Umbrian Wine Tasting

For many years I've had the good fortune to take tour groups to Tenuta le Velette winery in Umbria for tastings.  Hosted by Cecelia, the latest matriarch of the Botai wine making family, my groups always have a memorable experience here under the Umbrian sun.  But I don't believe I've ever blogged about it.  The estate is located about 10 kilometers from photogenic Orvieto.  In fact, the view from the terrace overlooks rows of vines across to the famous cathedral on the tufa stack that hosts the town. The history of the estate is long and illustrious.  Etruscans carved out cellars in the soft tufa soil, storing grains, wine, and anything else needing preservation.  Turns out, the natural underground keeps wine at a near perfect temperature for storage.  Part of the tasting is a trip down into the cellars - up to 3000 years old.  Later the Romans made wine in the area. Then in the middle ages the monks of a nearby monastery continued the tradition.  In the 19th century the Counts Negroni sold the property to the Botai family.  The region, famous for its crisp, light whites is perfect for wine production. The climate is near perfect plus the tufa soil has all the right minerals and holds water like a sponge for the vines.

We gather in an elegant dining room in the manor house of the estate for our tasting. We taste 2 whites, a red, and a dessert wine while having a wonderful picnic lunch of cheeses, meats, pizzas, and Torta alla Nona (Grandma's Cake) for dessert. Appropriately, the ceiling is frescoed with images of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine.  We taste great wine, sample some fun food, take some memorable photos, and create great memories of our time in central Italy.

San Clemente - Lasagne di Roma

Over the years Rome has been one of my favorite tour destinations.  That is likely due to my fascination with history.  There is no other city in the world to compare with Rome when it comes to layers of history.  Ancient, early Christian, Medieval, Catholic, Renaissance, Baroque, and modern Rome are layered one upon the other like a lasagna.  As a guide and tour operator, I love peeling back the layers to look at what is below.  The whole city is like a great scavenger hunt through the ages.

Among Rome's many, many great sights, my favorite "lasagna" experience is the Basilica of San Clemente.  A stone's throw from the Colosseum, this amazing little gem is largely overlooked by tourists.  Yet for those in the know, it is a treasure.  The 12th century church boasts some of Rome's best mosaics.  The apse mosaic is particularly impressive with the very unusual element of an acanthus plant at the foot of the cross.  I find that fascinating because the acanthus plant was a symbol of eternity (I guess because it is essential a weed that never dies) for the ancient, therefore pagan, Greeks.  Also, there is a hand (the hand of God) reaching right out of the clouds to signify God's participation in the apse scene. The entire upper church is a great example of the constant recycling of materials one sees throughout Rome.

Before the age of Romanticism, the ancient past was not valued and leftover bits of ancient Rome were seen as readily available (and free) building materials in the poor Middle Ages.   The shrewd observer will note that none of the columns match.  The floor is decorated with smaller pieces of marble, probably taken from the forum.  Tiny pieces were also used to decorate lamps and candlesticks.  This style, copied all over Italy, is named for the family that developed the  technique in the 13th century - Cosmatesque, named for the Cosmati family.

But far more impressive than the mosaics and recycled antiquities is that fact that the Basilica sits atop a 4th century church, long forgotten in the mists of time until a priest discovered supporting arches within a plastered wall.  When he investigated, he found the second church, buried and forgotten underneath.

Archeological excavations ensued, revealing some of the oldest mosaics and earliest known Christian graffiti in the Eternal City. And low and behold, the 4th century church was built on the ruins of a pagan temple dedicated to Mithras from the first or second century.  For a fee visitors can descend into the excavations to view the mosaics, graffiti, ancient altars, and even a copy of the altar of Mithras found underneath (original now in a museum).  Like a Disney ride, it is a journey through time - or at least through a physical metaphor of the Roman lasagna effect.

H. Bosch - Ahead of His Times

I recently concluded a tour that included the incomparable Venice.  Many other cities in the world try to compare themselves to Venice, but it is all mere marketing.  There is only one Venice, unique in the world.

