Day 15-Casale Monferrato

This morning we planned to visit Casale Monferrato. This town is an industrial town situated on the Po River situated in a triangle between Turin, Genoa, and Milan.  It is best known for cement production, but believe it or not, that’s not why we were visiting.  Our friend, James, whom we met on the bike portion of our trip had told us about a wonderful old synagogue in the old Jewish ghetto in Casale Monferrato and recommended we visit it.

The drive took us about an hour and one half north of Genoa into the Montferrat Hills.  As we entered the town we found parking in Piazza Castello. 

Piazza Castello is a large irregularly shaped open space used as a car park and as a market square; it is dominated by the castle that occupies most of its western side.  The castle was constructed in the 15^th century and is used primarily for exhibitions. It is shaped in a hexagonal layout with towers and a moat.

                   

From the piazza, several other sites could be seen including the Torre Civica, the city’s most recognizable landmark.  The base of this building dates back to 1100 and the tower from around 1400.  It became a symbol of municipal power.

The Chiesa Santa Caterina stands at the southeast corner of the piazza.  At first we thought this was the synagogue, but a quick peak inside told us we were way off base.  The cross on the cupola was another dead give away.

 

After a bit of wandering and the kindness of a local, we finally found the synagogue. 

One of the reasons it was so difficult to find was that in Europe, Jews were barely tolerated (some of the time, the rest of the time, persecuted) and were allowed to pray as long as their Christian neighbors didn’t have to see them or listen to them.  In order to comply, synagogues were often built inside of another building with no windows facing the street (so prayers couldn’t be heard outside) and no obvious exterior that identified it as a place of Jewish worship. The building was on a narrow alleyway with the exterior façade no different than any of the surrounding buildings.

We entered through a non descript door into a small entryway.  From here we could see the actual entrance to the synagogue. 

It was built in 1595 and has been expanded and modified over the past 4 centuries.  It is a wonderful example of Baroque interior design with beautiful paintings, carvings and woodwork.  

Ark containing the Torah's

View from the Bimah (Reader's Table)

Original Candelabra

Ceiling in Gold Leaf, Reads "This is the Gate of Heaven"

The synagogue reached its heights in the 19^th Century after emancipation  and religious freedom was granted in 1848. During the 1930’ and 40’s, the Jewish population was decimated and the synagogue fell into disuse and disrepair.  In 1968, restoration began and it has now been returned to its original splendor and is listed as a National Monument of Italy.

The synagogue is also a Jewish museum.  One of the docents, an older gentleman named Nikolai, gave us a private tour of the museum. He was born in Russia, spent time in the US, and spoke perfect English. He was also quite passionate about the synagogue and museum. 

The entryway to the synagogue had a memorial to the Jews of Casale Monferrato and neighboring Moncalvo.that were killed in the Holocaust. A list of names of the victims is written on glass and Hebrew words are sculpted in iron, Shalom (peace), Shoah (catastrophe), Midor Lador (from generation to generation), referring to the duty to perpetuate tradition and memory.  It also recalls the Western Wall and the written prayers left there flying to heaven.

Outside in the interior courtyard of the complex were two other sculptures. A hat tree stood in one corner  representing Jerusalem as a place that any Jew could hang his hat.  

On the opposite side of the courtyard stood a pomegranate tree with a sculpture of a large bee.  

   

On the ground was a Jewish star with bees at 5 of the six points.  

There was an elaborate story behind this sculpture that Nikolai told us.  The pomegranate in Jewish tradition represents prosperity and life due to the uncountable number of seeds. On the ground, 5 bees are happily dancing on their honey.  The sixth bee has flown to the pomegranate tree. This lone bee symbolizes a new force invigorating the Jewish community by creating links with the outside world while the 5 bees on the ground are maintaining traditional values and practices.

The museum was housed in the upstairs women’s gallery of the synagogue. (In Orthodox Judaism, men and women do not pray together and the women are often segregated, by either a screen (mehchitza) or in a gallery).  

View from the Women's Gallery

There were many Judaica relics, the most prized of which was a torah from the 1600’s.  

17th Century Torah

The collections also include silver ornaments, woven textiles, and festival and Jewish life displays.

Book of Esther from Purim

One of the more interesting exhibits showed advertisements by torah scribes.  In order to show their deftness with quill and ink, pictures were designed utilizing exceedingly small Hebrew lettering. In order to see it well, you need high magnification (even higher than my glasses!).
                          

 

After our private tour, Nikolai asked if we might like to view a special exhibit of Chanukah Menorahs that was presently being shown at the castle.  

The menorahs were from a collection of the synagogue donated by various collectors and artists.  He walked us over to the castle and proceeded to act as a private guide here as well.  

The menorahs were amazing!  They were of all shapes and sizes and they filled 9 large galleries.  


                       



                       






                       

Writing in Arabic

Lipstick Menorah

My favorite was one with a violin theme.  

A disturbing menorah was in the shape of a boxcar hearkening back to the Holocaust.

We had planned about an hour visit to Casale Monferrato, but about 3 hours after we arrived, Nikolai suggested lunch.  He walked us over to his favorite restaurant and introduced us to the owner. We had some great pizza in a cute little restaurant, an excellent fending for our visit.

