New HOTS Jazz Orchestra Tours Northern Italy
Compiled by: Don Wickham
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The first morning light revealed a spectacular view of the snow capped mountains of the southern Alps from the windows of our Alitalia aircraft as we approached Milan’s Malpensa Airport after a relatively short night’s flight from Dulles International Airport in Washington DC. The eighteen participants in the New HOTS Jazz Orchestra’s fifth international tour had departed Dulles International Airport on Saturday, June 26th for two weeks of performing and sightseeing in northern and central Italy. Two other participants would be joining us in Italy. |
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The participants on this tour were twelve band members, and eight friends and significant others. Band members included Jack Elder (Director and piano), Theresa Timmerman (1st alto sax), Ken Matthews (2nd alto sax), Howard McCullers (tenor sax and vocals), Michelle Williams (flute), Don Wickham (1st trumpet), Les Elkins (2nd trumpet and vocals), Charlotte Norwood (trombone), John Horstkamp (guitar), Rita Isenberg (bass), Jeff Wolf (drums), and Erin Wyld (vocals). |
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Our itinerary included visits to Milan, Venice, Florence, and Rome, as well as numerous smaller towns and tourist destinations in Tuscany, Umbria and Lazio. As with other HOTS tours, this trip was a mixture of planned concerts and tourist attractions, with much individual touring and many happy accidents along the way. It is a unique way to experience a country, its people, and to make new friends as we share our music. |
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Milan & Treviglio: Upon our 8:00am Sunday arrival in Milan, we picked up our previously reserved three mini-vans, sedan, and a cargo truck from the airport’s Auto-Europe rental office. After retrieving our suitcases and band gear from the baggage claim area, we loaded everything on baggage carts, pushed our gear through the terminal and down to street level where we loaded the vans. We drove east out of Milan about 50 kilometers to the Hotel La Lepre (rabbit motel) in the small town of Treviglio. Several of us had acquired road maps of Italy before departure, so we had no real difficulty in finding our hotel. |
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Our accommodations were quite nice - modern, air conditioned, and the grounds included an outdoor pool, tennis court, and a large patio with a band shell, as well as plenty of parking for our vehicles. Through past experience we have found it is best to avoid the older, more expensive downtown hotels in large cities with their limited parking. We quickly made arrangements to use the patio for a band rehearsal the following evening to make sure all our equipment was accounted for. Once everyone was checked in and the mini-vans unloaded, we headed back to Milan for some sightseeing. |
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In Milan we visited the Duomo, a magnificent flamboyant gothic stone cathedral whose roof is a forest of spires. The dress code for visiting cathedrals in Italy is much stricter than in France. Women were not permitted inside with bare shoulders or shorts. Several of the men donated their shirts so the women in our group could go inside. We later observed that at some of the more heavily tourist visited cathedrals in other towns, paper smocks are made available to cover those offending bare shoulders and legs.
Most of the group went up to the roof of the Duomo; some climbed the stairs while others waited for the small elevator. On the roof we were able to walk around the top of the building and see the statuary and lacy flying buttresses up close, as well as enjoy a spectacular view of Milan. Back on the large central Piazza del Duomo, we were entertained by a mime dressed as Leonardo da Vinci.
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We visited the Galleria; a glass covered “upscale” shopping arcade with shops like Gucci, Prada - even a Burger King. For good luck, we took turns spinning on the Taurus, a terrazzo mosaic of a dancing bull on the floor of the Galleria. The prestigious La Scala Opera House was undergoing a major renovation and was closed to visitors. We walked to the Chiesa di Santa Marie delle Grazie, but had no luck getting same-day reservations to see Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper.” Several people tried to make reservations before we left home, but tickets were sold out through July 4th. We then walked over to the Parco Sempione and the Castello Sforzesco where several concerts and street performers were entertaining the Italians out for an afternoon in the park. At the far end of the park, artificial seashore had been installed. Some of our group stayed in Milan for supper, while the rest returned to Treviglio for supper at a local restaurant. We were glad to have seen Milan on a Sunday, as Italian traffic lived up to its reputation. Driving in town and parking would have been impossible during the week. |
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Lake Como/Bellagio: On Monday, we decided to visit Lake Como, about 100km north of Milan, near the Italian border with Switzerland. We drove to Varenna on the east side of the lake and took a ferry to Bellagio which is located on a peninsula on the south shore. The lake and alpine scenery were beautiful. The ferry ride on Lake Como was spectacular, with the stops at picturesque towns on its banks and with the snow-covered Alps rising off in the distance. |