One of the sights one visits in Venice is the Accademia Museum, the great painting gallery of the Venetian Renaissance. Replete with Titians, Bellinis, Tintorett's, Tiepolos, Veroneses, Giorgiones, and Canalettos, it is a world class gallery.  Currently the Accademia has a special exhibit of the Flemish painter Hieronymous Bosch who apparently spent some time in Venice before making dishwashers.  Apart from having one of the all time great first names (though he probably was teased as a child) he was a successful late 15th century artist. That success seems to defy all reason for me.  Not that his art is not fascinating, arresting, and thought provoking - all good things in art.  But rather that his art was sought out 500+ years ago.  Bosch's paintings are full of fantastical creatures, phantasmagorias, and nightmarish scenes. Fraud would have a hay-day with this guy and, in fact, Bosch's art would have resonated with Sigmund's contemporary, Salvador Dali.  Dali clearly drew some inspiration from Bosch, and the kindred spirit of subconscious angst is obvious.  I bet Timothy Leary was a fan as well.

Prior to this Venetian exposure, I had only seen a couple Bosch paintings in Belgium and his magnum opus, The Garden of Earthly Delights, in the Prado in Madrid. I had been fascinated with this artist from the moment I laid eyes on "The Garden" in an art history class decades ago.  It is a very modern, even post-modern painting by an artist centuries ahead of his time.  The best I can do to understand his late Medieval appeal is to remember how superstitious Europeans were five+ centuries ago and remind myself that the Renaissance had not yet evolved into the Age of Reason where science would begin to unlock the mysteries of the universe.  I guess our subconscious fears of hell, eternal damnation, and purgatorial punishment are hardly new ideas.  Dante did I nice job launching that ship with his circles of hell and mental images of fire and brimstone.  And Bosch's depiction of a naked soul in a tunnel of light fits the prevailing interpretation among modern psychologists - a near death experience.  Perhaps Bosch had such an experience.   Maybe he experimented with psychotropic drugs.

Despite my lack of understanding, I'm a little closer to clarity after this visit.  I read the captions beneath the Bosch installments and learned that the various Stregozzo (his mythical creatures) were seen as representations of the temptations and/or weakness of the flesh.  That would fit into what I understand of the general Medieval mindset.  Even so, I marvel at how paintings such as those on display in the Accademia ever made it into churches.

Florentine Guerilla Street Art

I had noticed the funny artistic additions to Florence's street signs over the years without really taking a close look. This time around I started to get the joke. Clet Abraham, a street artist, has been secretly adding clever images to the street signs in Florence for the past half decade or so.  A Frenchman, Clet has taken up residence here and his street art has been seen in other Italian and European cities as well.  But Florence, like for the Renaissance 500 years ago, is ground zero.  His favorite target seems to be the do not enter signs - red disks with a white horizontal bar.  Their message of rejection seems to be too much for Clet to ignore.  The number of visual puns inspired by these simple "no-go" signs is truly prolific.  The art is both provocative and simply pleasant.  This time in Florence I did like thousands of fans before me and engaged in a "Clet sign" urban scavenger hunt.  They are everywhere.  And almost without exception, they make one smile.  And sometimes they make one think. What I managed to perceive this time around is that they are not here simply to amuse, which they certainly do, but also to protest in a polite and clever way.  More than anything else, and taken collectively, the street sign art of Clet Abraham is a quiet and creative call to simply get along.  It is a call to question the creeping constraints on society present in all western cultures - both by our increasingly bureaucratized government institutions and from our own fears and anxieties.  It is an entreaty to officials to not be so stern and a clarion for citizens to not forget the age-old Italian attitude of enjoying the journey of life, not just the destination.  For me, the ubiquitous presence of Clet signs added an amusing and Quixotic element to well trodden and familiar streets.  And isn't that what art is all about?

