PARLEZ-VOUS ANGLAIS?

I spent three days in lovely Liguria, but have no photos or sightseeing adventures to report.  My Ligurian friend Marina was recently hospitalized after suffering a stroke, and my friend Riccardo and his three daughters are rallying around her to give love and support.  I was able to spend a little time with Riccardo and to visit Marina once in the hospital, but it was hard to enjoy my last days in Italy with my friends suffering the stress caused by this health crisis.  I ask all of my friends and family who believe in the power of prayer to say one for my friend Marina, that she might recover completely from this illness.

I moved on to Avignon, in the province of France, last Sunday.  I love my apartment here, especially the lovely garden and the stone wall of the old church that borders one side of it.  

I'm once again in a country where I can't speak the native tongue and it's a liitle more difficult to get around.  But I'm managing, with the help of a few natives who know enough English to point me in the right direction.

My friend Andra arrived on Tuesday, and we've been exploring Avignon and the surrounding area.  We went to see the Palace of the Popes, which is the largest Gothic palace in Europe and dates back to the days when Avignon replaced Rome as the center of Christianity.  This is a view of the palace from the Pont Saint-Bènezet, which extends partway across the Rhone River.

Meet my friend Andra, posing at the drawbridge of the Pont.

There isn't much inside this immense palace complex these days, except a few frescoes that you aren't allowed to photograph, and a bit of statuary.

We hopped on a bus yesterday to go to the middle of nowhere to see a 1st century AD Roman aqueduct, Pont du Gard, that is a World Heritage Site (yup, chalk up another one).

Then we came back to Avignon and toured two art museums, the highlight of which was a wonderful exhibit of the work of Henri Toulouse Lautrec.

We like Avignon.  It's a walled city, and the walls are completely intact and well preserved.  

It's easy to get lost because the streets branch off willy nilly in all directions.  The city planners must have been in their cups when they designed the street map!  This is one of our favorite landmarks.  I've never seen a merry-go-round with two levels.

There are lots of people begging on the street here, just like I saw in Italy and Spain.  This man had a stuffed cow seeking contributions.

Today, we took a bus across the river to Villeneuve lez Avignon to see a 14th palace/monastery founded by Pope Innocent VI, called Chartreuse du Vai-de-Bénédiction.  There were three cloisters, a church, monk's cells, gardens, and the biggest Carthusian monastery of the 18th century.  The frescoes in the chapel were painted by Matteo Giovannetti, who also decorated the Palace of the Popes.

This stone canopy covered a large well.

The halls were quite deserted....there were very few tourists here.

And the streets were deserted also, almost like a ghost town.

We walked up a steep stone road to take a look at Fort Saint-André, which protected what was then, in the 14th century, the border of the Kingdom of France.

There were some magnificent views from this height.

And the views from inside the walls were pretty nice, too.  

There's an Office of Tourism in Avignon that gave us some excellent assistance.  We were regular customers and became quite fond of a young woman who worked there.  This is our new friend Karine, who we decided to adopt as our godaughter.

At the end of these days of sightseeing, it's always great to relax with a nice glass of chilled French wine.  A votre sante!

LAKE COMO

Here I am in paradise again, perched in a fourth floor attic apartment where I have to be attentive or I could easily knock myself out walking into the ceiling.  This is my view from the large skylight that brings me sun and warmth.  That line of blue between the mountains and trees is gorgeous Lake Como.

I'm staying in the small town of Dervio on the northeast side of the lake.  I wouldn't call this a tourist town.  I haven't been able to find even one shop.  There are a couple of supermarkets, a handful of bars and restaurants, a tabacchi, a small bakery, and a fruit and vegetable vendor whose store is on the ground floor of my building.  When I arrived on Sunday, there were a few people sailing on the lake and sunning in the local park, but when I went back on Monday, I was the only person in the park for over an hour and there were no boats on the lake!  So I just sat and enjoyed the view and the fresh mountain air and counted my blessings..

There are dozens of little towns around the lake.  I visited three of them and, again, none of them had the usual plethora of shops you find in almost every tourist spot in Italy....very surprising.  I took a train to the nearest town of Bellano, where I caught a ferry to the two other towns I visited.

This is Menaggio, where I took a long walk along the lake and enjoyed the views and the bacio and coco gelato!