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Bellagio is a small town with narrow streets famous for silk scarves and jewelry. We had lunch at the lakeside Hotel Metropole Ristorante’s terrace, then took the ferry back to Varenna. Before making the trip back to Treviglio, some of the group drove up a winding narrow road to the 1,000 year old Castello di Vezio which sits high atop a hill providing views of the Lake Como and the surrounding mountains. The castle is home to a falconry training center. We watched a trainer working with one of the birds. |
| Italian drivers are generally better than others we’ve seen at anticipating and avoiding trouble. They have to be to stay alive, as they constantly live on the edge. Speed limits mean nothing, and there are as many lanes as there are cars that fit in. Cyclists zoom in and out without a care. Drivers are very polite, honking friendly greetings to everyone. We loved the uninhibited freedom of the open road. Of course, rush hour traffic in the mountains was very slow, with small towns every few kilometers and lots of road construction to make it worse. It was a long drive back to Treviglio. |
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| Upon our return to our hotel, the band set up and rehearsed for an hour. We were happy for the opportunity to play together without a formal audience after a breakneck week of getting ready for the trip. The rehearsal must have gone well, as the hotel’s management immediately hired us to play for their private party the following evening. We ended the evening with a champagne toast with our new friends |
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Venice: We got up early on Tuesday, and after a quick continental breakfast, took the train to Venice. The train ride from Treviglio to Venice is about 2 hr 30min and saved the drivers and passengers from the rigors of another 4-6 hours of driving in Italian traffic. The train arrives in Mestre at Santa Lucia station, right at the entrance to the city of Venice. |
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We were quickly accosted by hordes of men selling boat rides to the Murano glass factory. Since we had planned to visit Murano anyway, we split into two groups and took boats to the factory. One of our groups went in the tourist entrance to a room with several open 2,000-degree furnaces and a wall of 600-degree cooling ovens. The heat around the ovens was intense. The apprentices were pulling molten glass out of the furnaces on 6-8ft long pipes and swinging the globs of glass over to the master craftsman. While this molten glass was being swung around, several individuals from the other half of our group suddenly walked into the work area between the furnaces and the cooling ovens, where the molten glass was being handled. They had gotten a ride on an unofficial “pirate” boat, which let them off at the factory’s back door service entrance. Work was stopped until our people could be extracted from the dangerous work area. |
| After things quieted down, we watched a master craftsman create a glass deer from scratch in less than a half-hour, after which it was placed in an oven to anneal. We then were taken upstairs to a showroom area not accessible to the general public where absolutely spectacular art glass was displayed. (Someone at the factory must have thought we were “wealthy” Americans!) Back in the retail show room there was no sales pressure to buy anything, although several people did make purchases. |
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We then took a Vaporetto (waterbus) to Piazza San Marco. Unlike the scenes from movies or magazines, it was jammed with tourists and the line into the basilica was several hundred people long. The one thing that was accurately portrayed was the large flocks of pigeons, and the hazard of “droppings”. We dodged the pigeons in front of the Doge’s Palace, and saw the Bridge of Sighs. The sun was pouring down, and we were ready for shade. Most of our group waited through the line for the basilica and its museum. Others of the group who had been to Venice on previous trips went exploring the maze of alleys that make up the city. Wandering through the alleyways of Venice was a lot more pleasant away from the crowds. Every turn led to a secluded square with a fountain, a restaurant or some other attraction, each different. |
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We took a boat trip down the Grand Canal, or crossed the Rialto Bridge to Dorsoduro, then walked back to the station and caught the 3:00pm train back to Treviglio. Our hosts treated us to a pasta supper before we set up for the evening's performance. We played a concert and dance for the motel owner’s friends and for a crowd of “indoor” soccer fans that came over from the tennis courts/field after their game. |
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On Wednesday, we drove about 200km south toward Florence, with each of our van groups sightseeing on their own along the way. Some stopped for lunch and sightseeing in Parma, while others drove straight through without stopping. It was on this transit we discovered that it’s true, if you rely only on highway signs, that in Italy all roads lead to Rome, (or Milan). Fortunately, our road maps of Italy made navigation much easier. Michelin maps were adequate, but the more detailed Touring Club of Italia maps helped find some of the smaller places. Even with the maps, road signs were a little confusing until we learned that the sign before your turn/exit identifies the next town, but the that sign at the turn usually lists only the names of locations and towns further down the road; including either Rome or Milan.
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Navigation was a very interactive task, the driver usually having his hands full with traffic and the navigator having to keep abreast of the next few towns on the route in order to be able to make snap decisions while our vehicles zipped through the ubiquitous traffic circles.
