Pisa, part 1

I don't know about you, but i feel my whole childhood had a leaning Tower of Pisa illustration. Every year, in some textbook. In illustrations about travel in general. It's iconic. 

Then i watched a long program on it this year, and what really wowed me weren't the engineering stories, trying a dozen times to keep it from falling, but the stonework details. 

But let me back up. On the way to Pisa, staring out the train window, i saw this sight

i was like "hey, whoa, what are some Alps doing way down here?" I thought I was looking at Dolomites, misplaced.

Nope. These are the Carrera marble mines. Like Michelangelo 's David, and 200 other famous statues and buildings' white marble. Isn't it lovely? 

I'd move to that coastal city in the foreground, just to have that view every day!  However, the marble's reflection screwed up my GPS, so maybe  not. 

Then I got to Pisa, and I immediately loved it. Good vibe, clear instructions, good bus system. The bus went along a river walk I knew I'd have to walk, and passed this gem of a church.

My apartment is right next to a soccer stadium but it manages to blend in with the neighborhood somehow. I can't explain it, but if you didn't know it was there, you could drive right past and still not know .Luckily, the team is away while I'm here. 

The Medieval walls are my first tourist aim. About a 5 km walk up high, with views. I decided to do it later, as it was 8:30 already and I wanted to beat the bigger crowds at the most popular site.

What most people see first, vendors.

then enter and see the duomo

then walk past it and see every tourist in the universe taking the same stupid shot of "holding up the leaning tower."

the cathedral is under construction. I liked this clear sign.

All the signage was top notch . Cathedral on left here.

Tourist experience available. 

Stone carving details on cloistered cemetery roof. They knew their craft, these guys.

Stone detail in the Tower, multiple kinds of marble plus carving.  

And finally, my own iconic shot if the tower, from the opposite side you usually see. It leans to the left, and not quite as much from this angle. 

In 2 hours, when it was all open, and a thousand tourists were paying a lot to get inside all this, I was at home in A/C

Genoa

A city needs good public transit with simple ways to pay to be a good tourist city. Ideally, they have "tap n go", with your credit card, phone, or smart watch held for a second to a reader on tram or bus, and you're good for 2 hours, jumping on any transport. Second best is cash on board. You plop a 2 euro coin into a box and get one ride. 

Genova has neither. And it doesn't have a bus ticket machine at the train station, which some places do. And that would be not tragic, except for getting to your hotel the first time, and if it weren't as hilly as San Francisco, which makes walking a true commitment. You can see these streets just north of my apartment climb and climb by their shape.  That's a map of steep hills. 

Luckily, I only had one full day here, so I walked the flat areas near my b&b that morning for exercise and forgot about tourist activities. Getting to and from the train station with 12 kilos of luggage was no fun, but I was only 30 minutes away. And the temp was 30, not 35 as it was in Ferrara with a similar bus system problem. Could have been worse. 

The beach here is rocky, the waves more intense than on the east side of Italy. Can't really say more as they didn't make it easy to discover more . 🤷‍♀️

Happy to move on to Pisa, where they do have tap n go on buses! Last stay is Civitavecchia, where i have 2 nights in the center of town so should not need a bus.

food prices

Vegetables and fruits are fresh, local, organic, and most are inexpensive. These shallots cost less than a quarter each. 

Tomatoes that taste like tomatoes are 33 cents for a large one.

Rice is a little pricier than in US. Pasta can be $1 per kilo, or up to twice that. 

Great olive oil is 10-20 euros per liter. Single farm, the high end of that range.

Balsamic vinegar is less than $2 a liter. Not joking. I never bought it, as i didn't think I'd use it all, but theoretically a deal. 

A chunk of focaccia of four 3x3" servings is less than $2. And loaded with olive oil. Well worth 50 cents per serving.

Food out is not cheap...but it's also very good. You don't tip, so add exactly 0% to the bill. 

A medium dish or cone of gelato is 3-4$ 

Meat is pricey, but all organic, free range, free of hormones, chemicals, and no brines that you pay by the pound for.  Burger on sale, $10 a pound, chicken breasts, $6, pork, $5, and you can get brains, kidneys, all sorts of innards. I wasn't buying in lamb season, but when it is, it's comparable to pork price, they say. I've learned about slaughtering here, and it's pretty amazing info. Veterinarians examine every cow and lamb, before and after slaughter. Only one farm per day uses the slaughterhouse. I saw one restaurant with tomahawk steak for only $18/ pound. You'd probably be served 2 pounds. 

