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Post by fumobici on Jul 18, 2011 0:06:11 GMT
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Post by Kimby on Jul 18, 2011 2:56:48 GMT
Oh, this makes me want to go there right now! Lovely photo essay of an enchanting looking place.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2011 4:43:40 GMT
Very appealing town. Of course, you make every place look great, fumobici!
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Post by tod2 on Jul 18, 2011 12:26:55 GMT
He certainly does! I am just fascinated by the walls..... the jumble of bricks, stones and tiles, places where there used to be a window or a door still left in evidence.... Just fab!
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Post by bjd on Jul 18, 2011 14:49:03 GMT
All your picutres of these towns look wonderful, fumobici, but I am beginning to wonder what it must be like to live in them. All that stone, not much greenery in the villages. I get the impression they are cold and damp in winter. In these pics there are some people, but it looks as though they are tourists. Are these villages emptying like similar villages in France? I mean, what would people do for a living there? Would they have to commute to the nearest city? What about young people -- there can't be much for them to do.
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Post by Kimby on Jul 18, 2011 15:42:33 GMT
places where there used to be a window or a door still left in evidence.... Don't know if it's true in this village, but in Cortona we were told that the bricked in doors were used to bring out the dead during the plague, then bricked in forever after that. Bad juju to keep using that door? |
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Post by lagatta on Jul 18, 2011 15:48:30 GMT
I see that Monterchi is in province of Arezzo, Tuscany and Citerna in province of Perugia, Umbria. Obviously the regional boundary has to fall somewhere. bjd, as for stone and greenery, I don't think it is such a problem because those are such small villages set in a very green part of Italy. And I get the impression some of the flowers weren't planted yet, in the springtime. The menu reads April, and there are empty flower planters. I always remember a lot of flowers in those villages from May to October. However I think I'd not only be rather bored there, but feel very very exposed, as an urbanite. I'd hate everyone knowing everything about me or trying to find it out. But small villages everywhere can be like that. I see that there is a very famous painting in little Monterchi, a remarkably realistic painting of the Madonna at the very end of pregnancy, holding her tummy and sore lower back the way pregnant women do and looking uncomfortable. Baby Jeebus kicks! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Madonna_del_parto_piero_della_Francesca.jpg |
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Post by fumobici on Jul 18, 2011 19:24:44 GMT
These are small towns and the social dynamics are pretty much the same as those in similarly sized towns pretty much anywhere. Everyone knows everyone's business to a degree that would probably make urbanites uncomfortable, no different than a town of similar size in the US or Canada.
The villages here though seem pretty vibrant, the populations are fairly stable though you do see a lot of the young locals going off into the world just as in almost any small town. A significant number of people move in to replace them though it seems. They don't have that empty abandoned feeling you see in FMT's little French villages. There are rather a lot of people from bigger cities in Italy or from the UK and Canada particularly who buy places in this area to live, either full time or part time.
These towns don't seem terribly bleak in the Winter to me. First the Winters aren't bad here and secondly in a hilltop town like these all one need usually do is peek out the window to see rolling green countryside receding into the distance. The surrounding rural country is both usually very scenic and literally a stone's throw- a due passi as they say- away.
I haven't seen the Piero della Francesca. It was something like 10 euro to go see, it's a one painting museum and I'd rather spend the dosh on something to eat. I've seen other paintings by him though in Sansepolcro, Firenze and Perugia. The town museum in Perugia has an altarpiece he did that is just achingly beautiful, and there for your 10 Euro or whatever it is, you can see hundreds of other works.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 22, 2011 5:27:43 GMT
Looking at the wonderful doors again, I am frustrated to not see what is behind the doors. I would imagine, though, that it would be sort of like in Paris -- sometimes there is a lovely courtyard and sometimes just a place to store the trashcans.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jul 22, 2011 18:15:56 GMT
I want to go there too....it looks like just my cup of tea ;D excellent....
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Post by Deleted on Jul 24, 2011 12:08:12 GMT
I wonder what's behind all those doors? Must be an interesting place to visit, but what's it like to live there? It seems one word to sum up Italy would be: Charming.
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