| Florence: We checked into the picturesque Park Hotel Chianti in Tavarnelle Val di Pesa located about 20km south of Florence. This was a nice air-conditioned traveling businessmen’s motel with a large pool and patio area. Those who arrived early took a public bus into Florence, a dusty, hot, uncomfortable ride. Those who arrived late phoned for reservations for the entire group to see the “David” statue in the Accademia in Florence the following morning, then made their own reservations for supper at a highly recommended family restaurant in nearby Poggibonsi. They arrived at the restaurant to find that the early bunch had already taken our reservations on the terrace, so had to eat inside. It seems Americans all look alike to the Italians. There we had one of our best meals in Italy. It’s always a good idea to ask where the locals eat! |
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We headed into Florence on Thursday morning and parked at the train station. We took a walking tour of the Duomo, with Giotto’s Campanile (Bell Tower) and the Baptistry with its’ gilded bronze doors. The Duomo’s exterior is spectacular, but most of the artwork and statuary has been removed from the inside to a museum. One of the highlights is Brunelleschi’s Dome, which was the largest and highest in the world at the time it was built. He had to devise new construction techniques to implement the design. The dome is accessible by stairs, and some of the group climbed up. Then we toured the Accademia and saw the Michelangelo’s statue of David and the musical instrument museum. |
| Some of the group undertook what was to become known as “Jack’s First Forced-March”; a walk across Florence through the Uffizi Gallery past St. Croce church to the Pontevecchio with it’s gold shops and then on to Oltrarno with it’s Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens, and then back across town to the van parked at the train station. Others simply drove across the Arno River and up to the Piazzale Michelangelo to see a bronze outdoors copy of the “David” and the spectacular view over the city from San Miniato al Monte before returning to our motel to clean up for our evening performance. |
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Late Thursday afternoon we drove to the northern suburb of Poggio a Caiano (another challenging navigation task) to play a community parade and concert. After we set up for the concert, our hosts took us to a local favorite open-air taverna for an excellent spaghetti and pizza supper. It was quickly becoming apparent that Italy is not the place to try and maintain a low-carb diet. After supper, we marched the several blocks from the taverna through town playing New Orleans style brass band music to attract people to the concert. Our concert was well attended, and we got to meet our principal Italian agent, Maddie Bacarelli. After several speeches by local politicians, we packed up and got back to our motel around 2:00am. |
| Pisa, Lucca, Cinque Terre: On Friday July 2, the group split up for more sightseeing. One group went to Pisa to see the Campo dei Miracoli with it's famous Leaning Tower. The earliest ticket available was for admission almost 3 hours later, so there was plenty of time for lunch and exploring other museums. Pisa was a pleasant surprise in that there was plenty to keep one occupied during the three-hour wait. Another beautiful cathedral! (Even the smallest towns have at least one.) It’s probably the best preserved of all the cathedrals we saw except for St. Peters in Rome. There are also a number of collateral museums and buildings. The Baptistery, for example, also leans a little. |
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The real attraction, however, is the Leaning Tower. The staircase runs around the interior circumference of the tower, and it’s interesting to feel the effect of its leaning as you circle the building, leaning forward, left, back and right as the circle continues. From the top there is a great view of the Tower bells and the surrounding town. This group continued west to the rocky coastline coast at Marina di Pisa on the Ligurian Sea (part of the Mediterranean) where they got wet from ocean spray among the sunbathers and had more gelato. Then they visited Lucca and stayed for supper at the Trattorio de Leo. |
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Another group started in Lucca with a bike ride around the ramparts on top of the city’s medieval walls, then a visit to the home of Puccini, as well as some shopping in the piazza formed by an ancient Roman ampitheatre. After lunch this group drove north past the marble quarries of Carrera to the port of La Spezia and up through a tunnel to the spectacular seaside cliff towns of the Cinque Terre.
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| After parking and taking a bus ride down the mountain to Manarola, several of the group walked the scenic seaside Via del Amore “Lovers Path” along the cliffs above the Mediterranean to the town of Riomaggiore. Others went to move the van, and we met in Riomaggiore for a rather expensive seafood supper at one of the highly recommended local restaurants. This group had a very late return to the motel. |
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Saturday, July 3rd, was a day spent sightseeing in the hill-towns of Tuscany before our evening concert in Santo Fiora, where we were to be the opening event for their summer jazz concert series. Some of the group stopped at the walled hill town of San Gimignano, known for the 14 towers that still stand. There used to be 72 towers. One guidebook said it was originally known for its weaving, and many of the towers were built to serve as a place from which to hang tapestries for finishing and exhibition. Two rival families got into competition to build the most and highest towers, so the towers proliferated. |
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We then toured Siena, a well-preserved, larger town to the south. Siena was once a rival of Florence and actually set out to build the largest cathedral in the world, but the plague of 1348 wiped out most of the population and it was never finished. Siena never recovered from the plague, and Florence took control of the region. Its Duomo has one of the prettiest exteriors we saw, but the elaborate marble work on the inside is the prime attraction. There are a large number of detailed scenes in colored marble inlaid into the floor, created over a period of 200 years or so. The exterior of the current Duomo was completed in the early 1300’s. |
| Siena is also famous for its square, Il Campo, called by our
guidebook the best in Italy. It is large, with sloping uneven
terrain, and had a sand track around the outside. The bi-annual
Palio, a festival in which 10 local horses race around the perimeter
of the piazza, is held on July 2 (we missed it by a day) and again
on August 16. The audience stands within the center of the square
while the horses race around them.