Fruit and veg are only what's in season. Very little in the freezer section. Very few canned vegetables. They want it fresh, local, in season, and are happy to wait for and celebrate fig season or blood orange season or whatever season the next time it comes around. 

Cheese and prosciutto, which i lived on, is $7.50 a pound, but well worth it. Mortadella and speck, two other popular lunch meats, are $4 a pound. 

Yogurt is about $.89/ 100 grams.  I didn't buy eggs, but they are only sold by the six pack, and mainly used in recipes, not as omelettes. 

You don't buy beer by the six pack. One at a time is how they are sold. Less than a dollar a can for good Italian beer. Wine can be found for $3-$29.  Asti spumante is made here in Turin. About $6/ bottle. 

Coffee grounds are $5/ pound. (Actually 500 g is what i mean when I say a pound, but with how weak the dollar is my prices per pound are correct. )

It's good food. 

Primo Levi's tomb... or not

Chemist, author, and Auschwitz prisoner #174517, Levi is buried a half hour from my Turin apartment. I walked there this morning, to a cemetery with a Jewish quarter. 

When i got to the cemetery, i was immediately distracted by the opulent tombs and monuments.

miles of them lining roads.

With cool sculptures, as above...and

all kinds of architecture, gothic domes, neoclassical columns, and art Deco tombs i like a lot. 

as i wandered through aisles of this, i thought it was competitive, and said aloud, "it's tombage!" Which rhymes with plumage. 

on and on, road after road, until i stopped and asked GPT, "this is the size of Foro Italico, i think. Right?" Nailed it. Foro Italico, major aroman Olympic venue is 50 hectares. This cemetery is 51!

The signage was great. Maps

and individual grave info. 

With the little codes to scan to learn even more..

It was like the Turin Museum of The Notable Dead. 

One of my favorites was a tomb of intellectuals, probably child-free, mostly professors. The guy who installed gas lighting in Turin, professors of Sanskrit and Latin. Journalists, poets. Zoologist, early adopter of blood transfusions... I swear i gained IQ points just standing there. 

Elsewhere, a famous organizer of Turin's 1821 riots, an operetta comedic soprano, a Secretary of the Navy... You could literally spend 2 hours per day there for a week and learn so much!

The art was incredible. Copper angels, statues like the guy above with his dog, delicate stone work, black marble that wowed, wrought iron designs...

 Portico after portico, collonade after collonade like this one with several signs in each one. 

As it ends up, you need an appointment to see Levi's tomb, and i belatedly realized it was Shabbat anyway, so i had the wrong day free. But here it is, from the cemetery's website, in winter. 

Whoever designed and curates this? Bravissima or bravissimo! What an amazing find. 

Mediterranean friends

Compass jellyfish (medusa, in Italiano)

flying crab. Half buried in sand, small

Mediterranean smelt. Groups of 7-18

I wanted to clear out my open Wikipedia pages, so downloaded images from there. 

rain rain!

I'm stuck inside with storms for 3 days but luckily I'm writing. Miss exercise though

I took this photo. "Ragazzi" means "guys". This is sort of saying it. The other choices were "squadra", team, and i forget what else.

 

I went to a street market and bought myself one travel keepsake, a moka pot. I also asked to buy 2 of these yellow plums, and said in Italian, "I'm not Italian and have never eaten these. Is it possible to buy only two? " He gave them to me free, nice man. Tart and good. 

I'm getting so Italian i thought, these need a spoonful of marscapone in the pit hole, plus a drizzle of honey. It's totally what they would do. 

Modern Art Museum (GAM) Torino

First thing. When your city is 2100 years old, you have a different definition of "modern than me. It starts around 1860. Outside the education center part of the complex. 

Lorenzo Delleani (1840–1908) was an Italian painter primarily known for his landscapes and Impressionist-style works, active in the Piedmont region. Born in Pollone, near Biella, he initially trained at the Accademia Albertina in Turin. By the late 19th century, Delleani was known for vibrant, luminous landscapes depicting rural scenes, the changing seasons, and the countryside around Turin and the Alps. His brushwork became freer and more expressive over time, emphasizing light’s effects on nature. Delleani often painted outdoors, working quickly to seize the fleeting moods of nature.

i like the composition of his  calf licking mana cow.

Next, Antonio Fontanesi—one of the Italian precursors to Impressionism, though often moodier and more poetic in tone. He felt Van Goghish to me, the pallet, the impasto sky, pallet knife work on the reedsif a  swamp, and a depressed artist. This one was cheerier. 

Next, Mattia Moreni. 1960 expressionist, impasto, knives exclusively, Image in Danger, Moulin Rouge.

Some clever drips in that light spot say piano to me. The dark cool pallet is relieved by little bits of yellow.