Venice Wanderings

Although I've been to Venice many times with many tours, if one looks, there are always new nooks and crannies to discover.  Such was the case this time when I had a new local guide for our backstreets walk.  New and fun discoveries ensued. First, we stumbled onto the most photogenic, absolutely ancient vintage book seller I've ever seen.  Piled in a narrow courtyard, unprotected from the weather, were hundreds upon hundreds of old books.  It made an old archivist like me both salivate and recoil in horror (an archivist's main job it to insure the preservation of materials).

Next our guide took us to a bridge she identified as Ponte della Tette, which she translated as Bridge of Breasts.  At some time in the past prostitutes were restricted to this area of venice.  The ladies of the evening were in the habit of hanging out of the windows of this canal, showing their "wares".  Over time, the bridge got a reputation and a nickname.

Further along she pointed out some structures I had observed over years without understanding their function or significance. All over Venice one finds beveled stone or concrete placements in corners.  I had never given them much thought, assuming they were some sort of structural support.  This time I learned they are there to prevent men from using the corners as urinals.  If they persist, its a strategically deflected mess - on them.  Clever Venetians.

In addition, there were the usual interesting market scenes and photo ops, narrow streets, and uniquely cone-shaped chimneys (to prevent the spread of live embers) characteristic of the city.  All evidence that the most front-door destinations still have some secret gems to be discovered.

Switzerland by Maia Coen

The first thing I must say, for those of you who have never been to Switzerland, is: go!  You have to go!  It is without a doubt one of the most beautiful places in the world.  My visit to Switzerland this year was entirely different from last year.  In fact, it was the complete opposite.  Instead of fog, clouds, and rain there was sunshine, cool breezes, and spectacular mountain views everywhere I looked.  It amazes me that those alpine vistas were there in 2014, but hidden behind all that gray. My father and I arrived by train from Amsterdam, threw our things haphazardly into our hotel room, and went right up the cable car to get up into the surrounding mountains to see them up close.  I’m at a loss for words to describe how beautiful the Alps are.  I’m rather confused why the Swiss Alps aren’t considered one of the 7 natural wonders of the world.  If you have been there you must agree with me.  It was THE most incredible thing I’ve ever seen.  Growing up in Seattle I have seen lots of mountains.  I see them often and they’re always very pretty but the Swiss Alps are something else.  The mountains towered above me reaching for the open blue sky.   Unlike the Cascades of Washington the Bernese Alps seem so much closer and immediate.  It felt like I could reach out and touch them.  The peeks glinted and sparkled in the sunlight.  The cliffs folded over and reached under each other creating a magnificent jumble of mountain rock.  The snow was so white I wondered if it was real or simply a figment of my imagination.  The sun felt like the soft caress of a hand against my cheeks and the air smelled like life and new beginnings.  It smelled like hope and joy and beauty; everything nature can invoke in you.  The air felt fresh and cool against my skin.  It felt like I was in a fairytale where the animals were likely to start singing any minute.  I felt so small walking along the hiking trail.  We walked along pausing occasionally to photograph the picturesque plethora of rainbow-colored wild flowers.  I walked quickly and happily, a skip in my step as I chattered on endlessly about the book I had recently finished.  I found that as I walked with this marvelous air in my lungs that I felt rejuvenated and energized.  I felt like nothing in the world could bring me down.  At the end of our hike we snacked on superb Swiss chocolate and began our decent, riding a cable car down to our tiny town of Stechelberg.

We plopped down in our seats ready for a heaping pile of Roesti potatoes practically smothered in Swiss cheese.  Think of the best tasting food you’ve ever had.  This is better.  We drank beer and ate our potatoes with delight all the while surrounded by the mountains.  It was impossible not to be amazed by their magnitude.  They were so large and so strong and so real.  We retired to our quaint little room and fell asleep to the sound of cow bells and the mountain stream flowing through the town.  The next morning we decided to go on a longer and more vigorous hike.  We hiked through the lower part of the valley instead of higher in the mountains.  It seems impossible to describe the beauty of this place when even my photographs do not fully express its grandeur.  The grass was so green it looked as if a child had picked the brightest most vibrant green marker in the box and emptied the ink across the whole valley.  The flowers were small but amazing popping up all along the trail.  These mountains were not completely covered in snow.  They were covered in that beautiful marker green and I swear they touched the sky.  The hike was intense and we stopped often to drink water and take photographs.  People passed us by and others waved in greeting form their homes in the hills.