After Siena some of the group stopped at Montalcino while others visited Montepulciano - both interesting examples of Tuscan hill-towns. Each hill-town has some claim to fame (its towers, its wine, its olive oil, etc.) that are somehow unique and must be sampled, although it’s sometimes difficult to tell one town from another without a guidebook. |
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Montalcino is famous for Brunello wine and its almond cookies, “Ossi di Morte” (literally bones of the dead). They were the driest and crunchiest cookies we’ve ever had. The reason for their name was obvious. Montepulciano is famous for its “Nobili di Montepulciano” wine, which we can attest is excellent. We had lunch at the Sax Wine Bar, so named because the proprietor had mounted a pair of alto saxophones as the tap handles for the house wine and beer spigots. For a musical group this was an irresistible place for lunch, and the food was good. |
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An article in the Washington Post after we returned home said that Italy has about 2,800 ancient hill towns struggling to maintain their way of life, with each one trying to differentiate itself as a tourist attraction.
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Santa Fiora: We arrived at Santo Fiora late in the afternoon with instructions to meet our other agent, Lucca Benucci, whom no one had ever met, in the town square. The local tourist office on the square was just closing, and the clerk didn’t know our sponsor, but said that most of the concerts were held at the amphitheater at the edge of town. We were directed to a narrow alley that would take us down the hill to the concert location. The alley was too narrow for our vans so we walked down the steep cobblestones to check out the location, only to find out that access to the site could be easily reached by road from outside the town. |
| While we were getting directions at the tourist office, we heard the sound of classical music coming from an adjacent doorway. Following the sound, we entered a municipal building and went upstairs to find an orchestra of college-age musicians rehearsing, with a director speaking to them in English. Apparently, Santa Fiora sponsors a popular summer music camp as well as a summer jazz festival. |
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Once our equipment van arrived, we set up for the concert in the amphitheater adjacent to a wooded park. During the Middle Ages, Santo Fiora was the site of the summer papal residence. The park was originally a fish hatchery that provided fish for the papal court’s Friday meals. The hatchery ponds are still well maintained and contained some of the biggest trout we’ve ever seen. These trout are reported to be direct decedents of the original papal trout. The site is also a popular wedding location for the region. While we were there, a wedding party arrived to take photos. |
| As is often the case, our local sponsors provided dinner for the band and our “roadies.” This meal was a buffet of home prepared local dishes laid out on a long picnic table. The food was simple but delicious: cold salads, sausages and cheese, pizza and desserts, and of course, wine. One of the most interesting dishes was a local specialty with a name that meant “cooked water” in English. It was like a bean salad/soup. It contained bread, white beans, artichokes and other vegetables – no meat. |
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We had a large turnout for our concert. Among the concert attendees was a contingent of the music camp students from the orchestra we had heard earlier in the day. We don’t know whether it was our music or the beer and wine being served, but the young crowd was very enthusiastic. One of their percussionists even sat in on congas during a couple of our Latin numbers. After the concert, at about 1:00am, we loaded up our gear and returned to the hotel in Tavarnelle after what seemed like a very long drive through the very dark Tuscan countryside. |
| Rome & Tivoli: On Sunday morning we slept late (got up just before the breakfast buffet closed at 9:00am). We loaded up our gear and took an easy four-hour drive south down the Autostrada to Rome. By late afternoon on Sunday July 4th, everyone had checked into Motel River located in the eastern suburbs of Rome on the road to Tivoli. We had no band performances scheduled during our stay in Rome, so our next two days were free for sightseeing. |
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| Since most of the tourist sites are closed on Sunday in Rome, we drove up the hill to Tivoli where we had reservations at a nice restaurant in an old castle located in the center of town. The service was uneven, but everyone got fed. After dinner, we walked around Tivoli and had a gelato while overlooking the lights of Rome in the distance. Gelato is an Italian passion. Nowhere was this more obvious than in Tivoli where the evening social scene seemed to be built around gelato consumption in the town square. Most HOTS members now share this passion. |
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On Monday morning most of us dropped our dirty clothes off at a nearby laundry for one-day service, since there seem to be few coin laundries in Italy. After what we naively hoped was the end of morning rush hour, we drove into Rome for sightseeing. Rush hour in Rome is a 24-hour event. Some of the vans parked underground at the Villa Borghese (a villa and huge park) and took the metro to Vatican City. Those in the larger van found it wouldn’t fit into the garage. After being trapped for over an hour in a maze of one-way streets and street closures in the area near the Spanish Steps, they eventually found street parking next to the Tiber River and walked to the Vatican. |
The warning about pickpockets in Rome is well founded. One member of our party had an attempt made within a minute after they boarded the metro, and a second shortly after. Several women with young kids made a third unsuccessful attempt in St. Peter’s Square. Fortunately, no other attempts were made of which we were aware.