The signage called it "fierce gesturality," a good description.

Next (just putting in what struck me) Sergio Lombardo. Box With 30 poles, is... A box with 30 poles in Crayola 8 colors.shiny!

Next, Favaretto 's The Menders. Impressionist. 1874?

Next, Joe Tilson, 1963, , something that should have been called Inside Straight, but wasn't. Because those surely are poker chips

This, by (someone) Sartelli. His only medium was spider webs. Pretty cool!

Gorgio Griffa.  Thumbprints.

It's orange thumbprints on large canvas. 70 prints tall, 100 thumbprints wide, except the last line, 52. So from a distance it looks like a block paragraph of ancient text, not filling the whole page.

I'm not sure what it means.... But I feel it *does* mean, just beyond the edge of my understanding. Also notice a few on them have more yellow, so its as if there's a hidden shape, not quite  visible. Possibly my favorite piece among what I'd call "modern". 

A close up of some of Dadamaino (a woman with a nom d'arte)  Op art, sort of. Il movimento delle cose, the movement of things. Blow it up to see it's lots of parallel lines.

Had a good time, made AI look up details on artists. Took a complicated three bus ride trip home, possibly to show off my excellent public transit skills. 

My final museum in Torino. I have 2 little shopping trips to do, though i finally found the brand of decaf I've been hunting for, yay. Sunday cleaning the apartment, and I train out to Genoa (Genova in Italian) Tuesday. 

scurrilous thoughts

Tec San, Etruscan god of childhood. Image Wikimedia Commons

I know much more about Etruscans than I did, but no one knows everything about them. Their civilization precedes Rome and was conquered by Rome. Genetically, they are Italian, but linguistically, they have markers that share word parts with some ancient European languages spoken in Anatolia, now Turkey.

Many familiar languages, including all Germanic and all Romance ones, derive from a mother language called PIE, Proto Indo European. Plus all languages in India, plus all Slavic languages, plus Celtic languages, plus more.

But Etruscan is proto ancient European, pre PIE, coming before Latin.  Few of the proto European tongues are in any sense left today. Words here and there... but not many. They have documents from  2000 to 2800 years ago with Etruscan writing, which is written using an old Greek script, so they can pronounce all 4000 known words of the language, but they only have an idea what 400 of them mean. And there's some confusion about some, like ten might be this word, or maybe that word is twelve, and this other word is ten.

I care about all this because I flippin' love love love etymology. My desert island book is the 20 volume Oxford English Dictionary, which would both sustain me for years, and is probably the reason my damned boat sank, amiright?

So I read the full Wikipedia article on the language, and the theories, and then I studied the list of 200 ish words on Wikipedia that exist in our language that are Etruscan. These include military, belt, arena, and some other very common ones. One that stopped me and made me think a lot is "scurrilous."

Scurrilous means besmirch. Or "besmirchful," if there were such a word, but there isn't. Or insulting. 

It comes from Etruscan, "scural," or something like that. That means, "of the community," and more specifically a bastard. Children without a father who claimed them and took responsibility for rearing them. Kids of deadbeat dads of Etrusca. (Now Tuscany, in part. Say both words and you'll hear the relationship.).

And I started thinking about how much having that word, said that way, and apparently without rancor, told us a lot about the culture. They had some system for taking care of such children. Maybe a family member took them, maybe the priest class took them, maybe there was a food bank, maybe informal adoption? We don't and can't know, but there's a strong hint in the word itself that "this is a community problem. It takes a village."

Compare to ancient Rome, the conquerors of the Etruscans, who left unwanted children at crossroads to be eaten by scavengers or just die of exposure. And that doesn't bother me in cases of ice age people, or tundra hunter-gatherers on the move in hard times, who might have to do so in order to save the life of the mother and her extant children. Tough times. That's more survival, making difficult choices, and doing what you can.

Rome was not tough times. Rome was insanely rich, through conquest. They had gold vomit bowls and paid 350,000 warriors good wages. Surely, someone could have been taxed for there to be an orphanage.

Which of course made me think of America and how it doesn't tax the rich much. I checked the current stats. Half a million children under 12 are homeless at some point during every year. Probably every night, 80,000 kids that young have to sleep in a car, and mom or dad has to have money for gas, to keep out of the notice of cops by moving the car, and get the kids to school the next morning. If you're homeless, your car, in America, is the very last thing you want to give up. No?

But apparently this reality is not such a big deal to us. Whatever, we say, or "there are too many tough things to think about." But what I think about is cabinet members who own 12 yachts, including one large enough to park a normal sized yacht inside. And then I think of kids sleeping in cars, and I realize, okay, next time I'm at a gas station and see a harried woman and notice kids, blankets, toys in the back seat, I'll offer to pay for a full tank of gas.