This mother had a gaggle tailing her.

It made me a little homesick to see the Stars and Stripes fluttering in the breeze.

As usual, I found an interesting tree.  Maybe Di, my friend in Brisbane, can tell me what it is.

This house in Varenna was completely covered in green.

Imagine living this close to a beautiful lake that's surrounded by mountains.  I hope these people know how blessed they are.

I certainly know how blessed I am!

.......A THOUSAND WORDS

BARDOLINO IN BARDOLINO

There's nothing to compare with going directly to the source.  I'm at this moment sitting in a pizzeria in the town of Bardolino, sipping on a glass of Bardolino while I wait for my 4 Stagioni pizza.   This is the most popular pizza in Italy and its toppings represent the four seasons--artichokes for spring, olives for summer, mushrooms for fall, and prosciutto for winter.

And I didn't have to wait long.  Excuse me while I make a dent in this.

NO....I didn't eat the whole thing, but I did finish my glass of Bardilino, which was wonderful and cost only 2.5€, or about $3.50.  You can buy a bottle for as little as 4€, which is about $5.50.  Considering the price of a bottle in the U.S., I wish I could carry a few bottles back in my suitcase.

I like Bardolino as much as I liked Lazise.  Lake Garda is really beautiful and all these small towns on its shores are charming.  Look at these views I have at this very moment.

It's a dark day with off and on rain and occasional bursts of sunshine through the clouds.  I took a bus first to the town of Garda, which is about half the size of Bardolino.

 

Then I hopped another bus to Bardolina.  There are lots of shops and restaurants in Bardolina, enough to keep you busy for an afternoon.  

And you see a number of older stone houses as you wander through the town.

The local church had a beautiful fresco above the altar.

It didn't start raining seriously until I got off the bus at the stop closest to where I'm staying.  So my feet got a bit wet, but I'm happy that I decided to venture out in spite of the dismal weather forecast.  Because how many people can say they drank Bardolino in Bardolino?  Okay, a few hundred thousand, or maybe millions, but I'm one of 'em!

FAIRY TALE TOWN

Traveling by train from southern Italy to the upper north gives you an interesting perspective on the economic differences between the southern and northern parts of Italy.  In the south the cities look a bit seedy--trash on the streets, sidewalks crumbling, buildings with faded and peeling facades.  As you move north you see a gradual improvement until the towns are clearly well maintained and clean.   My trip from Bari to Milano took 8 hours, and the weather deteriorated as we moved north where it's been raining quite a bit.  My train from Milano was cancelled, so I had to scramble to get to the ticket office and see if there was a later train.  Luckily, there was and I was on my way to Peschiera del Garda after just an hour delay.  My hostess kindly picked me up at the train station and I was tucked into the most comfortable bed I've had in a while by 11:30 p.m.

The place I'm staying is 3 kilometers away from Lazise, a small town on Lake Garda with a population of about 6300.  I was lucky that the forecasted rain didn't begin until late the following day, so I had some time to explore this fairy tale town that I immediately loved.  It has a castle that is just what you'd imagine in a respectable fairy tale.

And it's right on Lake Garda, and I mean that literally...the water laps against some of the town's buildings.  

And it comes right into the main piazza where you can moor your boat and enjoy a gelato and the beautiful vista.  The town was crowded with people because May 1 is a national holiday in Italy (their Labor Day), as well as in Germany (as I learned from a German couple staying in the bedroom next door).  So there were lots of German and Italian cars clogging the roads.

There's a small church here on the piazza with some frescoes dating back to the 12th century.

After the ornate Baroque churches of Lecce, there was a humble simplicity in this place of worship.

I wandered through shops looking for an umbrella, since I left mine in Antonio's car in Lecce.  And it did rain, so I headed back to my cozy room.  The rain didn't last very long and I took a long walk before dinner to enjoy this gorgeous country scenery.  There were plenty of olive orchards.

And, of course, vineyards abound.  This vintner was patriotic, and being a national holiday, there were several Italian flags fluttering in the neighborhood.

The backdrop for the orchards and vineyards were these beautiful mountains.

The forecast for all four days I am here is rain.  And I was lucky yesterday that it didn't rain very much.  Today it's raining quite steadily.  I have a bicycle at my disposal, so if it ever stops raining, I'll check out more of this beautiful landscape that surrounds me.