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We visited St. Peter’s Basilica with its associated Square, and the Vatican Museum, which contains the Sistine Chapel. Both are huge. The cathedral has magnificent statuary and artwork, and Bernini’s huge elaborate canopy and pulpit used only by the Pope. Michelangelo’s Pieta was there, behind glass. It’s on a much smaller scale than his David in Florence. We also visited the crypt with St. Peter’s tomb directly under the altar. |
| To some of us, St. Peter’s seemed a bit sterile. There was no stained glass (nor was there in any other cathedral near Rome) for reasons we have yet to discover). There were no chairs in the main area, although there were some in side chapels. There was little evidence of religious services. It felt unused. |
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For those who went to the Vatican Museum first, the line for the museum stretched around 3 blocks, although the line moved fairly fast. Those of our group that arrived later found no line and walked right in. We went through the Raphael rooms and then into the Sistine Chapel. The Sistine Chapel was magnificent, but the experience was marred by the very large, noisy, almost raucous crowd.
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There was no feeling that the setting had any religious
significance. The guards let us stay as long as we wanted, which
meant that the crowd built up. The 20m height of the ceiling made it
hard to view details. It would be nice to arrive early when there
are no other visitors and lie on the floor for an hour or two with a
good pair of binoculars in order to really see all the details.
The four miles of hallways leading to and from the Raphael rooms and the Chapel were filled with works of art that anywhere else would have been showstoppers. Here they were just extras. All in all, there is so much in the Vatican Museums that you tend to experience sensory overload. |
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After the Vatican, we bought tickets for the hop-on hop-off tourist bus, which circles the city, stopping at all the major tourist sites. We arrived at the Coliseum just as it closed for the evening. |
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We walked over to the Campo de’ Fiori where we met the rest of the group for dinner. The Campo de’ Fiori is one of Rome’s trendy spots. We picked a restaurant with wood-fired pizza ovens, which told us they could handle our group of nineteen. While we dined, a quartet of jazz musicians came by and entertained us, then moved among the diners soliciting contributions. (One of them wore a CVS Pharmacy tee shirt. He’d never been to the U.S. Don’t know where he got the shirt.) Following our supper, we began what was to become known as “Jack’s Second Forced (or Death) March” as we walked all the way across Rome back to our vans. |
| The first stop on our night’s march was Piazza Navona, where we all had a gelato for dessert (more memorable than our dinner). The Piazza Navona has three large fountains, the center one being the very tall and impressive “Fountain of the Four Rivers.” The piazza was a beehive of activity - kiosks selling souvenirs and fashions; street musicians, artists and magicians strutting their stuff for contributions; and kids playing. We passed by the Pantheon, then encountered the Carabinieri band giving a concert in full military dress. We stopped briefly to listen, and learned the proper tempo for the Italian national anthem “Inno di Mammelli.” They were very good. |
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Next we continued to the Trevi Fountain (known from the movie “Three Coins in the Fountain”) - an elaborate and spectacular sculpture. It was well worth the walk, even though the piazza was crowded with tourists, and one had to clear a spot at the fountain’s edge in order to throw a coin over your shoulder. (Legend has it that those who throw a coin over their shoulder into the fountain are destined to return to Rome.)
We were many blocks from the Spanish Steps, the next proposed venue on our trek, and our feet were hurting. The heat and humidity were still high, and it was uphill all the way. Several of the group took the nearest metro back to the Villa Borghese, while the rest of us continued the “Dolce Vita Stroll” back towards the Spanish Steps and the vans. We never quite found the Spanish Steps, but were amazed at the huge numbers of people on the streets late on a Monday evening. |
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We left Rome about midnight and drove back to our motel along the Via Tiburtina, where we saw a large number of “ladies of the night” plying their trade along the roadway. (Maybe this is why all roads lead to Rome?) We were trapped for a few moments in one traffic circle while negotiations proceeded in the cars ahead of us. |
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| On Tuesday morning we were warned there was a bus and metro strike, and to expect even worse traffic than normal. This was saying something! First thing in the morning we picked up our clean laundry, and were surprised at the cost - which was much more than we had expected. We drove back into Rome, and yes, the traffic was really bad. |
| The Coliseum
was our primary objective for the day. One of our vans drove back to park
at the Villa Borghese and stopped for lunch at Harry’s Bar. Another of our
vans parked on the street near the Coliseum. It was here we learned why
cars have folding side view mirrors. Just as our van was parked tight
against the curb, and before the driver had gotten out, an ambulance came
racing down the narrow street, siren blaring, and clipped our van’s side
view mirror, popping out the glass. Fortunately, the wires for the remote
adjustment kept the mirror from hitting the street and we were able to
reinsert it. We then noticed all the other cars on the street had their
side mirrors neatly folded in against the side of the vehicle, a practice we
promptly emulated.