Eventually we came upon a path to a waterfall.  Now I like a waterfall as much as the next person but my father seems to like them a great deal more.  More than anyone else I’ve ever met.  He dragged me down and up the slightly overgrown path towards the sound of rushing water. It didn’t take us too long to get there.  We entered a forest-like area and continued to follow the path.  We climbed some crumbling steps and very carefully made our way across a less than stable-looking bridge.  A few more rotting stairs later we stood before the falls.  The rumbling water forced its way over the rocks at the top and threw itself down the slippery rocks carving a crevice with its force.  A basin captured the tumbling water momentarily before escaping down the mountain.  I was happy my dad liked water falls so much.  As we made our trek back to Stechelberg I could hear the lion’s roar of the water for miles.

We moved higher up the mountain into Murren for our last day in Switzerland.  We geared up with our cameras and jackets and took the lift up to the 10,000 foot Schilthorn; the famous circular rotating station with amazing views of the mountains.  During the ride up we used four different lifts with people shoving their impatient selves to the front at each station.  Finally we made it to the top.  We stepped outside and I was speechless.  The mountains we’d enjoyed for the past few days stretched out thousands of feet below us.  New ones above shined and sparkled in a dazzling light.  I couldn’t believe I was really looking at the famous Swiss Alps.  They were so beautiful I was compelled to take pictures from every possible angle.  I had a cup of the best tasting hot chocolate ever (must be the surroundings) as the rotating restaurant brought the views to us.

That night we sat outside enjoying our Roesti between the mountains and chatted enthusiastically about our adventures.  I had never seen anything so wonderful and so magical.  I had never seen mountains so big and magnificent or snow so pristinely white.  I reiterate my earlier comment; it’s one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.  As we ate the sun sank below the horizon and cast it’s pink light of Alpenglow on the snowy peaks across the valley.  It felt like a dream.  The mountains and the air itself made me feel serene and content.  I had never been so happy, and to think the first time I was here all I could see was fog.

Imprint Danube Cruise

Dear Imprint Travelers, Imprint Tours had a successful launch of our European river cruises in 2015. Our flagship cruise is the Danube (next sailing:  Sept 2017).  River cruising is a burgeoning style of travel and we have successfully adapted it to fit the Imprint's philososphy.

We have created Imprint's distinct group dynamic within the context of river cruise travel. Even though our groups share a ship with other travelers we dine together and customize our sightseeing. We love the concept of a "moving hotel." Upon check-in you will be able to unpack once and settle into your state room for most of the tour. Each day we'll have a great sightseeing experience in a different European city. Instead of being subject to the optional, expensive shore excursions provided by the cruise company, we will custom build our own and include them in the tour price. Our local guides will be “hand-selected” and Imprint’s values will drive the choice of sights, itineraries, and experiences. All this at below market rates, making Imprint's cruises the best value available.

Included are all meals on board (including wine at dinner), midnight snack, 24-hour coffee station, daily live music, complimentary bicycles for free time explorations, whispers audio for all shore tours, and excursions as noted below.

Our signature cruise/tour is a 8-day Danube cruise anchored with 2 nights in Salzburg and a 3 night Prague finale.  Our 2015 maiden voyage fulfilled all our expectations.  River cruising is a welcome and worthwhile addition to the Imprint Tours portfolio. Furthermore, it represents a softer, gentler way of traveling and gets us back to our European roots.  If you are interested please let us know: info@imprinttours.com.  We’ll add you to the dedicated River Cruise mailing list for periodic updates and advance announcements.