          

After lunch we decided to stop in Genoa on the way back to Santa Margherita Ligure.  Though the sky was a bit threatening most of the day, as we approached Genoa, it began to rain, our first of the trip. Things went from bad to worse as we got off the highway and onto surface roads in the heart of Genoa.  Our Garmin failed us miserably (I was the navigator, and now know how Jeri feels when her pilot gets irritated by navigation blunders) sending us the wrong way on one way roads and off wrong exits in round-abouts. After about 45 min of going up and down switchbacks and through major traffic, we decided to abort our Genovese visit and head back to the peace and quiet of Santa Margherita Ligure.

Tonight we treated ourselves to another trip to Antonio’s for dinner.

Our same waiter, Giancarlo, remembered us and we all became BFFs.  He was telling us about his family (wife and baby) who lived on the other side of Italy while he worked where there was employment (including Canada).  We tried to entice him to come to the States and when he told us about his difficulties with obtaining work visas, Dave graciously offered to introduce him to an immigration lawyer he knew.  Dave and Molly may find Giancarlo on there doorstep when they get home.

Tomorrow we are off to Venice.  Dave will be very happy to get rid of the car.

Day 14- Portofino and Pisa

Our weather luck continued to hold.  This morning we woke to brilliant blue skies and cool temperatures (not sure exactly since all we get is temps in centigrade and I’m usually to lazy to do F=9/5C+32).  We walked through town today

along the coast road



until the Parragi’s bay 

then took the Pedonale per Portofino, a foot trail that climbs above the coast road that ends up in Portofino.

Along the road we saw numerous groups of Saturday morning cyclists

and gorgeous estates, most of which seemed to be closed for the winter.


                                                                           

As we approached Portofino we began to get some glimpses through the trees, 

and began to understand why this is the playground for the rich and famous.  

The harbor had numerous enormous sailing yachts which I would guess go for several million. 

As we descended into the town, we passed the Chiesa San Martino with architecture similar to the church we saw in Montarossa with the alternating stripes of marble and serpentine.

The square (not really square) centered around the port and had loads of high end shops and restaurants.  

There was a strange art museum and after seeing some of the offerings that could be viewed from outside, we elected not to go in. 

Instead we walked up to the Castello Brown which was perched high on a hill overlooking the town.  

Castello Brown was a  medieval castle that became the residence of Yeats Brown, British consul to Genoa, in 1870.  

The castle had furniture from the late 19^th Century, but mostly, it afforded fantastic views of Portofino and the Ligurian Sea.

The ferries to Santa Margherita Ligure were still running, so we decided to check out the area from the water (and save our energy for later).

The trip was only about 20 minutes.

After disembarking, we walked around the town a bit

and found a great alley way filled with small shops and markets,

                                                                       

and more importantly, patisseries.

After sating our sweet teeth (is that plural of sweet tooth?) we headed back to the hotel where we hopped in our new Ferrari and found we didn’t all fit, so we traded it back in for the truck.  

(This car was actually parked in front of the hotel when we got back.)  

Back to reality- We headed southeast to Pisa, about an hour drive.  Although everyone has seen pictures of the leaning tower, they cannot prepare you for the actual structure.   It is quite enormous and really, really leaning.

Finding a parking spot was a challenge, especially since we were not in a Fiat 500, but Dave did an admirable job.  We found a spot a short walk from the tower that we weren’t sure was kosher, but there were plenty of other cars around.  

The street was covered in peddlars selling all sorts of worthless junk.  The majority of them were from North Africa and all seemed much larger than us.  One guy in particular came up to the car as soon as we parked and began his pitch.  We told him we weren’t interested, but he was persistent.  Finally, we offered him a business proposition I’d seen in the movies.  We’d give him a euro now, and if our car an its contents( our tandem and tools) were there when we returned, he’d get 2 more. I figured we could always get a new bike. (rather than keep you in suspense, dear reader, I will tell you now it worked!  Car and bike present and accounted for)

Tower of Pisa is more accurately referred to simply as the bell tower, or campanile. 

The Pisa tower is one of the four buildings that make up the cathedral complex  called Campo dei Miracoli or Piazza dei Miracoli, which means Field of Miracles.  The complex includes the Cathedral,

the Baptistry, 

a graveyard, and now, a museum.

The tower is 60 meters (180’) high about a third as high as the Washington Monument, and was a miracle of medieval engineering, probably the tallest bell tower in Europe.  Construction began in 1173 and took about 200 years until it was completed.  It was built to be vertical, but began tipping soon after construction began caused by an inadequate foundation on ground too soft on one side to properly support the structure's weight.

The tower was tipped about 10 degrees until the 1990’s when engineers corrected the tilt partially (to around 5 degrees) and improved its stability.  Visitors  can now climb the 297 steps to the top of the bell tower safely (we hope).  The stone steps up the spiral staircase were interesting in and of themselves.  
A curved depression was worn in the center of each stair from the myriad footsteps over the past 2 millennia.  

Also, walking up a spiral staircase is dizzying enough, but when you add to this the constant change in pitch due to the tower’s lean, it is downright disorienting. 

Views from the top, though, were impressive.

The top of the tower contains its seven bells tuned to the musical scale.  We were praying that the bells didn’t peal while we were up there.  Deafness after that could not be ruled out.

The most famous story about the tower relates to Galileo’s gravity experiment.  He purportedly dropped 2 cannon balls of different masses and showed that they dropped at the same speed.  There is some question as to whether this really happened.  The only source is Galileo’s secretary (apparently not very reliable).

Our car guard seemed content with his 2 euro tip for not stealing our van, and the drive back to Santa Margherita Liguri was uneventful.

Dinner was Italian food, again. Couldn’t find a single Indian restaurant in all of SML.