The Coliseum is really impressive. Some of the group took a short guided tour while others wandered around on their own. The Romans built things to last. The Coliseum is in its current state of disrepair not so much because it has fallen down, but largely because preceding generations used it as a source of building materials. |
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After the Coliseum, some of the group took the “Caesar Stroll” back through the Roman Forum to the Vatican, then went to the Piazza Navona, and had dinner at Tre Scalini, an upscale restaurant with a clear view of the fountain and ongoing entertainment. Another group drove out the Apian Way to visit the Catacombs of San Sebastian. This latter group then drove up to the Villa Adriana near Tivoli for a huge steak dinner outside under a flowered trellis patio. |
Tavarnelle, Greve & Vagliagle: On Wednesday, July 7th, we drove back north returning to the Park Hotel Chianti in Tavarnelle. We had originally planned to stay elsewhere for a couple of nights, but we elected to move back to the Park Hotel because it would be nearer our next two concerts and thus shorten our after-concert drives.
On the way out of Rome, we went to the intersection where one would normally enter the Autostrade and found police barricading the access ramp. There were no instructions on how to detour, and the officers were no help. Using our maps we figured out we needed to go into the inner beltway then exit to rejoin the Autostrade. Good plan, but faulty execution, for one of our vans that missed the Autostrade exit sign because the heavy truck traffic on the beltway made reading road signs almost impossible. By the time the group realized they had missed the exit they were half way around the beltway, so wound up making a full circle of the Rome beltway during the height of morning rush hour. They cursed the coins they had thrown into the Trevi fountain all the way around.
| Along the way back to Tavarnelle, each of the vans took different routes through the Umbrian and Tuscan countryside, stopping at various hill towns along the way. One group drove through Cortona (movie “Under the Tuscan Sun”), another visited Montepulciano, while others drove through the resort town of Borghetto on the north shore of Lake Bolsena. Along the way we would occasionally pass small groups undertaking “romantic bicycling tours of Tuscany.” Unfortunately, no one seems to have mentioned to them that along with the scenic vistas of wheat fields, olive groves and grape vines, there are a lot of steep hills in Tuscany. Few of the red faced, sweating middle-aged bicyclists looked like they were having much fun. |
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This evening we had been invited by the mayor to play a concert in nearby Greve in Chianti. Politics are an uncertain thing, and by the time we arrived in Italy, the mayor had lost his re-election and the new mayor was refusing to honor his predecessor’s commitments. Fortunately for us, the local jazz club decided to have us play for a private party in tiny Pieve di San Cresci, near Greve, where one of the members had his home and vinyard. We drove through winding Tuscan country roads on the way to Greve in the late afternoon, then finally up a long gravel farm road through vineyards and olive groves, to stop at a rustic collection of stone buildings near the top of the hill. Arriving in the small courtyard, we were met by our hosts, Duccio and Mima. They lived in a stone farm house, adjacent and connected to a small, simple but beautiful church that had been built in 948. Their house had been added to the site, and over the years a cellar and other rooms had been added to the structure to create a winery. Our hosts had purchased their home 15 years ago and turned the old winery into a combination home and “enoteca” cabaret. They grow their own vegetables and have fruit trees, as well as grape vines and olive trees. The church is used for mass only once a year (in August, we were told, but don’t know why that date) to maintain it’s consecration. A buffet of homemade Tuscan soups, locally grown vegetables, Pecorino di Pienza cheese, sausage, and wine was set up under trellised grapevines in the front yard of the home. Tables were set up under olive and apricot trees and we dined as the sunset behind the Tuscan hills in the distance. There were several flavors of gelato for dessert. |
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One side of the house was a stone basement/wine cellar, which contained a huge (6’) old oak cask and stone olive press, where our host operates his enoteca. The lower part of the cellar was decorated like a nightclub featuring a lighted caricature of his wife, Mima. The band set up in an alcove at the foot of the cellar stairs in front of a large fireplace. The room was relatively small with a stone floor, walls and ceiling, so we had to use mutes and play softly. In the back of the room behind the audience was a heavy rustic table about 10 ft in diameter, which had part of a wine cask as its base. Several of the women in the audience enjoyed the band so much that they turned the ten-foot table into a dance floor. Soon everyone was taking turns dancing on the table. They had a ball. Our host video taped the whole evening and provided us a copy of the tape for “evidence” of the evening’s festivities. Our host also gave us several cases of local wine to take with us. We had another late night drive through the Tuscan countryside back to our hotel. |
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Thursday, July 8th, we had another day for sightseeing with a performance in the evening. Some of the group returned to Florence for more sightseeing and shopping. Several others slept in and lounged around the hotel pool in the afternoon. Those who had not visited Pisa previously headed to the coast to see the Leaning Tower.