Our itinerary looks like this:

Day 1   Salzburg – get acquainted meeting and dinner together

Day 2   Salzburg - walking tour historic Salzburg

Day 3   Passau – Sound of Music and Salzkammergut tour; board the cruise for dinner

Day 4   Melk/Vienna – tour Melk Abbey

Day 5   Vienna – city walking tour with Hapsburg Treasury & Kunsthistorisches Museum

Day 6   Budapest - walking tour Pest; evening cruise and Hungarian folklore show

Day 7   Budapest – Walking tour Buda; cooking class

Day 8  Bratislava – Old Town walking tour; wine tasting

Day 9  Linz - Postlingbergbahn panorama excursion

Day 10 Passau/Prague (depart cruise) -  Cesky Krumlov en route

Day 10 Prague – tour Prague castle

Day 11 Prague – city walking tour and Jewish Quarter

Day 12 Tour over after breakfast

Santorini Part III

On Saturday of Easter weekend we were all ready for a relaxing day – on dry land.  We’d all had plenty of down time during the cruise portion of our tour, but it was nice to be on terra firma.  Most tour members simply relaxed at our fabulous hotel.  But certainly some heard the Siren call of Fira town with its glittering jewelry stores, boutique clothing outlets, and fun souvenir shopping.

A sizable group ended up at the pool serviced by a bar.  As usual with this group, there were a lot of laughs.  And even though the water was quite cold this early in the season, there was a very healthy participation in a spontaneous performance of water ballet.  Watch for the video.

That evening we adjourned to Venetsanos Winery, another impossibly picturesque venue for a wine tasting.  Santorini is famous for its wines.  The volcanic soil is perfect for grapes and the locals had solved the significant wind problem by training the vines in wreath-like circles close to the ground.  The grape clusters are assisted into the ring interiors for shelter.

The “wreath” technique further serves to help irrigate the vines with the collection of morning dew each day before the winds pick up.  Quite ingenious (impossibly so?).  We tasted a crisp clean white, a rich tannic red, and a super-sweet Vin Santo which is used for communion on the island.

All the while we enjoyed another stunning view of the caldera. However, our luck had finally run out with the weather and high winds and heavy cloud cover kept it from being an ideal outing.  After tasting we retreated inside the unique winery.  Venetsanos was the first commercial winery on the island.  The designer used gravity to transport the juice into descending vats, cut from the terraced hillside, and eventually piped down to the harbor below where huge barrels were filled and exported to France, Russia, and other parts of Europe.  Quite as ingenious as the ancient solution for wind and aridity.

Our final day of the tour was the climactic best.  Orthodox Easter had arrived and we had made arrangements to share Easter Dinner in a family Taverna.  We arrived shortly after noon and were taken to the back garden area to see the Easter lambs being slow roasted on long spits.  Traditionally, the spits were hand-turned with each family member taking a turn.  But mechanization has replaced the elbow grease in recent years.

After being warmly welcomed by the family and seeing the cooking operation, we were seated outside under a vine covered arbor.  Wine and mezedes (“little morsels” or appetizers) flowed freely and most were quite full when the main course arrived.  But everyone made room for the lamb – tender, succulent, and full of flavor.  The meal was completed by a special Easter pastry baked by the grandmother.  There were kisses and hugs all around when we finally pushed back our chairs and reboarded the bus for the trip back to our hotel.  I think most people retired for a nap (I did) but a few took another refreshing dip in the pool.  That evening, one last impossible-vista happy hour next to the lower pool closed out our tour together.

Santorini Part II

On Friday (Good Friday) we left our gulets for the last time.  We bid farewell to the cheerful and hard-working crew and met our bus in the new port.  We were transferred up the zig-zagging road to our luxury resort hotel, the Volcano View.  Like everything in Santorini, our new home is greatly influenced by the unique geology.  The hotel boasts that uniquely Santorinian architecture of descending rooms that are partially built IN-to and partially built ON-to the bedrock of the caldera.  Semi-cavelike, the rooms are all individually shaped, finished, and furnished.  Maia’s and my room had a huge bathroom cut back into the hillside with a mini-amphitheater like shower niche.  It was a cross between the Flintstones and the Hollywood Bowl.  So unique.  So fun.  We had our pick of 3 or 4 pools (I never did get an accurate count) and multiple gazebos, terraces, and balconies for enjoying the sunsets.

