.

One of our day trips included a tour of Cinque Terra. Tourist books describe it as “centuries old seaside villages on the rugged Italian Riviera coastline. In each of the 5 towns, colorful houses and vineyards cling to steep terraces, harbors are filled with fishing boats and trattorias turn out seafood specialties along with the Liguria region’s famous sauce, pesto.” It did not disappoint as I see many future paintings inspired by that trip.

After a week of walking around Florence, we took the high speed train to Venice. Walking out of the train station – was magical as the water taxis and gondolas buzzed around the waterways. We walked a few miles that day, always in awe as we approached another canal – stopping for a photo op. My thoughts were “Could this be real?” It’s one thing to see this scenery in movies, but it’s a totally different thing to see and feel it in real life. Once again I was reminded of a scene from James Bond, Casino Royale.

20 days later we made our way back to Paris and boarded the DreamLiner bound for Calgary and then Comox. We bought some macaroons to munch on for the trip home – as we were in Paris and that is what you do. Oui?

Now back on beautiful Vancouver Island, I think, did this really happen? There are so many memories that will take us through our lifetime. I don’t have enough adjectives to describe our trip. One of them might be “mind-blowing”! ~