We headed out and about with Auntie Chris as our personal chauffeur and tour guide once again! We are very lucky! Since she is busy tomorrow we decided to take the car and head out with her for the day... outside of Roma. We went to a lovely town called...
Viterbo
Viterbo, ancient seat of the papacy, retains the charm of the
classic medieval town with beautiful old churches and wonderful papal
center. The city of Viterbo lies up to a 350 metres high altitude, where
the northern slope of Mounts Cimini descends gradually to a large plain
and westwards to the sea, then goes up to the Mounts Volsinii and
eastwards to the Mounts of Sabina, just over the Tiber Valley.
It is just simply amazing how they tear nothing down around here, just build around it, on top of it, or whatnot...and how can buildings be preserved like that..from the medieval time period. amazing!
I'm not one for church pictures...but I stopped along the way for a brief prayer while Flat Stanley was in confession, I decided to let him go since we didn't have all day for mine. hah.
The views and buildings and all the surroundings...there is just something in the air here that makes the littlest things so beautiful. maybe it's the earth tone color buildings...not sure, but whatever it is, it's just beautiful. Don't get me wrong, there are still cities here, including Rome, which includes your theft, crime, trash along the sidewalks, crazy drivers, and graffiti...but all that excluded, just breathtaking....
Hearing the people surrounding me speak italian, call out for little Matteo who was dribbling a soccer ball with a friend in the afternoon (they get out of school before lunch, eat lunch at home and then don't return until the next day) was awesome. just so cute. haha. We talked about Matteo for a bit thereafter as if we had known him. :) He had a cute little dog too that sat up along a ledge of their property. Luckily for Stanley, his confession only consisted of a few our fathers and hail mary's so I let him hop on a moped for a little bit...
We finished up there after a bit, taking pictures, nun sightings...etc... then we were off to a ride in the country... even more country ride then to Viterbo... and when I say country I mean country, but beautiful countryside Italy....with farms and vineyards and old italian men on their tractors, with sheep....lots of sheep and horses and cows...and sheeep! (I know I'm in Italy, but at one point, I was waiting for Gerard Butler to just be around the road side bend after seeing all the sheep :) ...ps.i love you reference)
Then we came to the town of...
Civita di Bagnoregio
It was founded by Etruscans
over twenty-five hundred years ago but has seen its population dwindle
to just fifteen residents over the course of the 20th century. CivitÃ
was the birthplace of Saint Bonaventure,
who died in 1274. The location of his boyhood house has long since
fallen off the edge of the cliff. By the 16th century, Civita was
beginning to decline, becoming eclipsed by its former suburb Bagnoregio.
At the end of the 17th century, the bishop and the municipal government were forced to move to Bagnoregio due to a major earthquake, accelerating the old town's decline....
In the 19th century, Civita's location was turning into an island and
the pace of the erosion quickened as the layer of clay below the stone
was reached in the area where today's bridge is located. Bagnoregio continues as a small but prosperous town, while Civita became known as il paese che muore (in Italian: "the dying town"). Civita has only recently been experiencing a tourist revival.....overlooking the Tiber river valley, in constant danger of destruction as its edges fall off,
leaving the buildings built on the plateau to crumble. As of 2004, there
are plans to reinforce the plateau with steel rods to prevent further geological damage. The city is also much admired for its architecture,
some spanning several hundred years. Civita di Bagnoregio owes much of
its unaltered condition to its relative isolation: the town was able to
withstand most intrusions of modernity as well as the destruction
brought by two world wars. The population today varies from about 12 people in winter to over 100 in the summer.
AAHHHMAZING!!!
When we made it back to main land, we saw the donkey that we had heard before heading over there... and my mom and him had a full on conversation, with her honk laugh honking she does...his ears were twitching like crazy. hahaha :) and back to the car we went....for about an hour ride or so back to Roma and my aunt and uncle's apartment.
Had another great dinner around 9pm, some chicken marinated amazingly, potatoes, green beans and a hot chopped eggplant and tomato dish of some sort, with a few glasses of white wine tonight, since I finished off the crappy Merlot last night for my uncle!! :) Did the dishes and cleaned up from dinner again, it's the least I could do... and off to fb to post a picture of the day and do some blogging.
Great day, great sights, great conversations, great dinner, great time with family... and it is officially my mom's birthday (in Italy)... off to bed I go, again, the last one to get to bed. haha.
Buona notte!!
No comments:
Post a Comment
comments welcomed <3
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.