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Along the way we visited Leonardo’s birthplace and museum in Vinci. Vinci is a pretty little town in the Florentine hills not far from Pinocchio’s home. The museum is dedicated to scale models (recently built) of machines from Leonardo’s drawings. Leonardo did not build most of the apparatus in his drawings so the versions in the museum may be the first ones ever made. There were models of his drawings for a spring-driven automobile, a mass production loom, an underwater breathing apparatus, a bicycle, a hang glider, pulleys for lifting and placing very heavy objects during construction of domes, and many other inventions. This evening we had been hired to play for a party at the Villa Dievole Winery and Agrotourismo, near Vagliagle, just north of Sienna. The party was for the Chianti Classico Wine Growers Association. When we arrived at 7pm, we found that through a miscommunication with our agent, we had been expected an hour earlier. We quickly mustered our flute trio to play for guests on the tasting room patio, while we set up the bandstand on a grassy terrace behind the winery. |
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During the tasting session, we fielded a small combo of piano, guitar, and two saxophones up a hill next to the Columbaio swimming pool. The Gucci store in Florence had brought in six female and two male models, with support staff, for a sports-wear fashion show. The models walked around the pool and patio area among the guests while we improvised background music. The fashion show lasted over two hours. We also noted there was a lot of glamorous designer sportswear being worn by the affluent guests. While the fashion show was going on, several food and wine stations were set up. This included a table with a whole stuffed roast pig, an outdoor wood-fired oven where the staff were making individual size pizzas, and several tables with Tuscan soup, cheese, and sausage. There was also a constant flow of Dievole Chianti Classico. The pizza was exceptional, the best we had in Italy. |
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After the fashion show we moved back to the terrace to play for dancing. The terrace was on two levels. We were on the upper level with several tables, and there was a lower level “Rose Garden” where many more tables were set up. Most of the guests congregated on the lower level and were out of our view. It was strange playing for an audience you couldn’t see, but a number of the guests made an effort to stop by, make requests and tell us how much everyone was enjoying the music. We even pulled out our Viennese Waltz Medley to play for a newlywed couple from – you guessed it – Vienna. We finished the evening playing swing music for the winery staff, catering service’s employees and some of the Agrotourist guests who were staying at the winery. At the end of the night we were given three cases of magnum bottles of Dievole Chianti Classico. Our luggage was getting really heavy with all this wine. Again, we had a late night, arriving back to our hotel around 2:30am. |
| Orvieto, Aquapendente & Onano: Friday morning we drove two hours south to Orvieto, stopping in Poggibonsi to pick up John Wills, an old friend from previous band trips, who had just arrived in Italy. Orvieto is an old town located atop a high plateau. Our Hotel Europa was at the bottom of the hill next to the funicular (inclined cog train) which runs up to Orvieto. We rode up and spent the afternoon having a late lunch and exploring the town. Orvieto has no particularly exciting history, but does have a few attractions such as the very deep St. Patrick’s Well. The well is a cistern in an underground network of tunnels. It was dug to provide water during seiges. It has a spiral of pathways for mules to carry water up to the top. Orvieto also has a cathedral that has a striking filigreed, multi-colored appearance like the one in Siena. |
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Late Friday afternoon, we loaded up and headed for Aquapendente in Lazio province via another set of climbing, curvy roads through beautiful countryside. Along the way the cargo van, which held all the instruments, had a hose for its supercharger come loose and had to stop because it lacked the power to climb the hill. The van contained no tools. Fortunately, the van was able to pull into a farmhouse drive. We noticed a sign on the farmhouse with a picture of a farmer holding a gun and a dog with bared teeth - not a good omen. Within a few minutes the farmer, a gruff looking square built gentleman, came out to see what we were doing in his driveway. Although he spoke only Italian, with lots of pointing we explained our need for a wrench to tighten the hose clamp. The farmer went back into his house and in a few minutes reappeared with exactly the size wrench needed. We thanked him, and gave him a copy of our New Zealand trip CD, only to find out he had no CD player. He seemed happy with the gift anyway. The van was back on the road and we had lost only 15-20 minutes. |
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Again the arrangements in Aquapendente were vague. We were to go to the Town Square and meet someone named Giulio. When we arrived there was no Giulio that we could identify. Jack Elder, our band director, who speaks no Italian, resorted to roaming around the square calling loudly in English, French, German, and Greek for someone who spoke a language he could understand. Luckily, he came across a Swiss-Italian who not only spoke French but also knew where the band was to play that evening. He climbed in our van to personally guide us there. The concert venue turned out to be the Teatro Cordeschi, an old open-air Roman style theater used for movies and concerts. Pigeons had taken over the stage rafters as a roosting area. The stage was protected by plastic sheeting that was covered by pigeon droppings - again not a good omen. The sheet was rolled back, and we set up for the concert. Prior to the concert our host and his helpers provided us a potluck picnic supper |