But we didn’t tarry long.  This was our biggest sightseeing day.  We started with charming Megalochora – Santorini’s big-little village.  Big because the name means “Great Village”, little because, well, its tiny.  Our impossibly charming guide Eugenia (yes, impossible is the best description of EVEN the guides in these islands) walked us through the village explaining the traditional architecture,

weaving in local tales, and pointing out the pistachio and almond trees as we went. Then we took a lunch break at Perissa, the islands sweeping arc of black sand beach.  We reboarded our bus and headed south to Akrotiri, the Minoan era archaeological site. A quick overview of the island's signature red sand beach afforded lots of photo snapping prefaced our visit.  Once again, effervescent Eugenia breathed life into our Akrotiri visit.  She helped understand this ancient culture and the circumstances of their Pompeii-like demise.  Our penultimate stop was Oia – the crème de la crème.

On the world’s most beautiful island, this is the most beautiful town.  Tumbling down the hillside like Fira, Oia has enlisted the use of many more pastel colors in its town palette and it is crowned by a ruined fort.  Moreoever, the community here is more artistic and less commercial (except the prices!).  Lots of boutique shopping, original art and crafts, and plenty of view spots for sunset.

The day had turned blustery so it was a little easier to tear ourselves away from this Santorini jewel and head for our climactic Holy Friday stop.  Easter is the biggest holiday on the Greek calendar and Santorini is a famous place for its festivities.  Topping that list is the Epitaph procession of the island’s highest village, Pyrgos.  The locals use canisters filled with oil and straw to line the meandering path that winds through the village to Agios the village church at the top.

At the appointed hour, the priest brings the Epitaph out of the church for its ceremonial descent through the village.  At that moment the canisters are lit and the whole hillside becomes a flickering blaze of living lights.  We arrived as the crowds were gathering.  Eugenia led us up the tiny alleys to the church and the kastro ruins above it.  Having seen the layout, she explained the procession and its significance.  Then we returned to the lower edge of town where she had booked us into a wonderful restaurant with an unobstructed view of the hill-top town.  We were warm, dry, comfy, and enjoying some great Santorini wine when the village crown ignited into dancing light.  What a spectacle!

Santorini Part I

We steamed into the magnificent Santorini caldera at the end of a morning’s motoring from Ios.  Our gulets moored in the Old Marina and we disembarked to have some lunch in the port.  The we reboarded La Finale for a tour of the caldera.  We sailed under the gravity defying villages that cling to the edges of the great island basin.  Each picture postcard perfect with the classic sugar-cube architecture and blue-domed churches that define the Cyclades.

On our starboard bow we were able to observe the steaming lava dome that makes up Nea Kamani island.  After our sightseeing idyll we docked once again and everyone made there way up to Fira in the convenient cable car to enjoy a sunset and a caldera-view dinner.

Maia and I had a drink in a bar, a picture of which is featured in all my Greece talks, photographed years ago (see the featured image at the top of this blog).  You can’t get more picturesque with a wrought iron balustrade and a weathered statue of Venus backed by the amazing western vista of the great watery crater.

A word more about Santorini in general before I continue describing our activities.  Santorini is impossibly beautiful.  Impossibly breathtaking.  Impossibly romantic.  I have been saying it for years, and this latest visit cemented my opinion:  in all my travels, this is the most beautiful spot on earth.  I’m not usually willing to take definitive stands, but this island is just impossibly wonderful.  It is the perfect combination of nature at its magnificent best and culture in the form of the impossibly quaint and attractive whitewashed buildings, colored domes, and picture perfect bell towers that make up the Cycladic architecture.  You can even ride a donkey up to town if you desire – impossibly quaint.  Yes, it is overcrowded, expensive, and overdeveloped for commercial tourism.  But there is a very good reason for it:  the world, like me, clearly views Santorini as impossibly irresistible.  We had lots of activities planned for our 3+ days here, but we really needn’t have.  It is enough to sit in a comfortable bar or restaurant and enjoy the beauty that surrounds you.