Then I get pissed off. Like working class income me gets to take care of the poor? And it's not just me. That falls on volunteers, people who donate at church every week, people who give a dollar to GoFundMe, since 2017, the largest health care "insurer" in America. I mean, why is that burden on people like me? Not to pick on Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates, who are actually better than most billionaires who have no name recognition, with large foundations and lots of donations, but I've seen them ask, "What am I to do with all this money?"

Crazy idea: Maybe pay taxes? Maybe tell Congress you want to pay your fair 45%, that capital gains and bonuses should be taxed like actual earned income, that you do not want 200 special rich people deductions. I dunno, who am I, but that seems like a place to start, maybe?

I also thought about how the word scurrilous is negative, and in a sense, the insult falls on the baby who didn't ask to be born to a deadbeat dad, and how interesting that is, that word meaning can change like that. ("Girl" used to mean a child of either sex. "Slut" used to mean "tomboy, with a slightly dirty face." Definition drift is just fascinating to me.) Scurrilous at one point meant of dubious standing.

If we should be scurrilous, in the modern sense of insulting, about anyone, it's surely the deadbeat dad. Or how about the pornographically rich tax dodger?

And though we could end WIC and food stamps and housing assistance, and become Romans rather than Etruscans about the topic, I rather wish we wouldn't.

Which may surprise readers who know I don't particularly like children. But if I'm a Roman female, and I'm walking along the crossroads, and there's a baby still kicking, I look around, hope someone else is here, but when I see there is not, I pick up the damned kid and do my best.

So, that's it. I'm just musing. In my head, without talking to anyone about such thoughts typically, this is what I do daily, as much as I do writing, walking, and reading novels. Now you listened once. Thanks.

In other random thoughts, on my 40th or so cheese you'll never eat in the US (all of them are amazing!) I thought, isn't it weird that we squeeze the udders of bovines, or ovines, mix it with lamb guts, let it kind of rot, squeeze it out and put it in a cave, and later put it on pizza?

The correct answer is, yeah, that's plenty weird. Like visiting aliens would say WTF?!?

Had a red onion and gorgonzola pizza slice this week. Gorgonzola dolce, which you probably also can't get in the States, with really not a hint of the blue cheese mustiness. No red sauce. Really really good.  It's all really really good.

You know what's in my favorite flavor of gelato? 1) heavy cream. 2) superfine sugar.

Nothing else. Zero additives in most foods. Very few food additives are legal here. Zero sugar in bread, unless you're looking for a sweet roll or donut, in which case, yes, sugar. 

But like with foccacia, where they pour on a bunch of real, sweet, delicious olive oil, all from one local farm? You definitely don't need sugar. You need gums. Teeth are optional, I imagine, and you'd want the ability to say "yum."

daily walk

Walking every morning... Just realized today my Italian phone month expired 6 days ago, but i don't need to buy more until i leave here. I know the north half of Turin so well, and it's a grid, and the river orients you, i can just... go. Speaking nothing but Italian, and for normal daily interactions, I'm seldom being pegged as a foreigner now. 

nobody in Italy is up at 6:30 a.m. but me, almost.

I stopped by my corner cafe, which has amazing cappuccino and possibly the best cornetto I've had! Good thing I didn't find it sooner.. though big cornetto, cappuccino, bicchierino di seltz, and seated at a table is less than 3 euros... (Stand up, and 2 euros) So you wouldn't go broke. 

The bar gas been there 150+ years. Coffee in morning, beer and wine in late afternoon.

If you travel in Europe you're generally best off sticking to restaurants that have No English on menus. Here's a place's two blocks from me. They specialize in gnocchi. 

writing and walking and...

I did one museum this week, the Museum of the Resistance. (To fascism) There's nothing much to take pictures of. Recorded testimony mostly about Jewish people hiding, or having loved ones deported to concentration camps. 

The recorded voices are in Italian, and i understood some. English subtitles let me understand more. Of course in 2025, nearly all these people are gone. It's good something of their experience remains. 

I was hoping more for experiences of antifascisti here, people who didn't vote the fascists in and fought them in small ways though their neighbors or relatives were gung ho on the idea. Not really what it was. More an interesting offshoot of the story of Jews in Germany and Poland and France... But set in Italy. 

i walk every morning. I eat. I write every day. 55000 words on a new novel, partly set in Italy. 

Local park with swings for kids. Always a couple of old guys staring or reading a paper in small parks.