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Our concert was particularly well received, until the pigeons decided it was past their bedtime and came home to roost in the rafters. During the last set, the pigeons indignantly bombed us until we finished our concert. The show must go on, however, and after Venice we were fully experienced with pigeons. In a show of appreciation, one of the audience members, who had recently opened a hotel in the neighboring town of Onano, invited us back to his hotel for a “late spaghetti.” We followed him in convoy to his hotel and arrived there around 1:00am. We had a delicious meal and more wine. We discovered that it was both our vocalist’s and one of their party’s birthdays. The staff somehow produced a birthday cake and candles. |
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At about 2:00am, after a tour of the new hotel (it was a converted school), our host the owner decided to wake up the town’s mayor to have him give us a tour of the local castle, a former presidential palace on the town square dating back a thousand years. The building was being renovated, and half of it is being used as offices for the town government. The mayor arrived in the Town Square after about 15 minutes, bleary-eyed with sleep, tucking a rumpled shirt into his jeans. It was clear who called the shots in this particular small Italian village, and it wasn’t the mayor. In retrospect the tour was both interesting and humorous, but at the time we wanted nothing more than to get back to our hotel and go to bed. The tour ended around 3:00am with a “Proseco” champagne toast and speeches in the town square. We then drove back through the hills in the dark, arriving back to the hotel, around 4:30am. |
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Orvieto, Gubbio & Calcata: After believing for all her life that she was of Scottish ancestry, Jack Elder’s wife Julie’s aunt had recently told her that their family name – Gibbons – derived as a corruption from “Gubbino – one who comes from Gubbio” , a town in Umbria. So, on Saturday July 10th, our last full day in Italy, some of our group drove over to the hill town of Gubbio to check out the rumor. Arriving after a lovely drive through national parks, they explored the narrow streets in Gubbio and rode the bird cage funicular to the top of the mountain. On the way back, Julie announced she had picked up on no family vibes and would continue to be Scottish. They then stopped by the town of Deruta to buy majolica pottery, doubling its cost by having it mailed home – not very Scottish. A few slept until noon, while others visited Assisi and Spoleto. Others went back up to Orvieto for lunch and to see more of the town, including touring the cathedral and visiting the caverns under the town which had been originally carved into the soft tufa to raise pigeons to feed the town during sieges. Late that afternoon we drove to the small medieval walled hill-town of Calcata, the site of our final concert in Italy. Calcata is a small artist colony, which is slowly renovating this little hill town. The local carabinieri helped us park our vans in the small, crowed piazza just outside the town gate. The passageway into town is narrow and steep, with 90-degree turns just inside the medieval gate, so that no cars or trucks can be admitted. We had to load our gear on a small three-wheeled, one-seat motorcycle cart (the likes of which you’ll only see in Italy) which is the only motorized vehicle allowed inside the town walls. After several runs by the cart to take our gear inside, we set up for the concert in a small gas-lit cobblestone courtyard. Prior to the concert, our Dutch puppet-maker hostess Marejke invited us to their “Il Granarone” restaurant for a delicious meal of homemade mushroom and cheese ravioli, beef with radicchio, and more wine. We were also treated to a display of some of their local artwork. |
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We played the concert for a small but very appreciative and interesting audience. The audience included an 83 year-old “flower child” from San Francisco dressed in tie-dyed pajamas, whose small dog “sang” through each of our numbers. Midway though our concert a group of street performers came into the main street and put on a juggling/dance act with fire and knives. Our concert ended about 11:30pm, and we broke everything down, transported it out in the small truck, loaded up our vans and finally got back to our hotel about 2:00am. We were about 100km from the Rome airport, and we needed to be there at 5:00am for our 7:45am flight. Consequently, we did not go to bed, just completed final packing, including stuffing our gift magnums of Chianti into all available spaces in our personal luggage, took showers, and hit the road. We got to Fiumicino and the Leonardo da Vinci Airport around 5:15 am. The four van drivers dropped the passengers, equipment and baggage at the terminal. After some difficulty finding where to return rental vehicles at that hour of the morning, and some argument at the gate over “excess baggage,” we checked everything through to Dulles airport and headed home. |
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We changed planes in Milan, and had a final look at the spectacular view of the snow-capped mountains of the Southern Alps as they passed below the windows of our Alitalia aircraft. We all had a short nap before we arrived at Dulles at 2pm Sunday July 11th. We cleared U. S. Customs with no problems or questions about our “cache” of extra wine. After loading up the band gear one last time, everyone headed home to get some rest before facing work on Monday. |
Our agents have mentioned the possibility of a return trip to Italy, but if we do, it will probably be to a different part of the country, probably south to Naples, Sorrento, and on to Sicily and Sardinia. If you think you might be interested in joining us on any future tours, we’ll be posting information on destination, available space and estimated costs here on our web site (http://www.newHOTSjazz.com).
© 2005 New HOTS Jazz. All Rights Reserved.